5 Mistakes to Avoid when Brown Bagging Lunch

April 17, 2018 by Caylin Leave a Comment

5 Mistakes when Brown Bagging Lunch

My husband gets up at 4:30 every morning so he can drive an hour to his 6 am work shift. For a couple of years the extent of my participation in his morning (and lunch) was a kiss goodbye and rolling over in bed. Hopefully to sleep another couple (or 3-4) of hours.

Unfortunately, I came to realize my dear husband had no interest or time in packing lunch, snacks, or beverages for work. This meant a huge “gas bill” because he’d purchase meals and treats when he’d fill gas in the morning. Also, I don’t even want to know how many dollars we’ve spent on vending machines. For the cost of two bottles of pop out of the vending machine we could purchase a 12 pack of cans or a 6 pack of bottles, and that’s not even trying to take advantage of sales.

My frugal minded self just can’t stand that waste of money on “convenience.”

We won’t even go into the discussion of how unhealthy these food choices are, on top of all the money wasted. So, not wanting to lose out on my mornings (of sawing logs), I decided to start putting his lunches together the evening before.

That worked about as well as asking my two year old to not pull out new toys before putting away any other toys he had out. Between me not remembering (or ignoring, or just being plain old lazy) to pull it all together the night prior, or my husband forgetting to grab all or parts of it, that attempt was a train wreck.

(History has shown that unless I hand things directly to him there’s no guarantee he’ll take them to work with him. Even then if he gets distracted by something on his way out the item might be sitting there on the counter until I notice it later.)

So my frugal-self won out over my lazy-self and I started getting up with my husband to make sure he had his packed food and beverages.

1. Not Packing Any/Enough Beverages

My husband likes drinks. He grew up in a household that had more containers of juices, pop, milks, Gatorade, and teas in the fridge than food. I never really gave it much thought, being from a home that almost always drank water with everything, except being surprised over the quantity every time I’d open the fridge.

Fast forward seven years now, my husband NEEDS drinks beyond water to go to work. He will drop five-ten dollars a day at the gas station and vending machine: on energy drinks, pops, teas, and Gatorade. I fought it for a while, but came to recognized that the battle wasn’t healthy for our relationship and I needed to get on board and help him or not complain over the mega bucks being wasted on packaged beverages.

Now I make and pack him:

A 25-30 oz coffee with Ghirardelli caramel and cream. (He never used to drink coffee, I’m happy that’s his caffeine beverage of choice now versus Mountain Dew and Monster)
A 30 oz insulated mug of ice water. He’s not a huge fan of water, but if it’s there he’ll drink it. If I didn’t pack it, he certainly wouldn’t do it, but I feel good knowing I’m getting at least some water into him daily.
A 16-32 oz additional flavored beverage. This one varies depending on what I have on hand. If I find juice or chocolate milk on sale at the store I’ll pick up a few and portion them out into 16 oz glass Snapple jars that I save, (otherwise he’d drink the entire half-gallon in a day). We also have a SodaStream that I use to carbonate water. I don’t have any of the sugar-ladened expensive SodaStream syrups to add, but I typically add an individual drink packet to it. My husband seems to like them just fine. He at least doesn’t complain about them, or ask me to not bother packing them anymore for him; which is his nice and gentle way of saying he doesn’t care for something I make.

All these drinks are made in reusable containers that he brings home every night. I wash them and then just fill again in the morning. Making for less packaging and money waste, along with what I’d like to think is healthier beverages.

2. Not Packing Enough Food

I learned fast that just packing a container of leftovers or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and calling it a day wasn’t going to fly. My husband drives an hour one way, works a ten hour shift, and then drives home. That’s a long day with two breaks and a lunch sprinkled in. I’ve learned that having some sort of food for each break and the commute is ideally what he prefers. I attempt to pack a variety of foods.

Snack for the ride down is typically a granola or breakfast bar (either homemade or store bought). Sometimes if I find foods on sale I’ll buy things like HotPockets to quick heat up before he leaves and they’re still safe to eat while driving.
Breakfast for first break is usually a portion of oatmeal bake, egg bake, or bread pudding that I’ve made. I found one of the best ways to make sure I have breakfast foods on hand is to make a large batch of one of these and then he’ll have enough to last the whole week. Then I rotate on to the next kind the following week. He doesn’t mind the same breakfast for a week straight.
Lunch typically is the dinner leftovers from earlier in the week. I try very hard to have at least one or two servings of leftovers from meals I create during the week for easy pack-able lunches. The unshed tears are definitely there when all of dinner is polished off and I’m left scrambling for something quick and easy to pull together the next morning. Luck is rarely on my side where I have bread AND sandwich fixings at the same time.
I try hard to send SOMETHING healthy in his lunch box every day for second break. He’s very willing to eat pretty much anything, as long as it doesn’t involve more work for him; which means apples need to be cut and cored or oranges peeled, I’m okay with that though. I also often pack bananas, homemade unsweetened applesauce, carrot sticks and dip, or celery pieces with peanut butter. Almost all the time the food gets eaten, although I do know if anything comes home uneaten it’ll be from this group, lol.
For the drive home, or whenever he chooses to eat it, I try to pack some sort of treat. Often it’s homemade cookies, muffins, slice of pie, or bars. After holidays it’s usually the leftover candy lying around that I don’t want me or our son to eat.

3. Not Prepping (or at least Planning) the Night Before

No matter what I’d tell myself the night before to get out of preparing his lunch then and leave it for the morning, it’d never work out as well or smoothly as I con myself into believing nine hours earlier. I’ve learned the hard way that life is much easier when there’s at least a plan the night previous.

If that means knowing I have cookies, breakfast bar, banana, leftovers, and egg bake ready to go, that’s just fine.

I also have to filter all of our lovely (disgusting) city water. Making sure that I’ve filled it up completely so I’m not scrambling filling his beverages in the morning.

When I’m really on top of things I even prepare the drinks the night before. Setting the coffee pot to be ready to start immediately when we get up and push the button. (If I was truly smarter than my appliances I’d know how to program the auto start on the coffee pot and not even worry about it, but in the meantime, manual effort will have to suffice.)

This step makes a huge difference in the stress and smoothness of packing lunches.

4. Not Packaging Leftovers in Individual Containers Right Away

This one took me a while to figure out. Dinner leftovers went right into the large containers that each type of food all fit in (meat in one, potatoes in another, vegetables in their own as well), breakfast casseroles went directly into the refrigerator in their baking dish and desserts like bars and pies stayed in their large pans as well.

The problems with this were threefold:

I never knew how many servings I had. There could be leftovers for one or four lunches from dinner, but I didn’t know for sure.
I ended up doing twice as many dishes sometimes. If I’d put the food in a larger container to start with, then transfer it to individual portion containers that means more dishes (which you know I despise if you’ve read my 60 Minute Morning Routine).
It took me longer to prep the night before or day of.

I’ve learned to immediately put food into single serving containers when transferring them to the fridge. It means I can make sure my husband takes veggies, along with the main dish. I’ve noticed that otherwise it was often overlooked. I also have a better feel for the rest of the week’s meals. Knowing whether or not we need to have more leftovers is quite helpful.

Now I only have to wash the baking dish, and the travel containers my husband brings back to me. Still more dishes than I’d prefer, but less than I was washing previously. Now when I prepare the night before I can note the containers ready to pack, and it’s good to go.

5. Not Having Quick Snacks On Hand

It is very frustrating for me to pack his lunches when I have no easy to grab snacks on hand. My personal goal in life is to make all of our snacks from scratch. I often make things from scratch, but it doesn’t always get done. Then I’m scrambling to come up with something out of thin air by 4:30 am, not good.

When I am on my game more, I typically have homemade muffins, granola bars, cookies, or bars available to pack. Even better, I freeze them and just pull out what he needs the night before. For when I’m not, I’ve found having breakfast and granola bars, or pudding packs from Aldi’s are a cheap (although not as healthy), shelf stable, acceptable substitution in a pinch. I just make sure I have them on hand for the days my homemade snacks run out.

It’s amazing how much a vending machine or gas station charges for food and drinks; I can make days’ worth of food for the same amount of money spent on one item from these places.

The price of “convenience” is huge and I work hard to not waste our hard earned money on it. My husband is very sweet and tolerant about his bagged lunches. As long as he’s getting food, he doesn’t complain about what it is.

I hope this helps you circumvent the problems we had to work through on our own. Making your packed meals a success from the beginning.

Do you have any other suggestions to make bagged lunches work better or what mistakes to avoid? Let us know in the comments.

~ Caylin

5 Top Reasons to open an Ebay Store

April 17, 2018 by Kelsey Leave a Comment

Reasons to open an Ebay Store

Ever heard of those people with side hustle that earn boatloads of money and are able to quit their jobs and live happily ever after?! Well, I’m not one of them…yet… but I’m dabbling to see what works for my family in order to meet our goals and kick financial stress in the butt. So far I’ve found that opening an Ebay store has been exactly what my family needed for a side hustle.

There are few things I hate more than stressing about money so I’m figuring out ways to end this unneeded stressor. Much to my surprise, one of the things that has worked the best for us is selling items on Ebay through an Ebay store.

I bet the thought has crossed your mind at one point or another about selling that ugly bridesmaid dress or that Crock Pot (“Slow Cooker” for those of you who don’t live in the Midwest) you received for your wedding. I also bet it’s safe to assume that back in 2003, you even considered selling those exact items on Ebay. But if you’re like me, you’re thinking “this is 2018, isn’t Ebay outdated?” My answer for you is “absolutely not”! And I’m here to give you the inside scoop on Ebay Stores and explain how you could have been using this as a side hustle all along. But first…let me give you a little bit of back story on how it all started.

Close your eyes and picture this…it’s 9:00 pm on a frigid Wisconsin night of -15 degrees. The snow is whipping across the yard and I can hear its force making the house creak (so I’m being a little dramatic but I’m trying to paint the picture for you!) I’m standing in the entry, holding my month old baby girl in my arms and I’m crying. Why? Because my husband is leaving for his PM shift and I know that I will not see him from now (Monday) until Thursday. And on Thursday, I will only see him for about 30 minutes total. Then, because he will be so exhausted from his school/work schedule, he will pass out and get up at the very last minute to head back to work.

Meanwhile, I’m at home with my newborn (first child I might add) trying to figure everything out and running the house/family like I’m a single parent from Monday-Friday. Side note- HUGE shout out to all of you single Mamas or Mamas whose husbands work on the road for weeks at a time. I have no idea how you do it! Ok, back to my pity party…not only is this hard, but I’m still hormonal from being 1 month post-partum…so when I say crying, what I actually mean is sobbing.

I pretty much do this every night for 2 weeks before I decided that enough is enough and I NEED to find a better option for my family. I missed my husband and the last thing I wanted was for him to miss the first year of our daughter’s life! So that is when we went back to the drawing board and started praying.

This is when we decided to start our Ebay Store endeavor, allowing my husband to ease up on is crazy schedule and not feel financial stress. Through sales in our Ebay store, we are able to earn enough money for my husband to only work part-time at work so that he can get enough sleep to function AND be home with us more during the first few months of our daughter’s life. Bye bye nightly bawling sessions and hello husband.

Even as our financial/work situation changes down the road, I still envision using our Ebay Store to help pay off debt. Or, we can also use it to give us a little boost if there is something we are saving for like a vacation, new appliance, new furniture, etc.

I’m making the assumption that you all have your own “whys” when it comes to finding a side hustle and that many of you are in similar or even worse places than me and you’re trying to figure out your next step. My suggestion to you would be to consider opening an Ebay store and flip items to help fill in the gaps.

I’m a strong believer that everyone has the ability to make changes to improve their lives. So if you don’t like being stressed about finances (like me!), then stop worrying and do something about it!

There are MANY different ways to go about selling on platforms such as Ebay and Amazon but what works the best for my husband and me is flipping items. What I mean by this is that we find used or new items at places such as garage sales, thrift stores, and even clearance sections of stores like Wal-Mart at times and we sell them on our Ebay store for a profit.

Sound too good to be true? Let me be the first to tell you it’s not. You can EASILY make a profit on Ebay by using this method. Why? Because Ebay takes away the searching and puts items at others’ fingertips with a click of a button… and this is what you are being paid for.

Here are my 5 top reasons to open an Ebay store

1. You don’t need a significant amount of money to get started with an Ebay store.

Other side hustles are great, but you need $500 or $1000 or even more in start-up costs. I don’t know about you but we didn’t have that kind of money to throw out there. This involves VERY little startup costs since you are shopping at thrift stores. And if you really don’t have money to put forth, only start with five items and use the profit from those five to buy more items to flip and grow your business in that manner. I’ve even heard of people who start out by finding free items on Craigslist or Facebook buying and selling pages. These items are then flipped for a profit in their Ebay store. The profit is then put right back into the business, growing it a little at a time.

2. You can sell on Ebay on your time.

This was HUGE for me since I’m on maternity leave and heading back to work after my twelve weeks are done. I needed something simple and straight forward that I could work on during my baby’s naps. Sometimes it took me longer to get items listed because of a fussy baby but that’s OK. There is no crunch! Another plus is that if you start an Ebay store, you can put it on vacation mode. This allows us to leave for a week and not have to worry about shipping items late.

3. Ebay stores have reasonable seller’s fees.

I’ve also dabbled in Amazon FBA selling but there was so much money taken out in seller fees, taxes, etc. that I was struggling to break even. I also didn’t find it as straight forward as I have found an Ebay store to be. Plus, with the items I want to sell (thrifted items mostly) there wasn’t a big market for these on Amazon.

4. Quality time with my husband.

We both love to thrift. So when his schedule is permitting, we go thrifting together. It’s a fun “date day” where we are actually making money versus spending money. We also bring our daughter along, which allows not only for quality husband time but also quality family time.

5. Ebay stores really work.

Sometimes it feels like magic and sometimes I start to think “these items are never going to sell!!!” But then, my phone alerts me that another item sold! This happens time after time!

Did I hook you yet? I hope so!!! Because for my family, opening an Ebay store has been a great side hustle. We have found numerous benefits! These benefits have included decreased financial stress and allowing my husband to work part time so he can spend more time with us at home during the first few months of our daughter’s birth.

I also love to have multiple income streams to help cover for those unexpected curve balls life throws at you. Curve balls we have faced include car problems, storm damage, and new appliances. Oh the joys of “adulting”….

My goal is to use our Ebay store money to buy a new couch but every time I have saved up enough money, we have another curveball thrown our way. Part of me is always sad about not purchasing that elusive couch, but the other part of me rests easy knowing that we have money to fall back when things don’t go quite as planned!

What about you, have you opened an Ebay store and sold on Ebay before? What are some of the reasons you chose Ebay as a side hustle?

Stay tuned for my next post “Make Quick Money on Ebay” where I give you twenty-five tips and items to sell on your Ebay Store in order to help your sales go up and your wasted time go down!

Make Quick Money on Ebay

April 17, 2018 by Kelsey Leave a Comment

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Make Quick Money on Ebay

If you’re looking to make quick money on Ebay, you have come to the right place! I’m going to give you the exact tools and information you need to be successful. If you haven’t already, you can also read my previous post, “Five Top Reasons to Start an Ebay Store”. These two posts will get you well on your way to earning money quickly!

Ebay has been a great money maker for my family and just within a matter of weeks of upping our game of selling/flipping, my husband was able to go from working 4 days (well nights actually) to 3 days a week so that he could spend more time with us at home during our daughters first months of life! This is truly a God send for us because quality time is both of our love language and neither of us were getting what we needed with his crazy schedule!

Now, without further ado, here are my top tips for selling on Ebay and making quick money as well as a list of items you should snatch up if you see at your local thrift stores or garage sales. Keep reading so you can learn from my mistakes and save yourself time and money!

Top Ebay Tips for Growing your Income Fast

1. Check the box before you buy!!!

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve gotten home and opened a box to be surprised by its contents, and not in a good way. That Magic Bullet turned out to be some Walmart knock off brand, that Monopoly ended up being Candyland etc. While it’s not a big deal because thrift stores will typically give you store credit for the items, it’s annoying and a waste of time. Plus, I clearly got my hopes up and already saw the $ flowing in, only to find out I need to return it.

2. Ask to test the item in the store.

There is nothing wrong with finding an outlet and plugging that fan in before you buy it. The store doesn’t want to sell items that don’t work and you don’t want to buy something you have to spend time returning two days later.

3. Save your receipts.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to save your receipts because without fail you will get items that don’t work, or there will be a big scratch that you didn’t see etc. Stores will typically allow you to at least return for store credit if you have the receipt. This has saved me quite a bit of money, especially starting out when I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for.

4. Do your research.

When you are trying to decide if something is worth the money, take a look at current auctions as well as auctions that have ended with the product selling. All you have to do is go to the “filter” section and click on “sold items”. You are going to do two things here, first you are going to see if what price the current item is being sold for and how many of the item there are available. Next, you are going to check the “sold” section and see how much the item is actually going for and how fast they are selling. Here is what I have found works:

1. It is OK if there are many of the same item already listed, as long as they are also selling quickly. However, know that you are going to have to price competitively in order for yours to catch eyes.

2. If there are fewer items available, you might be able to increase your price slightly, as long as there is a demand for the product (which you can tell by seeing how many have sold recently).

5. Do not blindly sell your thrifted item for the price that Ebay suggests.

Again, do your research…take a look at current prices and how much similar or the same product have sold for recently. Choose your price based on that.

6. Don’t get greedy.

Set a price that is similar or slightly lower than the “going price”. You will always see people listing items for more than they are worth and then they don’t sell. Make sure you have competitive pricing.

7. Choose only “Auction” or only “Buy it Now”.

In order for your listing to be “free” You get a set amount of “free listings”, depending on your account type. However, if you do an auction/buy it now combo, it will cost money.

8. Be aware of Ebay’s limits.

They set limits for all sellers in order to verify that you will not be a fraudulent seller. Typically starts with 10, then 20, and then goes up from there. So don’t plan on making a full time income on one account until you have spent some months proving yourself. Proving yourself appears to be based off of a few things but mostly no negative feedback. There are also opportunities to call Ebay and request higher selling limits. You will have to answer some basic questions like how quickly you ship, if you plan on selling full time, and where you obtain your items from (garage sales, your home, thrift stores etc.)

9. Be sure to charge for shipping appropriately.

Ebay often auto-fills the shipping cost in for you, which can be awesome! But sometimes it gets the weight and dimensions WAY wrong so suddenly that 25 pound box is only 2 pounds according to Ebay and your profit just went out the window. Adjust accordingly and you will be fine.

10. Don’t purchase shipping at the Post Office.

There are MANY online resources for buying postage and you actually save 20-25% when utilizing these options. Hey, every dollar counts right? One resource we use is ShipStation. You can sign up for their free trial here if you want to test it out before you subscribe! If you decide to subscribe, one month is only $9 for the starter version. We have been able to save lots of time and money through buying our postage online through ShipStation!

11. Be sure to send your items “media mail”.

If it is a book, CD, or DVD. This will save you a TON of money due to the post office charging less for shipping these items.

12. Consider splitting items up and selling individually.

For example, take a look and see if you will get more money for an entire set of knives with a butcher’s block or selling the knives and block individually. It might be more work but if the price is right, it’ll be worth it!

13. Download the Ebay App.

You can scan bar-codes or take a picture of the item and search this way. The picture option is GREAT when you have no idea what an item would be called.

OK, now that you know why I sell on Ebay and have heard my top tips, here is a list of the top things I snatch up to sell.

1. Make Money on Ebay by selling Toys from the 90s:

I grew up in the 90s so I love this one! POG Maker, Furby, Pretty Pony, the list goes on…but check before you buy because it could be a replica that was made last year.

2. Make Money on Ebay by selling Kitchen Gadgets:

Knives sell really well if you can find a nice set with a butchers block. Other things I have found sell well are Magic Bullet, Baby Bullet, Keurigs, and any other instant (but brand name) coffee makers.

3. Make Money on Ebay by selling Electronics:

At times, there are some GREAT profit margins to be made here! But keep that receipt and try it out when you get home because electronics can be touchy and you don’t want to lose your money if it does not function properly!

4. Make Money on Ebay by selling Remote Controls:

I’ve heard (although I haven’t found any) that remotes can go for a decent price if they are for a specific TV or DVD player so keep a look out! But don’t even bother looking up a remote if it’s a universal remote. You can pick those up at Walmart for dirt cheap already so nobody is buying a used one on Ebay. Instead, look for remotes for TVs and DVD players such as Samsung, Sony, Vizeo, etc.

5. Make Money on Ebay by selling Phones:

I always, always, always look for phones at thrift stores. Any phones that are specific to helping those with hearing impairment often sell for a significant amount and are great to snatch up. I have one right now that we bought for $5 and we will be selling for around $90! That’ll be an $85 dollar profit for about ten minutes of work! Not all phones will be worth your time…in fact, most phones sitting there you won’t even be able to sell but if they look “fancy” be sure to look them up!

6. Make Money on Ebay by selling DVD players:

This one surprised me because I figured being used would drive the price down significantly and make it not worth my time. But I was wrong! If you see a DVD player that is in good condition AND has a remote control, look it up. Just be aware that if it does not have the remote, you will get significantly less.

7. Make Money on Ebay by selling Printers:

This one is very hit or miss but you can make a good profit so I always check it out. Sometimes you’re lucky to get $10 for a printer and other times you can get closer to $75.

8. Make Money on Ebay by selling Calculators:

Be sure to check the going price if you see a Texas Instrument calculator! You can make some decent money here. I often find older styles selling for $1 and sell them for $10-$15. You’re not making huge money here but they sell fast and are easy to ship, so it’s easy money.

9. Make Money on Ebay by Selling Routers:

Some of these are worth a pretty penny while others aren’t even worth a second glance. Keep your eyes open though because I just picked one up for $6 that I will be listing for $75.

10. Make Money on Ebay by selling Home Décor:

The two things I have found sell best right now are Big Mouth Billy Bass and the Audubon Singing Bird Clock…both items which were popular back in the early 2000s if I remember correctly. They are both currently selling for approximately $20 and I can usually find them for around $4 at our local thrift stores. Again, not a huge profit but they consistently sell so I will buy theme very time! I’m also on the lookout for other home décor items but I haven’t found anything else that regularly sells within a week (which is really my goal so I can avoid multiple listing fees for one item).

11. Make Money on Ebay by selling Clothes:

I haven’t dabbled in clothes too much because I get overwhelmed by the rows and rows of clothes but there are many people who solely sell clothes and brag great profits.

12. Make Money on Ebay by selling Baby Items:

If you have ever been pregnant, you know there are often lists upon lists of items people tell you to buy in preparation for baby. While you will likely get many of these items at showers, there will be plenty of things you will need to purchase on your own, which is why people turn to Ebay. Who wants to go shopping while 8 months pregnant…not me!!! Which is why I even bought a few things on Ebay when I was pregnant. A heated container for the baby wipes, Bumbo, Boppy Pillows…all things you can look for when thrifting.

Now that you have done a little research on Ebay, know my top tricks, and have a list of things to look for, go out and test it all and see what works for you! Once you get started and see how quick you can make money on Ebay, you won’t want to stop.

I’m excited to hear about your thrift store flipping and the gems that you will find! Comment below what have you found in the past or find after reading through this post!

60 Minute Morning Routine

March 23, 2018 by Caylin Leave a Comment

Mornings have been the bane of my existence.

I’ve never been a morning person or had any type of morning routine. Ever since I was a young child I’d stay up late and sleep in the next morning.

As I got older, certain necessities forced me to get up somewhat early in the morning (college classes, job, etc). I’d give myself just enough time to throw myself together and cross my fingers hoping to make it to my destination in the 25 minutes I allotted myself for the 30 minute commute.

I clearly remember one of my Biology professors asking me if I “was having some long evenings or if his lectures were just that boring,” after he’d caught me dozing multiple times in his 8 am class.

Fast forward a dozen years…I’m still not a morning person, but life has a funny way of making you conform to necessity.

That primary necessity being: getting my husband out the door for work in the morning before five AM!

After I had kissed him out the door my typical next activity was either head directly back to bed, or if not that tired, sit down and waste time perusing Facebook or Pinterest until my children woke up and my day was required to start.

Once in a while my disgust at the chaos and mess in my house won out and I’d spend my time digging in and going crazy cleaning and picking up what I was able to before life started.

Most of the time the blinders would go up and I’d plan on dealing with the mountains of laundry and piles of dishes at a more convenient time. Preferably when I’d enjoy doing them more. Funny thing was; the joy and overwhelming happiness of cleaning crusty Mac n’ Cheese out of last night’s pot (or let’s be real, two nights ago) and folding three huge baskets of laundry never hit me.

So the mess got worse until I couldn’t manage and I’d have to halt life to bring it back to a functioning level. I’d never quite make it to complete satisfactory conditions though.

Full disclosure, my mom often was the one who’d stop by for other reasons, and would stay and help me bring my home back from the brink. Nothing like mommy rescuing your house from disaster, to feel like a less than capable adult. 100% my fault and my mother is the most helpful, amazing, selfless person on this planet.

In my chronic struggle to reduce the chaos in my life I ended up joining an online bingo cleaning group. It maybe sounds hoaky, but it’s quite entertaining. The group encourages you to make lists for certain lengths of time (5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes) and they’ll call out random numbers on the appropriate times and you do the corresponding chore on your list.

This little group revolutionized my mornings and gave me my 60 Minute Morning Routine.

The five o’clock morning game happened to be six – ten minute slots. Since my husband is out the door at five, I decided to give it a try.

Within one week of doing this, my mornings, and thus my entire day had been entirely transformed. It’s amazing what you can get done in 10 minutes. It’s also shocking how fast one hour goes, when you are breaking it down into ten minute slots.

After a week or two my 60 Minute Morning Routine had a fairly consistent feel to them, although still flexible enough to accommodate the unique situations that sometimes arise.

My 60 Minute Morning Routine time slots are:

5:00-5:10 DISHES

I truly dislike doing dishes, and they seem to know my utter distain for them, and they chose to spite me by multiplying every minute I turn my back or leave the kitchen. When my husband and I bought our house we both had two “must haves” on our list: His were a garage and a decent sized yard, mine were at least two bathrooms and a dishwasher. Guess who didn’t get one of their “must haves”? (hint: our two car garage doesn’t have space for our vehicles and I can’t even see our truck and trailer through the trees in our backyard) Needless to say “dishes” has been a part of every To Do list I’d ever made before starting my 60 Minute Morning Routine.

In the first weeks of my new morning routine I often had Dishes listed at least twice out of my six chores and I’d still have dishes left. Amazingly after a short time it went down to one and now I can easily wash what I have, or sometimes it’s just put away the clean ones and tidy up the counters.

5:10-5:20 RANDOM CLEANING

This job varies depending on what is needed. Ten minutes is just enough time to get one chore done. I decide that morning or the night before which I’ll be doing.

My random cleaning choices rotate between:

Sweeping my hard floors
Vacuuming the carpets
Wiping down the bathroom
Picking up the living room and dining room
Stripping and remaking our bed

5:20-5:30 WASH HAIR OR THANK YOU NOTE

I wash my hair every other day. Ten minutes is more than enough time for a shower, as long as I don’t start daydreaming. Being conscious of how long my shower is taking is a good thing, and saves on water as well.

If it’s not a hair day, I decided it was a great time to quick sit down and jot off a thank you note. I often put off writing these, coming up with whatever excuse in my head works at the time. I’m also a perfectionist and think if it’s not a novel it’s not a good enough letter. So giving myself only ten minutes to write, address, and stamp a letter is the best way to get over that ridiculous self-requirement. One of my goals is to be more verbal in my appreciation of others. Funny how I never run out of people I can write thank you notes to.

5:30-5:40 MAKE BED, GET DRESSED, BRUSH TEETH

These items can usually all get done in one ten minute slot. I try to have my clothes picked out the night before. We also often end up with one, if not two, children in my bed by morning time. If this is the case I adjust accordingly and my bed doesn’t get made and if I’m lucky I can sneak into my room and quick grab clothes without the baby noticing and deciding it must be breakfast time.

5:40-5:50 LAUNDRY

There always is some form of laundry needing to be worked on. Whether it’s separating and starting loads, pulling out what’s in the dryer and folding it, or putting away what happens to be sitting in a basket. What’s amazing about this is that I no longer have: clothes that accidently sit in the washer for days, clean clothes still in a laundry basket from the week prior still waiting to be either folded and/or put away, or overwhelming piles of dirty laundry because my laundry day had somehow been interfered with and it seemed impossible to catch up. Those situations had been my reality for years.

5:50-6:00 MAKEUP and HAIR

I leave this one for last, since I don’t want to sweat it all off right away. It also sometimes takes longer than 10 minutes. As a mom of two children (soon to be three) three years old and under, doing makeup and hair hasn’t even existed in my vocabulary for the past quarter of a decade, except hurriedly in the car on the way to church, trying to time my swipes of mascara with the bumps in the highway so I don’t look like a zebra whose face is melting. Even now my routine is not complicated – foundation, eyeliner, mascara, and some definition gel or bobby pins in the hair. I’ve found that being a little more put together makes a world of difference on your perspective for the day.

The first 60 minutes of your day can set you up for an extremely successful day.

After a 60 Minute Morning Routine you’ve already had a successful day! Even if you’ve not done one other thing around your house that day, this morning routine ensures accomplishment. No longer scrambling the last minutes to pull yourself together, you can focus on all the other issues at hand, which always seem to grow as the day goes on. Here are a few more tips to make 60 Minute Mornings a success for you.

Choose and stick to your start time. Mine starts at 5 am, that doesn’t mean yours has to. By all means six o’clock or seven o’clock is just fine as well. I do recommend starting an hour before whatever time you typically get up. This quote puts it in perspective. “Every morning you have two choices: Continue to sleep with dreams or Wake up and chase your dreams. The choice is yours…..” A good compromise is to choose a time that you can handle, but it’s still earlier than your “normal” wakeup.

You don’t have to be repetitive with your mornings. Some people might find this repetitive schedule boring and uninspiring. Make it your own! If you’d rather do something different every ten minutes every day of the week, go for it! Don’t let guidelines set you up for failure if you know it’s not you.

Make longer time segments if necessary. Ten minute slots might not be the right length of time for you. They go quite fast, often I still have laundry and dishes remaining after my ten minutes working on them are up, I’m ok with that. I plan on doing more later that day, but that morning jump starts me on actually working on it. For you, this might be frustrating and lead to things being left unfinished. If that is you, then maybe you need four 15 minutes slots or two 15 minutes and three 10 minutes. Both are short enough to need focus and not be an overwhelming task, but that extra five minutes can get you through those slightly longer projects without having leftover work.

Set a timer. If you don’t want to be constantly looking at the clock or noticing you’ve run over one of your ten minute slots, set a timer. It’s not the end of the world, but still annoying since you’re now running behind on the next job and often you can’t catch up without cutting corners or skipping things. I recommend a nine minute timer. Most timers will alarm for one minute before they self-shutoff. Once the timer is going off you know you have one minute to wrap up your task. When the alarm stops you press start on it again and move on to the next job.

I’m hoping my 60 Minute Morning Routine helps you improve your mornings as much as it has me.

Please drop me a note sharing what you think or how it’s working for you!

~ Caylin

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