What: To save time and aggravation, get ready for tomorrow before you go to bed tonight.

The Lowdown: Too often we try to pack too much into our mornings while we’re getting ready to head out the door. This can lead to sending the kids to school unprepared, forgetting things we need for our own day, and spending the rest of the day running twenty minutes behind schedule. To make your mornings less frantic, spend some time the night before getting prepared. Some things you can do to save time and stress in the morning:

~ Spend fifteen to twenty minutes picking up the house. Too much clutter makes it more difficult to find things. And I don’t know about you, but when I wake up to a messy house I feel stressed from the get-go. You don’t have to spend hours deep cleaning, a few minutes in each room picking up toys, mail, and magazines should do the trick.

~ Get clothing ready for tomorrow. Laying out clothing can be a huge time saver in the morning. I usually ask my kids for their input on outfits. There have been too many mornings with temper tantrums thrown because my daughters don’t want to wear what I’ve picked out. If we all have our clothing ready for the next day, there won’t be any last minute buttons to sew, blouses to iron, or temper tantrums to endure (not over clothing anyway!).

~ Pack lunches ahead of time. If the kids take lunch to school or you or your partner carry lunch to work, get it ready the night before. This can be a big time saver in the a.m.

~ Put everything you need to take with you by the door. Make sure homework is in backpacks and files are in briefcases, and place everything you need where it’s easy to grab on the way out the door. This makes it less likely someone will forget something important and saves you from ransacking the house to find something at the last minute.

~ Relax. Make sure you have a little downtime for yourself at the end of every day. Taking some time to decompress with a bath, a good book, a steaming cup of herbal tea, or some yoga or stretching exercises will leave you feeling tranquil and less stressed when you get up to start your day tomorrow.

What I say: I do not always take my own advice. We have many a morning in my house spent chasing backpacks and digging up something for lunch. When my day starts off crazy, I find the rest of the day is more likely to follow the same way. On the days I take the time to do a bed time routine, things run much more smoothly and I end up saving time in the long run.