Daily Routine......Have you got one??

Hi Ladies:

I always think of my mom when it comes to routine. Back in those days I remember she would get up around 5am, broom the front,back yard and make muggu/kolam/rangoli everyday though it would not be a huge design,just a little one. Then it would be time for the water to be filled up in buckets and the drum. Next, wake us up and get us ready for school. After we left she would continue with her chores, take bath and have so many things to do but even then by the time we returned from school the house would be spik and span with some surprise snack most of the time.
I wonder now how could she do all these and moreover she did not have a maid like the other aunties in the colony did because she wanted to save some money and no machines for clothes or dishes. Inspite of all this she would make embroidery(though only for house), learnt some sewing too. At festival times like diwali, dussehra,pongal etc we always had a big dabba of sweets and savories which were homemade that would last a week after the festival too.
Honestly, I never helped her in any of the household chores. Dad was always busy with work and he was also active on social front organising activities in the local club. We were a family of 5. Dad,mom and we 3 kids with occasional visitors who would just drop in without prior notice (no phone).

I realise now that the secret to this is a daily routine she had.
Were women those days more organised as they had less facilities/comforts. Do you all have any kind of routine for your daily chores. Please share your routine here. I want to be inspired by all wise and smart ladies here.

Adara

Adara,

Happy and glad that your thread made me cherish those days of my childhood.

My mom too had a kind of routine, but we had washing machine and stuff like that (middle-class). We always were in rented homes, so mostly we didnt have to do the cleaning stuff. But, for muggu, my mom is the best I can say. Sorry, I didnt mean any harm. She does that very well.

Every pongal, Eenadu paper has some muggu stuff like a couple of them published in the paper. Whatever comes in that paper, she used to do that in the varendah.

The remaining routine like snacks and stuff, same here too.

Thanq once again,
D.

Thanks D for responding.

Ladies! come up please with your routines. I keep dragging my days sometimes. Want to make it more interesting in life.
Me wants to get the inspiration!!!!!!!.........you know??




Adara

Hey Adara,
I'm looking forward for some inspiration also... I'm a stay at home mom with 2 little ones, and most of the days its pretty much chaos.. I need some routine ideas also...

dp

Dear ILites,

I have a 1.5 year old kid in my home. Though i dont have a routine before, i now tried and planned myself for a routine and now doing it perfectly. My inspiration is my sister in law who always keeps her house neat and tidy.

i use to get up around 6 in the morning and prepare lunch and oats for my husband and also for me as it is difficult for me to prepare lunch with my kid in the afternoon and send him to office around 7. Then i will start my routine.

I will clean the balcony first, then clothes time. either i will dry the clothes or fold the clothes and arrange the wardrobe. If i dont have either work i will clean the bathroom as all the above works are highly impossible with my kid. Then around 9 my kid will get up. I will play with him for half an hour and then i will wipe of all the furnitures with cloth and put vaccum and mop the house daily. I will go to the bathroom with my kid and take bath and give bath to my kid too. Then dressing time for both of us. After that pooja time nearly half an hour i use to say slokas. Inbetween if my kid is hungry i will give him breakfast. I use to take break fast only after pooja around 11.30am.

Then i will rest for 1 hour or so and i will make my kid sleep around 12.30. Again i will start my work. I will go to the bathroom mop it up and put the clothes in washing machine dry the mops. Then i will enter into kitchen. I will cook rice for both of us and wash all the vessels, clean the tiles, have my lunch. Then my kid will wake up. I will play with him for sometime and give lunch to him and will engage him till 5p.m. Then around 5 he will again sleep. By the time i will enter the kitchen clean the utensils, sterilise his feeding bottles, fill hot water in his flask, light the lamp and pray the god. I f at all interested i will prepare something for snacks. By the time my hubby will come home and also my kid will wake up. I will spend time with both of them then i will prepare dinner. Then my hubby will look after the remaining works like cleaning the vessels and kitchen. Preparing horlicks and cutting fruits for both of us. Around 10 i will change my kids dress and wear him pamper and sleep around 10.30.

It took a lot of time for me to frame a routine. As it is tough to do some works with the kids. I use to do the kitchen chores only when he sleeps and put washing machine in night so that i can dry the clothes earlier in the morning. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to share my routine.

Only after getting in to a routine i am seeing so many changes in my kid. He now know what i will do next and immitating me a lot. He use to keep things in the place and he is less irritating. He too got a routine of sleep and food. I have seen my sister in law doing work in routine and her kids are very obedient and respects her a lot.

Thank you so much Pragadha for sharing your routine here.

Since the time I thought I needed a routine, I actually started working towards it and now I am kind of set though not fully in a routine.
Pat on my back !!!! So far going GOOD!

I cleaned laundry, bathrooms,kitchen and fixed other stuff. All this took me one week. After all was put in place in this sort of 'tornado hit' house I sat down to write a routine. I even planned a menu with an intention to keep changing the menu every week or else life would be boring especially for me.
Now, I have set days to do the chores.
You know, actually I have more time now than before.. and that way I can look into the homework help if my kids need and also assign them some extra work which I never did earlier.
In fact, now I am in bed by 9:30pm finishing all the work and even cooking lunch for kids school and for us to carry to work. I am trying more new varieties now since my menu is planned and I am prepared. I read from 9:30 for about an hour and then sleep. That way, I find time to read which earlier was hard.
Since, our dinner is done by 7:30pm along with the kids these days I find that kids have also become more responsible in helping me with the dishes and clean up after dinner. My younger dd and I have started cross-stitch after dinner. I have started teaching her the things we used to do when we were young.

So, ladies my experience is with daily routine and weekly menu life has more time to do other exciting stuff than slog in the kitchen and house all the time.
Please share your ideas here.....Looking forward to reading them....


Adara

Hi Adara,
your post sounds very motivating....Can you please share atleast part of ur daily routine so that I can also be more efficient....
actually I am a stay-at-home mom and have a school going boy and a 1.5 yr old boy..
Though I stay in S'pore where full time maids are common, I am not intent on having one for the time being....though I am having a part time maid to help with basic mopping and cleaning stuff etc.. still I have to get so many things done and frantically trying to spend quality time with my kids...
I welcome inputs from my fellow ILites....
meena

Surely, I can share with you.

I wake up at around 5:15am though alarm rings at 5am, after brushing etc I straight go to kitchen and put idli cooker on, breakfast is always idlis since no time in the morning for other varieties. 2 days a week ie., thu and fri we have cereal since idli batter gets over. Only on sat and sun I make some breakfast varieties. Next put vege and rice. Veges cut at night.

After this I broom the walkway which at this time of the year is full of dried leaves. Do some little yoga (still a beginner) for half an hour. Next wake up kids at 6am and get them ready for school. Leave for work at 8:30am. These days I am not working so after dh and kids leave I fix the house a little clearing away unwanted papers, straightening things and then follow my to-do list. Here, I have assigned each day to do a chore around the house like linen laundry on every other wednesdays, clothes laundry on tuesday, bathrooms on monday,making grocery and vege list and menu on fridays etc. So accordingly I follow. If you do it regularly then these do not take much time.
An hour of phone or internet, indusladies without which I cannot survive.

Before the kids come home, I keep ready their snack and make 75% of dinner. If it is roti that night then only roti making would be remaining. If it is rice then I make rice just before we eat. Other dal,vege would be done in the afternoon. After snack kids go out to play and are home by 5:30pm. Then nowadays, I am able to be around them while they do their homework since making dinner is done. Around 7:30pm we have dinner and then I wind up the day with cleaning kitchen which takes 15mins since I have followed a routine of doing everyday even though it does not look bad to me. Just do it!
By 8:30 I am done these days and then since I have a unavoidable reading habit (bad habit!) so I take my book and switch on TV. Sometimes, both go together for more than an hour and then it is bed time. Kids sleep by 8:30pm though.

So, you see I have still not perfected it but am definately much happier since I dont get stuck doing something whole day and forget making dinner which used to happen so often earlier. Now, daily life is so predictable and I am not nervous to have a sudden visitor or guest.

All of you,please share your way of doing things....very anxious to make any changes to mine after reading yours.

Adara

That sounds really awesome!!!!!!!! Great...i have a two month old..so my routine is just not set...i am trying to fix his feeding timings..sleep timings..but when he grows up i am going to have a routine just like yours..You have really inspired me!! thanks a ton! i hv copied your routine and saved it...sorry but its good and i know it will work for me. life will be simple


thanks again!
saroja

HI,

I am still single but i help my mum, i wake up at 4.15am bath and brush my teeth, go in the kitchen, make hot water for 3 thermos fillit up and one 2 litre of bottle with water as we take it to work, set the table, make fresh melon juice for the family, and start little preparations of lunch as we carry a full lunch to work, then at 5.15am i sit to meditate with my elder sister finish by 6.15am and then pray after that at 7am i enter the kitchen and help the cook, mum wakesup at 5.30am bathes and then outs the tea on and packs fruits and snack for my younger sister as she works.

For weekends i make preparation for lunch and dinner a day ahead like what to make and what needs to be done so when i wakeu p i know what is to be cdone, i like to be planned nad i prefer to finish everything in the morning hours.

love
alpa