Mornings can be such a rush. And not “rush” as in “happy feelings flooding your system.” The countdown is always on to leave the house, the tasks seem endless, the kids are not always coherent and/or cooperative—it can be a very stressful time of day. I actually am a morning person, so that automatically gives me a leg up, but there are still a lot of things that we’ve tried to implement as a family over the years to make mornings run more smoothly in our household. If you’re in the “mornings are chaos” boat, I’m sharing some of our rituals that help get us over the threshold and out the door without too much stress on weekdays.
Prioritize yourself: Get up before everyone gets up
My alarm goes off at 4:45 a.m. so I can take my thyroid medicine and get 30 more minutes of rest before my gradual alarm at 5:15. I get dressed in the dark and then head to the kitchen to grab the pre-workout drinks I prepared the night before. I drink my pre-workout on the way to the gym, catching up on Marco Polos from friends while I wait for it to kick in. I love to get up an hour before everyone else to get in a workout and some “me” time—it makes all the difference for how I feel throughout the day.
If that’s not your style, even earmarking 15 minutes to do some yoga, pilates, meditation, journaling, or walking can frame your entire day.
Hair drawer in the kitchen
By the time I get home around 7:20 a.m., my family’s already gathered in the kitchen. The kitchen is the hub of the house—it’s really the central landing place in the morning. Everyone is getting ready in there. Chris is making breakfast, and I grab the girls’ hair supplies from a drawer. I love when they eat at the kitchen island because it lets me do their hair in a line, just like my mom used to do for me and my four sisters before school. This way I’m not running up and down the stairs to help them.
UNbrush | Wet Brush | Organizing Trays (similar)
Kids build their own lunch
Do you spend way too much time making your kids’ lunches? We’ve all been there. It really was a game-changer to pass the baton and have our girls make their lunches once they were around 6 years old. The real win was when we asked them to make their lunch the night before.
The girls will make their own ham & cheese sandwiches or pack up leftover soup. They also love to make boxed mac ‘n cheese (especially Faye)—with supervision if needed, and they’ll put it in a thermos for lunch. We have a snack drawer for the kids, where they can grab granola bars, yogurt packets, and other snacks to go alongside.
Keep shoes in the mudroom or by the door instead of bedroom
Inevitably, the kids will ask where there shoes are. Instead of running back upstairs to find them, we’ve started the routine of putting them by the mudroom instead of in their bedroom. And that’s the beauty of a mudroom or storage shelves for shoes by the door!
Make breakfast the night (or weekend) before
I can’t function in the morning if I don’t have a bar to start the day before going to the gym, and I know my family is the same way. Chris is great about prepping for the week by making a big frittata or breakfast hash that will last us a few days with a quick reheat in the microwave or air fryer.
You have to try his list of make-ahead breakfasts.
Get a smart alarm clock
Before the younger girls go to sleep, they have their Amazon Echo device read a Disney bedtime story (they’ve named it Ziggy). And then their Amazon Echo will wake them up with the time I set it for on the app, so they can’t accidentally disable it! Sometimes they’ll press snooze too many times, and I open all the blinds and turn on all the lights. Or I’ll open the door and let Cricket wake them up. In other words, it’s not a perfect science, but a smart alarm clock does help most of the time.
Play a morning song
While Chris is warming up or whipping up breakfast, I’ll ask Alexa to play a fun song. Immediately, the girls start singing and dancing, and I’m usually doing their hair right in the middle of it all. It sounds very Brady Bunch, but I promise you, it immediately puts everyone in a good mood. My sister Andi has a gift for curating playlists for every mood, setting, and moment. She curated this one for you to kickstart mornings off right!
Set your clothes out the night before
We’ve found one of the easiest ways to make mornings run smoother is to get the girls’ outfits ready the night before. I know, it’s not a groundbreaking idea, but it truly is a game-changer!
Taking five minutes the night before to let them choose what they want to wear saves so much time and negotiation in the morning. No more digging through drawers to find a matching sock or debating over a Lilo & Stitch shirt at 7 a.m. Everything is ready to go, and it makes a huge difference in getting out the door on time (and with a little less stress!).
Those are 8 techniques I use to make mornings run smoother—and I’m sure you’ve got some tips of your own! Let me know what helps you get out of the house in the morning.
I love this list!!! Thank you so much for sharing – this is so helpful. You rock! Xxx
These are great! Way to go intentionally implementing them!
My 12 yo daughter is a snail in the morning. Something that has helped her morning routing is wearing her clothes to bed for the next day! It’s certainly not ideal, but it saves us all heaps of tears and frustration.
Hi! You’ve said before that you go to the gym in the morning. I’ve wondered what happened to your beautiful home gym. Why don’t you use it?
I love the idea of the hair drawer! We do end up with brushes and hair ties in the kitchen anyway! Anyone keep socks for each kid near the door? I’ve heard one family do that but I never got that organized – it would save some last minute run around for sure. I’ll also have to restart a checklist to remember ALL the things: bag, instrument, water bottle, phone, shoes (the kids are often just putting shoes on in the car on the way to school!)
Yes! We keep socks in the entryway in the bottom of our “hall tree”, and shoes in the coat closet.
Someone else mentioned they do this in our Instagram comments! What a good trick.