Tips to Create a Happy Home with Free Organisation Planners

Everyone wants to be happy! Since homeschoolers are at home the majority of the time, being at home can either make or break your happiness. We need to begin to look at things positively! Although we may feel the fear, we have to train ourselves to not accept the fear of failure. This is the first step at being happy! We should give no room for fear to overcome us. Doubt destroys potential and we are at a good start when we identify with that.

Once the mind over matter has been achieved we can begin to make things more bearable at home through organisation. Taking ownership over the household gives you the upper hand. It is very difficult to maintain the kid’s discipline while we are ourselves are not disciplined over our home. I encourage you to just start to plan and organise your daily routine. Children thrive off routine and it is the launching pad to improved behaviour, growth and discipline. It may not start off easy but they will get into a good rhythm over time.

When children know what is expected of them, then there will be less whining and trying to convince them. It took some time to find the perfect rhythm for us as a family. If I gave them too much free morning time, such as sleeping in later than 7am, it was so difficult to get started. With a little bit of trial and error I found that waking up at the same time helped a lot; if we ate and did our chores before 8am, that would give them 30 minutes of free time before we began with our bible reading and homeschool. They treasure that limited free morning time like gold!

What is a happy home?

First I would like to clear any misconceptions on what defines a happy home. We picture a happy home filled with love, laughter and fun with no tears nor frustration. A perfect mom. Perfect kids. A perfect financial situation. A perfectly full fridge and veggie rack. A weedless garden. The leaves stay on the trees; and dad always arrives home, from a hard day at work, humming a melody. It is a lovely day dream!

Although we do have had those beautiful days, much of our happiness and love entails building their character, setting boundaries and routine. Much of our days consist of learning to pick up after ourselves while we tantrum across the floor, of learning to settle down to listen to a bible story while we pull our sister’s hair for fun. A happy home is also not always a perfect home. It may seem contradictory but being happy does not mean you will never fail, nor have bad days nor doubt! A bad day or a bad couple of weeks does not set you up as a failure.

It is when we learn that the homeschool life will be messy, we can be rest assured that all doubts and failures will not overcome us. It becomes so much easier to get up again because we have realised that it is part of the progress. Failures and hiccups is progress! It is an opportunity to try again or do something different, or just take a break. The best part is that we learn from it and we love each other so much harder for it, and we still do not wish to be any other place, but home.

Why is organisation important?

While we find ourselves in our messy homeschool journeys, it does help to lighten the burden by laying down some order to give us some sort of direction and motivation. It does not have to be complicated, just some simple planning for our homes, our kid’s schooling, and ourselves.

Life with kids is unpredictable, so it greatly helps to find routine for them and all that needs to be done as a stay-at-home mom. Planners spare us some energy from figuring out what to do next. It also makes life more intentional and satisfying, knowing that we are accomplishing our goals for the day, the week or the month.

Before I began to plan, I was ‘winging it’. I had so many things I needed or wanted to do, but I felt I was never getting anything done. That feeling only adds to the burden. Only until I started writing down what and when things needed to be done, was it as if the road was now straighter and I could see what I was doing. It reminds me of the scripture about the narrow road we should walk on, but the seemingly easy road is wide (Matthew 7:13-14).

To plan is a type of narrow way that keeps us going forward with focus. The focus may not be very far off in the future, but some sort of vision (even if it is day to day) is all we need. It helps us to see where we are going and it empowers us to identify and ignore the things that may distract us or burden us. When we ‘wing it’, it is usually then that we become distracted and become entertained by social media, trivial matters or battles that are not even ours. ‘Winging it’ definitely keeps us staggering all over a wide space because of the lack of vision. Planning and creating a little structure can curb this.

How to get started with being organised

To become organised we only need to start! It is helpful to have an-already-done template. So I have set out a few planner templates with a few helpful tips.

1. Start being organised with a general daily plan.

Begin by setting time blocks for yourself when things will get done. This may tweaked over time as you see what fits for your family but decide on a routine that will happen every day. Sure, things will happen that do not keep you on schedule, but keep going back to your routine. Here is a sample of a daily routine I had which may help you.

2. Create an activity schedule which you could integrate with your daily schedule

There may be extra-curricula or activities that you would like you and your kids to be involved in which vary day to day. Allocating days for a variety of activities is a sure way of prioritising and not missing out on any activities.

We may have so many dreams for our kids and for ourselves but we never get to them because it seems as if the day won’t wait for us; or it becomes so comfortable to be idle and never start. Instead, just by writing down those activities you would like to begin helps you ‘get it out there’, instead of it over-occupying your mind and building frustration because you never start. Below is an example of an activity schedule you could begin.

3. Create a cleaning schedule which you could integrate with your daily schedule

As stay-at-home-moms we can never get away from house work. The more cluttered and ‘undone’ our homes are, the more cluttered our minds become (or maybe that’s just me!). Keeping an orderly home not only creates a pleasant and appealing environment but it keeps mommy feeling organised, motivated and on ‘top of things’.

There will be those days or weeks which you do enough just to get by, and it is so relatable! Mommies never switch off (did I mention kids never switch off!) and the house is lived in 24/7, so to have a perfectly clean home all the time is difficult to come by. Yet every time I get too deep in neglecting housework, the more ‘out of control’ I become over everything, and the more cluttered and weighed down I feel. I begin to lose my motivation and everything is 10x harder. My kids begin to fall out of routine as mommy falls out of routine, but I keep learning to get back on that horse.

Many dedicate one day out of the week to clean the house, but with me when that day came I found every excuse not to do it. So I re-evaluated myself and found that beginning my day with a little daily cleaning helped me to start the day ready! Now since I do a little cleaning each day, it is always done by the end of the week.

You too can start laying down a cleaning schedule. Dedicate one room a day to help you spread the work load; specify what needs to be done in each room.

4. Organise your meals and shopping with a planner

Organising your meals before hand not only will help you to free some mind energy, but it will help you keep meals to a budget. It will not only benefit your pocket but also your health! Meal planning can definitely promote healthier diet choices.

When the kids have a set meal and snack routine, it is less likely they will nag for in-between snacking. My kids knew which parts of the day was their meal and snack time, and they had to wait. That way my meal prep time was reduced to only those set times, and we save on food.

You could keep your meals the same each week, or you could set up 2 or 3 different weekly meals plans and rotate them. Laminate your planners, and use a white board marker in the shopping list or notes section.

3. Plan ahead for all work goals and tasks

Monthly and weekly planners record all of our goals and tasks. You may run your own business while studying courses from home, there may be maintenance you need to do on your house or car, errands you need to get done, or you want to host a 40th birthday party. Whatever it may be, record your goals in your monthly planner, and then break down those goals into specific tasks into your weekly ‘to do lists’. You could print a list for each week, or laminate it and reuse it.

The planners I have laid out for you are to be integrated into your daily planner. You may tweak it a couple of times along the way as you live out life at home. You will learn over time what works and what does not, but START today by having an idea of a daily schedule (routine) in place.

Write down your goals. Goals will direct your daily tasks and it will help you tweak your daily routine. No matter the pace, you will use your time wisely and achieve your goals.

To start becoming organised today download your free PDF planners!

Tips for success in having a happy organised home

• Remain positive by losing fear and doubt
• Remain forgiving of yourself and your children
• Set a daily routine from morning to evening
• Use different types of planners to record and schedule tasks to achieve your goals
• Do not be held down by schedules that do not work for you
• Tweak your goals and schedules when it does not serve your home’s happiness

The last thing you need to know about having a happy home

• Believe in your role as a mother
• Your children are your inheritance from God and no one knows them better than you
• Raising children will grow you as a mother
• You will learn to find the best ways and solutions for them and your home
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