Being a good homemaker requires good time management and self-discipline. One of the ways I manage my time is by implementing rhythms and routines into my days. Here’s what I do and what I think is the best weekly homemaking schedule.
Contrary to popular belief, homemakers have a lot to do throughout the day. In order to do it all well and get it all done, she needs to have good time management. When you work a typical job, you usually have someone giving you due dates and timelines. But when you work for yourself or are a full time homemaker, you have to do all of that yourself.
Not only do you have to figure out what all you need to do. But you also need to figure out when you’re going to do it and make sure you actually get it done.
the benefits of creating a weekly homemaking schedule
I love planning and being organized. My husband always laughs at me because I make so many lists and color code everything. But hey, it helps me to be productive and keeps me sane. Naturally, I have to do this when it comes to my homemaking tasks as well. The reasons are probably obvious, but I’ll list them out here:
- It keeps my mind less cluttered and therefore helps me to be less stressed. If I don’t have things in to-do lists I’m constantly thinking about them and get overwhelmed very easily. The simple act of just writing things down on paper is huge in helping free up space in my mind and saving me from a mental breakdown haha.
- It helps me make sure I’m getting everything done. If I don’t make a “schedule” and just do things as they come up, it usually means that all I do is clean the kitchen. That’s where I spend the most time and also the room that gets the most messy. If I don’t dedicate specific times to taking care of other rooms, I will neglect them. Either because I completely forget about doing those tasks, or because I spend too much time and energy on the kitchen.
- It actually gives me more flexibility and time to do things other than housework. You would think that since I’m creating a schedule for myself that it would be less flexible. But it frees up a lot of time in the afternoons for doing other things that I want to do. Whether that’s reading and learning about something, resting, doing a Bible study with my friends, or doing bigger house projects that need to get done.
the best weekly homemaking schedule
So without further ado, let’s get into my weekly homemaking schedule. I dedicate a certain room/task for each day of the week. Of course there are also things that I have to do everyday, so I always take those into account each day as well.
I started out doing one load of laundry a day, but ended up thinking that didn’t work for me. Our washer and dryer are in the basement and also don’t have a timer that goes off when they’re done so I would always forget about the stuff I put in them. So I started dedicating just one day to laundry, but that wasn’t working either. I still ended up forgetting about it. And then I would just keep getting behind on laundry because if I forgot about one, the rest of the loads got pushed back as well. So I’m starting to implement the one load per day rhythm again and just setting a timer on my phone.
Now, let’s break down my schedule.
Daily tasks
Like I said, there are several things I have to do no matter what day of the week it is.
- Cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner
- Making the bed
- Doing the dishes
- Taking care of the chickens (and other animals that we’ll hopefully be getting soon)
- Exercise/movement- usually this entails going for a walk or doing yoga
- Getting ready for the day
- In the summer, checking on the garden
- Doing some type of work for my blog, instagram, or Young Living
monday- groceries, town, & kitchen day
The titles are pretty much self-explanatory for each of these days. But I’ll still give a brief description of the types of things each day entails. Mondays are dedicated to the kitchen. I’ll usually clean it in the morning and then go get the groceries for the week.
Cleaning the kitchen usually doesn’t take too long because I keep up with it throughout the week. I can’t cook in a messy kitchen, so I clean it to some extent at least once a day. So usually on Monday, the biggest part of the cleaning piece is cleaning out the refrigerator and mopping the floors. While I do that, I make sure to note what groceries I have left over from the previous week so I don’t buy more and waste them.
Since we live out of town, I’ll use this as my “town” day as well since I’m already going into town to get groceries. That entails taking recycling and running any other errands that need to be done as well. I’ll also get myself a coffee from a coffee shop while I’m out as well because you have to keep things fun haha. This is the day I’ll go pick up our milk from the farm we get our milk from as well. I’ve been doing that on Friday, but I think I might switch to Monday so that all of my errands are done on the same day.
I usually don’t do any laundry on Monday. If there are a ton of kitchen towels that need washed I’ll do them, but if not, I’ll just throw them in with a load of towels on Tuesday.
Once I’m back from getting groceries, I’ll make things that need to be baked for the week. These are things like granola, yogurt, sourdough, etc.
tuesday- towels & bathroom day
Tuesdays are dedicated to the bathroom. I’ll start a load of towels in the morning, and do more throughout the rest of the day. Then at some point I’ll fold them and put them away. This is the hardest task for me haha. I don’t mind doing laundry at all. But I always procrastinate folding the stuff and putting them away haha. Anyone else?
I’ll also clean out the bathroom. I’m sure you all know what that entails. I also like to organize the cabinets a little as well since the bathroom doesn’t take that long to clean. I’ll usually only clean out the shower when it needs it which is usually like once a month or so. Same thing with the windows in each room. I’ll do them on that room’s dedicated day whenever they need done.
wednesday- sheets & bedroom day
Wednesdays are dedicated to the bedroom. I’ll take off the sheets in the morning and leave the bed uncovered all day so it can “breathe.” I’m not sure if this actually does anything, but I’ve seen a lot of people talk about it so I figured I would do it. It’s supposed to air out your mattress so that it doesn’t get dusty and moldy from being covered up all the time.
I have three sets of sheets that I rotate through so I usually don’t wash them each week just to save on water and electricity. I’ll just keep the dirty ones in a laundry basket in the basement and wash two sets at a time every other week. I’ve tried doing three, but since we have a king bed it gets a little too bulky. I’ll also wash our duvet cover every other week as well.
Then I’ll do all the usual bedroom cleaning tasks like mopping and sweeping the floors, dusting the tabletops and fan, and tidying up.
thursday- my clothes & living room day
Thursdays are dedicated to washing my clothes and cleaning the living room/dining room area. Like the other days, I’ll throw a load of laundry in in the morning and then fold them later on in the day. And I’ll go about cleaning the living room. I’ll mop and sweep, dust, tidy up, and organize the closet.
Our dining room is basically part of our living room, so I’ll also clean that area on Thursday as well. If the table cloth or place mats need washed I’ll just throw them in with the load of sheets on Wednesday.
friday- chris’ clothes & outside chores day
Fridays are dedicated to washing my husband’s clothes and doing outdoor chores. In the winter, this day is fairly slow because there isn’t much to do outside. But in the summer I’ll work on something in the garden, for the animals, weed the front flower garden, etc.
saturday- rest day
I treat Saturdays as a Sabbath rest day. What “rest” looks like varies week from week. Usually it includes reading, doing nothing of importance (haha), hanging out with family or friends, going for a hike, or going kayaking. Some Saturdays the most restful thing is to get something productive done that I’ve fallen behind on. To me, it’s more restful to work on those things and get it off my mind than it is to sit and read or something and avoid that task.
I usually try to get some stuff ready for Sunday as well so it isn’t too crazy in between church and dinner with our families. That includes prepping things for lunch and getting things ready for our family dinner.
sunday- church & family dinner day
The Lord’s day. Of course we start the day by going to church. Then both of our parents come over for dinner in the evening. Other than that, Sunday is a pretty slow day just like Saturday.
Of course, what my week looks like will probably be different from what yours looks like. Hopefully this post encouraged your or gave you some inspiration to create a weekly schedule for yourself as well. If you like this kind of content, go check out the rest of my homemaking posts. And if you liked this post, be sure to share it with someone else who you think would like it or benefit from it as well! Thanks for reading 🙂
