Little routines that quietly make life run smoother

[dongbibi]

I was chatting to a friend this morning and we realised how much the small habits matter more than the big plans. Nothing dramatic, just tiny routines that make the day easier without much effort.
For me it’s things like laying out school stuff the night before, doing a quick kitchen reset before bed, and keeping breakfasts very boring and predictable. It’s not exciting, but it means mornings are calmer and I start the day feeling a bit more in control.
It’s made me appreciate that I don’t need to overhaul everything to feel on top of things. A few small systems seem to carry a lot of the weight.

@HipHopDontYouStop Safety first eh?

brushing my hair at a red light is soooooo dangerous.

It's just a bit clichéd and pathetic. Just get up early and do it properly. I guarantee it will look better.

Also forgot to say this one... keeping pen next to fridge and writing date on anything opened and then stored in fridge so can see when expired

Cliched and pathetic? Brushing hair in the car? Oh do run along. Silly mare.

DH and I both have access to the same "to do" shopping list app so we can both add items to it as they are used up/we think of them. Much easier as we can add items anywhere or time.

We have a magnetic pen that lives on the fridge. I wish I could be useful and tell you where it came from, but it's one of those things DH just magically produced from his work bag (it's like a Mary Poppins bag, but for practical things I didn't know existed).

I have the same breakfast every day so I don’t have to think about it. Lunches I have a similar things (salads) . Tea i do one night pasta, one rice, one soup or salad and one omlette or fritters. (Dh plans weekend meals) Not having to meal plan makes it so much easier.

Everyone has their own laundry basket and has a day a week to wash/dry their clothes. There’s five of us, the other two days are bedding/towel days.

That sounds so solid. Planning food ahead and doing little resets everywhere must save so much mental energy, especially with a full house. And daily laundry with five people is no small feat at all.

This is honestly impressive in the quiet, unshowy way that actually makes life work. So much of this is about removing future stress rather than reacting to it, and you can really feel the calm in how you’ve set things up.
I especially like the “right order” parking and the washing machine ready to go overnight – those tiny bits of thinking ahead make mornings so much smoother. It’s not flashy, but it’s incredibly effective. You’ve basically turned life admin into muscle memory, which is the dream.

When I lived in my old house (no good in this small one where front door is straight into the only living space) I concentrated my energies in keeping one room downstairs clean and tidy. I was a single mum with five kids so there was mess everywhere all the time, but I had either the living room or the dining room or the kitchen that I did my best to shovel the mess out of (straight into other rooms if necessary) so I had one tidy, sorted and presentable room to show people into if they came in for any reason.

I could also sit in there when I was utterly overwhelmed and not feel like quite such a loser, because that room had everything in its place. If the kids' father ever turned up to pick them up (about twice a year) I had somewhere he could wait that looked like I was on top of things.

The rest of the house I tidied as much as I could when I had the time and the energy but the kids were NOT of the tidy-up-after-themselves persuasion, sadly.

I’ve been implementing the idea of never leaving a room empty handed. Scanning a room before leaving and resetting things, takes seconds but improves the look and feel of a space.

also if a job takes less than five minutes I try and do it immediately.

My kids have SEN my daughter eats in her bedroom for several reasons and doesnt always bring plates down. We now have a black plastic tub with a lid that sits outside her room. So plates etc go in the box and I bring it down every other day to wash.

Kitchen reset at night.

"10mins" if I have low energy but somewhere is messy I set a 10 minute timer and do what I can in 10 minutes.

I live life now with the phrase "better not perfect" cant always make something work perfectly but can nearly always make it better in some way.

We have one which Ocado were giving away at some point with a wipable note pad.
But Amazon has them too. Quite handy.

For expiring food, I just sniff and look though.

I bought a big whiteboard at the weekend and am using it to plan out meals for the week. Thanks to those that suggested it. Hopefully there will be less food waste now.

I've also been able to fit in the same whiteboard a list of jobs for DH, and a space for shopping items we need.

I stocked up on a few items we can never seem to find like pens, pencils, a 4 pack of scissors I spotted in aldi.

I'll re stock up on cards and wrapping paper too.

I started a coin cup with all my spare change. I usually spend it on takeaway coffees at work but instead I'm keeping it for when DC inevitably need money with no notice for school.

I chop meat with scissors instead of knives. It takes about half the time and is less messy.

I bought iron-on labels for bedding so I know which bedding goes with which bed. It means I'm not stood on the landing for half hour every bed change bad trying to figure out if a sheet is king or double and usually getting it wrong

I also live by the phrase "worst first". Getting the worst job done first is great - everything that follows feels like a treat.

I outsource or subscribe as much as physically possible without the outsourcing itself becoming admin.

Agree about the scissors - learned on her years ago and I use them for everything.

Yes…but I always straighten the bottom sheet, shake the duvet, pillows etc. I like my bed to look neat.

We have a spreadsheet for Costco as a shopping list - tick boxes (rearranged when they rearrange things, so it's in pick up order) with a 'bought this time' button to record with the date. This means we can see how often we buy things.

Wrapping gifts as soon as they are purchased

I have ikea zip up bags with each full set of bed linen for each room, stored in the underbed storage
Three for each bed, one on, one in the wash, one spare .
No trying to find the correct size

Same, once ironed, each set goes back to it's room. Top wardrobe shelf in one, divan drawers in others and bottom desk drawer in the third. Saves faffing.

Another one is decanting dry food into clear containers. Helps see how much is left and no more 3 packs of pasta open at the same time or buying more and finding some hiding at the back.

Candles: I keep all the end bits and make new candles once a year. Cheap kit from amazon and saves on waste as some burn badly.

Clean the bathroom whilst running the bath.

Only buy tin moisturiser instead of pump ones which waste a lot.

Genius!!!

We bought a 2nd ironing board and iron so that we can get through the mountain of ironing every Sunday (both our work uniforms plus DC’s) and we do it together whilst watching the football and it makes it feel like less of a chore and done in half the time!

I iron nothing so can’t imagine having two ironing boards! We hang everything straight out of the machine and just don’t seem to need to. When I had an nhs uniform tunic top even that was ok after being whipped quickly onto a hangar from the machine.