13 Important Daily Routines for Moms to be Productive

Do you constantly feel stressed? Feel like you get nothing done but just spin your wheels all day long? Your to-do list is longer than your grocery list? You need daily routines for moms!

The best way to eliminate your mom stress, get more done in your day and have guilt-free quality time with your kids, is to create daily routines.

Whether you are a stay-at-home mom or a working mom, to have a productive day you need daily routines.

These 13 routines will take your day from stressed to relaxed!

Do you feel like you don’t have enough time to get everything done. The truth is, you only get 24 hrs in a day, and you need sleep! So, as a busy mom, we need to get more done in less time. Daily routines allows us to be most efficient with our time. 

First thing, why are routines for moms helpful?

Routines will help you efficiently run your household.

Routines help create habits, which bring natural flow to our day. 

WITHOUT routines your day will feel chaotic, stressful and unorganized. 

If you have an area in your life that seems unorganized, like the piles of laundry or dishes everywhere, you need a routine built in for those specific tasks.

Routines save brainpower and allow autopilot for things that need to happen. 

When you save your brainpower, you can use it on more important things and other decisions. 

If you don’t have routines, you will get overwhelmed more often because your brain is constantly having to think “what next?”, “What should I do with this item?”, or “Where should this item go?”

Effective routines for moms are designed to help you! 

Routines can be tailored to fit your personality and lifestyle. They should not be rigid, but flexible, allowing freedom to change from season to season. 

Routines allow your day to flow and transition naturally from one thing to the next. 

Here are 13 Different types of routines for moms that will take your day from stressed to impressed!

Routines, rhythms, and habits allow you to run a smooth and organized home and be a proactive mom. Doesn’t that sound amazing! 

It’s doable with the help of these routines.

Daily Morning Routine

A great place to start is an effective morning routine. How you start your day directly impacts your attitude for the day. If you wake up stressed, you will most likely have a stressed day. I never thought I would be an early riser as I am NOT a morning person, but here I am 8 years later, with four young kids waking up before my kids. 

To get the most out of your morning routine, start with:

• Have a set & consistent wake-up time
• Wake up early, before your kids (even 15 minutes is helpful, I recommend at least 45 minutes)
• Start with quiet time, gratitude and reflection
• Drink a glass of water, coffee and/or tea
• Have a quick exercise routine

Like any routine, the first couple of days or weeks may feel difficult to adjust to, but stay consistent and after a few weeks it will feel more natural.

But, if I stay up way past my bedtime (insert: night owl) and don’t get good sleep, my mom morning routine will definitely suffer. And so will the rest of the day.

As a mom of four, I immediately started to see a difference in my day when I added a morning routine. So much so, when I skip it, I feel more irritable, impatient, playing catch up all day long, behind and stressed.

An Easy Exercise Routine

For busy moms, your morning routine is the best time to include a quick easy exercise routine. 

You don’t need to do a crazy one hour workout to see the results you want, a simple but consistent workout, will provide the results you want. 

Start being an active and more present mom today and check out my easy doable exercise routine for busy moms today! 

A good exercise routine includes:

• Start small
• Have patience with yourself
• Be consistent
• Have small attainable goals

To make it easier for you to be consistent, lay out your workout clothes the night before. Eliminate any and all excuses. 

An Evening Routine

A good morning routine actually starts the night before. Closing out the day with an evening routine gives your next day a head start. 

If you go to bed with your house in disarray, you will wake up dreading the mess and the day that is in front of you.

A good evening routine includes:

• Healthy Dinner
• Pick up the house / clean up post dinner
• Prepare for the next day
• Kids bedtime routine
• Limit screen time
• Go to bed early

Consistency is very important for both adults and children. Having a consistent evening routine helps children understand we are transitioning to bed. 

In our house, we turn music on, dim household lights and physically set the environment for bed. 

Kids Routines

Kids need routines just as much as adults need routines. Reduce the amount of time having to nag, remind and “manage” your children. 

After repetition and patience, these routines will become habits for your children, creating natural flow to your mornings, afternoons and evenings. 

Check out 17 Tips for a Morning Routine For Kids That Works to snag the above FREE Daily Checklist!

1. Kids Morning Routine

• Get dressed
• Brush teeth
• Brush hair
• Make bed
• Put water bottle and lunch in backpack

2. After School Routine

• Take everything out of the car 
• Take shoes off
• Put backpack away (Have a designated assigned spot)
• Wash handsHave a snack
• Do homework

3. Evening / bedtime routine

We did sleep training with Babywise schedules when they were infants, which tremendously helped in establishing a simple bedtime routine for our children now, when they are older. Our bedtime routine starts immediately after dinner and clearing their plates:

• Showers or bath
• Get in Pajamas
• Brush teeth
• Read a book
• Prayers, hugs, kisses and lights out

We have been doing this for years that it is habitual at this point. Plus our bedtime routine for the kids is simple, making it doable, repeatable and doesn’t take hours. 

With four children, we do not have elaborate bedtime routines.

Having a consistent sleep schedule is beneficial for both child and parent. Sleep training can begin as early as a couple of months old. 

Instilling and creating a sleep routine makes going down for bed so much easier. Give the entire family the gift of sleep by creating healthy sleep habits early on for both baby and parent. 

4. Meal time schedule

• Breakfast
• Snack
• Lunch
• Snack 

You set the times, but a schedule eliminates snacking all day.

Children like consistency and things they can expect. 

Eliminate an “open door” kitchen where children eat and graze all day.

When you create a schedule, you can say “kitchen is closed”, during non-meal and snack times. 

This will eliminate feeling like you are chef feeding your children at their hourly whims all day long. 

Want to learn exactly how to create an effective & smooth morning routine with young kids?

I teach all of this in my Smother Morning Guide.

Laundry routine

Every mom wishes laundry would go away, we dread it every week, it feels like it never ends, and yet, if we don’t get on top of it, it consumes us. 

Be proactive in your weekly laundry by using some of these laundry hacks and routine ideas:

• One load of laundry per day – start the load in the morning and have it folded and put away by bedtime
• Wash laundry one person at a time for convenient folding and putting away
• Store laundry baskets with wheels in every child’s room
• Combine colors and whites for less loads using a Color Catcher so the colors don’t bleed
• Use a mesh bag for socks
• Have Go-To stain removers on hand 
• Set out clothes at the beginning of the week (use shoe hangers for kids)

Cleaning routine

It is very hard to function in a messy home. Research indicates that a messy, unorganized home directly relates to the stress of the family, especially the mom. 

Having a daily quick cleaning routine keeps your home looking and smelling amazing without needing to deep clean as often. 

I only deep clean my house 1-2 times per MONTH because we are constantly doing quick bathroom cleaning and home cleaning throughout the day. IMO, quick sprints of daily cleaning is easier than hours of deep cleaning.

Some cleaning tips:

• Take advantage of small blocks of time. Have 20 min till kid pick up, do a quick 20+ minute clean. 
• Make sure cleaning essentials are quickly accessible. Store them in the places you will do the cleaning.
• For example: Store Clorox Wipes behind the toilet to quickly wipe down toilets, floor around toilet and counters after each use
• Use a Robot vacuum daily
• Make your bed daily – a huge win if you can train your kids to make theirs!
• What comes out must go back – Help remind your children (and yourself) to put things away immediately when done. 

Related: The perfect cleaning schedule for a stay at home mom

Declutter & Organize Routine

Your home will be easier to clean if it is not cluttered and unorganized. Everything needs to have a designated “home”. 

If your home-life feels stressed and chaotic, start with decluttering and organizing and see how it can make a dramatic difference in your home!

Where do I start?

Following the steps in Declutter (first) + Organize (second) = Simplified Home

Meal Planning / Food Prep Routines

Without planning and prepping for the week ahead, mornings and evenings are chaotic and stressful trying to figure out in the last minute what to make and serve your family. 

Look ahead at your schedule for the week and plan what will be needed that week for meals, snacks and outings. 

• Switch to Online Grocery Delivery to save time and money on your groceries
• Utilize store pickup
• Prep all fruits, veggies, sandwiches, and meal items a head of time
• Freezer full of easy ready to go meals
• Use a weekly meal rotation. 

Consistency and familiarity help create habits which will ease some of the stress and uncertainty around meal planning and meal prepping. 

• Add a meal delivery service to help with meal planning

This is a game changer!! It can be very overwhelming to try and plan 5-6 meals each week, make them healthy, balanced and on the table by 6pm. 

A meal delivery service like Home Chef, eliminates all of the extra stress. Many of the meals provide left overs for lunches the following day. 

Time management routines for moms

Moms are infiltrated with information, details, dates, appointments, and meetings, and it can feel very overwhelming to try and manage it all without systems and routines in place. 

Related: 16 Effective Time Management Strategies for Overwhelmed Moms

Efficient list making skills are vital to motherhood and feeling on top of things, organized & proactive.  

Create a routine to how you are going to manage “mom details” so it becomes natural, habit forming and easier. 

• Use your Calendar, Notes app, and Reminder App on your phone to stay organized 
• Use online shopping to create more time in your day. Immediately add needed items to your shopping cart 
• Utilize subscriptions and recurring purchases so regularly used items are automatically delivered
• Use time blocking to group and organized your day with similar and like activities

Weekly Reset Routine

In order to have a streamlined successful week, it takes planning and prepping. A Reset Routine does just that! 

Sunday is usually the best day for this routine, but it can be any day that works best for you and your family. 

What to expect in this routine?

• Tidy Up / Clean / Declutter
• Get a head of the laundry, lay out clothes for the week
• Get groceries delivered / Meal Prep / Meal Plan
• Plan Your Week
• Self-Care

Having a weekly reset routine saves you so much time in your week! 

Plan and prep ahead so you are not relying on early mornings to get lunches made.

Don’t wait till the 5pm witching hour to decide what you are going to make for dinner.

Tackle the laundry instead of waiting till kids are out of clothes and underwear. 

You will feel prepared, organized and proactive with a Sunday Reset Routine.

Learn exactly how to add these effective routines to your day as a stressed & busy mom with my Genius Home Hacks Guide

Independent Play Routine

Independent Play is a learned skill for your kids that can start as early as 6 months old. This routine can help the tired and overwhelmed mom find some “kid-free, uninterrupted time” to focus on getting a few household items done while the kids are entertained.

With this routine you don’t have to rely on nap time & evening time to get everything done. 

Have A Weekly Car Cleaning Routine

As moms we live in our cars chauffeuring our kids around to varies sports and activities. Just as a messy, unorganized home can impact your mental state, so can a messy and unorganized car.  

Having a weekly car cleaning routine can make such a huge difference!

• Fill your gas tank weekly so you are not stressed or inconvenienced when the gas light goes on
• Wash your car weekly – find a Quick Quack or a gas station
• Have car trash bags so trash stays off of the floor
• Vacuum your car weekly

Moms with young kids, have your car prepared and organized to make trips, errands and sporting events more enjoyable!

What does an organized and prepared car include?

• Snack bag 
• Mom survival kit
• Activity Bag
• Trunk Organization 
• Blanket

Self-Care Routines for Mom

You will be a better mom if you feel good about yourself emotionally and physically. 

Motherhood is not the time to neglect yourself, but to pour in to yourself with self-care. 

I personally wish I had started my self-care journey as a mom with young kiddos way sooner! I know for a fact now; it would have made a world of difference during those seasons of struggle. 

Here are some self-care ideas to add to your weekly routines. 

• Beauty routine
• Skin care regimen
• Facials
• Anti-aging treatments
• Waxing 
• Laser hair removal
• Vitamin regimen
• Massages
• Get your hair done
• Nail routine 
• Read a good book
• Light candles, oil diffuser, plug ins
• Music
• Date night / girls’ night out
• Less time on social media

Attach Routines to Anchors  

Anchors are things we naturally and have to do each day. Like get out of bed, brush your teeth, go to the bathroom, eat. Attach a routines to your anchors to help you make your new routine feel easier. 

I go over examples of how to do this in my Genius Home Hacks Guide.

Routines Become Habits

The goal is that your routines become habits, just second nature, things that naturally happen without any extra thought. 

If you do these routines enough, one day you will realize that because of consistency and repetition, they became a habit. yay!

Find a Routine that Works for You

Now that you’ve had a chance to see how you can organize your day with routines, what daily routine will you add to your daily schedule?

Adding routines to your daily job as a mom help in feeling fulfilled as a mom. 

If you have a routines for moms that you love, share it below in the comments!

Many things I do in my daily routines are great mom hacks, check out some of the BEST Mom Hacks around, these hacks are game changing!

This post was all about the best routines for moms.

Want to remember this post? Pin it to your favorite Pinterest board!