You may wonder, but what do journaling and keeping a house clean have in common? More than you think! From listing the household tasks to noting your meal plan, you’ll see with these journaling ideas how it will help you keep your home and family under control.
First, we’ll see how journaling helps organize the home, and I’ll give you my tips for cheap journaling supplies and what to search for in order to find the best journaling pen. After that, I’ll share with you some examples of journaling I use to stay organized, 2 journaling ideas for beginners, and my best journaling prompts to resolve issues creatively. Ready?
Why does journaling help to organize the house?
Journaling helps in various ways.
First, it helps clear the mind from the mental clutter that pills up even more quickly than the physical one. By jotting something down, you allow it to stop popping into your brain again and again. You know, that appointment you need to make? Write it down, and keep going with your day!
You’ll also be more efficient in organizing your ideas and tasks when they are in front of you instead of passing thoughts, and you’ll plan your next moves with more ease.
The last advantage of journaling is to keep track of the past. For example, if you follow the habit of noting your meals, you’ll have ideas ready to cook next time you need to go to the grocery store.
How to find cheap journaling supplies and the best journaling pen
You don’t need an expensive notebook. My husband uses small notebooks he found at the supermarket. For a better experience, you only need a notebook made of smooth paper that’s thick enough so you don’t see through the pages. I use a Filofax notebook because I love that it’s refillable, but you can find good-quality notebooks that are cheaper than that.
Concerning the pens, you can go without fancy ones. I even suggest you do so at the beginning and buy pens later when you know better what you’ll need. I recommend you choose a pen that runs smoothly on the page so you enjoy using it better. My suggestions are a gel pen or a small felt tip. I started with a ballpoint pen. Now, I use mostly my Faber-Castell pens.
Examples of journaling ideas that help tackle housework and organize yourself
I’ve become a journaling woman during the last few years, and that really improved how organized I am. Here are some examples of journaling ideas I practice.
My daily journaling ideas to try
First, I started using a bullet journal to organize my weeks and days and to remember any appointments I had or events like my family members’ and friends’ birthdays.
Then, I discovered the morning pages to sort out my mental clutter and find creative solutions to issues. The principle is simple. Every day, soon after you get up, you write 1000 words (around 3 pages) of your thoughts without filtering them.
Even if it was developed first for the artists, it works even if you’re not one of them. Everyone has some kind of creativity, and the morning pages let it speak.
I don’t have time to write the 3 pages daily, but even a page greatly clears my mind. For example, that’s how I found out how to organize cleaning with my husband better when we didn’t manage to keep up with it.
Other examples of journaling I use
When I’m particularly overwhelmed, I like to do what’s called a brain dump. You jot down any tasks or things you can think of during a set duration (usually 5 to 10 minutes). Then, you can sort them by priority.
If prioritizing is tricky for you, I suggest comparing the first 2 items of your list to define which is the most urgent. Then, you compare the 3rd task with the less urgent task to know which you need to do first. Then, if it’s more urgent, compare it with the first task, and so on. Take the 4th task and compare it to the others until the other task is more urgent than the one you need to sort. The priority tasks will bubble up to the start of your list, and you’ll be able to tackle them first.
To avoid being overwhelmed, I also use my journal to list the small steps of my bigger projects and plan them.
Two journaling ideas for beginners
If the previous journaling ideas seem like a commitment that is too great, here are my simpler journaling ideas for beginners (or not!)
First, you can keep a food journal to create a list of meal ideas. I do this in my bullet journal with a notation system to remember if we liked the meal or not. Every month, I review the meals we’ve had to fill out my master list of recipes with the newly loved meals. I also note the website where I‘ve found the recipe to cook it again more easily. Tech tip: add “site:myperfectrecipes.com” to your search keywords to get results that only come from the website you indicate.
My second easy journaling idea is to track your cleaning tasks. That has 2 goals: knowing beforehand what you need to clean and keeping track of the less frequent tasks for which we tend to wonder when we did it.
My best journaling prompts to declutter and clean your home
To make the best of journaling prompts, you need to let the inspiration come. Most of the time, you could reply to the prompt in a sentence and declare it done, but the magic happens after that answer that comes from the top of your mind. So, once you’ve written this answer, see what comes. Chances are you didn’t think of the prompt that way!
Here are the prompts I use regularly:
- Which space bothers me the most and why? How can I improve it?
- What task do I find tricky? How can I simplify it?
- What object can’t I let go, even if I know I should? What are the reasons to keep it?
- What habit do I struggle to follow? What could make it simpler?
Start including these journaling ideas in your life
Journaling doesn’t have to be time-consuming and will often save time later. If you’re not used to journaling, start with the simpler ideas or by using the prompts. To build the habit, a solution can be to stick this new habit to one you already follow. Do you plan your meals? Write them in your journal at the same time and give a rating to the previous ones. Do you write your to-do lists on whatever paper you can find? Why not group them in your journal instead?
Do you need more help to organize yourself? I let you look at how you can organize your life in one week!
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