Creating a home management system that works for you and your family is a gift that will keep on giving. Imagine not having the mental clutter of the never ending to-do list, not knowing what to do next, and constantly feeling like you are running behind! Instead, everything is running like a well oiled machine. It is not perfect, because we are not trying to win a prize for the most clean and organized house, but it is well managed and you feel at peace.
If that is what you are looking for, then you came to the right place.
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What does Home Management Mean?
Home management is basically an effective way or running your household. It includes everything from cleaning to managing the budget. It’s ensuring all household responsibilities are fulfilled and the family members are taken care of.
The home management system has multiple components. When you are working on implementing it in your house, think of it as a phased process. You want to take your time and go one step and one phase at a time. Otherwise, it will become overwhelming and you will quit before you give yourself a chance to succeed. Remember, that the time you dedicate upfront in creating a home management system that works for you will pay off tenfold over the rest of your life.
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of constantly cleaning, organizing, decluttering and still feeling like my house is never well managed. Maybe you find yourself walking by your windows and thinking – gosh those need to be washed! Or perhaps you are in the laundry room and realize that your washer needs to be wiped down because it is starting to look gross. These are the things that happen to me all the time.
It is creating a chaos in my head and I’m simply tired of it. Let’s turn that around and create the home management system that will actually work.
RELATED: What is Home Management and How to be Efficient at It
Household Management Systems and Methods
Home management includes a lot of components. When you think about it anything from cleaning and organizing to things like holiday planning and management of finances.
This is why it’s something that will take some time and dedication to make sure it is designed to fit your specific needs.
If you already have specific systems and methods that work great for you in one of the areas of house management – keep them! There is no reason to try to fix something that is already working for you. Rather, think about things that are challenging for you and start addressing those areas.
Home Management Plan
When I first started developing my home management plan, I started doing some research of what is already out there. One of the biggest parts of the home management is related to cleaning, decluttering, and organizing your house. I have looked at cleaning systems developed by the Fly Lady, Clean Mama, and various different cleaning routines on cleaning channels on YouTube. There are a lot of great systems out there that work for many people. And you might find that one of them works amazing for you as well.
But none of them had everything that I needed. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a working mom so my daily schedule works differently, or because I find them to be too structured and too restrictive (and I need flexibility), or because I believe that we need to customize everything to make it work for us. Probably the combination of all of it.
The house management system that I will explain here definitely has some parts that were inspired by the cleaning gurus – because why would I re-invent the wheel? But I will show you what I am modifying and what I’m doing completely differently. The goal is to make it work for you and your household. Which is why this house management system is flexible and can be easily customize to fit your needs.
Each effective house management system has four main components: routines, system, checklists, and home management binder.
Home Management Routines
The very first thing you have to do is to develop your daily household routines. There are four main ones: morning routine, evening routine, weekly cleaning routine, and deep cleaning routine. I have been doing morning and evening routines for a long time now. And I will tell you that how you start and end your day really makes a huge difference. So you are just starting out, this would be the first thing that you will implement.
Morning and Evening Routines
Morning and evening routines are simply things that you do each morning and evening. They are things that you do each day to get your day started and then to get your house back to order at the end of the day. Check out the videos on my YouTube channel to see what I include in those routines.
Weekly Cleaning Routine
Weekly cleaning routine is basically a set of cleaning tasks that you do each day. And we are talking about surface cleaning and not deep cleaning here. I have recently developed a cleaning routine where I spend 15 to 20 minutes each day cleaning one specific area of my house. I used to be a person who would clean their entire house on the weekends and a couple of months ago I switched to cleaning a little each evening and I have not looked back. It does not take too much time each day, it is flexible, so I can move things around, and it allows me to have a lot of time back on the weekends.
And then there are smaller routines like laundry routine, paperwork system, and meal planning and prepping.
Deep Cleaning Routine
And finally, the last component of the house management routines is creating a deep cleaning schedule for your home. This phase was inspired by the Fly Lady! It is basically about dividing your house into cleaning areas or zones as she calls them. For example, one cleaning area can be the kitchen, one zone can be the master bedroom, and another can be your garage.
The Fly Lady’s system is about rotating cleaning zones. Each week is dedicated to one area of your house. And the next week you move to the next zone. After all the zones are done, you start over with zone one. So think about things like deep cleaning your fridge, washing your windows, or cleaning under your couch. Those are all the things that we want to clean but not on a weekly basis. With this system, you will be cleaning those areas about once every month or so depending on the size of your house.
BUT I will be honest! This is too much cleaning for me and I would like to have more flexibility. So what I have created is a quarterly deep cleaning schedule. I basically created a list of all the deep cleaning tasks for my house. That way you can the deep cleaning tasks on a quarterly basis without being tied to a specific zone or order of cleaning.
RELATED: Practical Cleaning Schedule for Working Moms
House Management Systems
When you think of systems for your home, think about things that you do on a regular basis but that might look a bit differently from week to week. Here are some examples:
- Meal Planning and Prepping
- Laundry
- Budget
- Grocery Shopping
- Weekly Planning
- Record Keeping
- Chore Charts
What you want to do in those areas is design a system. A system that will help you run your household in a more efficient and effective way.
For example, think about meal planning and prepping. Think about what day of the week would be best for you do your meal planning. Do you want to plan your meals for the whole month, one week at a time, or some other frequency? Do you want to have the same breakfast options each day for a whole week or does your family prefer to have a few options each week.
Once you figure out when you want to do meal planning, think about what is best way for you to meal plan. Think of the things like:
- Items you already have at home
- Recipe binder
- Pinterest board for new recipes to try
- The time you have each evening to cook dinner
- Things you can prep ahead of time to save time during the week
This is how you develop a system that works for you. You want to make it as efficient and repeatable as possible. It might take some trial and error but it will a huge time saver down the road. And it will definitely help you manage your household in a more effective way.
House Management Checklists
Another area of home management are checklists. If you are a fan of to-do lists, checklists will make you happy 🙂 Checklists for your house are meant to be helpful with big projects or events that you are doing at your home. Think about things like:
- Vacation Planning
- Christmas Planning
- Party Planning
- Spring Cleaning
- Decluttering Projects
- Home Improvements/Renovations
The idea is to develop a checklist for yourself that will help you track progress of your task but also something that you can re-use the next time you are doing that task.
Home Management Binder
A home management binder is a a very helpful tool to help you keep all the house management related items in one spot. The binder can be used to keep all your routines and systems. It is a tool to help you keep things organized.
You can use the binder to keep templates of all the checklists that you have created for your household as well any household plans.
How to Get Started with a Home Management System
Because creating a house management system can seem very overwhelming, there is no need to implement it all at once. Start slowly and to it one step or one system or routine at a time.
Start with Problem Areas
The best way to start creating your home management system is to start with the problem areas in your household. Think about what gives you most anxiety. What home management responsibilities seem most overwhelming?
That is where you need to start!
Are mornings very hectic in your house? Does coming up with ‘what’s for dinner’ stress you out each evening? Do you finding yourself going to the grocery store multiple times a week because you constantly seem to be running out of some food items? Is staying within the budget each week overwhelming?
Those problem areas are the ones that should be addressed first!
RELATED: How to Get Motivated to Clean and Declutter
One Step at a Time
Once you are done addressing your biggest challenges, move on to the rest.
But do them one step at a time. If you try to tackle all areas of house management at once, you might find yourself feeling tired and overwhelmed really quickly.
Also, it will take some time for each routine and each system to be fully implemented. You might need to tweak it along the way to make it work for your and your family’s needs. If you start moving on to the next thing before you completely adapt to the previous one, you might find yourself failing at both.
Take your time. See how you like the new routine or system. Make any necessary changes, and when you are satisfied with where you are, move to the next one.
And remember to update your home management binder along the way!
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