How I Prepared to Head Back to Work
This day has been circled with a solid red marker since January. As I discussed previously, I hummed and hawed for months about whether or not I should even return to work at all. When I finally did make the choice to test those waters, I realized I would have to organize things at home well in advance in order to keep our lives running smoothly, and make the transition for Finley (and to be honest, Matt) as seamless as possible.
This is where my Type-A planning skills shine best. I sat down with a pen and paper, because I’m old school like that, and jotted down a few areas of our life that could be streamlined to continue the easy lifestyle we enjoyed while I was home.
In addition to planning, I used two techniques I’ve been mindfully practicing this last year- automate and delegate. Since becoming a mom, I am so aware of my time and how I choose to spend it. Automating anything that can be is a huge time saver. And delegating isn’t as rude as it sounds. Rather than try to be a super mom, I have no problem asking for help if it doesn’t inconvenience the individual (and I know they’re willing, like my mom or my husband!). Included in this category is our dog walker, a small and necessary luxury for the first baby of the family, who has been demoted despite our best efforts. Budgeting for a few walks a week makes for a happy doggy, and a happy household.
Clothing and laundry was the biggest area for me. Between work and play clothes for two adults, and multiple daytime outfits for the littlest one, it seems like we go through a vast amount of clothing. I started streamlining by purging my own closet, and then reorganizing what I decided to keep. My closet now has work clothes on one side, play clothes on the other, and basics in the middle. In order to make things even easier for myself, I’ve also been making an effort to plan my outfits (and accessories) for the week on Sunday night so I can just grab and go as I head out the door. Side note- do any other moms dress themselves at the absolute last minute before leaving the house? I get my hair and face ready, but throw on my clothes just before leaving to avoid any last minute sticky stains.
As for laundry, I’m trying to automate this task as much as possible. I’ve gotten into the habit of using the delay start feature on my washing machine. I prep the load at night, set the delay to start at 5:00 am, by the time I’m heading into the shower, I can flip the clean clothes to the dryer. And if I’m really on my A- Game, I can even fold the load while Matt is walking the dog. This extra step at night means I get to start my day half-way through a load of laundry. Doing this a few times a week keeps the loads from piling up for a marathon weekend laundry session.
Housework is another biggy. I actually had a lady cleaning my house, but after weeks of complaining she wasn’t doing a good, or even acceptable, job, I had to let her go. I managed to do it myself by dividing up the jobs into days of the week. This worked well when I had nap times to do as I liked. Turn on a podcast and power clean one area for 45 minutes, and bam! I'm not sure how we'll keep on top of the weekly cleaning, without having to do a weekend power clean, so stay tuned. In May, I received a Roomba for my birthday and running it once a day really helps by taking that job out of my hands. I turn it on as I head upstairs for bedtime with Fin and by the time I’m done, its done!
A few smaller, more easily implemented tricks are the 10-minute tidy and the crap-basket. I live and die by the 10-minute tidy rule; maybe it’s a carry over from my past life as a Kindergarten teacher. But each night after I put Fin down and again before heading upstairs for the rest of the night, I do a 10-minute speed tidy, putting away toys, clearing off my counter, setting the dishwasher, and setting the coffee auto-timer. I think I will have to incorporate more ‘cleaning’ into my 10-minutes once I’m back at work, but for now, we are managing. The crap-basket has been a favourite since even before we were parents. Keeping a basket at the top and/or bottom of the stairs for any crap that needs to go up or down. During a tidy, or anytime you see something out of place, put it in the basket and next time you go up or down, take that basket of crap with you and put it back where it belongs! Leave it at the stairs to be filled again going the other direction. You’ll soon realize how much stuff migrates between floors and how efficient this system is for getting it back where it belongs.
To keep our household running smoothly, I’ve decided to automate our most frequent purchases with Amazon. Since we have a baby, this obviously includes diapers. I know I’m pretty late in this game, but the Amazon Family diaper delivery is super convenient and always arrives just as I’m running out. I also bought toothbrush replacements for the next year, and added razor blades and toothpaste to a monthly subscription.
As for meal times, I love planning out a week’s worth of meals ahead of time. This helps me figure out grocery shopping and how many stops I need to make in my errands. Now that Finley is basically eating like an adult, I have to make sure our dinners are child friendly, or at least can be adapted to suit her emerging taste buds. I’m writing a whole post about how I meal plan for our family of three, so come back tomorrow!
