Homemaker's Daily Schedule: Creating an Effective Daily Routine (2024)

Check out my daily schedule as a homemaker and learn how to create your own EFFECTIVE daily routine so you can create a happy, efficient, and productive home.

***UPDATE: this post is a couple of years old. I have since created NEW schedules and routines that work great for our current home and lifestyle. I’ve gathered all of the thoughts and ideas I could into an easy-to-follow guide, you can check it out HERE. I didn’t want to change anything in this post because this is what worked well for me in that season of life, and it might for you as well!***

Creating a routine and daily schedule as a homemaker can be really helpful in allowing you to be more efficient and productive with your time.

Every homemaker’s schedule will be different, as everyone has different lives, different priorities, different family structures, etc. My routine is always changing, not drastically, but it definitely changes with the season of life that we’re in.

For example, we just have one baby right now, an 18 month old little boy. Thinking back on when he was just a few months old I had much more freedom throughout the day to do my homemaking when and how I wanted. Now that he is walking around and can get into things easier, I have to wait until nap time to do certain things.

Also, I am pregnant with our second baby and have been hit really hard with the pregnancy fatigue. It was much worse in the beginning, but I still feel more tired than I would normally. So, I don’t always wake up on time for my morning routine! I am finding ways to make it work though, and looking forward to the days when I have the energy again to consistently get up on time.

I’m going to give you a look into my own daily schedule as a homemaker, and share a few thoughts on what works for me. Then, I will let you know how you can create your own homemaking schedule that works for YOU!

RELATED: Homemaking 101: Ultimate Guide for Beginners

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Why Homemaking Schedules Even Matter

First off, lets talk a little bit about why you should even care about creating a schedule for yourself as a homemaker. I’m sure there are mixed feelings about it, so I’d love to convince you why creating a routine and schedule can help you SO much with your homemaking!

I really believe that being a productive homemaker takes effort, as well as being intentional and being disciplined. Its very easy when you control your own time and your own day, to get a little lazy. This is why scheduling your day and creating routines is SO important.

Often times homemaking and being responsible for a family, a home, and everything that includes can feel really overwhelming. Its even more involved the more children you have, activities, chores, pets, etc. Scheduling is an awesome way to get rid of the overwhelm and organize everything in your life.

Creating routines and a schedule will help you to make sure that all of your chores get done, appointments are met, and that you are even setting aside enough time for rest and family time. It will also prevent that wasted time where you are wondering what you can and should be doing but you end up not doing anything.

If you struggle with any of this: overwhelm, feeling unproductive or inefficient, a messy house, not enough family time, etc. then you can try creating a daily schedule for yourself. Let me show you a peek into mine! I haven’t always had a schedule, so I have seen such a difference in my homemaking since having one.

My Daily Homemaking Schedule

This is my general, daily homemaking routine. I tried to include as much detail as I could for each task and examples so you have good ideas of what homemakers do and how to create a successful homemaking schedule.

5:00 am – 7:00 am : MORNING ROUTINE which includes getting in a workout, enjoying a tasty drink and maybe reading, computer work, and a shower, all preferrably before our son wakes up. Check out my post HERE on how to feel more successful as a homemaker with a morning routine of your own.
7:00 am – 7:30 am : TIDY-UP ROUTINE: my morning tidy-up routine includes picking up the house, opening curtains, and waking up Miles. Picking up the house in the morning includes going from room to room and grabbing any dirty laundry to put in the laundry room, putting things back where they belong, making the beds, etc. Learn more about creating a tidy-up routine HERE.
7:30am – 8:30am : have breakfast
(depending on what time the morning routine is started and finished) . My husband doesn’t usually eat breakfast so this is just for me and our son. Some of our favorite quick, easy, and healthy breakfasts are sourdough pancakes, sourdough waffles, omelettes, leftovers, and oatmeal.
8:30 am – 9am : clean up breakfast, get miles dressed, teeth brushed, and hair combed, wash dishes and put away any dishes. Finish getting myself ready if I need to.
9am – 11am : daily cleaning tasks. This is different with each day; I’ve come up with a weekly schedule that I am really enjoying for cleaning. On Mondays I vacuum, sweep and mop our tile floors, dust, and clean the glass. Tuesdays are for cleaning the bathrooms, organizing closets and dressers, and washing our bedding. Wednesdays are for outside work (sweeping the porch and sidewalk, shoveling snow in the winter and pulling weeds in the warmer months, etc.) Thursdays are for deep cleaning our kitchen and laundry room. Fridays are for running errands in town and catching up on anything that didn’t get done. All of these cleaning tasks I try to get done in this morning window.
11am – 12pm : workout if I wasn’t able to get it done in my morning routine (or a project if I’ve already done a workout, or finishing cleaning, etc.), prep for dinner if anything needs to be done early in the day (should know by this point at least what I am planning to cook).
12pm- 12:30pm : have lunch (usually leftovers from the previous nights dinner).
12:30 – 1pm : do a quick 10 minute tidy-up of the house and put our son down for his nap. Usually all that needs picked up is any messes from lunch and toys to be put away.
1pm – 2:30/3pm : computer work (blog work mostly but sometimes paying bills online, etc). I have a hard time doing any computer work when our son is awake. He always wants to come and see what’s going on and type on the computer too:) so I really try hard to keep his nap time strictly for computer work. Even if the house is still a little messy I tell myself that I will get it picked up after nap time is over. Occasionally I will have something that I need to do during nap time that isn’t computer work, like something outdoors, so I’ll do that then.
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm : project time (this will usually be something for our house, lately I have been sewing a lot, I’m getting ready to make some curtains for our dining room. Sometimes its restocking any homemade goodies that are running low like our DIY liquid hand soap, homemade laundry detergent, etc. OR often times I will bake something like a dessert for that night or a batch cook of something I’m planning on freezing (today I made homemade, blueberry muffins to freeze). I am also trying to do some kind of organization project once or twice a week (like organize paperwork as an example).
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm : head outside! Now that the weather is nicer I’ve really been trying to get us outside every day. We have a really big property with a lot of landscaping that we have to take care of, so there is always something we can be working on outside when the weather is warm. Some things we do when we head outside: pull weeds, pick up tumbleweeds and trash, pick up dog poop, work on the garden. This is of course seasonal! In the fall we spend a lot of time picking apples and raking leaves. Summer of course is a lot of mowing, trimming, lawn work, etc.
4:30 pm – 6:30 pm : start to prep for dinner, quick tidy-up of the house, etc. and slowwww down. I’ll explain more below!
6:30 pm – 7 pm : eat dinner! Tonight we are having chicken panini sandwiches with homemade panini bread that I made earlier this week. YUM
7 pm – 7:30 pm : clean up dinner, wash and put away dishes, put away leftovers, get our son ready for bed.
7:30 pm – 8 pm : EVENING ROUTINE which includes closing all of the curtains, quick house pick up, taking the throw pillows off the bed, turn on the diffuser with a relaxing essential oil blend, getting hubby some dessert and a drink, brushing mine and our son’s teeth, into pajamas, washing my face, getting anything ready for the next morning (workout clothes out, kettle on, etc.) and jotting down notes in my planner with the following days schedule and to-do list.
8 pm : put the baby to bed.
8 pm – 8:30 pm : reading and/or journal time with hubby .
8:30 pm – 10:30 pm : watch tv or a movie and relax!
10:30 pm – bedtime!

A few things I’d like to note. I talked about how after nap time and time spent outside, I really try to slow down for the rest of the afternoon. For a long time, I would cram everything I could in before my husband got home. If the dinner recipe I was making took 30 minutes to prep and cook I would find things to do until exactly 30 minutes before dinner time and then start on dinner.

This ended up causing me a lot of stress in the afternoons and evenings. I wouldn’t have any time before or during dinner to clean up, I’d feel like I was rushing to get everything on the table, and it would all spill over into our evening routine and time spent with my husband.

I’ve been trying really hard lately to keep the afternoon (from about 4pm – 6pm) for dinner prep, slowing down, and getting ready for my husband to come home. I start any prep work early and clean dishes as I go. I make sure the house is picked up and set the table. I try to enjoy the process of prepping and making dinner. I also try to take a few minutes to clean myself up and refresh a bit.

Another thing that has been a game changer for me, is to try really hard to keep the evenings (after our evening routine and our son is put to bed) for time spent with my husband. I don’t see him all day, and he works a lot of weekends, so I don’t want to waste that small window of time I get with just me and him. I used to be so bad about cleaning late in the evenings or working on the computer. Now I try really hard to settle down after about 8pm and just focus on spending time with my husband.

Just a disclaimer: I do NOT follow this daily schedule or routine every day. There are days when I am up all night with a sick babe and waking up at 5:00 just won’t cut it for me. There are also days when we drop the routine (for the most part) and spend the day with family.

When I do follow this schedule though (especially the morning and evening routines) I feel like I am getting the absolute most out of my days. I feel like I am energetic and productive throughout the day and I get almost all of the tasks done that I need to.

I would say this is more of my ideal daily schedule, or what I work towards every day. Often times there are a few things that don’t go as planned, but that’s okay! As long as I am always working on it, I’m happy.

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Tips for Creating Your Own Daily Homemaking Schedule

You can create your own daily routine and schedule too to help you be more productive and get the most out of your homemaking! It does NOT have to be like mine. Schedules, especially a homemaking schedule, is all based on you and your own life.

It will change with whether or not you work, how many children you have, what your house chores involve, activities that you have to attend, etc. Its very important to make your schedule your own so that its optimal for you.

Decide What Your Priorities Are

Before you make your schedule, decide what your daily priorities are and write them down. I decided to give myself a few daily priorities in different areas: personal, home, etc. If nothing else gets done on a particular day except for my priorities, then all is well.

Take a few minutes to think about the things that you absolutely want to make sure get done every day. This could be things like washing a load of laundry, prayers, a workout, etc.

Now, when you are creating your schedule, make sure to add those priorities into time slots that will allow them the highest chance of getting done. You can also jot them down next to your schedule, or highlight them, to help you remember that they are priorities.

Include Your Morning and Evening Routines in Your Schedule

If you don’t have a morning and evening your routine, now is a great time to start one! They can be so helpful in starting your day on the best foot possible and ending it in the same way.

A morning and evening routine can be as short or as long as you’d like. These are also great times to add in some of your priorities.

Make Sure Your Cleaning is Scheduled In

Cleaning is a very important part of homemaking. If its important, then it should be scheduled! Of course, what you clean, how you clean, and how often you clean is completely up to you. Just make sure you are setting aside enough time in your day to get general tidying done and well as any additional cleaning.

Try to make a weekly cleaning schedule, and then you can have different cleaning tasks for each day. For your daily schedule you’ll simply have a time slot or a few different time slots where you get that day’s cleaning tasks done.

If you can’t get any big cleaning tasks done in a day, try to make sure you can at least tidy up, and make sure you are scheduling in time to tidy up.

Know What You Struggle With and Use Your Daily Schedule to Work on That

There are a lot of different kinds of homemakers out there, with different strengths and weaknesses and various ways of doing things.

Its important as a homemaker, and just as an individual, to know what you struggle with. Maybe you are the bomb at cooking and having delicious recipes on time at every meal… but you have the hardest time keeping your home tidy.

Be very realistic with yourself and jot down the things pertaining to your homemaking that you know you’re not so great at. Some examples might be staying on top of laundry, cooking healthy meals, making sure the bathrooms are cleaned, setting aside enough time for family and rest, etc.

Also, get a good idea of things you’d like to work at that may not necessarily be weaknesses. For example, I would LOVE to cook more food from scratch. I’d also LOVE to switch all of our cleaners over to homemade, natural versions. I know its not a weakness that I haven’t accomplished these things yet, they are more just goals.

Now, when you are creating your daily schedules, make sure that your schedule is helping you to work on those weaknesses and work towards your goals. If you really struggle with your laundry, add laundry into your morning routine, or set aside an hour each day just dedicated to doing laundry.

Another example that I did with my own schedule was making sure to not have our late afternoons/evenings be too packed and to not schedule anything after 8pm. I had to do this because I was struggling with not setting aside enough family and rest time.

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Now Create Your Own Homemaking Schedule!

I feel like I have learned so much in the time that I’ve been a homemaker, especially since our son was born and I’ve been home full time. Creating a schedule for your homemaking and routines takes discipline for sure! I am always learning new ways to do things and different routines that work better for me.

I want encourage you to give different routines and schedules a try and see what works for you! Don’t feel like you have to be scheduling your day exactly like someone else. Make it work for you, your lifestyle, and your home.

Gather ideas from valuable sources and use them to create routines and schedules that help you to be your best homemaking self. Also know that your routines and schedules should always be changing, with the season of life that you are in and also with the progress that you’re making and the things you learn. Adapt and change as you go.

I’d love to know if you have a daily homemaking schedule, and what other tips and ideas you might have for creating one! Let me know in the comments below!

Don’t forget, I have an all-in-one guide for the old-fashioned homemaker, that will help you to create schedules and routines that cultivate that simple and from scratch lifestyle you’re craving. Get your copy today!

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Check out some of our other homemaking posts!

How to be a More Productive Homemaker

Old-Fashioned Homemaking: What is it and is it for you?

Slow Homemaking Routines for Happier Homemakers