Five Ways to stay organised as a family….

Between work, school runs, activities, and the never-ending household to-do list, family life can often feel a little chaotic.

The good news is that a few simple habits can make a big difference. Staying organised not only helps things run smoothly but also frees up time (and headspace!) for the fun stuff.

Here are five of my tried-and-tested ways to keep your family life organised…

1. Use a Family Calendar

Whether it’s a wall planner in the kitchen or a shared digital calendar, having everything in one place is a lifesaver. We actually have our shared calendar on our phone as the wall planner that we used to have just didn’t work for us. We use an app called Timetree which is a free app and I can’t remember why we chose that one instead of going with plain old Google Calendar but whatever the reason, it really works for us as we can both access the calendar from our phones so can add things straight away and can check dates for availability when we need it rather than having to wait till we get home. 

Work and school events, dentist appointments, work shifts, birthdays, holidays – all get added in so we never miss a thing. 

2. Meal Plan for the Week

Planning meals in advance saves both time and money. I could go on for hours about the benefits of meal planning but I guarantee that if you sit down once a week and decide what’s for dinner each night, taking into account what you have planned and what you have in then you will save both time and money. And not only does it cut down on food waste, it also removes the daily stress of figuring out what to cook.

3. Create a Morning & Evening Routine

Routines give structure to the day and make life feel less rushed. Mornings go more smoothly when school bags are packed the night before and uniforms are ready. Evenings can be calmer with set times for homework, baths, and winding down. Consistency really helps everyone know what to expect.

Here’s a couple of posts that might help you with this: 6 things to do before you go to bed to make the next day easier  and Five things to do on a morning to make your day easier.

4. Have a “Home” for Everything

Lost keys, missing shoes, and disappearing paperwork cause unnecessary stress so make sure everything has its place to avoid the panic when you need something.

We have a drawer for paperwork where we just dump anything important that we need to keep – reciepts, bills, documents etc. When it gets full, we have a proper little mini filing cabinet in our cupboard under the stairs to move everything to so we spend half an hour going through everything in there and filing it properly if it still needs to be kept. 

We also have a basket in the living room where we keep all of our house and car keys so we never have to search for them. It took a while for it to become an automatic thing that we put them in there as soon as we come in but now it’s just something we do without even thinking and it’s so nice to always know where the keys are.

5. Make Time for a Weekly Check-In

We set some time aside on a Sunday to chat through the week ahead. We work out what we both have on and make a plan to make sure that we know what’s going on, what little jobs we want to get done and update our calendar if we need to – often it’s small things like what days I’m in the office as most things are in the calendar but it really helps us to check-in

Honestly, staying organised as a family doesn’t have to be complicated. A few simple systems and routines can transform the way your household runs, making life less stressful and giving you more time to enjoy together.

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