establishing morning and evening routines

My morning and evening routines, when I follow them, make my days run so much more smoothly. This idea is not mine, but I've borrowed it from a few of my favorite writers/personalities. I'll share with you my routines, touch on why they're so helpful, and encourage you to create your own.

Morning

• make bed first thing! - this makes my room look so much more tidy, gives me the feeling of productivity first thing in the morning, and enables me to go to bed at night in less-rumpled sheets.
• get dressed to shoes - this is a FlyLady thing (the "to shoes" part). The idea is that regardless of whether you work outside the home or not, you have a job to do, and it deserves to be done well. So get dressed and honor your profession, and those who see you throughout the day.
• hair and makeup
• listen to Bible app while doing the above - I'm working on reading through the Bible in a year, which I've never done before! This is not what I do for my daily devotions, it's in addition to that. So it's much easier to let the Bible app read to me while I get ready in the mornings. Plus, I don't have time to do my devotions first thing, so this enables me to still begin my day with God's Word.
• swish and swipe bathrooms - another FlyLady idea - I quickly run the toilet brush around the inside of each toilet. Then, I use a wipe to quickly wipe down the sinks. I keep wipes in each bathroom (right now I just use baby wipes, because that's what I have, but when I run out I'll likely replace them with Seventh Generation multipurpose cleaning wipes). This keeps my bathrooms company-ready even between weekly cleanings.
• get diffusers started - I have 3 essential oil diffusers in my open concept living area, plus one in the hall bathroom, so in the mornings I put water and my chosen essential oil in them and turn them on. This keeps my home smelling clean and fresh all day.
• unload dishwasher
• begin supper prep - I don't always need to do anything for this one, but I like to at least know what I'm going to cook, and if there do happen to be things I need to do (set out meat to thaw, put something in the crockpot) I can go ahead and do this before anything else.

I wake up at 7 in the mornings and try to do all of these things before 7:30, when we eat breakfast. It's usually not a problem to get this done before breakfast; so though it might look like a long list, don't be discouraged! It takes such a short amount of time.

Evening

• clear and shine sink - Jake usually cleans up after supper since I cook, so I put away any clean dishes that have been left out to dry, put any dirty dishes in the dishwasher or wash them, wipe down the counters, then finally dry out the sink with the kitchen towel so it doesn't have water spots. This is a FlyLady signature task, and for so long I put off doing it. But I promise it's worth the effort! Your sink looks amazingly cleaner when dried out. After this I put the dish rag and kitchen towel in the dirty clothes, and set out a clean set for the next day.
• begin dishwasher
• set robot sweeper out and turn on - we have an automatic sweeper robot thingie, and since we have hard floors and an open concept living area, it's both convenient and helpful to run the robot every evening. This keeps floors decently clean between sweep and mop days.
• set table for breakfast - seriously, it's so nice to have this done when you wake up. Jake cooks breakfast, but always forgets things that we need when he sets the table. When I do it, everyone has napkins, water glasses, necessary meds, and utensils.
• sweep kitchen - the kitchen gets used much more than we realize throughout the day. When I wipe the counters, tons of crumbs get knocked onto the floor. Since the kitchen has a different type of flooring than the main living areas, it doesn't get touched by the robot.
• remove makeup and brush teeth

My evening routine doesn't take very long at all, either. Many parts of it can be done before baby goes to bed, which means my actual pre-bed routine doesn't even have to be as long as this short list.

It's so nice to know that when I utilize these routines, not much time is taken out of my day, but every single area of my home and self is taken care of, without even doing any sort of designated cleaning. Just try it! Add one task at a time until you get used to it, and you'll see how great it is.

Do you already have a morning and evening routine? Are they different from mine? Or are you a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of person?