Do you struggle in the afternoons as a homemaker? Here’s my simple and flexible yet productive and successful afternoon routine!

Afternoons can be a struggle as a homemaker. You work hard all morning long to accomplish things and then that early afternoon energy crash sets in and you struggle to be motivated to get anything done.

Yet, there is still a lot of time to steward well and many things that need to be done during the afternoon before your man gets home.

Let me share with you my favorite afternoon routine so far and how I manage to be a productive homemaker in the afternoons.

A Quick Clean Up

I try to have lunch ready to go by noon so that we can eat and then have a little time to organize things before nap time. This doesn’t always happen, but I sure love it when I do have this extra time to tidy things up a little bit.

Here’s a few things I try to do during this time…

clear and wipe down the kitchen table
do the lunch dishes
clear the toys off the floor in the living room
tidy up the playroom

Like I said, these things don’t always happen every day, but it really does make nap time a lot more peaceful.

Naptime

This is by far one of my most favorite times of the day! As a homemaker, it can easily seem like you have no life of your own since you are constantly serving and sacrificing on the behalf of others almost if not all day long. I have found it super helpful to work really hard on my housework in the mornings while the kids are up, and use the time that they were asleep and quiet in the afternoon to do the things that I want to do but can’t necessarily do when they’re around.

Sometimes I blog or work on computer stuff. Sometimes I’ll work on a sewing project or another hobby. Sometimes I’m wiped out from the day of homemaking, and I just need a nap, or I might treat myself to watching a movie.

It all depends on the day, but for the most part, I try to work on my blog and online business stuff not because it has to happen but because I actually enjoy working on these things. It makes me so happy as a homemaker that I can be a full time SAHM and make a little egg money on the side!

Also, I choose to only work on my blog during nap time, so that when the kids are up, I can give my full attention to them, but when they’re not, I choose to use nap time as a quiet and more relaxing time for myself to do things that bring me joy. Typically, I don’t work on any chores, but focus on doing things that bring me delight and keep me off my feet for the most part.

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Midday Prayer Time

If you haven’t read The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction, you need to add it to your list. It’s a book about daily and weekly habits that will anchor your life in this world of distraction and shallowness.

One of the habits recommended is a midday prayer time. If you’ve read my morning routine, then you know, I try to have a time of reflection and devotion in the morning time, but it is also very helpful to take a few moments in the afternoon to re-dedicate your heart and home to the one who has so graciously and generously given your life.

It’s always refreshing to take a few minutes to feed your soul and commune with God and I find it especially helpful to have this time between nap time, where I typically work on devices for the most part and my tidy up routine. It’s a very good transition, too.

I try to do this before my children wake up from nap time, but sometimes they wake up early, so I invite them to do prayer time with me as a way to help me transition back into homemaking, and to help them cultivate healthy, spiritual habits.

Tidy Up

After the kids wake up and are settled back into the land of the living without needing my immediate attention, I use the time between nap time and preparing supper to tidy up the house before my man gets home.

Now, I have tried and used many different systems to keep my house in order. The one I currently use, and which makes the most sense for my life so far is called puttering.

Puttering means to go about accomplishing things, but not necessarily having a strict goal that you want to reach or making a to-do list of things that need to get done. It means to go about doing things as you see them.

I find puttering to be a very productive and successful way to reset my home quickly, and in a very motivating way. When it comes time to tidy up, I simply grab my broom, and perhaps a damp cloth for dusting and head to the farthest room of the house which is the master bedroom.

As I walk in, it’s easy to see what is out of place and what needs to be put away. I like to…

empty the trash or have my three-year-old do it for me
I do a quick dusting of the surfaces
make sure the bathroom is an order
sweep the floor

And then move on to the next room. I follow a sort of cycle through my house by starting in the farthest room and work my way through all the rooms until I have covered the entire house and at least have done something in each room.

Some days, I don’t have much time to give a lot of attention to each room, but I make it a priority to make sure that the entire house is swept. Having a clean floor is something that my husband really likes to have done when he gets home. Yes, he would appreciate having every single thing back in its place in the whole house, tidied up, but if I only had time to do one thing, he says, he really appreciates if the floor is clean, so I make it a priority to at least do that even if I don’t get to anything else done.

Something I find helpful to have with me while puttering around is to have a basket or a box with me so that when I am in one room and find something that belongs in another, I can simply put it in the basket or box and return it to the correct room when I get to it instead of running back-and-forth from different rooms to return things to where they belong. This saves me a bit of energy and sanity.

I have also heard of homemakers having a puttering basket full of all the things you could possibly need in order to set a room aright.

Things like…

All purpose cleaning spray
Dusting rags
Trash bags
Little cards and a pen so that you can leave a quick note to your man
A snack
Something that plays music or an audiobook

I have often thought of using a harvest apron, which is an apron that is designed to be tied up in a way that creates a large or several large pockets to use for this very idea.

Using this method of puttering to keep my house tidy has really taken the overwhelm, discouragement, and lack of motivation out of housekeeping. Since I have started puttering instead of using a to-do list or full on housekeeping system, I have actually found tidying up to be very delightful and a simple way to fit in a bit of exercise, too.

The beauty about puttering instead of having a to-do list is that it gives you the freedom to work on big projects as you’d like instead of having to schedule out time and waiting for motivation to actually get them done. You can simply jump to it if it comes to mind or if you see it and you want to get it done. Remember? You don’t have to set a goal or a list of things you want to accomplish. You’re simply doing things as you see them so you have the flexibility to pivot from one thing to another without feeling bad that you didn’t accomplish your to-do list.

Puttering is the most flexible and freeing way to tidy up your home!

Start Dinner

Sometime in the late afternoon, I begin working on dinner. One of my favorite things to do is to throw something in a cast-iron skillet to simmer on the back of the stove so that I can keep tidying up or working on a project like…

Decluttering a closet
Organizing a kitchen cabinet
Cleaning the baseboards or wall because I just so happened to see that they were dirty

I do this most often in the winter time with some kind of soup so that it can keep cooking without needing a lot of attention and so that I can keep working on stuff that I have been meaning to do but don’t always get done. This gives me the freedom to keep puttering all the way right up to the time my man gets home.

Final Thoughts!

I love having some structure to my afternoons, but find it incredibly helpful to keep it as flexible as possible especially when I have a nursing baby who could need me at any moment. It’s really hard to plan time-sensitive things in this season of mothering little ones.

It’s also extremely helpful to carve out some time just for me and for things that bring me delight because yes, I do sacrifice most of my life to the care of my household, but I am still a person who needs time to herself and time to do things that bring me rest and joy.

I also try to keep it in mind to be proactive and start supper early because you never know what will come up. The baby might need to be fed right when I think I can start supper or the kids might have an accident or might need a little more attention that I could not have foreseen them needing.

That way when my man gets home, everything is not complete chaos with things all disorganized, grumpy moods, and a supper that still needs to be cooked.

Giving myself some time to relax, having a flexible tidy up routine, and proactively starting supper early are the three things that help me be productive and have a successful afternoon as a homemaker.

A Productive Afternoon Routine