A weekly family routine that makes family organisation easy

Woman writing in planner - ideas for a weekly family routine.

A weekly family routine is one of the simplest ways to stay organised, reduce stress, and make everyday family life easier.

Instead of trying to remember everything that needs to be done, having a weekly routine helps you spread tasks throughout the week, so family life runs more smoothly, and you can spend less time feeling overwhelmed.

By assigning tasks to different days of the week, you can stay on top of meal planning, paperwork, laundry, cleaning, and school admin, without feeling like you’re constantly playing catch up.

In this post you’ll discover how having a weekly family routine makes family organisation easier.

You’ll also be able to choose routines that work for your family, and there’s even a day-by-day routine that you can use as inspiration for your own.

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Table of Contents

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The benefits of family routines

One of the biggest challenges when trying to organise your family is trying to remember everything that needs to get done.

A weekly family routine takes away a lot of the mental load associated with having to remember it all, because you already know what needs to be done, and when to do it.

This means that instead of making daily decisions about family and household tasks, you simply follow your routine.

One of the best benefits of routines is that they help everyone in your family know what to expect, and when everyone knows their responsibilities, it becomes much easier to work together to keep your family running smoothly.

How to create a family routine that works

Every family has different family routines depending on their needs.

When deciding what to add to your family’s routine, choose things that will make your family’s life less stressful.

Some questions you can ask yourself to help you determine what causes stress for your family are:

Are mornings stressful?
Does laundry constantly pile up?
Is it hard to remember appointments?
Are we constantly thinking about what to eat?
Does paperwork build up?

Once you know your family’s stress points, choosing routines will be much easier.

Tasks to add to your family’s routine

Over the years I’ve found that assigning certain tasks to specific days has made a huge difference to how smoothly my family’s weeks run.

Instead of constantly wondering what needs to be done next, I just follow the day’s routine, and as a result I feel much more organised and on top of things.

The following weekly family routine contains activities that work well for my family.

As every family is different, use the following routine as inspiration, and adapt it to fit your weekly family schedule, family priorities, and lifestyle.

Every evening

Here are some tasks you can do every evening for 5-15 minutes, which will make the next day much easier:

Pack school bags
Lay out everyone’s clothes
Prepare school lunches and fill water bottles
Check the next day’s plans
Wash dishes
Wipe kitchen countertops
Tidy main living areas

Monday: Plan your weekly family schedule

Spending 20-30 minutes every Monday to plan the week ahead saves hours of stress later in the week, and ensures you don’t forget important dates.

Here are some things you can plan every Monday:

Write a weekly meal plan
Schedule a grocery delivery or grocery store trip
Review your weekly family schedule
Add new appointments to your calendar
Write down your top 3 priorities for the week

Notebook on table - ideas for a weekly family routine.

Tuesday: Deal with school paperwork

School paperwork can become overwhelming if it’s ignored, and it’s not just paperwork that you need to deal with, it’s also multiple school emails that come through every week.

Use Tuesdays to:

Empty school bags
Sign permission slips
Pay school fees
File important documents
Recycle unwanted paperwork
Add important dates to your calendar

Wednesday: Reset your home

Doing 10-15 minute weekly resets is a much easier way to keep your home clean and tidy, compared to spending hours doing long cleaning sessions.

Here are some home reset tasks you can do every Wednesday:

Declutter one hotspot
Vacuum or sweep high traffic areas
Wipe kitchen countertops
Put misplaced items back where they belong
Empty rubbish bins

Thursday: Laundry reset

Laundry is never ending, but keeping on top of it each week can help make this chore less of a chore.

Here are some things you can do each Thursday to keep laundry piles manageable:

Wash school uniforms
Fold and put away clean washing
Change towels
Restock wardrobes with clean clothes

Friday: Prepare for the weekend

Friday’s weekly checklist items are my favourite, as they really help my family to be more prepared for the week ahead.

Some things you can add to your weekly checklist for Fridays are:

Empty school bags
Check weekend activities
Clear leftovers from the fridge
Write a simple weekend to do list

Woman at desk - ideas for a weekly family routine.

Saturday: Catch up and family time

If there’s anything you didn’t get to during the week you can use Saturdays to catch up, and once you’ve caught up, spend the rest of the day enjoying family time, or relaxing.

Sunday: Prepare for the week ahead

Sunday is the perfect day to get organised for the week ahead, where you can:

Refill school supplies
Return library books
Update your family calendar
Recharge devices using a charging station
Check homework
Review everyone’s plans for the week

How to maintain your weekly routine

Here are some simple family organisation systems that help you stick to your family’s weekly routine.

Utilise family calendars

Keeping all appointments, events, extra curricular activities, and to do list items in a family planner makes managing your weekly family schedule much easier.

Some of the types of family planners you can use to help you organise your family include:

A wall calendar or magnetic calendar that you can hang in a central location like your kitchen or entryway.
A digital calendar that allows you to manage multiple family schedules, and can be updated instantly.
A family planner which you can add meal planners, budget trackers, and goal lists to.

Notebook, pen, water, flower - ideas for a weekly family routine.

Set up a family command centre

A family command centre is an area in your home that contains information like meal plans, school notices, to do lists, and anything else you need to help you become an organised mum.

It’s usually located in a high traffic area such as the kitchen, living room, mudroom, or entry way, so everyone can see what’s happening on a day to day basis.

Keep things simple

Keeping family routines simple helps you maintain your routines, even during busy seasons.

You can keep routines simple by:

Using one type of family calendar instead of multiple calendars
Keeping items close to where you use them
Getting family members to help with tasks

Be flexible

Busy days, illnesses, school holidays, and a multitude of other events can prevent a routine from happening.

Your family’s weekly routine should make daily life easier, not create extra pressure, so if a routine isn’t working, you need to change what happens on certain days, or you need to stop doing a routine, then that’s totally okay.

Creating a weekly family routine – a recap

Creating a weekly family routine is one of the easiest ways to organise family life.

The key is to keep your family’s weekly routine simple, and tailored to your family’s needs.

Start by identifying areas that cause your family stress, and then choose a few routines that will solve these pressure points.

As your routines become habits, you can gradually add more routines to your week.

Ready to get more organised?

If you enjoyed these routine ideas, don’t forget to download your FREE toolkit full of printables to make decluttering and home organisation easier. Get your FREE toolkit here.

Which day of the week do you find the most challenging to stay organised, and why?

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