182 | How I’m Getting Back on Track After a Busy Summer

My summer has been packed for from the very first hours of began. And it’s hard to believe that it’s already coming to an end. With everything that we have had going on this summer, I’m actually feeling a little bit out of sorts and not as organized and prepared as I normally am for the change in going back to school and those schedules. And the thing is that come with the new school year.

The routines that I created intentionally many, many years ago. That’s what carried us through this busy summer. And it really allowed the house to stay orderly and functioning. But everything still needs a little refresh as this summer Her break is coming to an abrupt in in just a couple of days i spent a few hours today getting back on track and i’m going to share it all with you here today

Our summers are always full, but this one seemed extra, extra [00:02:00] busy. To me. It was busy in a good way, but also there was so much happening, so much travel, constant coming and going classes, activities. When we could squeeze something in, we did community service, volunteering, social events with friends, and even we had a couple of visitors coming to my house.

To stay throughout all of the coming and going and everything that we had going on. I’m actually recording this episode the night before I leave for the last trip of the summer. And I’m super excited for that show. I’ve been looking forward to it since. planned. It and as excited as I am to go on this trip for this adventure happening then upcoming week, I’m also at a point where I’m really looking forward to getting back into the regular routine, that structure and that routine that comes with the school calendar and just the school year in general.

I have been a to weave it or not 14 states in the last two months. And as I quickly packed for this last getaway, just a couple of hours ago, I did a few things that will help my family get back on track faster and help me feel less frazzled when I returned to my house next week and everything really has to get going.

For the new school year and getting back to work full time and everything kind of returns to the regular routine. When I returned from this trip. The most listened to podcast episode from this last year was episode 142. And that’s the episode where I shared five things that I do to simplify and tidy my house on a regular basis. I know you would love to hear exactly what I have that is going on in my house. What’s working for my family, what we are doing.

In my home. So today I’m going to do something similar to that episode. That was episode [00:04:00]142, where I shared those five things. And today I’m going to give you a little bit of a glimpse of that and exactly what I did to help for when we returned and how I’m going to get my life back on track for the upcoming school year.

And you’ll get to see what I do in my home. Just like I shared in that other podcast episode, it’s the same thing is that I share the same things that I do in my home are the same things that I teach you in coaching sessions or in the intentional edit courses and the programs and the challenges and the different things I offer throughout the year.

And I share them because they work and I see them working over and over and over and over again. So I keep sharing and I keep giving you the information really to spread the goodness around so that you can apply. These strategies in your own houses too, but before I share what I’m doing and what I did today to get back on track.

Or I guess you could really say what I did to get my life back. Order. I want to share a couple of things that I think are important. You have heard me say and talk about an every single episode, something that has to do with systems and routines or purging or the actual organizing. And it’s not a secret that.

I do better with structure and order in my home. I’m a natural planner. I’ve shared with you that I’m really a problem solver at heart. I’m not a naturally spontaneous person. I really don’t like surprises. I like to know what is coming up. But because I have spent so long and spent a good amount of time, reducing clutter in my home and properly organizing so that every single room in my home, every drawer, every cabinet, every closet, every thing has a baseline for organization. And.

Our status quo in our house is organized and orderly. And that took time [00:06:00] to get there, even though I am a naturally organized person and that’s how I prefer things. And that does come as kind of like a natural characteristic for me. I still had to dial in how to do it and learn the best ways to organize. And I’ve been able to really perfect that with all of the clients and even my friends and family that I’ve worked with and helped them organize so that they could maintain the longterm organization. in addition to getting the clutter out, so reducing that clutter and purging and the organization and having things in order.

The system is, and the routines that I am always talking about when we intentionally create those systems and routines. It makes it possible to maintain a picked up home and to easily manage our full schedules because these routines over time, turn into healthy habits and it makes it so our households can run as smooth as possible. It also makes it possible to do more with the time that we have and not become overwhelmed and stressed out and irritable and grumpy and angry.

Because you’re in a situation where maybe I’m leaving a messy house and I have to return to unfinished projects and disarray. The organization that I already have in place and the routines that are in my home. Those are teens. That’s how we manage most things in life. And that is what is allowing for last minute trips or back-to-back adventures and sleepovers. And allowing me to say yes to all this fun all summer long, because those things are in place. I took the time I took the weeks, the months, the years to really perfect those things.

So that we can do more of the things that we want to do and spend time with the people that are so, so important to us. The fun has been just that it has been so fun. And the memories that were made this summer are probably at the top of my list. They’re definitely core [00:08:00] memories. But there was still work to pull all of this off and to pull it off happily and to be able to.

Accomplish these things and go in so many directions and have things going on, whether we are away or at home.

When I reflect on the days, what stands out to me the most, I think, would be the work that I put in over the years with the organization, but really the organizing of everything in my home and how I manage the schedules and our life and what decisions we make. Being organized is huge. Of course the de-cluttering and removing all of the excess from our home.

And the managing of the physical items and the routines that carry us through. Every single day. Really, those are essential to letting most of this stuff that I’m talking about, that we’ve gotten to do this summer. These things are able to happen with each use and even better. That’s what is going to get me back on track. That’s what is already getting me back on track so that I can get right back into the spot where I need to be as the school year begins without a lot of big hiccups, we can move forward and we can be prepared.

And I can be ready to tackle what’s ahead because of the routines, because of the way that I have set up my home by removing the clutter and being organized. So all of that is helping me and allowing me to get to this place where I can share with you. What I did today. To help me feel like I can go away on this last adventure.

And come back and not be as stressed out and worried and feel so behind. And like I have, there’s a mountain to climb. Before the school year even is about to begin. A little side note, this just popped into my mind. I mentioned packing and traveling. I want to say systems help with that too. I had a very small amount of time to pack.

I have spent time preparing [00:10:00] ahead of time. I restock all of my bathroom items when I get home from a trip. So they are restocked and ready to go so that I can quickly pack just like I did today. When it’s time to leave again, it doesn’t matter if it is the following week and it’s back to back trips.

Like it’s been for me the last two months, or if it’s six months down the road, I’m ready to go. And I grabbed that bag and I can throw it in my suitcase. And then all I have to worry about are my clothes. So, if you are wanting to know how to streamline and come up with systems and some hacks for traveling, listen to episode 75 and episode 121.

Those are packed full of information, where it would be like efficient packing, travel hacks, simplifying the packing process. Things along those lines. If you have trips coming up, you may want to listen to those episodes.

And I would take it back to what we’re really here for today. What is going to help me that I did today before leaving for this last trip. these things are going to set me up for success when I get back the next week. So I can be less stressed and not worry about some of these things while I’m gone and not have them weighing on me because I tackle them today.

The first thing is I caught up on the weekly RNR. That is a weekly and a monthly one too, but really the weekly one it’s. It’s a refreshing, a restock that I like to do. I like to do it every single week, usually on the weekend. And it resets our home. It gets it back to the baseline that we like it makes sure everything is restocked and kind of refreshes everything. So.

We can move forward with the week ahead, knowing that we’re prepared for the week. Because of the various schedules of this summer and really being gone more in the last two months than being at home. I have missed some of those weekly resets and the restocking, or I wasn’t able to finish them entirely. [00:12:00] But today I got to do that. I spend time today getting caught up and I did everything on the list except for the grocery shopping and the stocking up of the food, those things I left out because.

I’ll when you’re gone for a week, you don’t want to leave with a refrigerator full of fresh food, because it will go bad before you get home. So I didn’t do that part, but I did the rest of it. And that alone, just accomplishing that, that made me feel so much more at ease and like I’m really prepared for when I get back.

I was starting to feel a little bit behind, I think, because we were going so much and gone so much and going in so many different directions and after all of that and being at the tail end of it today, I finally feel caught up again. If you want more information on the weekly refresh and restock, I explain it in detail in episode 146, I think everyone should be doing something like this.

At a bare minimum, something like this. you can get all the details and episode 146, it will explain to you how it benefits your family. it only takes a minutes at a time, uh, to accomplish these things. There’s also have link. It’s a free principle. If you’re interested in that, you could download that in the podcast description and get the weekly refresh and restock. You can use it yourself. You can print it out or take a screenshot, use it on your phone.

And then it also has a list of what I do and what we do at my house for these weekly tasks that needed to be done. Then the second thing that I did today to get caught up was a laundry. if you already a long time listener. Then, you know, that I’m usually caught up in the laundry and you’re probably shocked to hear me say that I was behind on the laundry and that I needed to get caught up. But the reality of it is, is it’s not an issue on a regular basis because I created a system. I created a [00:14:00] routine that keeps our laundry caught up the routine works for my family. Around the laundry and keeping the wash. Done and the clothes folded and put away. On a regular basis. So we don’t have this issue, but what happened is we were not up-to-date on the laundry because we were coming back from a long trip. I had eight people stay in my house at one time. I had an outside teenage sleepover that involved. Probably every sheet and blanket in our house and all of those things had to be washed. I’d probably add 15 to 20 loads of laundry to do. Getting the laundry done isn’t enough. Just because it’s washed and clean. Does it mean that it’s done? It’s not done until it’s actually folded and put away. getting all of it washed was important and it’s awful that it’s put back. It’s where it goes. And that feels really, really good too.

get rid of the mess, clean that up and have it put back. All of the blankets, all of the sheets, everything is folded. Put backward. It goes waiting for our next guests to come.

ready to use the next time and the same thing with our clothes. So that was the second thing. Another thing that I was able to do today is get on a track with the meals and what we’re going to have for dinner. For the two weeks following my return.

all that means is I went to the computer. I opened the document and I printed one of my reusable meal plans with the corresponding grocery list. I didn’t have to spend time. Meal planning because I haven’t done. So I printed that out. I’m ready to go. And then I went to my pantry and fridge and crossed off everything that I already have from that grocery list. So I don’t have to waste time doing that when I get back.

The list is ready. Everything is ready for me and I can get the groceries. First thing, the day that I return. That is a two week reusable meal plan that I created probably 7, 8, 9, [00:16:00] oh gosh, maybe 10 years ago. And it has saved me time every single week since I created that. I could just use that one. I have since created many. So we have a lot of variety in our dinners.

But I don’t have to think about what’s for dinner or spend time making a grocery list or planning any of that out. All I have to do is get that document, open it up. And I have my grocery list and my dinners for two weeks ready because I did this year. Who’s in here and years ago. That mule planning. I share all the details about you have heard me talk about that on other podcast episodes. If you want more information on that meal planning that I do episode 87 and 88 can help you with that.

And I have a meal planning, mini course, where I walk you through exactly how to use the same meal planning method that I use. And when you do that, you cut down the time you spend significantly, but you also reduce wasteful spending on food that is never eaten, and it helps you put healthier food on the table at dinner. In a significantly easier way. You get in the groove and you do the same thing. Every two weeks it really simplifies everything. So if you want to check that out, listen to episode 87 and 88, and there’s also a link in the podcast description for the meal planning mini course, if you just want to go to the website and get the details on it and sign up so that you can get that going as this new school year is happening and put that in place and have it done for you.

So you don’t have to think about dinners and grocery lists and meal planning as this. School year, it takes place. You can do it one time. It just takes a couple hours initially. And then you are done. You are good to use that over and over again. Something else that I was able to do today was. Something that I think is especially helpful.

that was to plug in. All of the dates in my calendar for the [00:18:00] entire school year. Really as many as I have for as long as I have, and I put them in the calendar, I can look at them now at one glance, of course, meetings change and kids’ activities will change. But I took all of the information that I have, and that was not yet entered. And now it’s in my calendar.

Of course, my preference is to enter anything as soon as I get it. And as soon as I know the dates and that is what I usually do. But the last two weeks I’ve gotten a lot of information. Emails have come in and schedules have come out and now I feel better knowing everything is on my calendar. It’s in one place, I can get a full view of what’s happening with one quick glance, just by opening my calendar.

 You know, if you have kids that are in competitive sports, you know, that that’s like an ever-changing thing last minute, it changes most of the time. that’s just the way that it works. But. The majority of things are in my calendar now. And I am a prepared many, many months in the future with everything that I currently have a date and a time for, I’m still waiting on dates and times for upcoming events. And I don’t have everything, but everything I do have is in my calendar and it’s in one place.

So that is something that was really helpful. And then I crossed off the list today and it feels good having that done and knowing that is done. So when we get back, we can get right back into the groove of things.

finally, the last thing that I did and that will really help me be prepared and feel good coming back as I spend time making a list and that list, you could say it’s a to-do list. I guess you could really say I was compiling a bunch of lists and a bunch of tasks and really brainstorming anything that needs to be accomplished and checked off before school starts.

Its simple thing is like, Back to school, shopping, ordering a uniform, signing up for volunteer opportunities. Even scheduling an [00:20:00] appointment or more like following up for an appointment where it can’t be done right now, it has to be done after a certain date. Putting things on my calendar, a little setting reminders, setting alarms for thing is for specific times to go off resetting the homework station supplies, all of that kind of stuff, or organizing a desk drawer, trying on shoes or trying on anything that maybe it needs to be replaced because it’s worn out or kids have outgrown it.

But all of those things, I made a list. I took the time to do that brain door brainstorming session, and I have this. This list now of the thing is that. Deed to be the focus with the last couple of days of summer. That was really helpful to me. that’s it. Those are the things. it was the weekly refresh and restock got that done because it’s been delayed and hasn’t been completed.

In its entirety all summer. I also got caught up on all of the laundry. I am prepared for dinners for the next two weeks when we get home. I also plugged in a calendar dates. And the dates of thing is in my calendar. So that’s all up-to-date and the last thing is spending a few minutes, making a master to-do list of everything that needs to be done in the last few days of summer before school starts. And that’s it. That’s everything.

That’s what I spent a few hours on today. And that’s my list of some of the things that I accomplished to help me feel more prepared For the school year to start and to wrap up the summer, you can do the same things that I did, or you can make your own list, or you can do a combination of both what is important and realistic to help you feel less frazzled and to help you feel more prepared for the changes that are coming.

I shared a lot of resources today in this episode, I want to encourage you to check some of those outs If you’re wanting information on the refresh and restock, you can sign up and get the free principle with the link [00:22:00] in the description, or listen to episode 146 for all the details on that.

Episode 142. Is the episode that I shared at the very beginning with the five things that I do to simplify and keep my house tidy. Episode 74 was four steps to simplicity. That one is helpful. And then for meal planning, you can check out episode 87 and 88. if you want more information on packing and simplifying, packing, and travel hacks and all that, then you’ll want to listen to episode 75 and 1 21. I hope you found this episode helpful thank you so much for listening. am joining me for this episode of the intentional edit podcast. I do have some fun back to school episodes coming up in the next couple of weeks later in August. I will meet you back here next week for another episode of the intentional edit podcast.