A simple weekend routine for a stress-free week
The best weekend routine enables you to prepare for the next week, recharge your batteries, and spend time doing the things you love.
To do that, you first need to master your weekly routine.
What you do during the week will determine how you spend your weekend.
I have a few useful habits that I have picked up over the years that enable me to spend the weekend with people I love, doing things I enjoy.
Instead of spending hours cleaning, decluttering, and cooking.
Small habits of picking up things and leaving them where they belong, can make your weekend so much easier.
Imagine, it’s Saturday and your home is not cluttered.
Even if you need to clean something, you can do it quickly and efficiently.
Because you clean during the week in small bursts of time, when you notice something needs attention, your house is now clean and ready for any guests who might come over.
You can now spend your Saturday drinking tea, walking in nature, and reading a book.
This post is about my weekend routine, but actually, it is also about creating small daily habits that give you more freedom in the long run.
How to create a weekend routine
First, you need to decide what is important for you during the weekends.
What are the things you want to accomplish?
My weekend routine includes spending time with family and friends, going for a walk in nature, buying groceries and preparing food for next week, doing a digital detox, and reading a lot.
Your routine might be different.
For me, weekends should be about self-care, socializing, and reading.
I do not want to spend 5 hours on a Saturday mopping floors, cleaning the bathroom, and dusting.
What I want to do is take kids to the park, read a book, enjoy a face mask and a cup of tea.
So we will start with the first tip that is crucial for your perfect weekend routine:
Simplify your home
Do not be a slave of your home and things.
We tend to buy and accumulate a lot of stuff, that we need to clean and organize all the time.
Instead, make your home as simple as it can be.
Less furniture means less cleaning and more open spaces.
Fewer things mean you can organize your things quickly.
Do you need a full drawer of makeup, or can you just have one bag of makeup that you use every day?
Things imprison us. We do not always need bigger homes, bigger cars, more bags, more shoes.
What we need is to have time to do what we like. What truly brings us joy.
Ensure you get a lot of chores done during the week
You make sure you do the laundry throughout the week, and you make sure that you clean around the house as you notice that things get dirty.
The secret to relaxing weekends is doing most of your chores during the week in small bursts of time.
Do not put it off for the weekends.
Pick up as you go
I heard this useful advice from Mel Robbins, and it truly transformed my life for the better.
If you walk around your home and you see things out of place, just put them where they belong.
This small habit makes a huge difference in how your home looks throughout the week. And more importantly for this post topic, it makes a huge difference in how your home looks when you wake up on a Saturday.
If your home is already tidy, it is easy to clean it.
Don’t buy it if you do not have the space for it
If you want to buy a new device or a new kitchen appliance, first think about the place where you plan to store it.
If you have little kitchen space, buying new appliances is useless until you create space.
The biggest issue I see in my friends’ homes is that they constantly buy things they have no room for, and then they try to find space by buying new furniture and cluttering their living spaces.
Think twice before you bring anything new into your home.
Do you really need it? Do you have the space for it?
Clean as you go
The key to stress-free weekends is cleaning as you go throughout the week in small bursts of time.
You are brushing your teeth and you notice that the bathroom counters are dirty. Clean them right away. You will spend 3 minutes doing it.
You enter the living room and you see that the floors are dirty. Clean them right away.
Check your rooms in the evening before you go to bed. Put away things that are left all over the apartment.
It is amazing how much you can accomplish by cleaning for 15 minutes every single day.
Cleaning things up as you go will help you get most of your cleaning done during the week.
These small habits will enable you to start your weekend in a tidy, clutter-free home, without any pressure to start cleaning right away.
It is such a mood booster for me when I get up on a Saturday and realize that I can go out for a coffee and not worry about any cleaning chores.
Enjoy yourself
Weekends should be your time for enjoyment and creativity.
Spend some time reading or creating. We rush through the week trying to get things done, but on a Sunday you can finally relax with a book or a pen in your hand.
Make sure you spend some time enjoying yourself, whatever that might be for you.
I try to have a coffee with friends, go to the cinema, take my kids to the park.
We never seem to be able to do all those little things during the week.
Prep your food for the week ahead
Use the weekend to prepare your food for the week ahead—it’s a simple yet powerful form of self-care.
For me, food prepping is one chore I can’t manage during the busy weekdays, so it has to happen on Sundays. By building a habit of planning, shopping, and prepping meals over the weekend, you can make a significant difference in your health and well-being.
Take some time to plan next week’s meals and prepare a few healthy snacks for your kids. I even enjoy baking bread rolls and freezing them for their lunches—it’s a small step that makes a big difference during the week.
Go offline
Take the weekend as an opportunity to disconnect.
Allow yourself to feel bored—embrace it. Turn off your phone and laptop. After all, you’re likely online all week, working, checking emails, and staying connected with friends.
Use your weekends to step away from social media. Take a break from scrolling through YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok.
Boredom is just as essential to a balanced life as focus and productivity. In fact, one cannot truly exist without the other.
Conclusion
I often see posts online about “reset weekend” routines, but I believe weekends shouldn’t revolve around cleaning and decluttering.
We need time to rest, connect with friends, and enjoy quality moments with our kids. Personally, I’d much rather tackle chores during the week while the kids are at school, leaving the weekend free for relaxation and socializing.
For me, a truly restorative weekend is what prepares me for a productive, focused workweek. It helps me avoid burnout, feel in control of my life, and truly savor it.
To make this balance possible, I’ve incorporated small habits into my daily routine that save time and allow me to prioritize the things and people I love most.
What about you? Do you prefer productive weekends or relaxing ones? What’s your go-to weekend routine?
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