Home Management System to Run Household Smoothly
Running a household is no less than running a company you have many roles and areas to work and all need to be in sync for the home to be functional and less overwhelming. For your household to run smoothly you must have a home management system. Your home management system must consist of all the key functions of your house and the workflow to manage it effectively and with ease. In this post, I am sharing my house management system and have divided it into my relevant chores and responsibilities including the less common but significant things like holidays.
Here is a disclaimer, before getting into details. I am a working mom and have systems in place enough to keep it clean, have home-cooked meals, and not run to search for things. It is not a Pinterest or Instagram-worthy aesthetic life but it’s fun.
Household Management System
Here is my household management system that covers every activity of my home that needs to be done routinely or frequently to have a smooth and functional home as a working family with a toddler. Since I am a working mom I need to be more prepared to accommodate the needs of daycare and the challenge of less time to manage home. And honestly, I feel if I can manage my home effectively with this Home Management System then anyone can.
1. Meal Planning and Preparation
Meals are a core part of your health and that is why they fall into my top priority as house manager.. (is that even a word or is my corporate head making it). Anyway, for me, if the meals for the day are sorted I feel much more relaxed. This includes breakfast, tiffin for me and my family, and dinner. So I do meal planning for the week and try to get the groceries by Saturday so that I can do some basic meal preparation to make cooking easy on the weekdays. Rarely do I go to grocery shops, I always shop grocery online.
I use this spreadsheet meal planner to do meal planning. I just made a master list of all the meals my family enjoys. Then for each week’s meal planning, I just have to select the meals from the dropdown menu and enter the ingredients and quality and it automatically generates my grocery list for the week, sorted into categories. It makes meal planning easy and quick. I spend a maximum of 10-15 minutes on weekly meal planning. The grocery list makes shopping too easy as the quality and categories of items are categorized.
P.S. For more details on meal planning you can read Meal Planning for Working Moms.
2. House Cleaning and Laundry
The next overwhelming feeling for anyone running a house is maintaining cleanliness and tackling the never-ending laundry. So for this, it is best to break the cleaning tasks into weekly and daily cleaning tasks and then plan them around the week to ensure they are less daunting and get done. This ensures that all the cleaning need is addressed and you do not have some forgotten corners.
Beyond the daily and weekly cleaning, you must also take into consideration the less frequent cleaning like the chimney, the gutter on the roof, etc. So for an effective home management system, you must have all these less frequent things mapped out too and schedule them quarterly or once a year based on your needs.
I also, like to include in this section any appliance maintenance, pest control, or seasonal changes to be taken care of like servicing the heater before winter or spring cleaning.
I use a spreadsheet-based cleaning planner that makes it easy to plan and track. Also, this way I do not need to do it every month or year, just tweak it based on needs if required. It includes sections for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly cleaning plans, you can check it here
3. Building Routines for home management system
It is one thing to make systems, another is to follow the systems. Most systems and planning fail when they are not executed. Your home management system will work consistently and effectively if you tie them to routines.
I am a big believer in routine. If you need to get things done, make them part of your life at the same time every day, and eventually, you will not even realize you are doing them, just like brushing your teeth. Include your household chores based on the planning into your routines. These can be morning routine, evening routine, or weekend routine. Once you have made the system and decided on the things to do split them into some for morning, evening, or weekend and add them to your routine cohesively. Ensure to include activities that are relevant to the time of the day, naturally, and make an effective workflow.
For more details on routines you can read the following:
Real Daily Routine For Working Moms
5 steps to build a morning routine before work that is best for you
Evening routine to keep you sane
4. Making weekly plans and schedules
As part of your home management system always have some time each week dedicated to planning and scheduling. It can be any weekday or weekend. I prefer to do it on the weekend or Friday night so that I am clear of things that I need to get done on the weekend for a better week ahead. This weekly session should include things like meal planning, checking for upcoming appointments, prioritizing tasks, and making time for self-care and family quality time.
It is also a good way to communicate your schedule for the week to the family seek their input and get to know their commitments for the week so that everyone is in sync with the plan for the coming days and everyone’s priorities are taken into consideration.
5. System to plan all things for kids
You must have a system to keep track of and plan all things related to your kids. This is essential in many ways but most importantly because they are completely dependent on us as parents for everything, especially at an early age and we are setting a path for them. Also, as parents kids are the most important priority your kid’s needs surpass an unclean home. Make sure every need of your child is met from school to health and social needs by building a system. Here are some things that you must consider to include in the system:
- Making schedules for the week for studies and activities, like making activity sheets and study plans.
- A daily routine to help with homework and projects.
- Extracurricular activities and sports.
- Make a checklist or plan for their health-related activities like dentist check-up, health checkups, vaccines, etc.
- Plan their diets and school lunch meals
- Coordinating and planning play dates, birthday parties, and school social events.
- Way to teach them things as they grow.
6. Have a Home Management Binder
With so much information and many things to plan it is essential to have a home management binder. You can have a physical home management binder or a digital management home binder. I like digital home management binders as they are more convenient, easy, and effective to use. Whatever is your preference, it should include all the information necessary about your family and home such as:
- Calendar and Scheduling
- Contacts and Important Information
- Home Inventory and Warranties
- Emergency contact list
- Service providers contact details (e.g., doctors, plumbers, electricians).
- Important documents (e.g., insurance policies, warranties)
- Home appliance manuals and warranties
- Birthday and anniversary reminders
These are just a few ideas you can include anything related to your family and home needs. Having a home management binder helps you keep all the information centralized and easy to access in need.
7. Track Budget and Finance
Keeping track of your budget and finances is a crucial part of home management. It helps you have control over your spending, save for future goals, and give you peace of mind. You can consider the following things to be part of your home management system to effectively track your budget and finances:
- Monthly Budget Tracker
- Expenses Tracker
- Savings and Emergency Fund plan
- Bill payment schedule
- Savings and financial goals
- Details of investment and investment plan
- Track bill due dates and investment maturity dates
- Loans and repayment details
- Investment documents
If possible try to automate your bill payments it saves a lot of time and also helps you never miss due dates and gives you peace of mind.
8. Make Household Organized and Declutter
Being organized is a key part of home management. It does not only keeps your space clean and clutter-free but also makes it easy for anyone to find things and bring peace of mind. You can spend a one-time effort to make everything organized at your home and eventually just spend a little time occasionally to maintain them. With good organizational habits, you may not even need to spend time to maintain them. Start by assessing the areas in your home that seem chaotic or cluttered, such as closets, kitchen counters, or entryways.
With an organized home it will be much easier for you to do your routine house maintenance activities as it will be less work. Also, make sure to occasionally do decluttering in your home. Clutter has a way of accumulating silently, taking up space, and making it more difficult to do regular household tasks.
For some organization hacks, you can read my post for 10 Tips for Organized Home.
9. Plan home projects or holidays
If you are someone like me you will often find areas in your home that either need reorganization or improvements and these are just wish lists on your mind. But making a note of them and planning them makes them more likely to happen. I like to plan them over a long weekend and make sure to get the supplies in advance so that when the time comes I can start with the work.
Similarly have a system to plan for holidays be it vacation or Christmas. Have a checklist of things to do and preparations to make. Use a holiday planner to be effective to include everything from budget to gifts and meal plans in one place to be effective in planning and execution.
10. Track renewals and due dates
Keeping track of dates and events is an integral part of home management. From utility bills to insurance policies, and subscriptions to warranties, there are many deadlines and renewals that need your attention to keep your household running smoothly. It is best to have a renewal and due date tracker to keep an eye on all of them. You can keep track of these by simple paper tracker but to be efficient with them it is best to add them to a digital calendar or spreadsheet.
Pin for later.
Conclusion
Managing a household is not easy you have many things to take care of and a lot to remember. However, having a home management system makes it easy for you to run your household easily and not be overwhelmed. The 10 areas shared in this post will help you design your home management system that will make your life easy.
Related posts you may like:
How to get household back on track after busy times
10 simple cleaning hacks for a tidy house
