The Nightly Reset (aka: Putting your house to bed)
You probably have some sort of bedtime routine that involves putting on your jammies and brushing your teeth. A nighttime routine for your home is just as valuable. You can think of this as a daily reset, or you can think of this as putting your house to bed. Whatever is more helpful for you.
When you are thinking about your Nightly Reset Routine, think big picture. What are the quick things you can do each night to start your next day with a fresh, clean slate. You may have a slightly different routine based on your circumstances but here is what I do as part of Putting My House to Bed. I focus on the most used areas in my home: The kitchen/dining area and our family room.
Putting the Kitchen to Bed: Load the Dishwasher, Start the Dishwasher, Wipe the Counters and Clean the Kitchen Sink. I have trained my young sons (ages 3 and 6) to clear their place at the table after each meal. By dinner time, my kitchen sink is full and it’s time to load the dishwasher. When all of the dishes are already in the sink, I can load a dishwasher full of dishes in 5 minutes. It’s actually shocking how helpful it is to have my boys clear their own places at the table. Then, of course there is the actual starting of the dishwasher - easy. I can do that in less than a minute. Then there is the Wiping Down Counters and Dining Table step. I don’t love doing this step but there is something very calming about having clear, clean counters. Depending on how cluttered my counters have become throughout the day I would say this takes me another 5-10 minutes. And then finally, I’m ready to clean the sink. I just put a bit of dish soap on my dish scrubber and scrub away. This is a 1 minute task. So all in, I’m very realistically looking at less than 20 minutes to put my Kitchen to Bed.
Putting the Family Room to Bed: This is purely a tidying exercise. Put toys away, put blankets back in the blanket basket, etc. My young sons know that if they get toys out to play, they are responsible for putting them away. If you live with young humans, identify the largest contributor to clutter in your family room. Is it your kid’s toys? Or, perhaps it’s books. Or games. Or blankets. Whatever it is, take note and reduce the access to that item. Take some books out of rotation. Put some blankets in a linen closet, rotate your toys and games so they still have opportunities to play but not with every toy/game at a single moment.
For us, tidying up takes about 5 minutes. Yes, there are some days when my kids don’t want to tidy. If we have the time and energy to help we will assist. We also have made the expectation clear in our house that if you care about toys and would like to play with them in the future, they need to be picked up at the end of each day. Also, I remind them that whiskers comes out each night.
Who is whiskers? Whiskers is our robot vacuum. He does most of our maintenance vacuuming and I love him. Some people are hesitant to get a robot vacuum (especially a “dumb” one like we have) because they are required to pick things up off the floor. I like to look at this as a feature, rather than a set back, of a robot vacuum. It forces us to do some level of tidying if we want the vacuuming to be automated. For me, clean floors are a priority. And you know what I love even more than clean floors? Clean floors that I didn’t have to vacuum myself.
Why am I a huge fan of a Nightly Reset? I think it helps busy families feel more calm and settled at home. I think you get to enjoy your time at home more often when you aren’t living in a perpetually messy house. I think it contributes to good energy in your house, too. It brings a freshness and a peace to the space that is very hard to feel in a messy, cluttered home. I truly believe that outer order contributes to inner calm (thank you Gretchen Rubin!). It also helps busy families feel like there is a cadence to their life and their week. The routine feels grounding.
I also like this because you feel like your house is always just 25 minutes max away from some peace. It feels achievable. Maybe you will be more likely to invite friends over more often because you know you can reset things quickly.
I like that you get to wake up to a clean kitchen and a tidy living room. I like that the floors are vacuumed. I get to welcome the day without feeling the weight and the chaos of a messy house.
When do I do my nightly reset? After dinner and usually before we get ready for bed. I typically load the dishwasher, start the dishwasher, wipe the counters and clean the sink shortly after dinner. (My wonderful husband usually unloads the dishwasher in the morning. Clear and Fair Division of Labor is Magic and Unifying!). Before we all get ready for bed we tidy the family room up together (or my husband helps the boys while I’m finishing up putting the kitchen to bed). If it’s a solo parent night, the boys are usually on their own as far as tidying.
What if I don’t have energy to do a Nightly Reset? I totally get it. I recommend setting a floor. IfI only have 5 minutes and/or very limited energy I will do only 2 things: load the dishwasher and start the dishwasher. I will go to bed with a messy living room, dirty kitchen counters, a dirty kitchen sink and crumbs all over my floor. Life happens. Set a floor and give yourself permission to do the bare minimum if that’s what you need on that day.
Another thing I like about a nightly reset is that the rewards are pretty instantaneous. And my family gets to enjoy the intrinsic reward of a calm and peaceful way to end our day.
How you can implement a Nightly Reset.
Identify the most important spaces to address that will help your morning run smoothly. For me that will always be the kitchen. But maybe for you it's a different space.
Set an amount of time that works for your family and work backward from there. How much time are you willing to dedicate to a nightly reset? Is it 10 minutes? Or 20 minutes. I would trim down any nightly reset that takes you longer than 30 minutes. You can also start small and work your way up.
If there are other members of your household, work together to figure out what is important to them and how you can divide and conquer.
Decide on a bare minimum, 5 minute reset. What is most important for you to do if you only have 5 minutes or it’s been one of those days and you just can’t stomach a full Nightly Reset? Set a floor and give yourself permission to do the bare minimum if that’s what you need on that day.
