How to Manage a Household Like a Pro (in 3 Steps)

School is back in season, sports and after-school activities have all started in full swing, and us moms are back to being in 100 places at once! All of this running around can be draining, and you need to take a break for yourself every once in a while.

Keep things running smoothly and lighten your load a bit by learning how to manage a household like a pro! Here are some home management tips to help you with that.

How to Manage a Home in 3 Simple Steps

Managing a household effectively is one of the hardest things about being a mother for me! I have wonderful children and with each one lives completely different distinct lives!

Each one of them loves different activities and are involved in different extracurricular events. That means that I need to take each one of them where they need to be and remember to pick them up once it is over!

I also need to be 100% emotionally available at all times so that I can be their mom! I am such an advocate for parents actually BEING THERE for their kids. Kids need someone to talk to and parents need to be that person.

Balancing all of these things can be a challenge. When I was younger, I did not know how to be in all those places at once! But over time, I learned, and today I’m going to share all of the tips, tools, and resources that I use to keep my house in order.

Step 1. Chores

I am going to start these household management tips off with chores! I know that may sound strange, but let’s be honest, there is only one of you! You shouldn’t have to do every single chore in the entire house.

It is important for kids to learn how to work and chores are the perfect way to do that. I have my own system that works with my family, but I also asked a few of the girls that work on my team what they do to get kids to help with chores and you will be amazed!

What Works for Me:

I am a HUGE chore can fan! I have been using this since my kids became old enough to do chores. They are simple to make and last forever.

What I do is I allow my kids to earn privileges. I have always wanted my kids to work for what they have. Here are some things I believe are privileges:

• Extracurricular activities
• Time with friends
• TV (we love our Amazon Fire TV)
• Electronics (Xbox, tablets, Kindle, etc.)
• Reading (Some of my children LOVE reading… at times when they are sucked in a good book, they are very motivated to do things in order to earn a book back. If your kids don’t love to read then this might be on their responsibilities list)

I want to help teach them responsibility and show them that once they do their work, they can have all the fun they want! Those are skills that will follow them into college and their careers!

So here is how it works in my house…

Every morning my kids have a list of responsibilities (I often use the chore can). Here are some examples of the responsibilities I assign:

• Doing their own laundry (starting at age 12)
• Making their own breakfast and lunch
• Sweeping
• Cleaning
• Changing diapers
• Making bottles for the baby
• Babysitting; etc.

Once responsibilities are done, they get free time. If they break rules, they lose privileges. Depending on the severity of the offense, I will provide ways for them to earn privileges back.

By doing this, I help keep my kids motivated. I have noticed that they often do not whine, they just simply get their chores done because they know that after their chores, they can have fun!

What Works for Kelley:

Kelley is a member of my team and she is SUPER awesome. She has 4 beautiful children and has learned what works best for her little kiddos. This is what she does:

“I came up with this idea a few summers ago and so far it has worked really well for us. I have a whiteboard and each night before I go to bed I write 3-5 chores of my choosing for each kid (2-3 for my littles).

I like doing it this way because it allows me to look around and pinpoint areas that need attention and they seem to respond much better to having something different every day.

Types of jobs I write down:

Sometimes I’m super OCD like ‘wipe down the outside of the garbage can, and sometimes I give them a break like “tell your sister why you love her” or ‘tell mom she’s gorgeous’ haha. (Also works well if they are being naughty, I will give them a chore they dislike doing so that they will have better behavior!)

As much as my kids hate chores, I laugh a little when the first thing they do is run to see the whiteboard.

The clincher is if they get everything done by 10 am they get paid. If not, too bad – still have to do them. And I pay them decent (or so they think), but really what I’m doing is just using money I would normally use as a back-to-school budget and “redistributing” it as chore money. Shh, don’t tell them.

I try to make our back-to-school shopping an event (part of a summer trip or going to another city) so they’re motivated to save up their chore money, and it works really well. Plus, I’m really not out any extra money and the chores are almost always done before 10 am. This eliminates the fight which is priceless for me.

We live in a small town with not a lot of shopping available, so maybe that’s why that works – but you could make the ‘reward’ anything you want. It could be screen time, time with friends, a trip to frozen yogurt! Whatever you choose!”

What Works for Melanie:

Melanie is the recipe queen here at Fabulessly Frugal and she is blessed with 3 wonderful children! When asked about how she gets chores done in her home, this is what she said:

“We have a system that has worked awesome with our children. We have chores that are just required and must be done each day. They are the basics like:

• Clean your room
• Make your bed
• Brush your teeth
• Pray; and
• Complete one job that mom assigns

After they have done all of these things they can ask mom for an additional job to earn tickets. Those tickets can then be redeemed in our family store for candy, toys, games, cash, or whatever else is available!

This is the perfect way for my family because it motivates my kids without me having to say a word. I hate to nag and get on my kids so this system does the motivating for me! It is a win-win situation.”

If you’re wondering where to get tickets for your family store, you can find a bunch on Amazon!

Which Will Work For You?

There are plenty of different books, systems, and ideas out there that can tell you tips on how to set up chores in your home, but you need to find out what will work best for you and your family.

Take the time to try out different things and find the perfect solution for your family so that your kids can learn how to take care of themselves and work! That is the purpose of chores!

What ideas do you have when it comes to motivating kids to do their chores?

Step 2. Organization

Another key to managing a household effectively is to organize yourself and your home. It can be SO hard but with a bit of work, you can remove the clutter from your home, which will, in turn, clear your mind and help you relax a bit. (Relax? What’s that?)

Here are a few posts to help get your organization game on:

• Getting Organized for When the Kids Go Back to School
• My Favorite Organization Hack
• 25 Lunch Box Hacks to Simplify Your Mornings

Step 3. Lower Your Expectations

Motherhood is hard, but it is also the most rewarding thing on earth. I know that we set all of these goals to be SUPERWOMAN, but the honest truth is that your kids just need your best. That’s all. Be your best self.

There might be nights when the house is a disaster and that is okay. Tomorrow will be a new day and you can fix things up then. Don’t get too busy managing your home that you forget that you have precious little children who sometimes just need your time.

So, tell yourself how GREAT you are doing because that’s the truth! If you are trying, you are succeeding! Of course, we can all get better, and we will, but take it one day at a time!

Conclusion

Learning how to manage a home is such a great skill to have. It makes your life easier and it allows you to enjoy your life at home instead of being stressed out by it.

It may take some time to adjust if you’re trying out new management methods and such, but stick with it! It’s totally worth it in the end.

Now that you’ve gone through our home management tips, check out our post on ways to bring more love into your home. This is just as important as having a well-managed and tidy home!