The Evening Routine

I will start with explaining my evening routine. The routines are designed to become habit and include your daily chores. I am starting with the evening because it sort of sets you up for the next day and your morning routine.

• Bring in everything from car – I tend to leave fast food trash, coffee cup, etc in my car for weeks if I don’t make a point to get it out!
  
• Sort car junk – dirty dishes to the dishwasher, trash to the can, drugstore purchases to the stairs to be brought up with you…stuff like that.
  
• Go upstairs (I know we don’t all have stairs) to put gym bag, purse, etc in their places.
  
• Change/start laundry loads
  
• Make dinner
  
• Open/sort mail – file papers
  
• Pack lunches for next day
  
• Eat dinner! YUM!
  
• Do dishes / run dishwasher
  
• Wipe stove & counters
  
• Scrub and polish sink – this is a tip from the FlyLady. She says her shiny sink every morning makes her happy. I say scrubbing all remnants of food bits out of it keeps it from stinking!
  
• Tidy kitchen & living room areas (or hot spots – where ever you and your family spend the most time and therefore making messy)
  
• Weekday chore – I will do the chore assigned to me on my calendar for this day.
  
• Fold laundry – I have decided to try and do some laundry every day. It is so much easier to put away 1 load of laundry then 5. When it gets that big it looks daunting and I keep putting it off.
  
• Pack gym bag for next day
  
• Lay out clothes for next day. – seems silly but you won’t be pondering your closet in the morning when you’re trying to get out the door or pick something out just to find it needs ironing.
  
• Get ready for bed (whatever you do)
  
• Change laundry loads again – I aim to keep laundry going constantly!
  
• Check to-do lists – see what you accomplished, see what you missed
  
• Relax – read a book; watch T.V. or just crash and go to sleep (my personal favorite)
  

This might seem painfully explicit, but I am looking for little victories here too. Yay! I opened the mail!! Check! Yay! I ate dinner (like I was going to forget). CHECK! In addition to the feeling of accomplishment you get from crossing something off your list, spelling it out like this shows me when the things that I have to do (eat) will fit in with all this new productivity. For instance I specifically chose to put opening the mail after making dinner because there is a lull in time while dinner is cooking (unless you brought home pizza). I also realize some days these things can’t happen in this exact order, but doing it in the same order every day helps create habit (I hope). I am also leaving this plan up for revision. I may find serious flaws in my planning or that I forgot to include an important chore. I have this checklist in my iPhone for quick reference. You can’t just make the list you have to refer back to it often.