· · ·

MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER: 10 THINGS TO DO IN 10 MINUTES

You need to make your life easier. Moms have the ginormous tasks of keeping their homes in order, driving kids to and fro, getting meals on the table in into lunchboxes, and ten thousands things in-between all those. Where sometimes we can be enticed, buy pretty planners with washi tape or organizational tools with buttons and big price tags, I actually feel that the opposite is needed when it comes to making our lives easier. What we need is simple, not complicated. We need to hit the easy button, not the I-look-pretty-but-I-actually-have-no-purpose button. Make sense?

I’m all about simple, and I know from experience that if it’s not simple, we usually won’t make a habit out of it. Simple is better, almost always. You probably feel the same. Putting simple systems in place to keep our lives easier don’t have to be complicated either. Here are ten things that are normally super annoying and ways you can simplify these things in just ten minutes each.

How to make your life simpler. Ten things you can do in just ten minutes each. โ€‹

Ten ways to make your life easier in ten minutes

  1. Coffee making, simplified.ย 
    Coffee is the wellspring of life and you should definitely be drinking it. Since that’s settled, we should also establish that coffee needs to be made as simply as possible so that nothing can botch something as beautiful as morning coffee. Take 10 minutes, make sure all your favorite mugs, your jar of coffee grounds, filters, milk steamerย (this is the one I have and I use it daily), and whatever else you need is all within an arms reach of the coffee maker. This is essential to a good morning.
  2. Library book returns.
    You know that panicked feeling when we realize it’s library day and it’s time to go and you have no idea where all 74 library books are? Ya, me too. Take 10 minutes, go find a basket or a box or a bag and set it somewhere prominent. Tell your kids the library books live here. And when they forget in another 10 minutes, at least you know where to start when it’s time to get ready for the library.
  3. Getting out the door on time.
    This one may forever be a thorn in my side, but at least I know what I can do to help myself out. When you have kids, especially in the wintertime when you need to get out the door, finding shoes, coats, hats, gloves, bags, etc can be the worst! Take 10 minutes and organize shoes into shelves or their own bin or basket of some sort. Throwing all the shoes into a huge basket is not such a great idea. They’re all going to be rummaging through it at the same time and they likely won’t find their favorite pair and there will be fighting and tears. Ask me how I know.In ten minutes, you can give everyone their own hooks for their own coat, label it somehow to they know to keep their own hook, separate the shoes, and shove all their gloves and hats into the arm of their coat so it’s all in one spot when you’re ready to walk out the door.
  4. Keeping the bathroom clean.ย 
    Not my favorite job, but it sure does drive me nuts when it’s dirty. Set the timer for ten minutes…I promise this will make a difference in your daily life. Go around your home and gather paper towels and glass cleaner. Put it under your sink. If the cleaning products are there and ready for you, you can quickly wipe down the mirror, sink, and toilet set in just seconds. Next time you’re out and about, grab this Clorox toilet scrubber. It’s so super simple to use and it takes just 10 seconds to clean your toilet.
  5. Too much paper clutter.ย 
    The majority of our paper clutter comes in from our kids or the mailbox. Take a few minutes to quickly go through your stacks of paper clutter. Throw, throw, throw it away. Then go grab a file folder and label it “TO DO” so you have a place to stick the forms and other papers that have to go somewhere and you can’t do it that minute. A file folder where all the randoms are is a lot better than a bunch of stacks of papers everywhere.
  6. Staying on top of emails.ย 
    I won’t say my inbox is at -zero- all the time, but there’s not many in there. I hate clutter and that includes my inbox. Sit down for 10 minutes and delete, delete, delete. Next, create some folders and label them with categories of email you need to save frequently. Move all the remaining emails into folders. All cleaned up!
  7. Kids’ school work.ย 
    Giving my kids their own spiral notebook for assignments has been amazing in our homeschool. It takes me 10 minutes a day to fill in what the need to do for the day and they can easily see everything without asking a million times what to do next and getting off track.
  8. Out of control laundry piles.ย 
    Why is washing and drying so easy, but folding and putting away takes forever? The folding party might take longer than 10 minutes, but if you listen to an audiobook while you’re doing it, it will feel much faster. Then, with your out of control piles, rally the troops. While you’re folding, separate the clothes by person so everyone has their own piles. Then, when you’re finished, call in the kiddos and have them each take their piles. They’re probably old enough to put it all away themselves. If not, take heart. They will be. And in the meantime, their clothes are so small it just takes a minute to put them away.
  9. Choosing what to wear each day.ย 
    In September, I created my first capsule wardrobe. It’s been amazing. It might take longer then 10 minutes to sort through all your clothes, purge, and divide into capsules, but it will certainly make choosing your clothes each day much less than 10 minutes.
  10. Getting schoolwork done every day.ย 
    If you’re struggling to get schoolwork done and you feel like school drags on and on in all the worst ways, take 10 minutes, head over to Amazon and grab a visual timer. These suckers are great for keeping our day on track. I don’t mind going off on rabbit trails for history or other unit studies, but for math? No thank you. Let’s get it done! Our visual timer has been awesome for that!
I hope these 10 things help make your life a little simpler! Happy weekend!

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE:

Learning Well LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate links from Amazon or other programs are used on this website. For more info, please refer to our disclosure statement.

8 Comments

  1. So helpful! Thank you. I am literally taking notes on all these great ideas! In the hope that when September madness starts back up, our days will run more smoothly.

  2. Great ideas! I find that 10 minute bursts like this are often the most productive times in the day. What you can do in that short time makes you feel so much better too.

  3. My list looks just like yours, however the coffee making was the first thing to get addressed months ago ๐Ÿ˜‰ moving on to the next 9 items! Thanks for sharing these helpful tips!

  4. Hi, Alicia! I love this post! Some of these were good reminders for me and also made me stop and think about some of my "dreaded" tasks, cleaning the bathtub being one of them. If I just set the timer and knock it out, I'll be done in no time, right?! Makes it feel much more doable. Thank you! And, wow! I am in love with that visual timer! Where has that been all my parenting and homeschooling life?! I went right to Amazon and put it in my cart. Love that it counts as a Subscribe and Save item, too.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.