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We all have things we do that make sense to us. For example, my mom always taught me that laundry is done early in the day, so that you can hang it out on the line to dry. For a really long time, I always did my laundry in the morning. After about a year of being married to Elliot, there was a day that I didn’t get around to laundry, and he said,

“It’s okay, I’ll just throw a load in after dinner.”

I’m pretty sure my brain exploded.

“WHAT?! You can’t do laundry at night!”

“Why not?” he asked me.

“Well, you can’t, because it has to be done during the day!”

“But why?”

And this moment here, is when I started realizing that I’m an idiot.

“So it can dry on the line!”

To which, my sweet husband gently reminded me,

“Honey, we don’t have a clothesline.”

While I was borderline religious about doing laundry early in the day, it made absolutely no sense, because the laundry was going to be dried in the dryer, which is equally efficient at drying clothes at any time of day.

Which is why I’m looking at the things I do already, and I’m picking out the great ones that really do make a lot of sense to me.

I mean, life is made up of a tiny little things that we do every day. Some of our habits are really not great, and some change our life for the better. Today I’m sharing some habits I’ve picked up over the years that just make my life better. They work for me, and they make perfect sense.

tidy up main living areas before going to bed.

After reading American Cozy, I started doing a 20-30 minute cleanup in the evening before getting ready for bed. It’s a hard stop at 30 minutes, so whatever didn’t get done by then is left for tomorrow. It’s nice taking some dedicated time to get the house tidied up, things put away, and counters wiped down. It makes the mornings so much nicer when the house is clean and tidy. I’ve also started doing little chunks of our weekly cleaning during this time, like, cleaning a bathroom, for example. I’m working to do a little cleaning every evening, so that eventually we won’t have to clean on the weekend.

a real alarm clock.

A few years ago, I decided that I no longer wanted my phone to be the last thing I put down when I went to bed and the first thing I picked up in the morning. I would grab my phone, turn off my alarm and immediately see notifications and check email. It’s just not a good way to start the day. So I found the cheapest, most basic alarm clock I could find on Amazon (this is the one I have) and I’ve never looked back.

make enough food for 2-3 meals.

I don’t like to cook. Elliot does, but we both work and we don’t have time to make dinner every night. We always make enough food for several meals. It ensures we have a healthy lunch for the next day, even if we only have a minute to grab something from the fridge, and allows us to spend less time planning meals for the week.

watch tv on the weekends.

Last fall, I had fallen into the habit of “one more episode..”. I like to get up early, and the “just one more” habit had made it really difficult to wake up and get my day started bright and early. We decided to save TV and movies for the weekends only. During the week, we read, take walks, catch up on things, I write my blog post, and get to bed early. On the weekends, we enjoy our shows or a movie we’ve been looking forward to watching. And we haven’t had the problem of scrolling through Netflix for 20 minutes deciding what to watch.

always have a trip planned.

I love to travel. I love planning trips, finding new places to explore, and returning to places that I’ve fallen in love with on previous trips. When I left the friendly skies and took a job on the ground, after 3 months, I thought to myself, “I haven’t been anywhere in over 3 months…I don’t know if I can do this..” It turns out, I can. However, I always have a trip planned. Even if it’s a weekend away, I have some kind of traveling planned that I look forward to. When Elliot and I were driving to our babymoon destination in November, I was looking for places to visit in the spring. It’s so important to me not to get stuck wherever I am and to always have some new adventure on the horizon.

“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:9

“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11