In a few months, my eldest will turn 13. I can’t believe how time flew by. As I look back, I realized that one of the toughest tasks I have to tackle as a mom is being a homemaker. Managing the home, no matter how basic it may sound has caused so much stress to me and many mom friends. Either you’re working outside the home or staying with the kids at home, we can all agree that there is so much to be done and there’s so little time.
5 Ways to be a Less Stressed Mom
1. Tackle the Paper Clutter everyday.
This is the number one source of clutter in our home. Every day, each of my four children brings home at least 10 sheets of paper. Add to that some personal mail, business files, recipe ideas and the next thing I know, we have pile after pile by Friday.
While it’s more convenient to set a specific day once a week for this chore, spending 5-10 minutes to sort out the papers that just came in is a better idea. Not only are the junk mails being thrown right away, the chances of missing important notices will also be slim.
2. Purge Clothes every time you fold.
Laundry is on top of my least favorite things to do in the house. While I don’t mind the loading, the folding and sorting often drives me insane. The kids seem to have too much clothes!
Does your child has a drawer full of clothes yet seems to always wear the ones that you just washed? Chances are if they haven’t worn it for a while, they’ll never wear it again. So, every time I fold clothes, I check for stains, tears or if they’ve outgrown it. Then those are placed in donation bags. There’s no point on holding on when others can benefit from it.
3. Plan meals and snacks for the week.
As a mom managing food allergies, I have to cook food from scratch 98% of the time. Though I love to cook and bake, this practice can be a source of stress or even burn out. While I don’t cook the whole week’s menu in one day (a practice that doesn’t work with my always hungry crowd), writing the menu allows me to have an idea what days I can focus preparing food. We even have a leftovers/clean up the fridge day too.
4. Be Nice to Yourself.
While moms have the tendency to strive for perfection, life isn’t perfect. No matter how much we plan, things will happen and we can’t do everything in our To Do list. Just because that cake on pinterest didn’t turn out right or your child isn’t in pjs during pajama day, you’re already in the Worst Mother of the Year list.
Kindness starts from home. If you can be kind to others, why not to yourself?
5. Find Time for Yourself.
As moms, we tend to always put our personal needs and wants last. Every time we do something for ourselves, we have the “mom guilt” attack.
There’s a saying “You can’t give what you don’t have.”. To be able to function well, we have to take care of ourselves first. Allowing ourselves at least 1 hour of “me time” makes a big difference.
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