5 Tips to Organize Your Evening (to Make Your Morning Easier)

5 Tips to Organize Your Morning...The Evening Before

It's always so funny to me when I see characters on TV shows wake up in at 5:30 in the morning, stretch, get out of bed with their hair & face looking perfect, leisurely stroll out to the kitchen to pour coffee and drink it on their patio while reading the paper. I am not that girl. Once in a great while I enjoy getting up a little early for some extra scripture reading or "me" time, but I have a hard time falling asleep at night so I generally do not love waking up in the morning. I'd usually rather sacrifice that leisure time for more sleep. #canyoufeelme
So in my quest to make my mornings before work take less time & cause less stress, I've developed the following tips to organize my evening, which make my mornings run smoother. I don't always follow every one of these, but when I skip them I regret it the next day. (As in today, right now as I type this intro, I regret not doing these last night. #takeyourownadvicejaclyn). If you're a morning person, these will still help you enjoy your morning without having to spend it doing chores, but if you're not a morning person (like me) these will totally help you hit the snooze button a couple more times without having to panic about getting to work on time.

1. 10 Minute Tidy

Go around each room & tidy everything up. Put the pillows & blankets back in order on the couches, throw away any trash, put any papers in your command center or designated incoming mail area, take any dishes (I'm guilty of a water glass on my nightstand, and Ricky often has one in the office as well) to the kitchen. In the morning when you wake up and go around your tidy house, it honestly just makes your morning less stressful because you're not seeing 20 things that you need to mentally put on your to-do list right away. At least for me! When the area around me is messy it's harder for me to concentrate and be calm, so it's very helpful to have less stressors around me in the mornings as I prepare for my day.

2. Extra Laundry Basket

Use a spare laundry basket or bin to gather items during your 10 minute tidy that need to be taken care of but can't be done within that 10 minute time frame. Put all the items in your basket to be your "action basket" the next day. If your house is large you may want to have separate baskets for different areas of your home, or for different family members. My parents always designated one step for each of us in the house so that on our way up to our bedroom we would be reminded to take the things on our step upstairs with us, and this is a similar concept.

3. Bathroom & Kitchen Counters

Having a clean kitchen is such a relief in the mornings. When you go to get breakfast and see a bunch of dishes that still need to be taken care of from last night, it's just one more thing to add to your already busy morning. Take the five to ten minutes each evening to handwash any big dishes and load the dishwasher and your morning self will thank you for it.
Similarly, the last thing I want to see when I go into the bathroom to shower & get ready for the day is a messy bathroom counter. I don't want to have to be putting things away or wiping it down when I'm already needing to get my makeup & hair done & get myself to work. A couple of extra minutes in your nighttime routine will take a few off your morning one.

4. Check Tomorrow's Weather

This tip is kind of a pre-requisite for the following one--it helps to just ensure that you're not all ready to go in the morning with your sandals & a sundress and then step outside to find that it's raining cats & dogs (or in the wintertime that you are going to need to spend 20 minutes scraping ice off of your car or shoveling your driveway). Not that any of those things have ever happened to me. ;) Ricky and I don't have televison channels in our home (we do have Netflix, Hulu, and a blu-ray player--less expensive than cable!) so I check the weather on my weather.com app on my phone so I have a good idea of what to expect. It gives you an indication for each hour of the following day and a daily indication for the rest of the week as well.

5. Choose Clothes & Makeup

See my outfit pinboard here

With the help of tomorrow's forecast, take a look around your closet or your wardrobe app (see the one I use here) and choose an outfit. If you just want to remember it in your mind for the next morning, that's fine, but I can be a bit foggy when I first wake up or am in a hurry so I like it to take it a step farther. I have an over-the-door hook on the inside of my closet door & I will hang any hanging pieces of my outfit there & then put the folded pieces (including undies & bra) on the side of my dresser closest to the closet. I put the shoes I'm planning to wear on the floor right under the hanger and I'm good to go in the morning.

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I do the same for makeup. Since I'm kind of a makeup junkie, I have a "collection" rather than just one blush, one foundation, etc. I keep all my makeup items in a drawer set from Ikea in my bathroom, with my smaller acrylic organizers on top of my bathroom vanity with my "everyday" items, my lip products, and my tools.  it's helpful for me to pull out each item I plan to use the next morning and put it on a tray in front of my mirror. This way I can make sure my makeup look goes well with the outfit I just planned for the next day, and it makes my mornings more seamless because I don't have to make those decisions or dig around in my drawers.

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XOXO, 

Jaclyn