Simple Daily Homemaking Routine of a Modern Homemaker
Establishing a daily homemaking routine is helpful to keeping your household running smoothly. See how you can implement simple schedules to help your days be more productive and create a peaceful home.
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If you’ve never read the Little House Books, let me give you a quote from Farmer Boy that I feel perfectly describes my days. Little Almanzo is describing his mother and he says,
“Mother always flew. Her feet went pattering, her hands moved so fast you could hardly watch them. She never sat down in the daytime, except at her spinning-wheel or loom, and then her hands flew, her feet tapped, the spinning-wheel was a blur or the loom was clattering, thump! thud!”
Now, I’m not sitting at a spinning-wheel these days, but I definitely feel like I’m “flying” most days. Keeping a clean house, schooling children, having a small “homestead”, and putting homemade meals on the table doesn’t leave much time for idleness.
As much as I enjoy serving those in my home and making it a happy place for us to be together, I have also felt the burden of daily tasks piling up. Over the years, I’ve implemented homemaking routines to keep a tidy home and stay on top of things – and this post will show you what that looks like.
My Simple Homemaking Routine
Whenever I sit down to come up with a new routine for our household, I always split the day in to “blocks”. The blocks have general start and end times associated with them, but everything else in the block changes a little bit each day.
The blocks are broken down into small, manageable routines. I have an early morning routine, morning, afternoon, and evening routine. This type of scheduling is called block scheduling. I like to structure my days like this because it isn’t as rigid as traditional scheduling.
This is my current routine. I elaborate on this further down in the post.
(Read more about how to set up your own block schedule here)
Traditional scheduling just isn’t practical in our home since each day of the week looks a little different. Saying I will do everything at a specific time each day makes me giggle when I think about trying to actually implement it.
These simple routines help keep our days running smoothly and efficiently, all while keeping the mood of our days enjoyable.
A Little Disclosure on Tidying Up
Posts like this can often times make it seem like the writer is living in some fairytale world without chaos. Friend, that’s not my house or my intention. Despite my efforts during the day to stay on top of things, it gets chaotic and messy.
So, when you see the term “tidy-up” – that means that I’m reeling the chaos in. Things are being put away and straightening because it looks like a tornado has cut through the house.
Routine of a Full-Time Homemaker
Having a planner or printable page to write all of this down on is so helpful. I really think I would just walk in circles all day if I didn’t have my planner. I also created this free printable Monday-Friday calendar that you can use to plan out your days! Check out that post to see the different versions – all for free 🙂
Or this post shares some of the best Christian planners I’ve found for busy women.
Early Morning Block
- Prayer
- Reading
- Online Business Work
This is my “quiet time”. I use this time for Bible study and prayer. I also work on things that are related to this blog during this time – writing, editing, emailing, etc.
Anything that can be done after the kids wake up, I am not doing here. I do things here that require a quiet house.
Waking up before the rest of the house also helps us all get off to a good start. I’ll confess, I’m not a naturally pleasant morning person. I need this little time to become fully awake, gather my thoughts, and enjoy my coffee before the day starts.
The days that I don’t wake up early, tend to start off a little more chaotic.
Morning Block
This is a big block of time that usually has a lot of things going on in it. I am energetic and have my coffee, so this is when I am doing some labor-intensive things for the day. A typical morning time block will look something like this:
- Breakfast
- Morning Tidy Up
- Cleaning Routine
- Appointments and Errands
Breakfast Time
Depending on if everyone wants to eat first thing or not determines how the morning starts. If the boys are ready for breakfast first thing, we start there. If they are not quite ready to eat, I’ll go ahead and get my morning tidy up routine done.
During breakfast, the kids and I will talk about the plan for that day, so they have an idea of what to expect. We will also practice our weekly Bible verse, which typically leads to good conversation with each other.
Morning Tidy Up
My morning tidy-up includes simple tasks that keeps us from having a messy house.
I typically unload the dishwasher and wipe the counters down in the kitchen. Things that are left out in the main living areas from the night before are put in their proper place.
I make sure I have meat thawed for dinner that evening. If I need to make bread, I get the dough mixed and rising. I gather and start a load of laundry and make my bed during this time as well.
Once everyone is done eating, we load the dishwasher and get started on cleaning.
Cleaning Routine
This is where I will tend to my weekly cleaning tasks. This isn’t for the things I do on a daily basis – those chores are scattered throughout the day (read exactly what those are). This time is reserved for deep cleaning that needs to be done.
The kids also have a few daily chores to do during this time (making their bed, putting toys away, etc.) and then they are free to play while I work.
So, what do I do for each day of the week to keep a clean house? Well, again – I don’t follow a strict cleaning schedule. I have tried the schedules where you assign an entire day to one task/room, and it always falls apart in our house.
Instead of wasting time trying to follow a schedule that only works half of the time – I look at what needs to be done and I do it. I’m always making notes (this is why you need some form of planner) of things I notice throughout the day, so that the next morning I have it on my to-do list.
So maybe the bathrooms need their weekly cleaning. Or maybe I noticed that the rugs need to be washed or the fridge needs to be wiped out. The important thing is that deep cleaning is happening on a regular basis.
This system works well alongside my other simple routines. I have things that I do each day, throughout the day, that helps to keep our house tidy. So, when it comes time to deep clean, I’m not having to tidy up before I can start cleaning.
Keeping a tidy home means that the actual cleaning parts can move much faster.
Run errands or go to appointments
Most days after breakfast and our morning cleaning, we have somewhere to be or errands to run.
So, we take off to go to the grocery store to get our grocery shopping done. We may have a doctor’s appointment, or a park play date planned.
It is helpful to know that our mornings allow a block of time like this to tend to activities outside the home. It allows us to go and do things, but it doesn’t completely disrupt the flow of the rest of the day.
Afternoon Block
- Lunch time
- School Work
- Household Management Tasks
This block consists of lunch, followed by schoolwork and free time.
We usually spend around 2 hours for our schoolwork, which leaves another couple of hours of free time in this block. Once the boys have finished school, we put everything away. Then they go play (usually outside) until dinner time.
I take this time to do a wide variety of things. I’ll work on home management items – paying bills, meal planning, making notes in my planner for things I’ve noticed (I call this my “master to-do list”).
Depending on the weather, I may also do some yard work, homesteading chores, or tackle one of my larger projects.
This may be the time that I decide to pull everything out of the craft cabinet or reorganize the pantry. It may also be the time I choose to preserve some of our garden produce.
Depending on the day, we may also have plans outside of the home for that evening. If that’s the case, I’m using this time to get laundry finished, house straightened up, floors swept, and everyone dressed.
I’ll be honest – this usually requires a bit more caffeine so there is usually another cup of coffee coming my way about this time.
Evening Block
- Evening Tidy-Up
- Dinner and Kitchen Cleanup
- Outside Chores
- Family Time
Sometime around 4:00, I come in to start getting dinner ready and putting the house back in order.
We eat dinner no later than 6:00 most evenings because we still have outside chores to do after dinner.
While dinner is cooking, I’m doing an evening tidy-up.
The kid’s toys are put back where they belong, laundry is put away, and I am usually vacuuming and sweeping the floors in the main living areas.
After dinner, I stay inside to clean the kitchen while everyone else heads outside again to finish up the evening chores of tending to our homestead animals. The dishes are all washed or put in the dishwasher, the counters and appliances are wiped clean, and the floors swept again.
Like I mentioned earlier in this post, this is our routine during summertime, when the days are long. During the winter months, evening chores become early morning chores.
Now that the work is done, it is family time. We may stay outside and fish, we may all work on something together, or we may come inside for a board game or movie night.
Next is bath time for the kids, followed by the oh so glorious bedtime 🙂
My Nighttime Homemaking Routine
The only “work” I keep for myself after the kids go to bed, is reviewing my daily schedule for the next day.
I keep a master to-do list in my planner where I jot down things that need to be done as I see them. In the evening time, I will see what the next day holds and decide what household chores or tasks I want to tackle the next day.
Taking it a single day at a time makes more sense for me right now. Maybe one day, I’ll be able to plan days in advance, but for now this is what works!
Your Daily Homemaking Routine
Remember, that your homemaking routine is going to look different.
It has to be – we are different people in different seasons of life. I may do things you do don’t do – like homeschooling or raising way too many chickens. You may have younger children than I do and are just trying to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep in.
My routine also changes with seasons. When the days are long, I have more time for my outside evening chores so they can be done later in the day. However, when the days are short, I have to tend to those things early.
That’s the good thing about routines – they are flexible! Don’t be afraid to change it to fit your current season of life!
