Setting Up An Evening Routine

Sharing is caring, please pass this along!

Day 13 of #Write28Days Challenge

So we have spoken about our morning routine and our midday routine. Today’s post will address setting up an evening routine, which to me is the most important of all the routines.

As the saying goes,

A Great Day Begins the Night Before.

Setting Up An Evening Routine for a Successful Next Day

If you want your next day to be a successful one, you have to start the night before. Yes, this means you have to plan.

Sure, you could just wake up and jump straight into your morning routine but life will be less stressful and you will feel less harassed if you start planning for your day the night before.

Setting Up An Evening Routine

How long or short your evening routine depends (again) on how many things you want to include in your routine. And again, I suggest that you keep it simple for sustainability.

What to Include in An Evening Routine?

Here is a list of what I do and have done for a long time. Sometimes I get lazy and I always regret it the next day.

Nightly Pickup of the House

This should involve the children. Instil this habit and you will have fewer battles along the way. Toys are to be picked up and put into the correct bins/shelves. Same with books. Clothes should be put away too.

This paves the way for you to do a quick vacuum or mop if you should choose to do so. This also teaches the children that there are no elves who would put their stuff away for them.

Wipe Down of the Kitchen Counter and Sink

This I learnt from Flylady (Flylady.net). At the very minimum, she says one should Shine Your Sink to mark the end of the day. And I agree with her.

It is nice to walk into the kitchen that has an empty and clean sink rather than a sink filled with dirty dishes and wet spots. And once your sink is shined, I guarantee that you will want to wipe up your kitchen counter next to it.

Do a Brain Dump

Write out all the things you have to do either in the very near future (ie tomorrow) or sometime in the week. Writing down what needs to be done relieves your brain from having to remember them. I have a post on this. See Related Links at the bottom of this post.

Defrost Food

If you have a meal planned, you will know what food to pull out to be defrosted. Otherwise, decide what meals you’d be having the next day and defrost the necessary items.

When Does the Evening Routine Start?

We know that our Morning Routine starts from the moment we wake up but when does or should our evening routine start from?

Start From Dinner

You can set up your evening routine by using dinner time as your anchor. Your routine then flows from the start of dinner.

After a while, you will know how long each activity takes or you may wish to allocate a loose timing for each activity so that things do not drag on forever. This evening routine includes the children.

This way they also know what to expect each evening. Having a regular bedtime also removes the need to cajole or negotiate bedtimes. And it has been noted that children with regular bedtimes are healthier because sleep is crucial to good health which affects learning.

The Discipline of Sleeping

As stay-at-home-mothers, it really requires discipline to put down the book/phone or turn off the TV/Netflix and go to sleep. Yes, I totally get that the silence is wonderful and being able to do what you want with no one clinging to you is a luxury.

But if we do not discipline ourselves to go to bed at a decent hour we (and our children) will pay for it the next day.

Do not forget that sleeping is part of our evening routine too.

Tomorrow I will talk about setting up some systems to help make housework go smoother.

Related Links

Write It Down
Do the Brain Dump and Get Out of the Overwhelmed Zone
Regular Bedtime Linked to Better Learning, Less Behavioural Problems

Sharing is caring, please pass this along!