5 Top Ways to Lower Stress and How To Implement Them into your Home
Do you get overwhelmed with the day to day stuff? Surely it isn’t just me? As women, we typically have this overwhelming need to just get things done, right? Even when we don’t have the motivation to necessarily implement these things, so then our minds race and race about all that we still have to do. I cannot keep your mind from racing, but I can give you some tips to try to lower your overall stress just by changing a few things in your day to day. I am not a clean freak, nor a perfectionist when it comes to organization in my home, so my tips won’t be anything crazy or unattainable.
In this blog post, I am going to share the five things that have helped me (somewhat) get my life together. I’ll be covering:
How to Meal Prep
How to Make Grocery Planning/Shopping less stressful
Benefits of a Schedule
How to be Purposeful With Your Schedule
Organization
So, if you’re in hopes of feeling a little more content with the flow of your day to day tasks, you’ve come to the right place. Let me help you by giving you just a few tricks I have found help me.
How To Meal Prep
I don’t know about you, but cooking used to be my favorite thing in the world. I still love to cook, but I don’t like having to cook.. Does that make sense? No? Let me explain. I cannot stand the dreaded question: “What’s for dinner?” I truly think the worst part about being an adult is having to decide what to cook every single night. Okay, that might be a BIT dramatic, but still: you all know that I am not that wrong.
I mean we all know that planning in advance pretty much always causes things to go more smoothly. So, of course, your meals are no different. I have done a little of the leg work for you to at least get you a good jumpstart. Fill out the subscription link below and receive my FREE two week meal plan (recipes AND grocery lists included) to help you get started if you feel this is something that could help you!
How To Make Grocery Planning/Shopping As Easy As Possible
Did y’all know Kroger and Publix waive the fees for pick ups? It is FREE to let someone else shop for you. This is HUGE for a mom of two (or three if you count the hubs…. I do). Thank you to all the Click list and Insta Cart workers because, wow, y’all are the real MVPs. Obviously, I am a big fan of grocery pick up. I used to LOVE grocery shopping. Like, a little too much. Now, it’s alright, but between the kids and Covid, pick up just makes my life so much easier.
However, I am so side tracked most of the time that when it comes to making a grocery list, especially for a pick up order, I forget what all I needed and then I get more stressed. Or I am in a crunch to get the order placed, but tend to always have something going on that makes the process so much longer (thank you procrastination). So, I have started to add items to my cart for pick up as soon as I see I need it. I know, super simple, right?! But, I promise this is not common sense. Add to your list right when you think of it. Otherwise, you think you’ll remember, but you won’t. That way, by the time you need to actually place your order, all you should have to do is enter a few items and BAM! You’re done!
Benefits of a Schedule
This one is controversial, I know. I am one of the most go with the flow people. Overall, I don’t have a strong drive to do any thing any certain way. I don’t harp on no screen time, nor do I not make plans because my kids have to nap, BUT, I do try to stick to a schedule while at home and out and about. I used to be so against a “schedule.” I thought it taught kids that life had to go by your schedule and left no room to grow in instances where life could not fit into their schedule. I still see how that could be the case, but honestly, I think it allows so much more growth in children because it provides stability and consistency they can rely on.
Children want consistency. They crave it. They don’t all thrive on a schedule, per say, but they all thrive on consistency. When they know what is going to happen next, you will find you don’t have to necessarily repeat yourself over and over again. I mean we are talking about toddlers for the most part here, so I am not promising any kind of miracle, but the overall change for my daughter and our complete household was nothing short of a miracle once we instituted a schedule. If you are at all interested in getting your children on a schedule, but not sure where to start, see my personal experience on this blog post about instituting a schedule in my home.
How To Be Purposeful With Your Schedule
Being purposeful with your schedule means basically giving your schedule a schedule. Phew, that is confusing. But, seriously, what I mean by this is plan your activities with your end goal in mind. So, obviously, as we know, kids need outside time, or just play time to use their imaginations and expend all of their energy. For example, set aside time for an outing or play outside not long after getting up and ready. This allows plenty of physical activity to get all of that big energy out. Plus, when we allow our children to use their imaginations first thing, they are more likely to carry this on throughout the day and wear themselves out independently. Worn out kids=restful momma.
The other trick in relation to this that I have found to work in our home is to fill their cup up early. I heard someone say something about getting children’s minds involved in something as soon as they wake up. Something creative, but passive on your end. So, pick something easy, but something that takes some time. This gets their little minds flowing so they can be creative the rest of the day. I know for my little ones that if they start the day with screen time, they tend to be more lazy and slow moving. Also, this makes our kids feel that they have had our attention, even if you aren’t actively participating, so that they might be more inclined to play independently for a little while. If you need some ideas for early morning activities to get their little minds flowing, I have a list of simple ideas here.
Organization
Okay, so I saved this one for last, but by no means is it least. I am still working on perfecting this one, so I will be sharing tips and tricks along the way. Having a place for everything makes cleaning much easier and quicker, which is very important when you live a high stress life. You can be so much more efficient when it is easy to find a place for all of the “clutter.” This step takes some time originally, but it is a step worth taking as it shortens the time you will spend cleaning later.
As a mom living with anxiety, I have found that my stress level is highly dependent on the mess level of my home (again, not a perfectionist in this matter so mostly just can’t stand the clutter). Although my home is more often a mess than not, the more organization techniques I apply, the less anxious I feel. In all honesty, I do believe that we must truly experience and be thankful for each season of life we are in, though. I remind myself daily that I can’t remember the messes that were in my house growing up, or how often my mom cleaned. Instead, I remember the moments her and my dad played with me and the memories made WHILE making messes. That is what I want my kids to remember: MAKING the mess, not me stressing about the mess. And they will. So, although, I do want clean up to be easier and playtime to be smoother, I want the organization for the simple fact that it will decrease my cleaning time, which in turn increases my free time to spend with the kids MAKING the messes.
Once I implemented all five of these tips into our family life, things honestly started to get so much better. We are all so much happier, so much more productive and less likely to blow. I want this for you and your family too!
If you feel this is something you and your family could use, give it a try and give me your thoughts. I have created the perfect jumpstart to decrease the amount of stress over the next couple of weeks. Use the form below to get my FREE 2 week dinner meal plan with recipes AND grocery lists. You could use this once a month and switch it up to stretch it out even further and then just reuse!