10 Ways to Find Quiet When Your Home is Full of Noise
As I sit here typing, I can hear the baby “talking” loudly in her crib while her big sister indulges her by speaking back to her in baby talk.
They should be asleep, and I should finally have some silence to think, plan, and accomplish some things. But instead, you’ll most likely end up reading a blog post full of jumbled thoughts as I try in vain to think clearly amid the ruckus.
Life around here is never dull, which means it’s never very quiet either!
I have so many things I need to be doing, but most of them require clarity of thought – something that is hard to come by when there is noise all around me!
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the constant noise?
Maybe it’s the constant “Mama! Mama!” you hear all day long.
Maybe it’s the sound of the vacuum and the dishwasher and the washing machine (and the smoke alarm?) all going at the same time.
Maybe it’s the never-ending buzzing and dinging from your phone.
It’s highly possible that it’s all of the above.
Is there hope of finding peace when you can’t even seem find a quiet moment to go the bathroom alone, let alone think about anything important?
Homemaking places so many demands on us, not just physically, but also mentally and even spiritually.
Quiet moments do not come easily; therefore you will have to intentionally create them.
If your life seems chaotic and disorganized, creating some quiet time to get your thoughts in order will go a long way toward helping you create a more peaceful home.
So how in the world do you create quiet time when you’re overwhelmed with all the noise in your home?
Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.
1. Get up early.
Say what? I have little ones who don’t sleep through the night! OR I have chronic insomnia, and there is no way I can get up early!
I hear you. I have been there. I have been through seasons of life where getting up early was not the right thing for me.
Don’t worry. There are other suggestions here to help you create some quiet.
Hint: You might want to check out Crystal Paine’s Make Over Your Morning course. She teaches you how to overcome some of the overwhelm in your day with a smooth morning routine – regardless of whether you can get up early or not!
2. Stay up late.
Okay, now you’re confusing me. I thought you just told me to get up early. I can’t do that if I stay up late!
I agree. If you’re going to get up early, you need to get to bed and get some sleep. But maybe you’re just not in a season of life where you can do early mornings right now. So flip that on its head and stay up a little later than everyone else. Not late enough to wreak havoc on your body, but just enough to hear yourself think after the house is (finally!) silent. I know it’s tempting to just veg. out in front of a screen because you’re tired, but taking 10 – 15 minutes to get a clear picture in your head of how you need to order your day will save you from frustration and chaos tomorrow. Hint: If you’re more of the evening type, you’ll want to snag Crystal Paine’s Make Over Your Evenings course, where she’ll walk you through how to use your evening to create a peaceful day the next day. Best part – her courses are super affordable!
3. Institute a daily quiet time
If you have small children, most likely they will still take naps. Do your best to put them down for naps at the same time so you can have an hour or two of quiet in the midst of your day. If your kids are too old for naps, you can still have a mandatory quiet time every day.
In my home, the kids may read or color or play quietly with Legos. Occasionally I will put on a movie for them. Having everyone doing something quiet gives me a few minutes to breathe, regroup, and prepare myself mentally and spiritually for the remainder of the day.
Even if you don’t have children in the home, taking a time out in the middle of your day to just Be Still (Psalm 46:10) will do wonders for your soul, especially when your mind feels pulled in a million different directions.
4. Turn it off
I am a big proponent of listening to Godly, uplifting music in the home. It can keep our hearts and minds in the right place and help us to keep our focus on Christ. But occasionally I find that it’s just adding to the noise of the moment. With lots of little people talking and timers beeping and phones ringing, it’s just one more thing to add to the cacophony. Don’t feel guilty turning off the music if it’s doing more harm than good!
5. Disconnect
To keep a peaceful and orderly home, it’s important not to be mentally distracted. Turn off notifications from your phone, stick to set times to be on social media, and even remove apps from your phone if you find yourself picking it up too often throughout the day. Too much social media adds to the mental clutter and creates noise in your brain.
I don’t know about you, but for me it doesn’t matter whether the noise is in my brain or in my ears – noise is still noise! And too much of it makes it hard for me to focus on keeping my home running smoothly and giving the attention to my children that they need.
6. Learn to focus on one thing at a time
This is an area where I struggle. I know I need to get the laundry done, get dinner made, oversee the children’s schooling and chores, and accomplish all of the other miscellaneous to-do items from my list each day. But like the internet browser on my computer, ALL THE TABS ARE OPEN AT ONCE. Instead of finishing one thing, I flit around from one to the other. And it’s just more mental clutter.
When I focus on one thing at a time, I can do it well, and it doesn’t hurt my brain because I’m not trying to remember 20 other things at the same time.
7. Go outside
When I’m starting to feel like the noise is closing in on me, one of the best ways for me to regroup is to go outside for a while. The fresh air does me good and helps me clear my head (not to mention, when the little munchkins get outside to run, they’re a lot less noisy when they go back inside.)
8. Prioritize your to-do list
I could cook and clean and take care of kids for a hundred years, and I would never, ever run out of things to put on my to-do list.
But looking at a list of 25 things is a lot for my small brain to take in, and adds to that mental clutter and feeling of overwhelm.
But listing the top 3 things I need to do? That is much more manageable and helps to create a little bit of “white space” in my mind so that it doesn’t feel so noisy in there!
9. Take a break
If you want a sure-fire way to burn yourself out as homemaker, then don’t ever take a break from your responsibilities and just relax with no guilt!
You don’t ever need to feel guilty for leaving the kids with dad or a sitter and taking a shopping day or a bubble bath or whatever else you want to do! Me time is not selfish when it is done in the interest of recharging your batteries so you can be fresh and revitalized for your family! (Here are 13 Free Ways to Take Care of You!)
10. Play the Quiet Game
When the chatter reaches its highest crescendo, and you can’t even hear yourself think enough to remember whether it was two or three teaspoons of baking powder you just added to the biscuits, it’s time to play the quiet game.
Whew! The sound of silence immediately after a deafening roar is heavenly. It only takes a few minutes of the quiet game before you’ll be thinking clearly again and ready to continue managing your home well.