Housewifery Strategy: A Morning Routine

(Kick the Habit update: I was in bed at 10:20 last night and up at 7: 25. Not perfect, but not a bad start!)

As I mentioned, I don't like the idea of "steps" toward an organized home, healthy living, etc, because most projects like that really are never ending. Instead, I like to "implement strategies" (in teacher speak this means "do stuff"). Here is my first strategy, which I have adapted from FlyLady.

Housewifery Strategy: A Morning Routine.
(Note: As with any of the strategies I might discuss, this may or may not work for everyone, because everyone has a different schedule and lifestyle.) I am not a morning person. I simply cannot just get up and go in the morning; I need time to wake up, drink a cup of tea and eat some breakfast, probably read a little or get on the computer. My husband gets up and is out of the house in 20 minutes, give or take; I need at least an hour from the time I get up to the time I leave the house.
To best use this time, I developed a morning routine. After washing my face (can't start the day without washing my face!), I head to the kitchen. I put the tea kettle on the boil, and plunge right in to the kitchen clutter. If I'm lucky, all the dirty dishes are in the kitchen from the night before, but sometimes I have to go around collecting dirty dishes from the rest of the house. That's ok; that's part of the routine.
Here are the things I did today in the time it takes for the tea kettle to boil and my tea to brew/frozen waffles to toast:

1. Put away clean dishes
2. Put a bunch of dishes in the dishwasher
3. Run downstairs to the freezer to put away the ice cream maker bowl and bring up package of frozen beef for tonight's dinner
4. Wash a few dishes and put a few more in the sink to soak
5. Grab a paper towel and wipe up the splashes of water around the sink, then use the dampened paper towel to wipe down the rest of the counter

Then it was time to sit down and eat breakfast. It isn't a lot, but it's something I don't have to stop and do in the middle of my day, or look forward to dealing with when I get home. It means that when I start cooking dinner tonight, I don't have to clear off the counters first.
FlyLady (check out her site or pick up one of her books if you're not familiar) suggests setting a timer for your morning routine and other activities; I like this, but in most cases I let something else be my timer (ie, the tea kettle, the commercial break, the 4-year-old I babysit trying to shuffle and deal out cards...) There are -tons- of things we do during the day that could be timers, and we could be doing something else.

The morning routine is one of the few strategies that I keep almost every single day. Exceptions occur only when there is an exception to my schedule; needing to leave the house quicker than usual, not wanting to wake my sister sleeping in the living room, or the pleasantly common weekend occurence of my husband getting up before me and making breakfast, thus eliminating my timer. Otherwise, I find myself going about my morning routine no matter what time I get up, and if the kitchen is clean I find another task.

Give it a shot!

Related Bonus Strategy: If it works out right, run your dishwasher at night (start it up right before you go to bed.) This way no one has to listen to it and you will have something to do during your morning routine. It also means no one will take clean dishes out of the dishwasher to use, which inevitably leads to someone mistakenly putting their dirty dishes in with the clean.