You arrive with your child at the doorstep of their friend’s house. As you press the doorbell, you go through the checklist in your brain… the birthday gift is wrapped and your child’s card is attached to the decorative package. Hair is combed. Teeth are brushed. You gave the run-down about manners and good listening.

Your mind stops racing and you glance around.

The home seems quiet considering there’s a child’s party about to commence in less than five minutes.

You begin to feel uneasy and pull out your phone.

Your child eagerly presses the doorbell again… and that’s when you find the email.

You were supposed to RSVP by this date. The party is actually next week.

Quickly, you scamper off the steps and down the sidewalk to your car.

How embarrassing.

You hope that the family really isn’t home (and peeking out at you behind closed drapes).

Has this ever happened to you? Have you missed appointments or showed up to events either too early or too late?

One of the biggest challenges of moms is trying to “do it all”. Time management and scheduling is often an obstacle and it becomes trickier with the more children you have.

Here are some tips, tricks, and hacks to keep your family organized!

photo credit: © depositphotos.com / Rawpixel

HAVE A CALENDAR & USE IT

This may seem obvious, but if you aren’t using a calendar, then now’s the time to start. There are some tricks to using a calendar effectively. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• As soon as you know of an event, write it on the calendar. I HIGHLY recommend hanging the calendar in a central part of the home. Ours is in the kitchen.
• Make sure all family members know where the calendar is, and that events ALWAYS need to be recorded on it.
• If you also use a digital calendar, make sure to record events in your phone.

Our favourite calendar is the More Time Moms Calendar because it has large spaces to write activities. I also like the handy pocket at the back of the calendar. I use this pocket to store important papers and permission forms for my children.

We discuss our events for the week at our weekly family meeting. If someone has forgotten to record an event on the calendar, it’s caught and then added during our meeting time.

photo credit: © depositphotos.com / AntonMatyukha

USE A CLEANING SCHEDULE

I can’t say enough good things about my cleaning schedule. Without it I’m sure my home would be an awful mess. If you haven’t already adopted a cleaning schedule, I urge you to do so asap!

Also, make sure your children have assigned chores! I use chore cards for my girls and they select their chores at our weekly family meetings.

*affiliate link* Printable Chore Card Set by Military Wife and Mom

HAVE A MENU PLAN

Have you ever stood in front of the fridge and wondered what to make for dinner? As you waver from option to option, you realize you’ve been indecisive for over half an hour. Your frustration builds as you realize the time you’ve wasted.

A menu plan is one of the best ways for moms to stay organized. Every Sunday, I make a menu plan for the week along with an accompanying grocery list. It helps me (and my family) to know what’s for dinner.

I post our menu on our dry-erase menu board, but you can do this kind of planning on paper too. Magnetic menu plan / grocery list pads are a great help when it comes to planning your meals for the week.

MAKE TIME TO PLAN

Sunday is my day for planning the week. As I mentioned previously, I make our menu and grocery list on Sundays, but I do other planning too. I take the time to write all my goals and activities into my day planner. I double-check the calendar and I make sure all permission forms and timely documents are signed. These simple planning routines help me stay organized all week long.

Planning my week is a good excuse to take out all those highlighters and pretty gel pens. Have I ever mentioned how much I love erasable pens? Whoever invented them is a genius!

Pictured above is my Passion Planner. This planner is THE best tool in my organized living arsenal!

If you don’t already take time to plan your week, try it out! Half an hour is usually enough time to make sure your schedule is in order.

TACKLE THAT LAUNDRY… DAILY

Laundry quickly piles up in the house. If you want to stay organized, you’ll do at least one load of laundry per day.

**Important tip: One load of laundry means one load from beginning to end. Do not start a second load of laundry until the first load is folded and put away.**

Here are some additional laundry tips, tricks, and hacks.

MAKE NOTES

How many times has someone told you about an event and you make mental note of it, only to have it slip your mind? Make sure to have a system for making notes about such things as play dates, concerts, appointments, etc. Here are some options to track these things:

• Carry a small notebook and pen in your purse.
• Immediately record them into the notes section of your phone.
• Email yourself.

HAVE A HOME BINDER

One of my most beloved organization tools is our home binder. In my binder, I store things like my cleaning checklist, my rotation of recipes for the week, a plastic sleeve of coupons, important phone numbers, and other homemaking helps.

Our binder is kept in the kitchen near the calendar so we can reference it quickly.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned,” and this is absolutely true! When you use effective methods and have organizational systems in place, you’ll save loads of time. Now the question is… how are you going to use all that time you free up?

Jennifer Bly

Author of My Kitchen, My Classroom: An Introduction to Homeschool and creator of The Deliberate Mom. Jennifer writes about parenting, homeschooling, her faith, and life with her husband and two girls. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Applied Human Service Administration Degree with a specialization in Early Learning in Child Care.