Lives get chaotic, when they don’t get maintained. For each person, thing, body, activity you have in your life it needs to be maintained.

I like to start my day with a daily quiet time to maintain my spiritual life and center.

I usually have a morning smoothie for a burst of health right away. Before I drink my smoothie, I wash the blender because I know how hard it is to clean if it’s not washed immediately.

I get dressed from clothes I have laid out the night before. A load of laundry goes in most mornings so I don’t have to spend all day on laundry.

To maintain my body with exercise, I have a standing walking appointment with a friend, take a class or two a week depending on the time of year and make sure I have DVDs for when I don’t want to leave the house. At the beginning of the week I write down my proposed exercise plan, but allow myself to change depending on what my body is saying.  I slacked off this wet and gloomy spring, so now I check in with some friends online to keep me accountable.

When I come home, I get everything out of the car and put it all away. Keys and purse get put away in their spots otherwise I have to search for them because I threw them someplace.

If I menu plan, I already know what is for dinner and can cook when my husband gets home from work. If not, we end up having pizza or sandwiches too often.

My daughter needs new pants so we go to the store. When we get home, the tags are cut off and the clothes are brought to the basement. Then pants that no longer fit get put in a goodwill bag.

My husband makes sure he does maintenance on the cars before something major goes wrong. And does the yard work weekly to keep things looking nice.

All this takes less time than getting sick, locating things before work, or repairing a car whose oil didn’t get changed. If you are finding you don’t have time to maintain what you have, it may be time to let go of some things or projects or activities. Or maybe, you can add in some helpful habits to make things easier to maintain like the ones above.

I know my life goes smoother when I remember the maintenance. Yours can, too.