Streamlining Your Family’s Morning Routine

Who needs a trip to the gym when there's the weekday morning marathon of getting beds made, chores done and everyone washed, fed, dressed, and packed for school and work? It is possible, though, to create an organized morning routine that everyone in the family can work together to complete.

Parents can benefit when they work together and take shifts based on their personalities, says Christina Baglivi Tinglof, Los Angeles-based author of The Organized Parent: 365 Simple Solutions to Managing Your Home, Your Time and Your Family's Life, says she and her husband split their schedules. He helps get their three teenage sons out the door in the morning, while she gets dinner on the table and shuttles the boys to after-school activities.

It may seem hard at first—particularly for adults who like to be as hands-on as possible—but Tinglof says it's important to teach kids how to fend for themselves. Not only does it teach them independence, but it also takes a burden off their parents. Tinglof's kids, for example, have made their own lunches each school day since they were in 2nd grade.

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Once you've got the kids helping, create a list of things they have to do each morning and then get out of their way, says Stephanie Vozza, a Detroit-based mother of two boys and author of The Five-Minute Mom's Club: 105 Tips to Make a Mom's Life Easier. She says to "engage your child by having them help make the list. Post it where your child can see, such as the bedroom door, nightstand or the bathroom mirror. For young children, include pictures."

Tinglof says her household is big on toast and oatmeal during the week. Her husband will set the coffee maker and put the toaster and bread on the counter each night before he goes to sleep. When their kids were small, he would also fill glasses of juice and milk and leave them on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.

Everyone knows the trick of making big helpings of chili or stews on the weekends so the leftovers can serve as dinners during the week. But who says dinners are the only meals that can be made in advance? Tinglof will flash-freeze extra pancakes from Sunday brunches—making it easy for her growing teenage boys to simply pop the leftovers in the toaster or microwave when they want a bigger breakfast during the week.

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While it's not always possible to have the cleanest house, Tinglof does stress the importance of having an organized one. She suggests having a spot in your home—her family calls it the Launching Pad—where things are organized and ready for family members to grab what they need and go. She adds that they have a stand near the front door with a coat hanger and shelves that house book bags, gym shoes, keys and other important items.

Worried about dilly-dallying? Keep things moving along by initiating a no-screen rule for everyone, and that includes no checking email and no watching TV, says Vozza. But the parents have to follow the rule as well. Not only does this offer an opportunity to teach by example, but no one wants to be the parent who has to own up to making the kids late for school because of Internet browsing or email exchanges.

Some mornings, alarms don't go off, or the coffee isn't ready, and it just isn't possible to get everything done—and that's OK, too. "If some tasks can wait until the afternoon, let them wait," says Vozza. "For example, if there doesn't seem to be enough time in the morning, consider making the beds in the afternoon."

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