What do you want your evenings to be like? Peaceful? Restful? Happy? Contented?
Then, friend, you need an evening routine! An evening routine or rhythm of events can help you unwind from the day.
You have been working hard all day caring for your family and home. At the end of the day, you don’t need to do more housework if you can help it. Sure, you might have to wash dishes or sweep under the table, but this is not the time to catch up on all the stuff you couldn’t get done during the day.
It’s time to do what needs to done, enjoy a meal, clean up the kitchen, and then just relax.
Here’s what we strive for in our evening routine as a family.
Supper Time
Evening routine at our house starts with supper. We set the table and enjoy an old-fashioned supper time with lots of food from scratch on our nice dishes. I like to have the table set and almost everything done before my husband gets home from work because soon as he drives up, it’s time to celebrate because Daddy’s home! And it’s time to feast!
Yes, we eat on nice dishes often even with little kids. My set of china is second hand so although I love it I would rather use it adding a charming touch to our everyday then store it somewhere afraid that it might get broken. It’s too beautiful not to be enjoyed!
I do have corelle ware plates that I love, too. These work great if I need to stick something in the microwave. So sometimes we use china and sometimes we use corelle ware, but I amorally trying to get away from using plastic plates. This isn’t for health reasons though I am sure there is some benefit from it. It’s more because ceramic plates and bowls are more beautiful and add quality to our mealtimes.
After a leisurely eaten meal (well, we try to make it leisurely if the children let us.), we clear the table and move to the living room to relax a little before doing dishes, and reset in the kitchen.
Dish time/kitchen reset
By seven, it’s dish time. I have learned that if I don’t set a time to do dishes, I tend to put it off because it’s one of my least favorite homemaking chores. Setting a start time is really helpful for me to get the kitchen cleaned up in a decent time.
I have also been very intentional about becoming more efficient with washing dishes. Dishwashing, whether you have a dishwasher or you are the dishwasher, is still a necessary part of life and unfortunately, it can be time consuming. It was taking so much time that I purposely made myself stop and think about every single step in the process to see if I was doing it the best way. It sounds very tedious, but in the end after tweaking some things, I actually cut the time I do dishes in half.
That’s more time I can spend with my family and relaxing in the evening!
Time to relax
After the dishes comes my favorite part of the day!
As a homemaker, and a mom (and perhaps for anyone), work is never done. There is always more to do and not enough energy or time to do it all.
Occasionally, I’ll do house, work related stuff in the evening, but most of the time, if it doesn’t get done before supper, or during my pre-supper, tidy routine, it can wait till the next day.
We need to rest, just as much as we need to work. To create a place where we flourish or thrive and not just survive, we cannot work all day long. Eventually, we will crash or get burnt out.
This is why I purposely have a cut off time for my house work. If it doesn’t get done before supper, then it doesn’t need to happen that day.
Bedtime
Around eight, we start getting the children ready for bed, and after we get them down, and actually sleep, we head to bed ourselves.
My husband hast to get up early to get around and make it to work on time, but I am one of those people who need 8 to 9 hours of sleep every night. So we go to bed early.
We do like to read or talk for a bit, but we have found that we were more likely to flourish the next day if we go to bed around 9:30.
Perhaps I’m too passionate about rest, but I have seen homemakers get burnt out simply because they weren’t getting the rest they need. Especially as a mom of the littles, a good night sleep is nearly sacred.
I almost forgot to mention our bedtime snack. The children usually say they’re hungry and end up sleeping better with a snack in their tummy.
It’s helpful for me, too. I sleep better, and I also find that when I’m weary from a good hard day of homemaking that I can easily get depressed in the evenings. Having a little balanced snack before bed helps me flourish and be a happy homemaker even when I’m tired.
Final Thoughts!
After reading this, I hope you are convinced that evenings should be relaxing and are not for extra housework. We worked all day! Now it’s time to chill and enjoy the family God has given us!
So, friend, do you have an evening routine or have you been inspired to start one?
Taking time to make and implement even a simple evening routine like this one can really help eliminate chaos and bring peace and joy to the end of another lovely day as a homemaker!
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MORE ON HOMEMAKING!
Daily Routine: A Simple Daily Schedule for Homemakers
Morning Routine: How to be a Productive Homemaker
The Vintage House Dress: A Perfectly Simple Homemaking Dress Code
What a lovely post Naomi! Our evenings look very similar, but I do tend to squeeze extra hours of computer time in after my little ones in bed and it can be all too easy to lose track of time. Thank you for the reminder to be in bed at a decent hour (9:30 would probably work for me too!). Looking forward to following along with your blog 💛
Aw, thanks! Yes, I have to keep myself from doing computer stuff in the evenings because I get to excited about what I am doing and then I can’t sleep! lol