5 Tips For Getting Out The Door Faster

5 Tips for Getting Out the Door Faster @thebusymom.com

Our family has been through a huge transition over the past few months. After 8 years of homeschooling, we enrolled our kids in a small, private Christian school in our town! So, for the first time in 12 years of mothering, we are finding ourselves needing to be a little, teensy bit better about preparation, organization and getting out the door in the mornings on time.

Even if your kids aren’t in school, you might need to get out the door earlier for church, homeschool co-op or just a doctor’s appointment. We all have times when we have to be somewhere at 8am!  And as the holidays are upon us, it seems there is always somewhere else to go, right?

Now, I will preface this post by saying I’m an on-time person. Or even early, generally speaking. I have an almost compulsive quality about me that drives my husband nuts. If something starts at 8am, I do NOT want to be walking in at 8am. I want to be there, in my seat and have everything I need for the event around 7:55am-ish. So, that said, I hope this post will still help you even if you tend to be one that runs late everywhere you go. I think we can all make progress and do better in this area, even if you generally are on time most days!

5 Tips for Getting Out The Door Faster

1. Prepare as much as possible the night before. I *might* be a tad bit compulsive about this too. I walk around my house at night looking for something, anything I can do that might help the morning go better. I help my kids find shoes, clothing, everything they will need BEFORE they go to bed. I set out all their lunch boxes, water bottles, and backpacks. I look through the backpacks at night to pull out papers I might have missed or needed to look at. Everything is ready to go.

2. Get up 10 minutes earlier. This one is hard; I really, really like my sleep. But, if you can make yourself get up a little bit earlier, isn’t it worth that lack of frustration in running around your house like a mad woman? I have noticed that when I am up, even a few minutes earlier than my kids, I am more calm when they lose a shoe or take 20 minutes to brush their teeth. {grin}

3. Make bedtime smooth and earlier. This is another hard one. But, if your kids are up late watching tv (or even mom, ahem) getting up earlier will be even harder! That bedtime routine you had when your kids were toddlers? Don’t stop! Keep that routine going or start a new one. They may not need to be in bed by 7:30pm anymore, but as my kids get older, it is still important to me that they get enough sleep!! START the bedtime process 30 minutes earlier than you intend for them to go to sleep. Have your children help you in walking around the house looking for backpacks, shoes and whatever they will need to get going in the morning.

4. Pack a tote bag for each day of the week, or each outing in your week. I’ve done this in the past with a pool bag. I keep sunscreen, goggles, the pool pass and anything I need at the pool IN THE BAG and I don’t pack, unpack, repack that bag every time we go to the pool! Have a bag like this for your weekly co-op, have a bag ready for church. When you walk in from co-op, hang it on a hook and it’s already ready for next week!

5. Turn on upbeat praise music. I saved my favorite for last. I can’t tell you how many bad moods a little Mandisa had zapped away in my household, mom included! Sometimes, out of desperation and just not wanting to hear one more, “I can’t find my shoe! HE THREW MY SHOE! Mommy, make him find my shoe!” I turn on the radio in our kitchen and turn it up. So maybe this would be considered avoidance. I like to think of it is as pointing my children to Jesus. {grin} Sometimes we need a little re-focus and music is just the way to do this. So, if you want to be one step ahead of your argumentative children, turn that music on as soon as you wake up the kiddos!! Everyone will walk around the house singing, getting ready, and you will wonder what in the world has gotten into everyone! Actually, as a wise mother, you will know what has gotten into them!! Praise fights off the worst of our enemies!! So get your praise on, first thing in the morning!

I hope these tips help you! I’m sure as veteran busy moms you have some tips for us, too! I would love for you to share in the comment section YOUR best tips for getting moving and out the door in the mornings!

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3 thoughts on “5 Tips For Getting Out The Door Faster

  1. A Mama's Story

    We let our bedtime routine lax a little as the children got older but re-introduced it for our older children a few months ago, and it made a world of difference. Everyone is a little nicer to each other when they’ve had some sleep. 😉

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  2. Shernette

    I hear you. Really I do. Prepare from the night before. Get everyone to bed, including me, earlier. And the prause music – I’ve done all that but the praise music. And still we’re just on time or late. So, I guess I put on the praise and see if that works!

    – Still trying…

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