How to simplify managing a household in the school term – 4 easy tips you can start right away to make the days run a little smoother.
How to simplify managing a household during the school term – 4 tips
This was me at the end of my first term of being a school mum – a burnt-out mess who had to spend almost a whole weekend in bed to recover. Literally as soon as school finished I got sick. Can’t-get-out-of-bed sick.
After that little breakdown, I vowed that I’d do whatever I can to make this term a little easier on me.
I figured I can’t be the only one who finds managing school and a household a little overwhelming (I’m sure I’ll get better at it as time goes on) so today I’m sharing 4 things that I’m doing to make managing the household a little less stressful this term which will hopefully, make me a little less stressed and finish the term healthy and well.
Tip #1 – pre-prep breakfast
I am a big fan of getting a good chunk of nutrients into myself and my boys before we leave the house in the morning.
In fact, unless I’m going out to breakfast, I refuse to leave the house without having had a decent breakfast. I just can’t function without it.
My secret weapon for sneaking in all the goodness is smoothies but my super smoothies have quite a few elements which means quite a few chance for the boys to distract me while I’m making it.
This term, I have 8 containers in my freezer. 4 for the boys and 4 for me (I do a refill mid week). They each contain all the ingredients for our smoothies minus the liquid element (you can put yoghurt in there to freeze too).
So when it’s smoothie time, I just dump the contents of the container in the blender, add the liquid and blend away. This has made for much much smoother mornings.
Tip #2 – Meal planning & prep
Yep I know I go on about it a lot but getting a good dinner into my family is also really important to me.
Nutrition and our health is not something I’m willing to skimp on or ‘not have time’ for so I make it a priority but getting dinner on the table by 6pm was becoming stressful towards the end of last term.
I’ve always meal planned but this term, without fail the plan for the week ahead will be on the fridge on our My Family Planner so that every morning I know what is for dinner that night.
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The other part of meal planning that I’m focussing on is pre-pre – doing whatever I can ahead of time so I’m not left making a meal completely from scratch every afternoon.
Even if it’s just peeling the whole bag of carrots when I get them and storing that in the fridge, anything I can do in advance helps.
Tip #3 – the freezer
The third thing I’m doing to simplify managing the household in the school term is making the most of my freezer (which I’m pretty good at anyway).
During the holidays I had one day where the kids were both out of the house (I was meant to be working) and I borrowed Mum’s slow cooker so I had two and cooked up a storm between the two of them, the oven and the stove. I stocked the freezer with at least 20 nights worth of meals which means quite a few nights off cooking.
You don’t have to do a whole day of cooking to make things easier though. Even if you can just throw something in the slow cooker one weekend morning and then freeze it or next time you’re cooking, double it and pop one meal in the freezer, it means a night off cooking or and instant dinner when everyone is tired.
Tip #4 – The dry clothes rule
One thing that I just couldn’t keep on top of last term was the washing. Well I always had the clothes cleaned, that wasn’t the problem, the problem was folding them and putting them away.
This term my new rule is before a load can be be put in the dryer (or hung on the line if you use a washing line), the dry load must be folded (really I should put it away too but that’s my next step).
So far I won’t say I’m 100% sticking to it but it’s helping.
Another option, because I get that folding a whole load in one go is sometimes impossible with little kids around, is the 10 or 20 rule. Whenever I walk past the laundry or go to the toilet or get a snack (pick one that you do often), I will walk in and fold 10 or 20 things and that’s it.
This at least means the pile of folding never gets completely overwhelmingly unmanageable.
What’s next?
My suggestion, work out what stresses you out the most or what’s making you the crankiest when it comes to managing the household during school time then find a way to make it easier. Master that then move on to the next thing.
I’d love to hear how you make your life easier in the comments below.
Prefer to listen? I talked all about what I’m doing to make this term easier on the podcast. Listen here or hit play below.
