The Best Stay at Home Mom Routine

How do you fit it all in? With all the responsibilities of home and family and fulltime care of kids, plus any side hustle or homeschooling tasks, it can be hard to figure out how to fit everything into the schedule. One of the most empowering things we can do is create a routine that gives time and space for the things that are important to us. A daily stay at home mom schedule is part of that. It brings clarity to life and confidence that we can do what matters most. So today, I’m sharing some of my tips for creating the best stay at home mom routine.

How to Create the Best Stay at Home Mom Routine from Lovin' Life with Littles

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It Was a Crazy Time of Life

It was a crazy time of life. My husband was working insane hours for our family, so the home and meals were on me. I was juggling four part-time jobs and leading a volunteer organization. And most importantly, we had four little kids and I was pregnant with our fifth.

Beyond sheer responsibilities, we faced other challenges as well.

Then I had this crazy feeling that I should write the book I’d always wanted to write. Sure! Go ahead and fit unpaid writing in the schedule too! 🙂

Learning My Lesson

So I started waking up early each morning to write. Some mornings I wrote excerpts of ideas for a novel, other mornings it was things I’d learned. And some days I just started typing with zero direction. But it was while I was working on a short PDF for this blog that it hit me…I knew what my book would be about.

Because I suddenly realized the gift I had been given that I wanted to share. It was peace. Peace in the crazy and chaotic seasons and struggles of life. I went back and looked at words I had written since committing to my book and further back to passages written over the years, and I couldn’t believe how many of them wove seamlessly into Peace amidst the Mayhem.

As my focus centered on this topic, I realized lessons I had learned and was living that led to calm and confidence and joy. One of those big lessons was that I am the master of my time. No excuses. I couldn’t do it all and there were some expectations (both from me and others’) that I needed to let go of. Simultaneously, there were things that actually mattered that I needed to really go after hard. I had learned to live with intention. And I had found a routine that allowed me to bring that intention to life in a way that felt totally doable.

You can create that kind of routine too.

Finding YOUR BEST Routine

There are so many versions of how to live a good life, how to do what matters most. So these tips and principles I’m sharing today won’t tell you exactly what to do. Instead, they’ll help you figure out exactly what works best for YOU. I’ll share an example of a stay at home mom routine to get your ideas flowing (and because it’s always fun to hear how other people really do things). I hope this is helpful in you creating a stay at home mom routine that fits your needs and leaves you feeling calm, confident, and happy at the end of the day.

Additionally, my husband and I have taken turns being the stay at home parent, and I know we’re not the only ones. There are many incredible stay at home dads. So while I’ll include examples from the perspective of a stay at home mom in this particular post, these principles apply to all of us…stay at home mom, stay at home dad, or working parent. (They’ll even apply if you don’t have kids, and if that’s your case and you made it past the title, thanks for being here!! 🙂 )

Lastly, sometimes we’re looking for answers about routines or daily schedules for stay at home moms because we wonder what everyone else is doing with their time. Maybe it feels like something’s missing. If so, know that you’re not alone, and it’s okay to feel how you’re feeling. Also know that things can change so that you feel more fulfilled as a stay at home mom. It might be helpful to read 5 Tips for the Stay at Home Mom Struggling with Depression, Isolation, or Boredom.

6 Steps to Create the Best Stay at Home Mom Routine

Here’s the overview of the process to create a stay at home mom routine that meets all your needs.

Look at what’s going well.
Decide what matters most.
Organize your tasks.
Recognize your ideal schedule.
Build a routine.
Experiment and reevaluate.

Let’s dive a little deeper into each of these steps and look at some tips and practical ideas to help.

Ready to take control of your home life?

An important part of creating the ideal stay at home mom routine is time-saving home systems that help you do what you need to do in less time, so you have more time for what you want to do. A great first step in adopting these life-changing systems is my Simple Systems Starter Guide. Grab it TODAY…it’s FREE!

Grab this Simple Systems Starter Guide and start making more time for what matters most to you. This guide is free from Lovin' Life with Littles.

Here are the six steps for creating a routine that allows you to fit in everything that’s most important.

Step #1: Look at What’s Going Well

Far too often we’re pretty harsh with ourselves, especially when we feel overwhelmed, stressed, or have dropped the ball a few times (or hundreds of times, let’s be honest). However, I’ve yet to meet a parent who cared enough about their kids and life to search topics online (like you’re doing right now) that wasn’t also doing A LOT of things RIGHT.

So take a moment to think about what’s going well with your routine right now. What activities or habits are helpful for you and your family? What do you want to stay the same? Also consider what you love about this particular stage or season of life; what do you want to be sure to appreciate right now?

Step #2: Decide What Matters Most OR What Should a Stay at Home Mom Do All Day?

During the time of life I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it became crystal clear to me that there were always going to be more good things than time to actually do them. In other words, I can’t do it all. And neither can you.

But, we can do what matters most.

So start with a simple brain dump. List all the things you could do with your time during this stay at home mom stage. Write down everything you want to do. Don’t worry right now if those things are feasible or practical. List out all the responsibilities and things you need to do in order to take care of your home, family, and self.

Chances are this is a pretty long list. That’s okay.

Next, go through and star the things that are most important to you. What is vital for you and your family to be healthy and happy versus a good idea? This list should be much shorter.

Have you seen the rocks and sand analogy that helps us see why it’s so important to decide what matters most? If not, you can find it here: Organize Your Time, where you can also read what makes it onto my personal “Most Important” list.

Step #3: Organize Your Tasks

First, organize by category. Look at your brainstormed list of things you could or want to do. I’ve found it’s really helpful to categorize them. Our brains work more efficiently when we keep similar tasks together. In business, we often call this batching. We can do the same at home. It’s also a helpful way to make sure we’re covering all the important bases.

For example, I typically recommend the following five categories: family time, self time, home management, work/career, and volunteer (or other responsibilities).

Second, organize by how often it needs to happen: daily, weekly, or less frequently than that. But try to keep your daily list as short as possible.

The Trouble with a Daily Schedule

Twenty-four hours is really not enough time. Especially if you want to have a semblance of humanity and get some sleep. When we try to fit everything into a day, it’s crazy stressful, doesn’t happen, and at the end of the day we often look at all those un-checked To-Do’s and wonder, “What did I do all day?”

BUT, I’ve found that 168 hours is a lot easier to work with. One hundred sixty eight hours is how many hours we have each week.

So, keep your DAILY to-do list as short as possible. Instead, look at the week as a whole and how to accomplish what you want to do over that time frame. Make sure the most important things are included on your daily list, such as quality time with your family and meeting personal and family needs for health and happiness.

Step #4: Recognize Your Ideal Schedule

In my head there’s a difference between a routine and a schedule. A routine is a pattern or rhythm of doing things. A schedule is the set time of events or activities. We need to think about both.

When it comes to the schedule, what are the ideal times for important events? I call these Pillar Times. These are the things that you know the day goes smoother if they get done at a certain time. For example, I know that if we have dinner at 5:30pm, it’s going to be much easier to have an on-time bedtime. I also know that if the elementary kids are awake by 7:45am, they’re 99% sure to catch the bus.

You might have a Pillar Time for nap when you know your child is tired but not yet grumpy and over-tired. Pillar Times are key benchmarks throughout the day. Between Pillar Times there’s flexibility with what you do and how you spend your time. So what are the Pillar Times in your ideal schedule?

Step #5: Build a Stay at Home Mom Routine

Now that you have your ideal Pillar Times, you can fill in your intentional routine around those. Start with the big picture. I call this a system of Block Scheduling. Block Scheduling allows for the flexibility of day to day needs, while still creating a routine or rhythm that can be consistent.

We want each block to be about two hours long, so we’re not micromanaging our schedule on a regular basis. Some crazy days will need the minute-to-minute planning, but in general we want to have a routine that starts to feel, dare I say, easy.

For example, if you have wake-up, nap, and dinner as Pillar Times on your ideal schedule, you can have a morning block and mid-morning block before nap, nap block, afternoon block, and evening block after the kids are in bed.

Then put your categories into your block schedule, so that the things that are most important to you have a time. During the block, do the things within that category that are needed or wanted that day.

Sample Stay at Home Mom Routine or Block Schedule

Here’s a routine or block schedule that I actually used. You may want to include more or less than I did. Notice how my overall routine doesn’t have every minute planned out.

Sample Block Schedule for a stay at home mom that works part time from home from Lovin' Life with Littles.

Once you have this routine built, you start to fit your schedule into it. For example, I’d go grocery shopping on Tuesday mornings and mow the lawn or do home projects on Saturdays. If I needed to schedule an appointment, I’d try to put it Tuesday morning before grocery shopping, rather than spreading them out into our family time and having commitments every day.

If a friend wants to get together for a playdate, we’d do it 10-12 before lunch and nap. When a girls’ night or book club came up, I’d vote for Thursday night.

I knew I had set time for work during the afternoon block of nap/quiet time each day, so I didn’t have to multi-task my kids at other times. During a family block, I could put my phone away and spend connected time helping, talking, teaching home preschool, or playing with the family.

Margins and Micro-Routines

Many of the tasks we need to do can fit into the margins of our day. For example, I didn’t need to write down that I’d throw a load of laundry in in the morning and change it during the day. That’s a small task. Same with washing the dishes after dinner or cleaning the toilet.

Within this general weekly routine, you also build mini routines. For example, I didn’t even bother to write anything about 3-5pm, knowing that was our after-school routine. The kids would get home from school, we’d have a snack, play piano (I’d teach lessons some days, they’d practice every day), do homework, complete helper jobs (aka chores), and such.

We also have mini routines for getting out the door in the morning, going to bed, and keeping the house tidy with less work. The more consistently we do things, the easier they become. That consistency is what makes something a routine.

The Nightly Check-In

I’ve found a helpful part of my evening routine is checking-in with the schedule for the next day. What’s on the meal plan? Do I need to throw something in the crockpot during a morning margin because we have evening soccer practice, or can I plan on dinner prep during the after-school routine? Are carpools and permission slips, deadlines and appointments prepared for? Is there anything unusual happening, or will it be routine as usual?

These few minutes go a long way in creating calm the next day.

Step #6: Experiment with Your Routine and Reevaluate

How can a stay at home mom start a routine? Something that has allowed me to learn really fast in life is my willingness to experiment. Is an early morning good for me right now? Do I want to do yoga every day or is it not worth the time? Does daily personal quiet time really make a big difference? Let’s try it for two weeks and see.

Some of my experiments have felt like a “failure,” either because it was a definite no or because I didn’t really follow-through. Others have led to some of the best habits I have.

But a willingness to try, to be flexible, makes a world of difference.

Additionally, seasons change. Kids grow out of naps. Responsibilities shift. Literal seasons change and with them the activities the kids participate in.

So create your stay at home mom routine and try it out for a couple weeks. Mark a date on your calendar to evaluate. See how things are going. Adjust your blocks or priorities as needed, and continue to shift until you find what works best for YOU.

More Tips about Stay at Home Mom Routines, Schedules, and Time Management

There’s honestly so much more we could go into when it comes to creating the best stay at home mom routine. I can’t possibly include it all in one post. In fact, I have an entire course that’s honestly life-changing. It’s called Take Back Your Time, and it walks you step by step through creating a home life you love. From how to meal plan and keep the house clean to how to carve out meaningful time for relationships and not feel guilty about self-care, it’ll create more time in your day for the things that matter most to you.

The course only opens for enrollment once in a while, but you can find the details, see when it’s open, and join the waitlist for Take Back Your Time HERE.

If you’re not ready for a full course (or it’s not open right now), the best next step is grabbing my FREE Simple Systems Starter Guide. This is a great way to start building better home systems. Plus, I’ll continue to send you powerful tips, exclusive downloads, and more. Join the thousands of families in the Lovin’ Life with Littles community and simplify your parenting life.

You can also check out these related posts:

The Difference

Once you find a routine that allows you to do what you need to do and creates time for what you want to do, it makes all the difference in the world. You can have time for your family, relaxing, pursuing a hobby or side hustle, or whatever it is you want to do. Finding a rhythm as a stay at home mom is not always easy, but it’s worth the effort it takes to be intentional, experiment, and use your time in the ways you really want to.

You have unique strengths and talents and when you move out of overwhelm and into flow, your family and the world will be better blessed with what you have to offer. Plus, at the end of the day, you’ll go to bed feeling calm and content. That’s a feeling that’s hard to beat.

What’s your stay at home mom routine like right now? What’s working well or what challenges are you facing? Is there something specific that’s hard to fit in? Have you found your rhythm yet? Share in the comments!