10 Favorite Household Tips

 Happy Friday!

 Erin is hosting a 10 on the 10th link up today, and it's all about favorite household tips.  I thought I'd share a few of mine with you today as well.

Now, I don't claim to have it all together, in fact I usually stay away from writing, "How To" blog posts, because lets face it... some days I feel like a rock star with how smooth everything is going, and then the next day, I feel like a mess who can't get anything done.

Be that as it may, I'm sharing my tips for you this morning.  If I remember and follow all of these, my day goes so much smoother.

~ONE~

I try and start a load of laundry almost every single morning.  I do this before I even pour myself a cup of coffee.  Sometimes I'll put towels or whatever I'm planning to wash in the wash machine with the laundry soap the night before, and then in the morning all I have to do is close the door and push start.  I can then enjoy my coffee knowing that things are already off to a good start.  I've found for my family that if I can do one or two loads of laundry every day, I can usually stay on top of it.  If I don't, it takes over quickly.

~TWO~

Every night before bed, we start the dishwasher, that way in the morning during breakfast I can unload it and put the dishes away.  Breakfast dishes are ready to go in along with any other dishes from the day, that way nothing is getting stacked up in the sink.  Every once in a while we will forget to start it before bed, and it definitely throws my day off.  Nothing like having a dishwasher full of dirty dishes the next morning, along with any new dishes that need to go in, that there isn't room for.  It makes me crazy just thinking about it.

~THREE~

We have our kids shower at night verses in the morning.  I would prefer having them shower in the morning, but their bus comes fairly early, and my kids aren't natural early risers.  I wake them up around 6:00 and it's all they can do to just function before needing to be out the door by 7:20.  Getting dressed, brushing their hair and their teeth seems to take almost the full hour.  So to make it easier on all of us, showers at night seem to work best, because getting 3 kids up and ready in the morning can be almost as bad as herding cats. 

~FOUR~

Depending upon what we're having for dinner each night, I try and take meat out of the freezer in the morning so it has time to thaw.  I hate looking at the clock realizing that it's almost time to get the kids off the bus, and that I haven't taken anything out for dinner.  Nobody needs that kind of stress in their life.  ;)


~FIVE~
On the weeks where I meal plan, and we have a couple meals with chicken in them, I will cook all of the chicken in one day, and store it in the fridge.  I put around 8 frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot with a bit of water or chicken broth, cover it, and set it on low for 8 hours.  At the end of the day, I'll shred the chicken and put it away until I'm ready to use it.  It makes meal prep so much easier, when you only have the mess once.  You can easily put the chicken in a casserole, in a pot of soup, or add some BBQ sauce and throw it on a bun, and you're done!


~SIX~
Lists!!!  I am a list person through and through.  I have grocery lists, Costco lists, to do lists... Dan and the kids have their own lists as well.  This house runs off of lists.  There is way too many things going on with our family, that if I don't write it down, chances are, it's not going to happen.


~SEVEN~
I only use two things as far as stain remover on our clothes.  I use Dawn dishsoap for grease or oil stains, and I use Shout for anything else.  If those two things don't do it, then I consider it impossible.


~EIGHT~
We make our kids help out.  Now granted, they don't help out nearly as much as we should make them, but with me being home all day, I like to just get things done, instead of waiting for someone else to do it.


I have them bring their clothes to the laundry room for me to wash.  I wash them, and then they are in charge of putting their clothes away and hanging them up.  I have them clean their own bathroom, as well as their bedrooms and then I have them help with a couple basic things like folding towels or emptying the dishwasher from time to time.  Things like that, that help me out.  Again I know I don't give a long list of chores, but after they've spent a long day at school, I also want them to have time to just be a kid as well.  They'll have a lifetime of household chores ahead of them.


~NINE~
I diffuse my Thieves and Purification oils every day.  I know there are a lot of different oils out there, but I usually only use these two.  Lemon is also another one that I love, but I don't usually start using it, until Spring.  Through out most of the flu and cold season, it's all Thieves and Purification.


~TEN~
My biggest household tip, is to give yourself grace.  As much as we all want a clean house, sometimes you've got to just roll with it, and try not to sweat the small stuff.  Life happens.  If your floors need mopped, or your windows need cleaned, but you are doing the best you can, and you just can't get to it today... breathe.  At some point, you'll get a chance to get it done, but it just might not be right now.  Be okay with that, and try again tomorrow.

I would love to hear what your favorite household tips are.


Today I linked up with Andrea.

Christina, April & Natasha with Five On Friday.

And Erin.

 

Enjoy your weekend!

  

XO,