10 Tips To Be An Organized Working Mom

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Wondering how to be an organized working mom? Well, being a mother is a full-time job, and managing it as a working mom is hard. So for all, you overwhelmed working moms. I am sharing here 10 tips to be an organized working mom, these will:

• Ease your load of managing work and life as a  working mom.
• Make you a super organized mom

These are things that I have been using for 3 years now and have been able to manage a full-time job along with a baby who is a toddler now. The journey is not easy and there were incidents, chaos, and mistakes that have helped me come to some strategies that make me a better working mom each day, and in this post, I am sharing some of these with you.

So, let’s being with the tips to organize working mom life.

How To Stay Organized As A Full-Time Busy Working Mom

Here are 10 tips on organization for working moms and stay organized with baby

Tip 1: The 2 Minute rule

It is easy to organize things at your house and work but it is more difficult to sustain the organization system that you have planned.

I am sure you would have at some point in life been in a situation when you have completely organized your kitchen and closet thinking you have everything in control only to realize that after a few days things fall apart and you are having the same mess to deal with. 

The reason for this is you are not able to keep up with the organization you have designed.  hence I like to follow the two-minute rule. 

The 2-minute rule states that anything that will take 2 minutes or less should be done immediately rather than postponing it for later.

This can be putting the dirty dishes instantly in the dishwasher or wiping up a spillage on your kitchen countertop.

When you don’t do small things instantly and put them for later, It piles up, messes your organization system and the little task becomes huge time-consuming activities.

As simple as it may sound when practiced it really makes a big difference in keeping your life organized as a working mum.

Tip 2: Have a command center

Make a command center at your home. A Command Center is a designated space at your home where all the essentials for the entire family are placed to avoid forgetting things and the last-minute rush of searching for small things.

Many times when we are in a hurry to leave for work in the morning, to drop kids off at school or daycare. We spend time running back and forth throughout the whole house to search for things like keys, receipts, assignment papers, and so on. 

And sometimes even end up forgetting something important.

All this can be avoided by having a command center for the house organized with things that are essential for you and your family. 

Your command center can include things like:

• Car and house keys
• A calendar to note important appointments
• Post it for a reminder 
• A note for your partner
• A checklist to make sure nothing is forgotten
• School bags and wallets

Check out these command center ideas for some inspiration

Tip 3: Plan your day the night before

It can be tough to make sure that your day goes as planned when you are a working mom, That’s why it’s important to put together the things required a night before.

I like to visualize my next day morning or the night before to get an idea of things that will be required for me to have an easy day and prepare for it. 

This includes things like:

• Getting the dress out for me and the kid
• Getting the bags ready for school
• Laying out the tiffin boxes
• Filling water bottles for the next day
• Keeping the breakfast essential laid out for easy access or making overnight oatmeal for breakfast. 

When you have things planned for the next day, you have a great start for the day.

You are mentally prepared for the day and know the action you need to do the next day.

This helps you sleep in peace and not panic in the morning.

Tip 4: Declutter and practice minimalism

The best way to be organized and live an organized life is by having fewer things to deal with. You will not have to struggle with mess and put in a lot of effort if you declutter and keep life simple.

As a working mom, you already have a lot on your plate to deal with and less time to manage the house. So, it is best for you to declutter all the things that you do not need and follow a minimalist lifestyle. 

It is about living the life that really matters to you and spending your time and energy on things that really matter to you.

Make decluttering a quarterly activity to avoid ending up with clutter around the house. It is best to throw or give away things immediately when you realize and follow a minimalistic approach to life to avoid clutter.

Tip 5: Keep Important documents organized

We may not like it, but there are important documents that are part of our life

These can be vital documents that may be frequently required such as mark sheets, medical records, maintenance records, etc. 

Or crucial documents such as birth, marriage certificates, employment, educational documents, passports, etc. 

We may find ourselves in need of these at any time and as working moms, we do not have time to search for these after work. Hence it is extremely important that these documents are well organized and easily accessible when needed.

You can organize these documents in a single folder and keep them safe in time of need. You should also have some crucial documents scanned and saved in a shared drive with family members. 

Tip 6: Have a planning routine

You cannot be an organized working mom if you do not plan things well in advance. Have planning routines to ensure you are well-prepared to manage work and life.

There are different planning routines that you can follow based on your preference. However, I personally like to do monthly and weekly planning.

During monthly planning, I like to reflect back on the previous month to identify my wins- achievements for the month, and misses, these are things that could not be achieved.

This helps me align myself with the bigger goals and purpose, as with daily routine and chores we tend to forget about our bigger goals.

During weekly planning, I like to break the goals and tasks identified during the monthly planning into small achievable tasks and based on the coming week’s schedule plan different tasks for each day.

This helps me know what work I am supposed to do each day and make adjustments to accommodate different work to avoid overwhelming myself.

For more details on planning read  Weekly planning secrets for work-life balance and Monthly Goal Planning for Balanced Life in under 30 min.

I use this digital life planner to plan everything. It has 10 planners that help you with meal planning, routine, tasks, cleaning, habits, budgeting, tack transactions, habits, and more. And the best part is once planned the dashboard shows me everything I need to do for today.

Tip 7: Use weekends for preparation

Working moms are busy on the weekdays and the only available time is on weekends. To be organized in your life, use weekends to make yourself prepared for the coming week. 

Rather than a lazy weekend, you can use your time effectively to ensure rest, quality time with kids, and prepare for the coming week to make the best out of the weekends.

I recommend getting up on weekends at the same time as we do on weekdays. This lets you not fall into the sluggish weekend mode and give you some extra time to indulge in things you love.

There are many benefits to using weekends for preparation:

• You are not rushing on weekends, hence feel relaxed allowing you to plan and prepare well.
• You have the available time at hand to make sure the preparations can be done.
• You will not face Monday blues as you have made the best of the weekend and have planned for a better week ahead.

Here are 10 productive things to do on weekend to manage a busy week.

Tip 8: Organize with baskets as per use

Baskets are best to organize, they make it easier to reach for things, limit the clutter and keep the place visually beautiful by containing clutter.

Basket organization is especially more useful for working moms as you can use them to organize things in batches based on the intent of use.

This saves you time spent searching for things.

Try to organize things where possible based on the intent of use, this increases your efficiency and avoids messing up the organization.

For example,

• You can keep all the tiffin containers, food packing utilities, napkins, and tissues in one basket and keep it handy at the place where you pack tiffins. This will save you time running back and forth in the morning getting things while packing tiffin.
• Similarly, you can organize all the breakfast-use items like pancake mix, syrups, oats, cereals, etc. in a single basket to find all breakfast essentials.
• Make individual packs for your kid’s dress for the day. Keep all the clothes required for the day like, T-shirt, pants, inners, handkerchiefs, diapers, socks, etc. in one pouch for all the days of the week, so you can instantly pull out a poach and be ready to go.

Batch organizing things based on use in a basket is a super effective way to be an organized working mom.

Tip 9: 10- minute rush clean each day

Has it ever happened to you, that you get to know someone is coming to your house and in just 10 minutes you manage to do so much that you are unable to believe yourself?

It’s because we get bounded by time to do the work, and remain very focused to do the same.

Based on this I like to follow a 10-minute rush cleaning every day.  At the end of the day, I put on some music in my ear and set a timer for 10 min. And do a quick cleaning of the house, just to ensure things are back at their respective place and there is no clutter around. So when you get up in the morning you can have a fresh start for the day and don’t deal with the backlog mess of the previous day.

You can do the same at any time of the day but I prefer at the end of the day so that I can start my morning the next day as per the plan for the day and not worry about putting things in order to make things work.

Tip 10: Teach kids basic organization

Lastly, as a working mom, you must know that you cannot alone ensure to keep the house and life organized. Eventually, you would need help to continue an organized life. With growing kids your responsibilities as a mom and the work to be done also increase. Hence it is best to teach basic organization skills to your kids, this will help you and also make them independent.

Teaching your kids to be organized is one of the best skills to teach and it will benefit them in many areas of life.

Conclusion

Hey, so these are the 10 tips to be an organized working mom. The tips shared here are those that have personally made me more organized as a working mom. These tips will help you balance work and life as a working mom. You can start by implementing a few of these and eventually move to more. Don’t exhaust yourself to try all at once, organizing life takes time and is constantly in progress.

Hope you find this useful.

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