Learn how to plan your week as a stay at home mom or homemaker, for the most productivity with the least amount of burnout, with this housewife schedule.
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Does your week look like a big, mushy blob of unorganized chaos? Are you looking for some schedule and structure at home? Look no further! Having a plan for your week at home can be so helpful in allowing you to get more things done AND find some time for rest and fun:) you need a housewife schedule for your week!
If you’re on my email list (join HERE) you know that I went through a busy season of life last year. We just had a lot going on! I didn’t pull out my planner very much and life just felt all mushy and chaotic. My lack of planning really reflected on my productivity and attitude.
Now that things are back to normal, I am back to ALL of my tried and true planning tips, and I can already see a difference. All this to say, that I know from personal experience the benefit of having a solid weekly plan.
I wish I would have stuck with it as much as I could when life was busy, because that’s when I needed it the most!
If you’re looking for a weekly housewife schedule that will organize all the chaos OR if you don’t have chaos but you DO want more productivity without burnout, then this post is for you!
Why Plan Your Week at Home?
Why go through the trouble of planning out your week anyway?! Is it really that helpful? Yes, yes it is!
As homemakers we have a lot to juggle! Everything from keeping the house clean, to meals and groceries, to appointments and schedules.
Without some kind of organization and planning, stuff will start to fall through the cracks. A weekly plan will give you tasks to do each day, so that you’re accomplishing all of the things on your to-do list!
I know that there are SO many different personalities out there as well as different life situations. Some stay-at-home-moms are able to “wing it” with their weekly schedules and still manage to get things done peacefully. They don’t need a plan.
This is amazing… BUT if you’ve tried this and found that it just didn’t work for you, then you will likely benefit from a little structure and routine in your week. A weekly housewife schedule! For the housewife, homemaker, and/or stay-at-home mom.
When to Plan Your Week
If you’re going to get started planning out your week, the first step is to designate a day and time to plan!
Obviously this is personal to everyone, but I think the best days to plan your week are on Sunday evening or Monday morning. You want to be ahead of the game, and make your weekly plan before the week starts rolling in. Life can get hectic FAST.
IF you have a different kind of schedule, i.e. your weekend days are different than the usual, do your weekly planning on the day before or first day of a new week.
If you have kiddos, try to make your weekly plan when they are napping, or before or after bed. This way you can give it all of your attention and focus. You don’t need a big chunk of time! 20-30 minutes will be plenty of time to make a rough schedule for your week at home.
How to Plan Your Week
Okay, let’s get down to it! Here is how to plan your week at home for the most productivity without burnout.
You’ll want to use a planner of some kind OR write down the days of the week on a fresh sheet of paper. I’ve used all different kinds of planners, notebooks and random scraps of paper. You’ll find what you like best:)
Fill in Events/Birthdays/Holidays
Start first with a calendar! A calendar in your planner, a printable planner, wall calendar, anything. Take a look at the month as a whole. Are there any holidays this week? Appointments you already have scheduled? Family or friend birthdays?
Its great to get in the habit of writing down appointments in this calendar when you make them, so that every time you go to plan your week, you already know what’s on the schedule. I also write down birthdays for the month in my planner, at the beginning of each month.
In your weekly plan, jot down what’s ARLEADY on the schedule: holidays, birthdays, appointments, etc. on the correct day.
From there, you can get your TO-DO list going. Start your to-do list on a separate sheet of paper. Write down anything you need to do or GET for the events you started with (birthday gifts, holiday supplies, figure out babysitting for your appointment, etc.)
Try and be thorough! It’s better to have it written down and not need it than to not have it written down and forget it.
Fill in Your Weekly Necessities
We all have foundational things that are non-negotiable. This is something you need to figure out beforehand, sometimes through trial and error.
Your non-negotiable activities are the bare minimum you want to get to even when the week turns out to be a mess and you can’t get to anything else. These are things that fulfill you as a person or are a necessity for your family.
Here are some ideas:
- Personal: prayer, reading, hygiene
- Workouts
- School/Homeschool for kids
- Quality time spent with husband (could be a weekly date night, or as simple as a 5 min uninterrupted conversation each evening)
- Bare Minimum Cleaning
- REST! (one day a week, one hour every evening, one hour during afternoon nap, etc.)
You’re filling this in in your weekly schedule first thing because these are the tasks and activities you want to get to no matter what!
Decide when and how often you’re doing each one. You can always switch things around as the week goes on, nothing is set in stone. But its best to give it a day/time/consistency to start with.
Decide on Your Weekly Housewife Schedule
From here you can decide on your weekly homemaking schedule. If you’ve been around a while you know I love the scheduling method of having a different theme each day.
Here’s how that goes for me: Mondays are for cleaning, Tuesday is a catch-all day, Wednesday is baking, Thursday is projects, Friday is errands, Saturday is family-fun day, Sunday is for resting.
You can plug in whatever theme days work for you and your home. If you do this method I suggest AT LEAST having a cleaning day and an errand day. The rest is up to you!
You can also use a different homemaking schedule. Some homemakers do a little bit of everything every day. Meaning they have one cleaning task, one meal prep project, one house project, one organizing project, etc., EACH day.
If this works better for you, then do it! Decide what cleaning tasks get done on which day, and if you can what projects, organizing, and meal prep tasks get done on which days.
Then, write it down in your planner for the week on the designated day.
***write a star next to the theme days that are non-negotiable for you… if the week turns out to be a mess and you can’t get to everything, what 1-2 days are a priority for you? Make sure you know ahead of time, so you know what to do if things come up and you’re not able to follow through with your weekly schedule like you’d like.
After you’ve decided on the themes, make sure to write down on each day what you’re doing within that theme. What things are you going to try to clean on your cleaning day? What’s the plan for your fun day?
Decide on Time Slots for Randoms
We all have those random things we need to do each week. Things like call the dentist, find that toy the kids lost, put away the Christmas decor, etc.
Designate a specific day or a specific time each day to cross the randoms off your to-do list!
I’ve done this in two different ways in the past. I’ve designated a whole day to random things (the catch-all day) and I’ve also left 1-1.5 hours on most afternoons for getting done as much as I can on my random to-do list.
If you’re not setting aside designated time for these things, you might never get to them. I also suggest putting a star next to or highlighting the things on your random to-do list that are more of a priority, so that you know you need to get to them first.
Make a Meal Plan
We can’t have a weekly homemaking schedule without a meal plan! Meal planning can be SO helpful in allowing you to get from scratch meals on the table each week, without stress and overwhelm and the dreaded “what’s for dinner?” question.
Meal planning should be a part of your planning when making your weekly schedule. And guess what?! Meal planning does NOT have to be complicated and overwhelming and spreadsheet madness. Unless you want it to be… you do you;)
I have a post HERE on meal planning tips for beginners. Check it out if you’ve never meal planned before and you’re wanting to get started.
If you’re already familiar with meal planning and you have a good method going, then do it when you make your weekly plan. After you’ve decided on meals for each day, write them down on your weekly schedule. THEN, head over to your to-do list and grocery list and write down everything you need for your meals for the week.
I love to have a baking day (you could also consider it a meal prep day) as one of my theme days. You can decide when you’re filling in tasks for your theme days, what things you can cook/bake/prep ahead of time for your weekly meals. It could be as involved as making a bunch of freezer meals, or as simple as chopping vegetables for the week.
Wrapping it Up
That’s pretty much it! That’s how I plan my week as a stay-at-home mom and homemaker. I love having a plan, and I think it can be SO helpful in getting all the things done that you want to get done, without burnout.
If you went through all of the steps, you should have all of the major appointments, holidays, and birthdays written down on your schedule. You should have a separate to-do list and grocery list that correlates with those.
Your weekly schedule has all of your non-negotiables in it, and highlighted! So you know if all else fails, these are things you must get to. You gave each day a theme and filled in your tasks for that day. After that, you decided on disganted days and/or times to cross all of the random things off your to-do list.
Finally, you finished it all up with your meal plan! Being sure to add groceries to the grocery list, tasks that help with meals to your meal prep day, and anything else related to your random to-do list.
You are ALL set to have a happy, productive, restful week as a stay-at-home mom and homemaker.
Other Tips
Real quick, here are some other tips that can be helpful when planning your week:
- DO NOT live and die by your schedule. Life is SO unpredictable, especially if you have little kiddos. Use your weekly schedule as your guideline, but if things come up and you have to move activities/tasks/days around, then do it! And don’t feel bad about it! Don’t feel bad if you have to strip it down to the bare minimum some weeks. That’s why we decided beforehand what our bare minimum is, because this will happen.
- Keep a few running homemaking lists, to pull from when planning your week. Things like project idea lists, to-do lists, recipes to try, homeschooling tasks to complete, fun day outing ideas, things to CLEAN, etc. I have a post HERE all about homemaking lists if you want to check that out.
- Practice, practice, practice: the first time you make your housewife schedule, you may be thinking it doesn’t work. The best thing you can do is do it over and over again, each week, so you can figure out what does work. Every homemaker is different, and will have different things that work for them. Take the time each week to make your plan, make changes according to what you and your family needs and figure out what works!
- HAVE FUN! Schedules and routines can get a bad rap for being rigid and well…NOT FUN. Make sure when you’re planning your week to add in fun things. Projects you’re excited to get to, fun family outings, etc. Also, have fun when you’re making the actualy schedule! Make yourself a coffee, enjoy some dark chocolate, light a candle, make it something you look forward to.
Do you have a weekly housewife schedule? How do you plan your weeks as a stay-at-home mom or homemaker?
I’d love to know! Happy planning friends.
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