A Note on Decision Fatigue

 

Do you ever find yourself looking at a laundry basket and wondering, "Is that full enough to wash?" Or how about the dishwasher? Do you find yourself staring at the clothes in your closet and wondering what to wear? As a mom, you have a LOT of decisions to make every day. You have to decide how to feed, clothe, and bathe yourself, plus children, as well as maintain the cleanliness and inventory of the house. These decisions can bounce around in your head all day, giving you too much anxiety to get anything done. The absolute best solution to this is routine. Believe it or not, I had ZERO routines before I had kids. Not even a bedtime or morning routine. It was bad. Here is a quick look at three of my routines that you may not have heard of before.

Cleaning

When I only had one kid, I pretty much just followed her whims and whenever she was watching TV or entertaining herself, I would clean something. Then, I had another kid and realized that between the two of their needs, I NEVER had time to clean. My head was spinning. Every corner of the house was telling me that I was a failure while I tried to play with my three year-old. When I gave in to the cleaning, I was a tornado trying to clean EVERYTHING: totally neglecting my toddler. It was a nightmare. Don't be me. Here are the simple steps:

1. Make a list of your chores (you can do this by task or by room)

2. Decide the frequency that they will happen

3. Give them a day

The first time I did this, I wrote down all of the chores on small sticky notes and put them in my planner to help assign them days. Now, I actually write down all of my chores every week and scratch them off. This way it is easy to move a chore if I have other responsibilities that day. 

Here is what it looks like:

The goal is to have one cleaning job and one load of laundry per week day. On Saturdays I often tackle yard work and other projects, and I rest on Sundays. You may notice something else, I NEVER dust. Not ever. I also only wash each bed's sheets once a month, and I clean each bathroom once every three weeks. And you know what? My house actually looks decently clean. 

Meal Planning

I had no idea how to cook anything until we hit hard times in 2023 and we had no other choice. Prior to that it was all processed food and a whopping $700/month eating out bill for two people! Cooking was extra intimidating because my husband is a picky eater. He says he's not picky; he's particular. I say that's a fancy word for picky. Which is perfect because he only likes fancy food. He won't eat cold sandwiches or any kind of soup. He's not big on casseroles or anything that isn't seasoned well. He reminds me of Anton Ego from Ratatouille. Anyway, let's hear the solution! 

1. Get a three ring binder

2. Try a recipe

3. After dinner, ask your family, "Did you like that recipe enough for me to make it often?"

4. Put good recipes in the binder

I find lots of recipes by checking out recipe books from the library and photocopying the ones I want to do at home. Look for books that say they are simple or for weeknights. My new favorite is The Prairie Homestead Cookbook by Jill Winger. The recipes are simple, made with whole foods, and delicious!

I will still photocopy the recipes out of the recipe books I own to put them in the binder because.....

The next step is to start at one end of the binder and cook your way through it. Then, start over! You never have to think about what is for dinner. Just assign the next recipe to your meal plan for the week and buy the ingredients.

As you do this, you'll notice that some recipes go better together since they share ingredients or they use seasonal produce, so feel free to rearrange the recipes in the binder to make your life easier. I even have my recipe binder divided into the four seasons. I've noticed that my family can usually tolerate eating something four times a season (plus four more times of leftovers in the same week) before they are done and don't want to touch it until next year.

Dressing Yourself

This idea comes from the wonderful Angela Braniff! She doesn't make content like this anymore, but she used to do some great YouTube videos on homemaking. The idea is: have a uniform! Another influencer (Dawn the Minimal Mom) wears a black t-shirt every day, and Angela's idea was to pick a theme (e.g. graphic tees) and wear a rotation of those. Here's my twist: pick out seven or eight tops or dresses and rotate through them. How I do this:

1. Find seven or eight shirts or dresses that look good on me, but are simple enough to wear while cleaning.

2. Hang them up in my closet in the order I want to wear them.

3. Take pieces of cardstock, write on them, and cut holes (see picture)

4. Add them to the hangers

This way, you can have a very small, simple "uniform" wardrobe, and you will almost always be wearing something different to dance on Tuesdays, so none of the other moms would even suspect that you are working with such a limited wardrobe. You also have extra items if you fall a day or two behind on laundry or want to wear one on the weekend.

I hope this solves a lot of your headaches, so you can focus your energy on loving those sweet kiddos!

With Love From,

Mama

Émile Munier, 1880 - May I Have One Too?

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mother is the source of all nourishment. Putting all the decisions on autopilot can allow moments like this to feel like bliss.