One thing that we are all guilty of is waiting until the weekend or a day off to do everything that we need or want to. Waiting means that you are trying to cram a bunch of things into one or two days and there never seems to be enough time. This also means that you don’t normally have a stress-free weekend.
I do this all the time.
Most days I feel too tired after work sometimes to do much, so I put it off until a day that I don’t have to go to work. Then I feel overwhelmed with the never-ending list of things to do.
But I have found that if I do smaller tasks during the week, then I have more time to do the things I want later.
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Here are some things that you can do during the week to have a stress-free weekend.
Go to the grocery store
Ah, the glamorous trip to the grocery store to replace all the food that the kids have eaten.
If they are anything like mine they eat ALL the time. And they eat everything in the house. It works better if I make a few quick trips to the grocery store during the week.
It is definitely annoying to make multiple trips throughout the week, but it works for us. I can run in after work and spend about 20 minutes in and out and I’m done.
Now, this might not work for everyone, but it is something that you can try to free up some time on the weekend. The other thing I do is to always have a list so I can make sure I am staying on budget for the week.
Or if the stores in the area offer it you can do grocery delivery or pick-up. This has been one of my go-to’s lately. I place the order online and go pick up my order when I’m out. It has saved me so much time and a bit of money because I’m not impulse buying when in the store.
Clean a little bit each day
Cleaning all the time is a real-time suck. Especially when you are tired from working and running kids all over the place.
A trick that I have found is to clean a little bit each day.
This means that I don’t have to give up hours on the weekend or a day off to clean the house.
One thing that has made a huge difference is the robot vacuum. We like to call it minion and use our home hub to send it out at night after the kids go to bed. It’s just something little that amuses me because I’m a dork like that.
Other than that I clean one room at a time.
This way I can stay on the housework without to much trouble. Sometimes it seems like I’m always cleaning, but with kids, I am always cleaning something anyway.
Related Reading: Finding Balance as a Working Mom
Laundry during the week
Oh, what fun it is to do laundry all the time.
Just joking it sucks, especially if you have a large family.
Since there are five of us I tend to do a load of laundry every few days. Part of this is because I wear a uniform to work and I only have a few shirts.
The other reason is I have boys and they are messy little things.
One trick that I have with this is to fold it as soon as it’s done. It may take me a few days to put it away, but it is clean and folded.
The other trick is that the clean folded clothes get put on the washer. If anyone needs to do a load of laundry, then they have to put the other clothes away first. It’s a simple little thing but for some reason, it seems to work for us.
Make a to do list
Okay so organization is not one of my stronger traits.
I’m getting better at it, but it is still something that I have trouble with because I am all over the place. Making to-do lists and using a planner has been a game-changer for me.
I picked up one from Panda Planner that is so easy to use and makes getting organized much easier. On Sunday I sit down and plan out the week.
I keep appointments in the calendar on my phone so I can keep track of them and write them in the planner along with anything else that I need to plan for the week.
This way I can get most things done during the week and save the weekends for family fun or relaxing if I need a day for it.
Plan meals for the week
This one can be tricky if you have picky eaters, but I found that if I go ahead and plan meals the week is so much easier.
We have a few standard meals that we do most weeks and just switch them out. The meals are simple and easy to do. Which makes dinnertime less stressful.
Some of the kids favorites are:
- Spaghetti with baked chicken
- Taco night (with chicken or pork)
- Pork roast with mashed (instant) potatoes and corn or green beans
- Baked fish with rice and veggies
- BFD (breakfast for dinner) eggs with toast and bacon or sausage.
The other nights we cheat a bit and have frozen dinners, sometimes order take-out or have a free for all night.
The free for all night is one where everyone picks something out of a can that is easy to heat up and eat. Or they eat leftovers out of the fridge if there ever are any.
These are just a few ideas of things that you can try to do during the week to free up time on the weekends.
Final thoughts
Mabey the grocery store and laundry don’t take you that long on the weekend, but you are just to tired after work during the week to do them.
That’s fine. The point is to aim for a stress-free weekend. If doing these things on the weekend doesn’t matter to you then go for it.
You do what works best for you and your family. Ultimately you want to focus on just doing a couple of things during the week so you can have more time for fun when you are not working. Anything that you do will help towards that goal.
What is the point of working hard all week at work if all you do is more work on the weekends? If you can knock out a few simple tasks during the week, you free up time to do things that you want to do. Even if you do things before you head out to work for the day, things will still get done. Which can make it all the easier to have a stress-free weekend.
Let me know in the comments if there is anything else you do during the week that makes your weekend a little more stress-free!
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