How to Organize the Chaos and Start Living a Life that Thrives

Live in order.

How do I organize the chaos? It’s a question I get a lot.

This is the first post in a series aimed at helping you to get organized in order to live, well… in order! Don’t get me wrong. It’s great to be flexible and spontaneous. But order brings peace and I’m sure we can all agree that we need a little more of that in our lives!

Organized chaos. What exactly is that? It’s my life! I know every day is going to be jam-packed with activities and errands and forms to fill out. If I leave it all up to remembering on my own, well, chaos is what I get. Being able to organize the chaos is what allows me to know when we have a little more flexibility in our schedule and when we absolutely have to be somewhere.

“Can’t we live without a plan?” We all do from time to time. Not having a plan, though, can cause anxiety, frustration, and tension. It’s hard to really thrive in inconsistency. Taking just a little time to organize your lifecan help you get a clear focus and can take you from surviving to thriving.

My chaos isn’t going anywhere any time soon. It’s part of having a large family. Lots of people doing lots of things all the time! But with so many new things happening, and with school just starting, I feel like I’ve lost my grasp. I let a lot of things go over the summer and now the craziness has enveloped me. So, I’ve taken some time to regroup.

What does it look like to organize the madness? For me, it’s a hallway corkboard. I use the old Pinterest hack of using paint color samples from the home improvement store as my calendar days. You can get these free at stores like Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Wal-Mart. I love using these for my calendar. For one thing, I can create the color scheme I want and try to coordinate by season or holiday.

Secondly, if I can get samples that have 3 or 4 colors per card, I can have a specific color for each child for each day. It makes it much easier for me visually and I’m able to find things I need without having to search. I have an oversized board, which is wonderful because it gives me room to pin other important things to remember: invitations, school lunch calendars, and those pesky t-shirt order forms. Seriously! Who needs that many shirts?!

Do I really need to organize dinner?

Yes! The weekly dinner menu goes on my board. I have the worst time trying to get dinner ready at an acceptable time. Not even a great time… just an acceptable time. And more times than not, it’s far too close to bedtime before anyone is sitting down at the dinner table to scarf their food before lights out. Anybody else out there?

We’re one month into this school year and I have maybe actually planned 8 meals. That means 75% of what we’ve eaten for dinner has been an afterthought. So, I’m going back to the menu system. I’m planning our weekly menu and making a grocery list based on it. It sounds simple, right? I’m sure most of you already do this. So why am I having such a hard time? (Kudos to you moms who are killing it in the making-dinner-and-getting-your-kids-to-bed-on-time department. You’re awesome!)

Check out this post that helps make meal planning simple.

I’ve put an ingredients list on the menu so that I can check my pantry and add it to my grocery list if needed. By the way, I’m a list kind of personality. Please excuse, in advance, my regular referrals to lists of any kind. It’s just my way. I don’t necessarily feel compelled to check off boxes, but it really helps keep me grounded and feeling more in control of my time, my feelings, and myself.

I’ve attached a free printable version of the menu that I created here: Atomic Mom Weekly Meal Plan

I always plan our menu around whatever activities we have going on. If I know that we have a busy night on Tuesday, I’m not going to plan a meal that requires a long time standing over the stove. I can, however, wake up 10 minutes earlier in the morning to throw some things into the Crockpot. At this point, I’ve organized the chaos. As much as it can be.

Remember, you won’t stay on track if you don’t keep things updated. Being able to organize all your information once isn’t enough. Make sure to have extra pins on your board for things that seem to come out of nowhere. I like having a basket for pens and markers so I can add things to the calendar immediately, without having to search the house for a writing utensil. This corkboard really is the activity hub of our home and it’s so much easier to keep up with when everything is already there.

Organized or not, be careful not to overcrowd your schedule. It’s still easy to get overwhelmed and it’s important to plan for yourself. We are moms; the glue that holds our homes together. We take on every role set before us, sacrifice our own desires to fulfill the needs of others, and do it all while never taking a sick day. So, plan some time for yourself. Have coffee with friends. Read a book with a hot cup of tea and a cozy blanket after the kids have gone to bed. Take some time to connect with your spouse.

Most importantly, take time to connect with Jesus. When He is first, it helps to put all other priorities into the correct places. You can always trust that He has a plan, even when you don’t. A plan for you. And just like that, the chaos isn’t so overwhelming.

So, here I go! Focused and prepared to start my week with a bang. How do you stay on top of things? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section!

Have a great week friends!