Evening Routine for Stay at Home Moms

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Creating a great evening routine for stay at home moms will make your days run just a little bit smoother. A simple night time routine can be really valuable for an at home mom schedule.

By preparing for the next day in the evenings, you’ll get the next morning and entire day off to a good start.

Each day as busy stay at home moms is a sprint. We pretty much hit the ground running from the moment we wake up until the children are in bed at night.

If you’ve been a stay at home mom for a long time, or you’re brand new – these tips are helpful for with getting all of the things done!

Importance of an evening routine for stay at home moms

Just like a morning routine, an evening routine will help ensure that the next day runs smoothly. Of course as stay at home mothers of little children, our days aren’t always smooth. Or predictable.

But with a bit of planning, we can help to eliminate some of the chaos and even reduce a little of the stress.

And in full transparency, not all are good days! But morning and evening routines really do help save our sanity just a bit. This is one of the best things that you can do to help create calm in your days.

So the morning time really does set the tone for the entire day. Creating a solid evening routine gets us just a little step ahead on the day to come.

With a few of these routines in place, you’ll get the next day off on the right foot!

Tips for getting started

First off, I just wanted to mention that each one of us mothers are different. We each have different lifestyles, different circumstances, etc. So no two stay at home mom schedules or routines are the same.

Self care, relaxation, adequate sleep, health needs are just as important as being productive. Creating a healthy balance is critical to productivity.

Getting the morning started off right, helps with productivity too. Sure, we can get caught up on tasks during nap time. But my children never napped at the same time! So that creates another host of challenges.

So now, I add in a quiet time (after lunch time) for the older kids as part of our daily routine. And this gives me a bit of free time to get focused for the next day!

During this lunch hour / quiet time block, I will also get some more household tasks completed. Like swapping out the next load of laundry.

End with prayer

Just like our days should begin with prayer, our days should also end in gratitude. Even when our days are a little bit chaotic! We probably need it more so during those times.

Personally, it helps to put me in a better mood during stressful times.

End with your favorite devotions or prayers. Here are a few ideas:

• family rosary
• spiritual reading
• bible reading & journaling
• short mediations
• short reflection with a quiet nature walk
• prayer with your spouse
• evening prayers before bed

When the days are busy, we are drowning in diaper changes and sleep deprivation, bringing it back to a place of gratitude is incredibly beneficial!

Self care

Self care is something that many of us mothers tend to put on the back burner. But as the old saying goes, “you can not serve from an empty cup…”

We have to take care of ourselves so that we can love and take care of others.

Self care isn’t selfish! It’s so important to get the adequate sleep, exercise, nutrition, etc that we need to be healthy and to serve our family at our best!

Take some time to relax at the end of the night.

• spend alone time with your spouse
• diffuse essential oil or light a natural candle
• play piano or other calming music
• go for a walk
• take a relaxing epsom salt or bubble bath
• use a foot bath or give yourself a pedicure
• relax with a cup of tea and neck massager
  • we recently bought this one for Father’s day!

Whatever you choose, make sure that you have adequate self care added into your evening routine! And let’s not forget to get enough hours of sleep too. It is such an important thing for our health that we sometimes neglect.

“Rest and self-care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.” 

― Eleanor Brownn

Prepare for the next day

I like to prepare for the next day with a few tasks in the late afternoons and evenings. So for example, if I have a kitchen related task for the morning, I will try to do it while I’m already in the kitchen.

This might be setting up the coffee pot after I clean up the kitchen & dinner dishes. Or preparing overnight oats or feeding my sourdough starter for breakfast.

I also like to lay out all clothing for the next morning. I’ve started to wake up earlier than I have in the past as part of my morning routine. So I quietly get ready for the day & pray my morning meditation & devotions while the rest of the family is still sleeping.

It is SO nice to have that quiet alone time before the rest of the family wakes up.

Preparing the night ahead really helps! For me personally, early mornings = a productive day.

A few more ideas to prepare ahead of time:

• make school lunches
• plan your daily schedule
• make a simple to-do list
• meal plan & dinner prep for the next day
  • thaw out meat for tomorrow’s dinner
• plan out your homeschool school lessons
• make a plan for the daily household chores

Daily tasks

I know that it is really hard to plan out the entire day ahead of time. And with raising littles, life is pretty unpredictable. All that we can do is strive for our best!

Time management is really crucial for a successful day. So limiting unnecessary distractions is really helpful in ensuring that we get the things we need to focus on accomplished.

Setting up time blocks are another great option for completing all of the daily tasks.

As the children grow in age, it becomes easier to set them up for free play or independent chore time. These time blocks are a great time to get daily projects accomplished. Even if you only have a little time to do them.

Creating a bedtime routine

Depending on what your home goals are, the best way to create your evening routine may vary. I’ll share a few ideas that I like to do and hope it is helpful to you.

After dinner time and cleanup, we may go outside for a nature walk (when the weather is nice) or spend a little quality time as a family outdoors. I really believe that the fresh air and outdoor activities help create quality sleep for the young children.

Related: how we got our toddlers to sleep through the night (naturally)

Then we head inside for bath time, family rosary and other devotions in the living room. After family prayers, and night time hygiene, we do a quick home tidy up before bed.

For me a not waking up to a clean house is stressful and just leads to a bad morning. It feels like there is so much extra work to do and just dominos throughout the day.

So this home tidy is a non-negotiable. And as such, I like to keep it as part of my family’s home schedule.

Waking up to a clean house helps ease into the day ahead and helps put me in a good mood from the start!

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