How to Use an Online Calendar to Run Your Household More Efficiently

Running a household can be a lot of work, especially when you’re balancing it with a day job or business. My husband and I often feel like we’re enduring some of the busiest years of our life. There is always something to do and relaxing and enjoying downtime is something that has to be strategically planned out.

I find that keeping an online calendar can be a great way to manage and run the household more efficiently. Without having a system to organize and plan out important tasks, we’d probably always be cleaning, cooking and making stores runs which isn’t fun.

Here’s how you can use an online calendar to run your household more efficiently.

Plan and Schedule Out Weekly Chores

Use your online calendar to plan and schedule out weekly chores so everyone in the household is doing their part. When things get busy at home, chores is one of the first things to fall by the wayside. Before you know it, laundry and dishes are piling up. Because I work from home, it’s challenging for my to work productively in a cluttered or disorganized space so it starts to affect my workflow. In the past, we’ve used a dry-erase board to list out chores and responsibilities but who really looks at those?

What people spend most of their time looking at is their phones so it makes sense to set up an online calendar for chores. Each task can have a ‘due date’ where the person who’s assigned to complete the chore will get reminders leading up to the ‘event’.

You can also set up recurring chore tasks with an online calendar which is great for consistency. If something needs to be cleaned each week or every 2 weeks, it will show up on the calendar.

Plan Meals

My son is notorious for asking me what’s for breakfast or dinner all the time. I’d like to know the answer too some days so I’ve found it best to have a meal plan so we have a good idea of what we’re eating each night.

Having a meal plan also helps me save money on groceries and eliminate food waste. We don’t always stick to our meal plan 100%, but the key is that we have a plan to look at. Sometimes meals get moved around but knowing that we have something on the calendar helps us utilize more of the food we buy instead of wasting it and ordering takeout.

Having a meal plan also helps me plan other areas of my life that day. If I know I have to cook dinners for a few nights, I make sure my calendar is free around 5 pm so I can do that. Then the following day, I’m free to schedule other things or relax especially if we’re eating leftovers from the previous night.

Set Up Recurring Events For Extracurriculars

Part of the reason why I feel so busy in my home life right now is due to my son’s extracurriculars. I don’t mind him doing activities and think it’s especially good for kids to get out and do something fun. But I have to keep organized with a calendar to make sure that I’m not missing soccer practices and games along with anything that his homeschool group is doing.

It makes sense to have all of these events on the same editorial calendar since it affects how we manage the household. Either my husband or I have to take him to practice and pick him up. Schedules need to be coordinated and this all needs to be planned out. Plus, it’s so easy to forget something or get overbooked.

Schedule Periodic Decluttering Sessions

I love decluttering and re-organizing our home, but it’s much easier to keep up with these tasks when I schedule them periodically. You can use an online calendar to schedule out when you’ll declutter your room and other areas of your home, when you’ll switch over your wardrobe, reorganize your pantry and other similar tasks.

Sometimes tasks like these can seem overwhelming when they all pile up. Setting periodic calendar events for these maintenance tasks can eliminate stress and overwhelm while still helping you keep an organized home.

Plan Shopping Trips in Advance

My husband would be at the store every single day if I didn’t take it upon myself to plan out shopping trips in advance. We shop for groceries every two week and create a two-week meal plan. We order a lot of household supplies through Amazon Subscribe and Save each month.

Then, we usually do one general store run every week or so when the list of things we need start to pile up. Finally, we go to the bank about once a week as necessary.

We add all these store runs to our online calendar out so we know when they’ll happen. Having a plan makes it so much easier to spend much less time at the store and save more money too.

Go Over the Calendar With Family Each Week

Considering sitting down with your spouse and kids each week to go over the family calendar. This is one of the best ways to use an online calendar to run your household more efficiently. If your kids are old enough to have cell phones or access to a computer, make sure you assign them tasks and add them to the calendar.

During your weekly meeting, you can discuss what events are coming up and explain which events are coming up, tasks that need to be completed and more. Use your online calendar to not only track your household tasks and responsibilities but also to keep up with what other people are doing as well.

This can make it easier to see if either you or your spouse has too much on their plate and the work needs to be more evenly distributed.

Summary

When you think about it, your online calendar can be used to manage various different aspects of your home life and family planning whether it’s keeping up with chores and home maintenance or planning vacations and meals.

It can also eliminate tedious tasks like having to repeat the same request to someone or fall so far behind with chores and other responsibilities.

Have you considered setting up a family calendar online to help run your household more efficiently? Why or why not?