Declutter expert and super-planner Steph Pase’s tips for organising your home – and your life!
Planning is key!
Mum-of-two and organisation expert Steph Pase believes its crucial to keep your life organised in order to stay mentally and physically healthy.
With a following of over 230,000 followers on Instagram (@justanothermummyblog) and a successful planner business, Steph Pase Planners, the declutter Queen shares with us her top tips for organising and planning your home – and your life!
1. Successful bedtime routine tips
AVOID: screens, alcohol, blue lights.
EMBRACE: books (including audio if you’re not much of a reader) hydrating water, sleep inducing oil diffusers, do not disturb iphone settings – and gradually adjust your wakeup time 15 mins earlier each week for 4 weeks instead of going cold turkey – which can be a rude shock to your system and leaving you feeling grumpy.
2. Create a morning routine that is for YOU
Your morning routine should be about looking after yourself and taking time just for YOU. With this in mind, it’s important to set your alarm so you get up before your children and have time to stretch, meditate, have a coffee, or even just pack school lunches in peace and silence before the chaos starts.
This will leave you feeling calm, energised and organised, whilst allowing you time to help with the kids without getting frustrated or feeling like you’re always late and in a hurry.
From meal planning to writing to-do lists, Steph is an expert when it comes to being organised.
3. Make time to exercise
Exercise plays a massive role in our physical and mental health so setting time aside for movement is crucial, as we all know as a parent, if you don’t set time aside and organise yourself, it probably won’t happen. Try setting your alarm for 30 minutes before the kids wake up to allow for a short walk or home workout, or squeeze one into your lunch break.
If you have a young child, you can also consider riding your child to daycare on your bike or pushing them in a pram instead of using the car. You’ll be surprised at how much of a difference a bit of exercise makes to your day!
4. Meal planning for the win!
Meal planning is so important for a stress-free afternoon after finishing work and picking the kids up from school. It avoids parents coming home and realising that there is no food in fridge, and nothing to eat for dinner! Most of us tend to cook the same meals on repeat anyway, so it’s pretty easy to plan ahead.
Take a look at your family’s schedule for the month and note down days when someone is away, you have an event to attend or the kids have after-school activities. Once you know which days don’t require cooking, and which days you’ll be limited on time to get dinner on the table, you can plan your meals around it. Cooking extra amounts and keeping them in the freezer also reduces stress of realising you have no dinner! From your meal plan you can then write your specific shopping list, which will stop you buying too much food or items that you don’t need, and makes shopping in store, or online, faster and more efficient.
Steph with her husband, Ryan and daughters, Harper and Willow.
5. Write to-do lists
For the working parent, heading back to work after the festive season can feel like a major brain explosion as you have to remember all the things you have to organise for the kids, pay for, attend, cook, clean and buy, all whist trying to concentrate on your own work.
Creating lists can help you feel more in control, motivated and productive, and contributes to more of an organised and stress -free day.
6. Create a cleaning schedule
Having an organised and clean space around you will reduce the feeling of chaos. Breaking up cleaning into 30min sections each day can make it feel less overwhelming and can be a realistic task that you can actually fit into your daily routine, for instance Monday: bathrooms, Tuesdays: floors, Wednesday: kitchen etc. This also free’s up your weekends for family time and relaxation.
Chec out the Steph’s free and downloadable cleaning schedule here.
7. Clean your Inbox and Junk Mail folders
Having an inbox full of junk makes it super-hard to spot anything important and find things when you need them. Delete the junk mail, delete things you’ve already read, delete expired offers and unsubscribe from anything that no longer interests you.
Also labelling/filing emails into categories makes life much easier when trying to find that email that was sent months ago (it’s like finding a needle in a haystack!). This will help contribute to a clear head, and clean stress-free start to your new year.
