Tips from a Work at Home Mom on Balancing Work and Home

So now you are a work at home mom. You thought it was going to be great being at home with your kids and still bringing in an income. But now you have work stuff scattered all over the house and your house is a mess because you’ve been so busy you haven’t had a chance to clean it. I’ve been there. I had to find ways to balance work and home without going crazy. The first thing you want to do is have a designated work area preferably a separate room to put all your work stuff in. Do you have a spare bedroom, a basement, or accessible attic, or any unused space in your home? If you do you need to designate that area as your office. If not, you need to try to make a space. My husband built a room in our basement for me to use as an office. Before he built my office, my work materials were scattered everywhere. I had a desk in the kitchen, boxes of craft items in the dining room, a computer in my bedroom, and the fax machine was in my son’s room. Now everything is in one area which makes it much easier to work and accomplish something. Plus having a separate work area makes it easier to walk away from work and tend to my family. Being a work at home mom doesn’t give you the luxury of a normal job where you leave work stress at work and go home to your family and the safe haven of your home. Having a separate room can at least give you the feeling of that luxury. You can walk out of that room, shut the door and forget about it for the night. Set your workspace up and be organized, this helps save time and increases your production. Have a desk, filing cabinets, shelves, and office supplies. Files and folders are very important to keep all your paperwork in. Label them so you can quickly find anything you need, like a customer order or a receipt. This makes things easier at tax time so you do not have to hunt for expense receipts and income reports. Also have someplace to post or write your reminders like a chalkboard, cork board, peg board or dry erase board. Place it in a visible place like above your desk and post any important things you need to do or post your goals for the week. Have everything you need in one area and arrange it however you are most comfortable. If you work mostly at your desk have everything you need at arms length; computer, phone, pens, pencils, paper, etc. If you work on crafts or something where you have lots of tools and equipment, have little storage bins labeled with all your different items. I love plastic storage bins with lids. I have all different sizes for all my craft and scrapbook items. You need to establish work hours. This helps you manage your time, it keeps you motivated to work at a certain time and it sets a professional image if you deal with customers or clients. You can also let family and friends know your hours so they don’t call or stop by while you are busy working. If you do not work with customers or clients you can set your time to be whatever is most convenient for you. If you do have customers, a set time is best like 8 A.M to 5 P.M or 9 A.M to 5 P.M Monday thru Friday, Saturday 9 A.M to 12 P.M or 9 A.M to 3 P.M, closed on Sundays or whatever works best for you and your clients. When your business hours are over you can focus on your family and your home. Yet you are still always there for your family if they need you during the day. You can also have scheduled lunch and break times to feed your children or do something else around the house that needs to be done. If you have small children at home which most work at home moms do, try to explain the situation to them. Toddlers and older children learn to understand if you explain well. “Mommy has a lot of work to do; you can’t bother me unless it is really important.” Or “You have to be quiet when mommy is working”. When I first started working from home my daughter was three. She at first did not understand she had to leave me alone when I was on the phone with a customer. I bought different colored phones. A white one was the home phone and a black one the business phone. I showed her the phone and said “when mommy is talking on this phone you have to be quiet and not bother me.” By using the different color phones she soon learned when she had to be quiet. I also set up a little play spot of her own in my office with a little desk and chair and some quiet toys. As she got older she started mimicking me and told daddy she was booking jobs for him to do just like mommy does. If you have older, school age children you mainly only have to worry about them during summer vacation and other holidays and vacations. Provide activities to keep them busy. I try to keep plenty of art and craft supplies on hand. Plus during the summer I try to enroll the kids in summer camps and have daytime activities planned. I also plan days for them to go somewhere with friends or with grandma. Just because you are stuck in the house all day does not mean the kids want to be. You’ll all be happier if they get to go outside and do summer activities. If you have a job that can be portable, sometimes you can pack it all up and spend the day at the park or beach. The main part of my job is scheduling customer appointments. I forward the business line to my cell phone, pack up my schedule book and go somewhere with the kids. Keep yourself motivated by having a daily or weekly goal list. When you accomplish everything on your list, give yourself a treat. The treat can be anything special you want; like a bubble bath with soft music and candles, make milk shakes with the kids, bake cookies, get a manicure. When you have a reward that you are working for, it motivates you to get it done. It gives you something to look forward to. Whenever you get overwhelmed or stressed out from your work, just walk away from it for a little while. Step out of your workspace and into the safe haven of your home. You can go back and work on the problem later after you relax and calm down. Once you get the hang of it, balancing work and home, when you work from home can turn out to be quite rewarding. Just remember to keep work space and the rest of your home as separate as possible, be organized, manage your time, keep your children occupied, and set goals for yourself. Don’t forget to treat yourself when you accomplish your goals. I love being a work at home mom. I’m sure you will too.