Raise your hand if you love routines and order. I know I do! I love knowing exactly how long it should take me to get something done, how often I need to be doing a load of laundry and what my day is going to look like from a quick glance.  However, Moms if you’re deep in the trenches then you totally get why toddlers don’t like routines and usually throw a wrench into our perfectly planned days.

BUT we still need our routines that simplify our days.  WE NEED THEM! Because when you come home after a long, hard day and your house is a mess a routine can help you tame the chaos and re-center yourself. 

In this post, I’m going to talk about a few routines you can create to simplify your mornings.  Let’s face what happens in the morning is what sets the tone for our whole day. If we feel rushed while getting ready then we feel stressed and anxious the rest of our day – and that’s no good.

Recently, I shared our evening routine for our toddler and it has made a huge difference at our house.  It has made our evenings a little more calm and it’s been easier to put our little man to bed each night.  I will admit though, it all started when we spend a few days sleep training our son when he was just a baby.

Let’s get into today’s post – simplify your morning routine – because the sooner you can implement some of these tips then the quicker you will get results.  I do want to share a disclaimer – I try to follow each of these every day, but I’m not perfect.  When you have kids, you have to accept that you won’t be perfect 100% of the time – it’s impossible! In an earlier post, I shared details about how I schedule my day by blocking my time, but here are more details in my schedule blocks. 

Now, you’ll notice some of these routines actually happen at night or the day before, which has been a huge blessing to my mornings.  I actually consider anything that makes my mornings easier part of my morning routine.

Here’s your Sunday routine:

Each Sunday evening or any free time you have during the weekend, spend a few minutes planning your outfits or even laying them out for the next week. I don’t have a ton of space to lay out each outfit for work the next week, but I can at least plan out what I am going to wear. 

If you’re like me and don’t have a ton of free space to lay out clothes, then here are a few things you can do: create a space in your closet that you can physically hang clothes for the week or you can make a written list in your planner with each day’s outfits.

Prepping for the week includes making sure your clothes are washed, pressed and ready to be put on within seconds. Make sure to think of every aspect of an outfit that’s going to be needed – obviously a blouse and pants or skirt, but also include an undershirt, tights, shoes, jewelry, etc.

Here’s your evening routine:

Review your to-do list for the next day. This way you can make sure everything is ready to rock-n-roll the next morning.

Make sure to look over your meal plan for tomorrow’s dinner so you can defrost any meat and get a head start on the meal. 

Make lunches before going to bed and have the lunchbox packed with anything that doesn’t need to be refrigerated. 

Your morning routine:

Try to get up at the same time each morning – even if you don’t have to. That way your body can get used to following the same routine each morning, too.  

Follow the same steps each morning to help make everything more streamlined:

1. wake up and shower
2. put on makeup and style hair
3. get dressed
4. review any appointments that you have today
5. make breakfast
6. wake up kids and get them dressed

By following the same steps in the same order, you can have getting ready down to a science. You’ll know exactly how long it takes to do each step, which means you’ll know when you’re running behind.

Don’t check social media first thing in the morning. Wait until your little ones are up and dressed to get on social media. You can lose so much time by scrolling on FB and IG, so make sure to avoid it until you are completely ready.

Don’t check emails until you’re at the office. Again, this is such a time sucker. For me, I have personal email, work email and then business email that I like to check.  I try to get to work a few minutes early each day so I can check my personal email and business email before my work day starts.  If I spend too much time before I’m finished getting ready on the computer or my phone then I almost always run late.

Make breakfast easy on yourself. Try not to over-do it on breakfast during busy mornings. Sure you want your little one to eat a healthy meal, but who has time to cook a gourmet breakfast each morning?  Here’s a few tips to make breakfast simple:

• cook a big batch of scrambled eggs on Sunday and put in the fridge for the week
• make a batch of freezer waffles to pop in the toaster on the weekends
• grab fruit at the store for those easy morning breakfasts
• find simple foods your little ones can finish in the car when they take FOREVER to eat

These simple steps can really help create order in your morning routines. As a mom who is constantly running around from meeting to appointment to family time and everything else I need something that I can follow each day to help tame the chaos.