Organisation when you're working full time

[Eileen101]

I'm changing job soon and going back up to full time work from part time and no longer working from home permanently.

What are your organisational tips and tricks to keep you on the front foot please? 👀
I have 2 kids, 1 in reception 1 in nursery. DH also works full-time, plus overtime.

So far I have:
Night before:

1. Prepare mine and DH"s lunch the night before
2. Prepare snacks for reception child the night before. (Both kids lunches are accounted for at their educational establishments).
3. Bags, coats and shoes sorted and by door night before.
4. Uniforms out.
5. Anything specific to that day - reading book for change over day.

Morning:

1. Slow cooker on/dinner out to defrost in fridge.

Have I missed anything? 🤔

Yes, ensure your DH is 50% responsible for all of the above organisation.

With my nursery age child I used to get 5 outfits out on a Sunday night to save me a job each day.
I also fit the washing into my morning routine to give me more time in the evening.
Be really organised with school stuff - at the beginning of each month check what might be going on to order anything you need
Also make sure your DH is doing more now you’re working more

Fill your freezer with batch cooking or things for a quick tea.
Have a family calendar, write everything on it.
Have a collection of birthday cards, stamps and gifts.
Deal with school requests as soon as you are notified. Have a bag of pound coins for mufti day etc.
Repack things like swim kits in the right bags as soon as they are out the wash from the previous week.

Make a list of everything that needs to be done with your DH and split the tasks between you 50/50.

Sound like you have a good plan, and all other suggestions are good.

I would add put a wash on when you get home every other night, take it out before you go to bed, put away next evening after its been out drying for 24hrs.

Have a think about when you are doing food shop, get delivery, click and collect or one of you and DH go to supermarket when kids are down (or whilst one does bath and bed).

Seeing as you're apparently entirely responsible for food and getting DC dressed and out of the door on time, along with all their necessities for school, DH will be in charge of all laundry and cleaning? Seems like a good split tbh.

Also along to say 50:50 split. Also applies to kids' parties, present buying etc.

What is DH doing ?
I'd also suggest:
Regular grocery delivery slot - book in advance and amend/ check out the night before. Save your favourite items.
Meal plan rota.
Laundry baskets for lights darks coloureds and kids put stuff straight in there if old enough.
Basket for each room for clean laundry, again kids take back upstairs and put away if old enough.

Ignore kids putting own clothes away! Just clocked their ages

Half of MN will disagree, but I think it's a really good idea to enlist your children in supporting the household routine (in an age appropriate way, of course) as early as you can.

I don't know the abilities of your children but you could consider getting them to do things like (with you checking until they get so good you don't need to ask any more). Things like getting out their clothes for the next day, packing their bag (we had a picture sheet on the fridge of everything they had to remember - this was something the school also did), making sure Mummy remembered to sign the reading log (yes, I'm a bad parent ....)

Weekly meeting with DH to discuss everything coming up eg make dentist appointments, world book bag, the divide up the tasks.

Make sure DH is also set up on all school and nursery apps.

Only buy clothes for the kids in one big supermarket bulk order. They will out grow their whole wardrobe around the same time so you need to be ‘on’ it to order the next one but there is no sorting out clothes which fit or no longer you can move straight to the next size clothes. Label it all either stamptastic or sticky labels as you watch TV.

Order and wrap 3 gender neutral party gifts for each child’s age for when they go to parties.

This is pretty much it.

Honestly, I've worked PT and I've worked FT and I can't say I've found any truly significant difference in how difficult it is to do any of these things. The thing about working FT that helps is that everyone is out of the house and not turning it into a tip. Dh and I currently work roughly school hours (one of us always off in the afternoons, sometimes both of us) and the worst part of the day is between 3-6pm because the kids turn the house upside down. If no one was here, there would be so much less organising that needs to happen.

Take it in turns to keep and eye on the kids and get things done. So after work, dh takes the kids and you do dinner. Then you do bath time and dh tidies/does the washing up/preps snacks and lunches for the next day. Or something similar.

Similar in the morning, usually I find clothes and sort bags, and dh takes the dog out and then does breakfast. Whoever happens to be around when they are ready to get them dressed gets them dressed. Tag teaming helps.

Agree about meal planning and food shopping delivery. I do the meal plan for the whole week once a week and do the online shop. Dh puts it away.

And yes, both of you on all apps and mailing lists. I've found it incredibly difficult to get my husband on the bloody lists. It's like admin staff get confused that more than one parent needs to know about what's going on! I'm not a PA. We both need to be informed. Make sure you both do drop offs and pick ups so you can equally get to know staff and other parents, etc.

Your own clothes read for the day. Was a game changer for me!

Ready even!

Following for ideas. Have been a SAHM for over 15 years and want to dip my toe back in to the working world but it seems impossible to juggle everything!

If you drive - one of stuff you might forget in the car - water bottle, snack (long life obvs), nappies if you need to provide them to nursery, coins for donations/ special days. We have toothbrushes & toothpaste in there for when I forget they havent brushed their teeth.
I love these huge bags from Kind bag co they fold down small (unlike supermarket bags) but fit two backpacks, a bookbag, two coats, waterbottles etc in so I only have to pick up one bag in the morning to take to the car.
Also following for ideas!

Also in the evening - both me & DH (if both home) do 15 mins house stuff once the kids have gone to bed before either of us sit down. And we keep a list of (non urgent) admin on our phones and only discuss when we week plan (2 wks ahead) on Sunday eve - stops every evening being an admin chat.

Keep a selection of birthday cards and small birthday gifts for children's party invitations.

Keep a stack of small envelopes on hand with a large amount of coins - there are many requests for small (and larger) money donations during the school year in the early years, often at short notice.

Set up a lever-arch file with 12 clear plastic wallets labelled one for each month. As the school letters arrive for events, information, tickets, consent forms etc place them in the wallet for the relevant month. If letters are emailed, print them off straight away and do the same. All school info will then be on hand when needed.

Buy several Sharpie pens and label every piece of clothing.

Keep old adult tee-shirts as an aprons for art work - no buttons or fastening and easy to put on, and throw away for another as needed.

If you collect your children from school in the car and they have a reading book or spellings to complete - do it in the car after you park up before getting out, then leave the book/bag in the car. There will be less distractions for them and yourself in the car, the busyness of the evening routine will not squeeze out the activity, and the books will not get misplaced at home.

Thanks. DH is definitely a 50:50 spliter of the chores.

He works shifts and is quite simply not here in the evening, so he does the washing and cleaning after he's dropped the kids off then prepares us lunch for my lunch break before he goes to work.

The lack of specific mentioning of what he does was more for ease of it not being a very lengthy post. This thread is for joint planning.

Some really helpful ideas here thank you