15 Little Things That Help You Feel More Put Together

Do you ever have those days when nothing is technically wrong, but you still feel about three steps behind your own life?

There are papers on the counter. Someone needs to be at practice. You have an appointment you’re pretty sure you’re forgetting. Nobody has thought about dinner. Your inbox is filling up. There’s laundry in at least three different stages of completion.

And somehow it’s only 10 a.m.

As a mom of four, business owner, health coach, and the person who often seems to know where everyone’s shoes are supposed to be, I’ve learned that feeling more put together usually doesn’t come from some massive life overhaul.

It comes from little things.

Small routines that reduce some of the noise, help me take care of myself, and make our home run a little more smoothly.

None of these are about perfection. Trust me, you’ll see why when we get to the story about the day I took my child to school without shoes.

These are simply 15 little things that help me feel more put together.

1. Make Your Bed

This is the first thing I do in the morning.

There is something about starting the day by completing one small task. Before everything else starts coming at me, one thing is already done.

It also immediately gives me a clean, peaceful space.

And at the end of a long day, I love walking back into my bedroom and seeing a made bed waiting for me.

Is that beautifully made bed going to remain untouched all day?

Absolutely not.

I have three standard poodles who consider my bed their permanent residence. There is a reason I chose non-shedding dogs. 😂

And if we’re talking about my bed, I have to mention my Minky Couture blanket. Every member of our family has one, and we give them as gifts all the time. I genuinely think it may be the only blanket you'll ever need again.

My favorite:Minky Couture blankets

2. Get Dressed Before You Actually Have Somewhere to Be

I work from home, so when I say “get dressed,” I am absolutely not telling you to put on a business casual outfit to sit at your desk.

Most days, dressed for me means leggings and a tank top.

But they’re fresh leggings and a tank top.

It creates a natural transition into my day.

If I stay in pajamas, my brain hears, Oh, we're staying snuggly today.

Sometimes that sounds wonderful. It just isn't particularly helpful when I have a full workday ahead of me.

And I swear by one other tiny finishing touch: lip color.

Put on a little lip color and suddenly you look like you were prepared for the day all along.

One of my favorites is Olive Rose Lovers Lane.

Now, if it is still robe time, my Minky Couture robe is ridiculously comfortable. Fair warning, however: it may work against the entire purpose of this section because once you put it on, you will not want to move.

Minky Couture Satin Blush Robe

3. Fill Up a Water Bottle and Keep It Near You

Your body needs water, but remembering to drink it throughout a busy day can be another story.

My goal is at least 64 ounces a day, and one of the simplest things I’ve learned is this:

Make water ridiculously easy to reach.

My water bottle stays beside me at my desk, and it comes with me when I'm on the go.

I also prefer drinking through a straw. When the water is sitting right there and easy to sip, I find that I drink so much more without having to constantly remind myself.

This is the water bottle I use.

I also love Sugar-Free Liquid I.V. when I want some flavor. For me, it adds just enough without making my water taste overly sweet.

You don't need to make hydration another complicated wellness project. Start by filling a bottle and keeping it within arm's reach.

4. Move Your Body, Even if It’s Only Stretching or a Balance Exercise

Movement does not have to mean finding an uninterrupted hour to go to the gym.

I try to get in a real workout when I can. But I also have a walking pad in my office, an under-desk pedaler, and free weights nearby.

I even take walking meetings.

I intentionally try to move every day, and if I've been sitting at my desk for an hour, I have a reminder to get up. Sometimes that means I literally stand next to my computer and do some squats before sitting back down.

Think about movement in little doses.

Ten minutes walking.

Ten minutes stretching.

Ten minutes with some dumbbells.

That's 30 minutes of movement scattered throughout a day that might not have allowed for a traditional workout.

If I have five or ten minutes and I'm working from home, I also love a quick core session with dead bugs, planks, and bicycle crunches.

And don't overlook mobility and balance work. Maintaining strength, mobility, and balance becomes increasingly important as we age.

It all counts.

You don't need hours in a gym to do something good for your body.

5. Clear the One Surface You Look at the Most

For me, it's my desk.

I need to focus and be productive there, and visual clutter quickly becomes mental clutter for me.

The problem?

Everything follows me to my desk.

Especially school papers.

So. Many. School. Papers.

My system is pretty simple. If something needs my attention, it can stay on my desk. Once I've addressed it, it gets cleared.

My goal is to have those items handled by the end of the day.

And with six people living in our house, keeping spaces clear is a team effort. I cannot be successful at keeping our home organized if everyone deposits their belongings around the house and expects Mom to return everything.

Everyone has to participate.

Does that mean my kitchen counter never become the family catch-all?

Absolutely not.

We're working on it.

6. Write Down Your Top Three Must-Dos for the Day

Ask yourself:

If I finish NOTHING else today, what three things absolutely need to get done?

They can be professional, personal, family-related, health-related...whatever matters that day.

Then I like to eat the frog.

Do the biggest, hardest, or most dreaded one first.

I am absolutely a list person, but I don't believe everything needs to appear on today's list. If something can happen Thursday, I put it on Thursday.

That keeps me from staring at 15 tasks and feeling like I'm already behind before the day starts.

I use Artful Agenda, and I cannot say enough good things about it. It's a digital planner that syncs with my other digital systems and calendars, but I can still make it feel like a fun paper planner with colors, covers, decorative lettering, and stickers.

Yes, I put little dancers on dance days and swimmers on swim-meet days.

Organization can be functional and cute.

If you want to try Artful Agenda, my referral code is RS857865.

And if you only finish two of your three must-dos?

You're one human.

Quality over quantity.

7. Give Your Everyday Things an Actual Home

Our family is very routine-based.

Shoes go to the shoe station.

Backpacks get unpacked and hung up.

School folders go to Mom.

Lunches get unpacked.

Devices go to the charging station.

Because do you know what happens when things don't have a home?

They either end up on the kitchen counter...

or disappear into another dimension.

Doing these little things every afternoon makes our mornings dramatically easier.

I always say that smoother mornings happen when our afternoons are on point.

One thing we especially love is our family charging station. Everyone's devices have somewhere to go at night, which also means we know the kids are screen-free and their devices are ready for the next day.

8. Decide What You're Eating Before You're Starving

Dinner for six people can become chaotic very quickly if 5:30 arrives and nobody has a clue what's happening.

Our solution is routine.

We loosely theme our meals around the days of the week:

Meatless Monday.

Taco Tuesday.

Noodle Wednesday.

Pizza Friday.

We generally know the weekend before what we're eating for the upcoming week.

Does life still happen?

Of course.

Sometimes the plan falls apart and we grab takeout. The goal isn't to never eat takeout again. I look at it more as trying to have a plan most of the time so the unplanned nights are the exception rather than our default.

We also keep easy options around. There is almost always protein pasta from Costco in our cabinet.

Our kids make their lunches two or three days ahead, too. They choose their own fun lunch containers and get things ready.

Again, it comes back to making the next decision easier before you're tired, hungry, rushed, or overwhelmed.

9. Finish One Load of Laundry All the Way

I drown in laundry.

There. I said it.

Six people. Four kids. Sports.

It. Never. Ends.

My current strategy is washing laundry for one person on one assigned day. That eliminates sorting and makes the mountain feel slightly more manageable.

And a load is not finished when it leaves the washing machine.

Wash.

Dry.

Fold.

Put it away.

That last one is my least favorite.

The kids bring their laundry to me and put it away...

ish.

I keep telling myself that someday I'm going to miss all this laundry. At least that's what people tell me.

For now, I remind myself:

Your family isn't naked. You're doing fine.

Finish one load at a time. At minimum, let's not leave it sitting in the washing machine long enough to start growing its own ecosystem.

One laundry product I do keep on Subscribe & Save is Earth Breeze.

Because apparently I'm committed to that waterless life even in the laundry room.

10. Reset Your Bag

What bag?

Excellent question.

Depending on the day, I could be carrying a purse, laptop bag, dance bag, swim bag or some combination of all of them.

And as a mom of three girls, there are hairbrushes everywhere.

My bags also collect receipts, snacks, trash, whatever my kids hand me to “hold for a second,” and an unreasonable number of lip products.

I try to reset my bags once a week before they become overwhelming.

Throw away the trash. Take out the receipts. Put away whatever doesn't belong. Make sure the things I actually need are there.

Most importantly, put my wallet back in my purse after I've taken my cards out to buy something online at my desk.

Ask me how many times I've left the house without it.

I also like to keep a protein snack with me so I'm not out running around, suddenly starving, and grabbing whatever is easiest. These are one of my favorites.

And one thing you can pretty much guarantee will be in my bag is F75 Lip Balm.

I am never without it.

11. Look at Tomorrow Before Tomorrow Gets Here

This might be one of the most important things I do.

Because I will literally forget.

An appointment.

A paper that needs to be signed.

Book day.

Send-fruit-to-school day.

Gym day, AKA please do not send your child to school in a dress day.

Five minutes looking at tomorrow in my Artful Agenda helps me mentally prepare.

I look at where everyone needs to be, what they need, and what time we have to leave.

Then comes what I call backwards mom math.

If we have to be there at 8:00, we need to leave at 7:30, which means this child needs to be awake at this time, that child needs extra time because mornings are not her spiritual gift, lunches need to be ready by this time...

You know your kids.

Some wake up ready to conquer the world.

Others are a doozy.

My husband and I also use a shared Google Calendar, which syncs with my Artful Agenda so we can both add and update family commitments.

And yes, this system exists because I still forget things.

We recently had a swim meet on a Sunday, when we normally don't have them.

Completely forgot.

Systems help. They do not make us robots.

12. Clean Up Your Digital Mess for Five Minutes

Digital clutter affects me almost exactly like physical clutter.

I don't want 72 browser tabs staring at me.

I don't want notifications constantly popping up on my desktop.

And I definitely don't want thousands of junk emails screaming for my attention because I once gave a company my email address to get 15% off.

Five minutes can make a surprising difference.

For email, I can highlight an entire day's messages, uncheck the few I actually need, and delete everything else.

Once a month, I also spend some time unsubscribing from things I no longer want. It gradually cuts down on how much junk makes it into my inbox in the first place.

My email works similarly to my physical desk.

If something is still in my inbox, it needs my attention.

Once I've addressed it, I file it into the appropriate folder.

Photos?

I have four children.

We aren't going to discuss the number of photos.

Thank goodness for Google Photos backup.

13. Prep Your Vehicle With What You'll Need Tomorrow

My vehicle is not kind of a mobile command center.

It is a mobile command center.

Dance bag.

Swim bag.

Karate bag.

School projects.

Signed papers.

Things that need to be returned.

If it doesn't need refrigeration and I know we'll need it tomorrow, I try to put it directly into the car the night before. I park in the garage, so there is really no reason not to.

Lunches, frozen items, and whatever food I volunteered to send to a school party stay inside until morning.

I also permanently keep a few emergency Mom supplies in the car: a pull-up, first-aid kit, hairbrush, granola bar, water, and hand sanitizer.

Because I've learned things.

For example, there was the morning we made it all the way to school before I discovered Kaia wasn't wearing shoes.

Shoes.

On her feet.

It genuinely had not occurred to me that checking whether my child was wearing shoes needed to be part of my morning routine.

Apparently it did.

Preparing the car the night before makes mornings calmer and dramatically reduces the number of things I'm trying to remember while getting four children out the door.

But for all the chaos my vehicle holds, it holds something else too.

Some of the best and most meaningful conversations with my kids happen in that car.

We're together. We're driving. Nobody has anywhere else to go for the next 20 minutes.

So yes, it's messy.

But it's also one of our places.

14. Take Time for a Quality Skincare Routine Before Bed

The kids are finally in bed.

The house is quiet.

And I need that quiet.

My nighttime skincare routine takes less than ten minutes, and part of that time is simply allowing my serum to absorb before applying moisturizer.

But those few minutes feel different from hurriedly washing my face because it's one more thing I have to do before falling into bed.

This is intentional.

I slow down.

I massage my products into my skin.

I take a deep breath.

It's something for me.

You absolutely do not need a complicated ten-step skincare routine to create this feeling. Two or three intentional steps can still leave you feeling cared for and pampered.

Two Olive Tree People products I especially enjoy incorporating into an evening routine are F65 Midnight Elixir and F42 Corrective Face Cream.

And my skincare accessories are nothing fancy. This basic little set does the job.

For me, though, the important part isn't the accessory or even the number of products.

It's the transition.

You're marking the space between day and night.

Between work and rest.

Between everyone needing something from you and having a few quiet minutes that are simply yours.

Take the moment.

Take a deep breath.

And allow yourself to soak up something that's just for you.

15. Have a Weekly Reset Instead of Waiting Until Everything Feels Out of Control

Sunday is our reset.

Not a four-hour everyone stand back while Mom reorganizes the family's entire existence reset.

Just a check-in.

A clean slate.

A new week.

Back on the horse.

We look at the calendar and make sure everyone knows what's happening.

Who needs to be where?

Who's driving whom?

Are there appointments?

Sports?

School events?

Do we need anything from the store?

Even the kids do better when they know what's coming.

We get meals ready where we can, and having the kids choose their clothes ahead of time can save us from battles before school.

Then we're done.

A weekly reset shouldn't consume your entire day off.

It's simply our getting-back-to-equilibrium point of the weekend.

Take care of a few things.

Get everyone on the same page.

Then go enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

You Don't Have to Have It All Together to Feel Put Together

You don't need a perfectly organized house.

You don't need to wake up at 5 a.m., work out for an hour, meal prep seven days of food, drink a gallon of water, answer every email, keep an empty laundry basket, maintain an immaculate SUV, and complete a ten-step skincare routine before peacefully journaling yourself to sleep.

That sounds exhausting.

You need a few systems that make your life feel more manageable.

Make your bed.

Drink some water.

Move your body for ten minutes.

Figure out dinner before everyone is starving.

Look at tomorrow's calendar.

Wash your face slowly enough to actually enjoy it.

Some weeks you'll nail it.

Some weeks you'll drive all the way to school before realizing your child isn't wearing shoes.

That's life.

The goal isn't perfection.

It's creating little moments throughout your day and your week that bring you back to equilibrium.

And sometimes, feeling a little more put together starts with something as simple as making your bed.