home like a business

How to Run Your Home Like a Business (and Stop Feeling Overwhelmed as a Stay-at-Home Mom)

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Hey Mama!

In this blog, we’re going to talk about how to run your home like a business so you’re not overwhelmed as a SAHM (Stay-at-Home Mom).

If you’re anything like me, you didn’t grow up learning how to run a home. I was career-driven and focused on becoming independent and being a stable adult. But when I left the military and became a stay-at-home mom, I was overwhelmed.

Grocery shopping, meal planning, cleaning, maintaining a calendar, keeping up with important documents—and on top of that, trying to start and build a business? It was a lot, and honestly, I wanted to scream all the time.

It was giving get someone else to do it! I kept wondering, What did I sign up for? And let’s not forget trying to have time for yourself, pour into your marriage, and maintain a social life. (crying into my blanket lol)

One day, while I was helping entrepreneurs build systems and processes for their businesses, a thought popped into my head:

“I can do this for my home.”

So I did. I started documenting everything and using a planner—and just like that, a home system was born.

Put a system in place

If you don’t want to be overwhelmed by your home, you need to put a system in place—something that allows you to wake up knowing what needs to be done while also giving you your time back.

That means breaking down those big, daunting tasks into smaller, manageable pieces.

For example: cleaning the entire house in one day?

That’s wild. You’ll be exhausted. And you still need to be present with your kids.

For me, cleaning happens four days out of the week—and that’s it. I use Fridays as a catch-up day if needed. On the weekends, I’m chilling. Of course, I still do small daily pick-ups around the house, but outside of that, it’s pretty simple.

I even used ChatGPT to help me create a cleaning schedule. Then I made a section in ClickUp, added recurring tasks, and left it alone.

This system has been a game changer for me.

The Systems I Use

I use three main tools to help me stay organized:

How I Use Apple Calendar

Apple Calendar is where I log important dates—appointments, reminders, and anything else time-sensitive. It helps me keep track of things when a new week or month rolls around and I’m trying to plan everything out.

How I Use ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management tool that many entrepreneurs use—but I use it for both my business and my home.

Honestly, it’s the home base for my house. I keep my cleaning schedule, finances, meal plan, and a section for important dates there.

I love that I can schedule tasks and view everything on a master calendar—which I also sync to my Apple Calendar. Having things in multiple places actually helps me remember them and stick to a repeatable system.

One of my favorite features is the ability to set recurring tasks. I don’t have to think about them again—it’ll just remind me when it’s time. I mark it complete when I’m done, or if I don’t get to it, it’ll stay overdue so I remember to come back to it later.

Here’s a screenshot to show you what it looks like on my phone:

Buy the Home Management System Template Here

How I Use the Intentional Living Planner

I had been searching for a planner where I could do a little bit of everything—and I finally found it! It’s from the brand Detailed. Check it out [here].

The planner was created for multi-faceted women, so you can keep everything in one place. It’s digital, and although I never thought I’d use a digital planner, I love that I can write on it and cross things off. It gives me the same satisfaction as using a paper planner.

There’s so much you can do with it:

  • Create a grocery list
  • Brain dump your to-dos
  • Organize tasks under categories like home, self, career, ministry, and community
  • Assign tasks to specific days
  • Use the daily planner sheets to map out your week

Here’s what it looks like from my Ipad

The Intentional Living Planner is a digital planner. So you will need to use Goodnotes. Here is a link to an affordable IPAD and IPAD pencil that you can get started with. It’s what I use and it has worked for me without breaking the bank.

Click here to shop IPAD essentials to start digital planning

At first, the planner might feel overwhelming because it goes deep—asking about your life vision, goals, and more. If that’s too much right now, Detailed also has smaller planners to help you ease in.

I recommend the Weekly Starter Planner and the Daily Starter Planner. I began with the weekly one, and when I felt ready, I upgraded to the full Intentional Living Planner.

Lastly, Find what works for you

The key to running your home like a business is finding tools that work for you. If you prefer a simpler approach, stick with that. A system is only helpful if you actually use it.

Sometimes, complicated tools make things harder. So, find what’s easy to apply and build from there.

Everything I mentioned above works for me—but it took time, trial, and error to figure that out.

Check out these blog posts where I share how I mean plan and the simple and realistic cleaning schedule I created.

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