By Elizabeth from Busy Mom

My husband and I both work outside the home and we have 3 kids in school, and we all have to be out the door in the morning by 7:00 at the latest.

One key to keeping things under control is to do as much as possible the night before.

Every night, I ask each of the kids to pack their backpacks and get their clothes completely ready. However, they continue to be amazed that this includes shoes and belts even though they’ve been doing this since the late nineties.I also ask them to mentally run through what the next day will be like and get together any special needs such as library books, musical instruments or gym clothes and put coats and backpacks by the door, ready to go.

I even do this with my high schooler, because if I don’t, she’ll be rooting through the laundry for clothes at 5:30 am that should have been located the night before.

While they are doing that, I fix lunches, lunch money, snacks, etc. even when I don’t feel like it. If I wait to do it in the morning it just seems to make the whole morning “off” for some reason and we run late.

I also post what I call an “Out the Door” list on the door that can be checked as we go out to the car. It’s a day by day listing of every thing we need. It includes things like lunch, gym clothes, sports practices, library books, etc.

In the mornings, it’s important to establish a routine: get up at the same time and do things in the same order each day. That way, everyone knows what comes next and will hopefully learn to stay on track.

The hardest part about reducing morning chaos is disciplining yourself to get up at the same time each day to get the routine going and keep it on track.

That’s why I let my husband do that part.