Being a parent has its precious moments, but sometimes parents need a moment to pause and relax when feeling overwhelmed. There are a couple of things parents can do to feel less stress that will give you sometime to relax before resuming parenting duties.
One of the best ways to destress is through some decluttering but it isn’t for the sake of just throwing things away. Everyone has some older clothes or things they don’t use as much anymore that can be donated, starting with kids’ clothes that they are growing out of by the second. Having a clutter-free environment will help keep your house tidy and you’ll have fewer things to take care of that you rarely use anyway.
It might seem that many of these suggestions are chores, but these are things you must do regardless and can be one less thing on your list to do. Cleaning the main surfaces is an important chore to keep your countertops and surfaces in pristine condition along with disinfecting them. Having a clean countertop will give you peace of mind during your next projector preparing a meal.
You can also try doing a house sweep by quickly going from room to room in the house and put things out of place back where they belong so it’s easier to find the next time you’re trying to find something. This can be super easy in kid’s rooms with baskets or organizers for toys with most toys on the floor anyways and you can teach your kids organization by having them put away their toys.
You can also consider macro-organizing by giving everything a specific place for storage or micro-organization where you organize things within their specific storage space. You can also have your kids help and teach them the easy organization that will help you with chores around the house.
If you’re feeling really stress, try getting some healthy takeout so you won’t have to worry and keep the kids occupied for a relaxing moment to read a book, listen to a guided meditation, listen to a podcast, or start an audiobook. This will give you a moment of relaxation with some peace and quiet without having to worry about cooking or cleaning for dinner.
Another productive stress break is going through all your paperwork stacked up from mail to bills. When going through your papers there is one less thing to worry about by organizing your paper documents in three categories: papers that require action, papers that need to be filed for records, and papers that need to be thrown away. You can also organize your documents using folders for things such as bills, important insurance information, financial records (paid bill statements), and more.