How to Manage Home and Work Responsibilities
- Kay
- 2 hours ago
- 11 min read
5 Tips to a Great Home Management System
NEED TO KNOW: The Cottage by Kay Blog
Here are tips to manage your home and work responsibilities.
How to Create a Central Command Center
Your command center will be your go-to spot for all things related to home. It will contain all of the tools and schedules you need to effectively manage your home and family. It can be as simple as the inside of a closet door or as elaborate as a home office. Your space and circumstances will dictate which you choose. This command center will be your go-to place to manage your home and work responsibilities.
Why you need a home command center?
The purpose of a command center is to simplify the steps you have to take to achieve everyday tasks. It brings all schedules and lists together into one place that you can quickly work on them at a set time (we will cover that in a minute) to organize your week. This may mean that you will need to change your thinking or current methodology if it is not working for you. We'll talk about how to fix that.
Organization breeds efficiency. Efficiency breeds productivity and productivity means your reaching goals. Checking things off of the list, so to speak. The strategy is to to manipulate the one thing that is pliable. Time.
What do I need to put together my specific command center?
First, choose which set up may work best for you.
Binder Command Center Checklist (compact & mobile)
Wall Command Center Checklist (visible to family too)
Door Command Center checklist (compact for small spaces)
The Binder Command Center
The best binder for this is a large C ring binder. Clear plastic sleeves, dividers with customizable tabs.
A menu planner.
A monthly calendar for events that you can hole punch.
A pantry stock list/grocery list
Colored highlighters and pencils (because things change).
*Here is a free printable undated menu planner to get you started.
Fill in your month and just reprint as needed. You may alighn your binder tabs for the following topics:
Monthly Menu
Events
Appointments
Emergency numbers
Holiday prep checklist
Home logins
This is also a good place to store home maintenance schedule and contact numbers for technicians. You may even use a binder sleeve to store emergency home cash.
Your system also ensures that in the event of your absence, your family can continue to run your home efficiently. It empowers the ones you love. List important annual dates that can easily be forgotten. For example, when to change your air filter, annual air conditioner servicing and the company that you use. As a back-up, set your annual appointment in your phone with an alert so it can remind you. It is one less thing you have to remember.
Wall Command Center
This is ideal for a walk-in pantry, home office, mud room or craft room.
Here are printable command center checklists I put together for each specific situation. I have used all three of these types of command centers at some point in time and although I have seen other set-ups, there were things I needed to tweek to make it work for my home and you probably will too.
What is the benefit of the wall command center?
Visibility. It is easy to see at a glance and gives your family the ability to do the same. It pre-empts the questions of what is for dinner, when is my practice, how long until the trip. The questions that give you pause and can cause brain-clutter especially if you have a big meeting at work or are working on setting up your own business.
This simple step reduces where you expell energy. If you have a new baby in the family, the wall command center is a great asset. It also keeps your important things high, out of reach from busy little hands and lets you see what is most important quickly.
Door Command Center
Your system must work for you. Customizing it is a key way to ensure you will use it. You can install this on the interior of a door (pantry door) or the exterior. Whichever works best for you. If you select a pretty or attractive looking calendar and menu set, displaying it becomes a delight in your kitchen.
If you plan to use a wipe board or chalk board set up, command hooks are perfect for this. This way, if you decide to move your set up, it is easy and will not damage your wall or door.
How does this help me in the long run?
It eliminates the mental work that goes into making micro decisions every day. Imagine, one lego piece on the floor isn't a problem to clean up, but one-hundred of them would be.
The more you set up prior to your day, the smoother your week will go. Your center will manage and display, the dinner that needs to be cooked, tennis lessons your child can't miss and the Zoom business meeting that is coming up on Friday can not be dismissed or altered, but, what you can alter is when you do the things that need to be done. Saving time is your golden ticket to productivity. We are getting a two-for-one deal with this because you are also going to be able to save brain power. This is key to manage home and work responsibilities.
Reserve your mental energy for the things that need it most. For example managing creativity, work, children and relationships all require your energy and we do not have an unlimited supply of energy.
Burnout usually occurs when we are trying to manage all of these things without functional systems.
Meal Planner
Pantry Inventory List
Calendar
Home Maintenance Schedule Plan
How to use a meal planner the right way.
First, let's talk about the meal planner. This is very important because it helps answer the continual question of what's for dinner in a flash. It rids your mind of daily decision-making. This singular step made things so much easier for me and I'm sure it will help you too.
A meal planner is not just a menu. It is takes stock of what you have in your kitchen, pantry and refrigerator. It gives you information at a glance and also helps those who assist you with cooking see what is in the house.
There are key tips to making a meal planner work and it goes beyond just writing down what the meals will be. There is weekend meal prep tips and refrigerator storage tricks that make putting together these meals convenient and keeps them fresh until you are ready to use them. It goes into organizing your refrigerator to make it more functional for your weekly flow.
This depth of planning is the jump starter for the meal planner. Meal prepareation is like the oil in a door hinge. It keeps the plan moving smoothly and cuts down the amount of time you will spend cooking.
Take grocery inventory
Create your menu
Calendar the days you will grocery shop
Set your reminders
Post your menu
Pre-prep the meals 2-3 days ahead.
Defrost, clean, season and freeze meats in portioned freezer bags.
Clean, cut and store vegetables in the coldest part of your refrigerator.
Sort and sandwich-bag store nuts and quick grab snacks for the week.
Take it one step further: I create a weekly meal plan of all meals including snacks, and it has a grocery list beside with all of the ingredients I need to make those meals and snacks. I have a second weekly menu that I slip into a clear display and put it on the counter of the kitchen.
My family can walk by and see the menu for the entire week, feel a sense of independence and stability knowing what they will be eating next without having to ask.
A command center streamlines how you organize your time and tasks. Post the calendar or wipe-away board you use. Keep colored highlighters or pens handy. I also have a pro-tip on what to stock your home with for seamless functionality. Now here is where you get to decide which of two systems you will use. The first strategy takes all of the to-do tasks and events and they are put on the same calendar.
The second strategy keeps the tasks separate and lets you use multiple calendars. I will give you a few pro's and con's of both strategies so you can decide which will work best for you. I have tried both ways extensively and I will share which system worked best for me.
How to Use A Weekly Planning Routine
Establish a non-negotiable set time that you will do your planning. It is the time you take inventory of your groceries, check your work calendar, check your children's appointment calendars, school event calendars and bring those things together. There are two methods to manage a home and work responsibilities. This is something you will have to choose.
Some people find that managing home and work responsibilities is easier when kept separated. They establish two side-by-side calenders or planners and keep up with both of them. Others use the stacking method. This method combines home and work together.
Combining the calendars means putting every task for that day whether it be for home or work, on the same calendar so a day may look something like this:
March 3
7:30 am Breakfast
Make beds
Laundry
Unload dishwasher
Call Sally about meeting
Create presentation for work
Wash out bathtub
Drop Spot off at the groomer
Teacher Meeting at 3:30pm (Don't forget her card)
4:40 Cook dinner
Text Joe a reminder to pick up Spot from groomer
Update company website after dinner
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To some, this set up is ideal. To others, it may seem overwhelming because of the way our brains work. Some people give both a try before they settle on the one that works best for them. Personally, I found the method of keeping them separate works best for me. I just make it a point to look at both calendars first thing in the morning before I begin any tasks.
Here is an important step to making this entire home management and work balance system work.
Automate What You Can
There are great apps for your phone or computer that you set once, and they will repeatedly remind you of things you need to remember. An alert to your phone to remind you when it is time to get changed for a meeting or finding a virtual personal assistant to do certain online tasks for you.
Set up for the dry cleaners to deliver your clean laundry instead of you having to pick it up. Also, pharmacies deliver prescriptions. If you run your own business, consider using an anwering service instead of you having to answer every call. These are time and mind-saving steps.
Assign Zones and Responsibilities
Take your hand off of every wheel. You will find yourself becoming frazzled if you are doing too many things at once. I know we live in the era of multitasking and often it is portrayed that the more you are able to juggle, the more adept you are. The more productive you are. The more in-control you are. The truth is, multitask long enough and you may find, the more stressed you are.
What ever can be automated or delegated, do so. If your teenage child can handle high school, they can also handle doing the laundry on Saturdays before they go out. Recruit help. Yes, and even for the small tasks. Stop talking yourself into taking on more.
"It will take me longer to explain to someone how to do it. I may as well just do it myself."
You have to eliminate this thinking. Teaching or training someone to do a task one time will save you fifty other times that you have to do that same task. This leads me into the next tip.
How to Keep a Home Inventory System
We often think of home and just home. The truth is that whether you add children into the mix or not, home is your first business. It is the place you are first responsible for even before work.
Being diligent over your first works, enables God to bless you with more. This is the perfect way that keeping a home inventory system can take the work out of home and keep it in the office where it belongs.
Inventory the following items:
Kitchen cleaning products
Bathroom cleaning products
Paper towels and toilet tissue
Bath soap, tooth paste, etc.
Light bulbs
Batteries
Sponges and cloths
Detergent and Fabric softener
When you can, purchase these in bulk and establish a storage spot just for them. You can pull from your own stock as needed but you will find you will not run out and they have a very long shelf life.
Think of your home and scheduling as a necessary task and soon you will find yourself looking forward to it because it gives you the satisfaction of knowing you have not forgotten anything and that you don't have to worry about remembering it later.
Rely on your planner. Establish that set time you grab some tea and sort your week or month out. You get to choose which works best for you. The more organized we are, the clearer our head space is and the more productive you will find yourself feeling and being.
I post strategies for women, simple organization tips, easy meals and real encouragement on Pinterest and my website.
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Welcome Gift: Free Printable Meal Planner
It's all in the planning. To get you started, here is the printable meal planner with grocery list that I use. It's free. It is three pages. You will get a weekly meal planner with grocery list, a weekly meal plan to post and a categorized grocery list. I hope it helps. See if it's a fit for you.
The point of it is to set a plan that reduces trips to the grocery store during the week which ultimately saves you time and energy. Mom preservation is key here. Having a clear plan of what you will serve is just one less thing to think about and frees you to focus on other things. You could just write it out, that's fine if it works for you, but being visual, I created this because I wanted something pretty, clean and practical. Also, I found that kids like to see what's coming next. It saved them from asking every day and made them feel a bit independent.
📌Time-Saving Tip:
Print the planner and slip it into a glass 8"x11" glass picture frame. Use a wipe-away marker to write on it and you can reuse it over and over.
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