I think routines are the topic I’ve written about more than any over, over the course of my life as a blogger online. I am borderline obsessed with finding the best way to accomplish my goals – with balance.
For example, I am not interested in the “rise and grind” mentality unless we’re talking about coffee beans. But I do love to see how I can incorporate an afternoon swim in the stock tank pool now that the weather resembles hell’s front porch.
Here are a few new things I’ve added into my routine that I love:
Lofi & Chill
I think I stumbled across this during the 24-hour Writer’s Sprint in the Spring. Normally if I’m writing for several hours I’ll listen to video game music compilations on YouTube because they’re designed to keep you engaged for long periods of time without becoming repetitive. But now I switch that up with lofi music, think coffee house vibes on a hot summer afternoon when you just want to sink into that overstuffed chair and sip at your frappe.
The music, which I’m listening to right now, is mellow and chill and helps me get through difficult tasks or boring ones. Like updating 400+ contacts in a database and checking them off, one at a time.
Hydration Station
I drink water like it’s my job.
The problem is, my city’s water is not that great. So I’ve come up with a system to keeping good water at hand and it begins with a dozen or so plastic bottles (I’m planning to upgrade to glass some day) that get filled with filtered water from the Brita. Most of them live on the top of my fridge, within reach but out of the way, while 2-3 are always in the fridge.
I like cold water and those who try to convince me to switch to lukewarm or hot are wasting their time. Cold water + ice = perfect. Since the bottles are easily interchangeable, I can pop it back in the fridge if it gets warm and I usually end my night by refilling a couple bottles, plus my water pitcher.
In the event that we have (another) boil water advisory, I know that I have a few gallons of usable water right away. Which makes a big difference.
Fanning Out
It’s summer here and my 120 yo house does not have central heat or air conditioning. Which means it gets hot and then I get cranky. To resolve this, I have strategically placed fans all over my house and I will look for a few more when the season is over and they’re on sale.
Currently I have one in my kitchen, which gets very warm when I’m cooking, one in the bathroom, which has no other way to have moving air, there’s two in the bedroom, one for me + one for the dog, one in the office and one in the living room. I will usually also have the ceiling fans on in the office and living room.
No one wants to move that one good fan from room to room when it’s hot so fanning them out all over the house is ideal.
Weed Battle
In the Spring, I found my yard absolutely covered in weeds and I wanted to pull them out before mowing them down. So I spent hours squatting and pulling out weeds by the hundreds before I got them under control.
Now I have just a few every day to deal with and it was almost easier when I needed to pull 1,000. To keep on top of the new weeds, I place my tools right in the middle of the yard so I always know where to find them and try to get to 10 weeds a day, when I’m outside. I love this chore right after it rains and the ground is soft and more willing to give up the roots.
At first I kept a series of trash cans and buckets around the yard to contain the pulled weeds but as the storms rolled through, I couldn’t always keep up with emptying them of standing water. So now there’s a 20 gallon black trash bag that gets filled up and tossed every couple of weeks. This keeps the gross weeds out of my garden and my trash can.
Laundry Multi Sort
We all hate doing laundry, don’t lie.
For me, what makes it easier is to continually sort sort sort until the piles are small enough to deal with.
When I get the clean clothes out of the dryer everything goes into one basket and gets dumped on the bed. Then I immediately put the linens and towels back in the basket, since these are usually the most bulky items, my pile is reduced by 50% or more.
From there I sort to where the clothing goes:
- hanging clothes
- dresser drawers
- baskets in the closet
Again, these make small piles so I will lay out the shirts and dresses to hang and count them for the hangers I need. Once I know that it’s only 5 hanging items, that becomes a lot less onerous. I also have a dresser drawer for unmatched socks so if I’m feeling especially tired all the loose socks go in there to be matched later.
Clothing items like pajama pants, workout tops, swim suits and shorts all go into baskets in my closet so I don’t even really need to do anything but gather them up and stuff them in. Jeans get rolled but that’s simple to do.
Then I can turn back to the linens and pull out any sheets or duvet covers to fold, pillow cases to put away, etc. I have to look at these because they’re usually the culprit when a sock goes missing and my blankets love to get stuck together with microfiber towels.
Speaking of towels, I do another quick sort for bathroom vs kitchen towels. Some are for hand and face washing and others are for cleaning and kitchen use. Again, this is about reducing the piles into more manageable things to tackle and making it more efficient.
I can put all the kitchen towels into one basket and move that to the kitchen. Cleaning towels get thrown into a basket atop the fridge, dish towels get folded into a drawer. I can do this easily knowing that I have all the towels and won’t need to keep going back and forth as I unearth more.
These are just some simple ways that I’ve added onto my routines over time. If there’s one constant for my routines it’s that they’re always changing to shift my needs and what I want.
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