This post may contain affiliate links.

Welcome to the ultimate guide for creating a self-care Sunday routine that will leave you feeling light, peaceful, and ready to conquer the upcoming week. When life gets hectic, dedicating some time to yourself on Sundays can make all the difference. (Or not Sunday! Prefer Saturday? Your day off is Wednesday? Do you, babe.) 

Let’s explore a fully customizable self-care routine to suit your schedule and preferences. Above all else, this routine should be yours–replace the reading with painting if that’s your vibe, or skip the blowout if you’re a curly girl. If you’re crunched for time on one Sunday self-care day, maybe you need to skip a few steps. But as long as you’re making yourself some time, you’re going to come out of your self-care routine feeling great. It’s about making it your perfect day.

Below, you’ll find directions on how to plan your self-care routine, a sample self-care routine, and self-care ideas for moms or other people with really limited schedules! 

When should I start my self-care Sunday routine?

Start by figuring out what commitments you can’t move around. For me, that’s my 10:30 AM spin class. 

I am not a big spin person the rest of the week, but I find that a high-intensity class on Sunday morning gets my energy out and decreases the Sunday scaries! So I know that I want to leave for the gym by 10:10, and from there, I can work backwards, figure out what I need to do before I leave, and land on a start time for my self-care Sunday. 

So, before the gym, I want to oil my hair and put a hair mask on the ends, change my sheets and start the laundry, put about 45 minutes into cleaning my house, select my outfits for the week, and make a grocery list. That’s going to take me about an hour and a half, so I need to start at about 8:30. 

I’m sure some people are reading this thinking there’s no way I’m getting up at 8:30 on a Sunday! I totally get that. I have three kids…I wasn’t going to be able to sleep in anyway.

Someone with my gym schedule who wanted to sleep in might roll out of bed at 9:45, oil her hair, and do spin first, then come home and take care of some of these chores. For me, I prefer to get home, get out of my sweaty clothes and get directly in the shower, so I like to get all the “messy” chores done early. 

(Someone else might say, no, girl, I’ll just book a later spin class! And others might prefer a long walk out in the fresh air. It’s all about what works for you and makes you feel like you’re in control of the timing.)

Other things you might plan around: religious services, family visits, child naptime or playdate or dance class…whatever parts of your day you can’t move around. Self-care Sundays, or self-care days in general, shouldn’t be limited to the days we have no plans! You can make it work any day that you have a little time. If you know that you want to be clean, groomed, and shiny by the time you need to go to family dinner, figure out your routine start time by going backwards from the very end.

How do I plan out a self-care day routine?

My favorite way to break up the self-care routine is into three sections: quiet, messy, and clean.

The quiet section of the self-care routine are those parts that put you at ease and make you feel peaceful. I always meditate at some point during my self-care day, and I’m a big reader, so for me reading is typically part of this. though I’ll sometimes choose a craft or journaling. 

Other good ideas for a quiet section: drawing, painting, meditating, sewing or embroidery, gardening, or any kind of cooking that doesn’t feel like a chore (bread-making, anyone?!?!). Maybe you even want to just sit outside and feel relaxed. Any of these relaxing things to do for self-care would totally put you in the right mindset. 

The messy section is anything that you want to do before you shower! A workout would go in this section, as would cleaning, laundry, mental health walks or other outdoor time, meal prepping, or anything else that you want to get done before you scrub up. (My rule: if I would feel even slightly less clean if I did it after my shower, I’m doing it before my shower.) There are a couple of personal care tasks that fall here: I oil my hair and put a hair mask on the ends at the beginning of the messy block so it can soak in.

It sounds weird, but cleaning my house is in the messy block, because I’m likely to feel a little sweaty and yucky afterwards; if it’s making my body messy/sweaty, it’s a messy task!

And then finally the clean section is my personal care block: the shower to end all showers and any other hygiene and beauty tasks that I want to take care of, both my regular daily skincare and typically a little extra or a few things I wouldn’t make time for otherwise. 

I like to do my quiet block first thing in the morning, then my messy block once my kids wake up, then my clean block in the middle of the day so that I have the afternoon to do whatever we need to do that day. 

If you’re someone who starts in the afternoon, you might prefer to do your quiet block at the end as you wind down for sleep! I would not suggest doing the messy block after the clean block because you won’t get that squeaky clean feeling for long. 

Update: I wrote a whole post about quiet-messy-clean planning, including a free self-care day printable! You can find it here.  

​

Let’s look at some ideas for each block to get you started:

Ideas for Relaxing Self-Care Sunday Activities (Quiet Block)

Your quiet block is an opportunity to break away from a hectic schedule and from any difficulties you might be facing. Instead, just be present and in the activity. Your quiet block can be as long as reading in bed all day or as short as a few mindful breaths, but anyone can squeeze this time into their day. 

If you can set up your environment: candles, essential oils, and natural light can turn this into a perfect opportunity to relax.

• Reading a book
• Listening to music
• Working on a vision board
• Meditation or mindful breathing
• Nature walk
• Mindfully making and drinking a cup of tea or coffee
• Meditation
• Yoga or stretching
• Journaling
• Watching a sunrise (or sunset!)
• Crafts
• Photography
• Cooking or baking
• Spa day activities
• Napping
• Quality time with family or your best friend

And if you can — this is a great time to take a mini digital detox. If you can disconnect from the digital world for a little bit and get off social media, it’s a great way to destress our nervous system. Even if you feel like you have a really positive feed full of personal development and self care ideas…all those great ideas end up on our to-do list, stressing us out! 

Ideas for Productive Self-Care Activities (Messy Block)

My messy block is not the part of my self-care day I look forward to, to be honest, but it is the part that I appreciate the most when I’m done. My weeks are busy and I leave for work really early in the morning, so I focus my messy block on the things that are going to make my mornings easier for that week: prepping meals, choosing outfits, clearing any clutter, and pushing through laundry. 

Instead of giving you boilerplate suggestions for this section, here are some questions to help you get ideas and plan:

• What challenges do I usually face on Mondays that I could get out ahead of?
• What frustrates me about my living space?
• What tasks would future me really appreciate?
• The most satisfying sight in my space is a clean ____.

Being proactive about the things you can do for yourself and the ways you can show yourself love are a great part of your self-care routine. I don’t worry about getting my house 100% clean: for example, I don’t clean the windows in this routine, because cleaning the windows does not make me feel happier and more at peace. But I clean out the fridge and organize my vanity table every Sunday, because it makes me feel calm and in control. 

Think of the messy block as a high-impact time that takes away the most “ugh” parts of your week. For me, if I know that on Monday morning I have a healthy meal packed for lunch, the kitchen isn’t a nightmare, and I have pre-cut fresh fruit for breakfast, my entire day doesn’t feel so heavy. I wrote about this in my acts of self love post, but a good self care routine also means taking good care of future you!

I also love to get my workout into this messy block! My physical well-being is a priority too, and getting a little physical activity in improves my mental game on Sunday night. Physical health and emotional health are so closely linked! So getting sweaty in whatever way works for you can be a great idea in your self care Sunday routine. 

Ideas for Hygiene and Beauty Self-Care (Clean Block)

This is my favorite part! The TikTok girlies call this an “everything shower” and I really look forward to it all day. During the clean block, we are taking care of our bodies, showing ourselves love and comfort, and treating our bodies with all the care and importance they deserve! 

Everyone has their own needs and their own personal preferences with products and how they do things. Almost everyone will wash and style their hair, clean and moisturize their body, and then do a skincare routine. You can make it just a few steps or an elaborate all-day affair! It might involve any of this:

• Wash hair
• Soap or body wash
• Exfoliating body with a scrub or chemical exfoliant
• Shaving
• Moisturizing
• Dermaplaning (carefully!)
• Dry brushing
• Gua sha
• Eyebrow maintenance
• Waxing, threading, etc
• Face steaming
• Clay face mask or exfoliant
• Sheet mask
• Any skin products that work for you 
• Teeth whitening strips
• LED mask
• Facial moisturizer

if you’re in the middle of a microneedling journey, I often choose to do that here because I hate to be rushed with it! Here’s info about Does Microneedling Help Stretch Marks?  and Can I Get Botox Right After Microneedling? [2024]

Sample Self-Care Sunday Routine

So, this is a lot! But here’s what my routine looks like. All times are approximate, and this kind of assumes we have nothing to do before 3PM, which is not always the case!

5:30am I wake up at my usual weekday time, meditate with a YouTube video, and then make coffee and read until my kids wake up. Love new books for Sunday morning!

8am fix breakfast for my kids and take out my smoothie ingredients to let them start defrosting. 

8:30am begin my messy block: 

• Oil my scalp and put a hair mask on my ends
• Put my headphones and external battery onto their chargers
• Start any meals for the week that might need to be prepped ahead of time (any roasting, instant pot, long boil, things like that)
• Strip my bed and put the sheets and towels in the wash; put throw blankets in the dryer to refresh them
• Put on gym clothes
• Sort laundry and pick work outfits for the week 
• Grab a laundry basket and move from room to room, putting things away and removing things that are in the wrong room
• Tackle anything that’s been sitting around because I need to do something with it–all those two-minute tasks that pile up. 
• Spend a little time cleaning my bedroom, especially my nightstand and vanity
• Turn over the laundry
• Assemble lunches for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
• Get my kids ready for the gym and leave

10:30am spin class, then sit in the sauna for 20 minutes or so. 

12:15pm begin my clean block:

• Unplug my headphones and external battery and put them back in my purse
• Start in the shower with a double shampoo
• Put conditioner in my hair and tie it up
• Use bar soap to clean my body
• Turn off the water and exfoliate my body with a scrub
• Shave my legs
• Wash the conditioner out of my hair, wash the clip or hair tie, then tie my hair back up
• Use body wash to clean my body one more time
• Moisturize body with hyaluronic acid, then lotion
• Put hyaluronic acid through ends of hair and on my face

My skincare routine varies by the season, but it will almost always include:

• some kind of exfoliation, 
• 2-3 hydrating steps for my very dry skin, 
• a thicker moisturizer or restorative night cream. 

In the winter I’ll use an occlusive like Vaseline or Aquaphor. These lock moisture in and protect your skin barrier. Dry skin girls know that when the heat turns on in the house, the winter dryness sets in too. 

Self-Care for Moms and Other People With No Time for Self-Care Sunday

I know! It’s so hard to make time for this! And I know I have people reading this and wondering, okay, but where are your kids when you’re doing all this? 

The truth is: 

• When I’m doing my quiet block, they’re asleep. If they wake up too early, it gets interrupted and I don’t get the experience I wanted. 
• When I’m doing my messy block, they’re supposed to be helping me by putting their own things away and straightening up their rooms. (That only actually happens about half the time.) When we get to the gym, they’re in gym childcare. 
• And when I’m doing my clean block, my husband is looking after them. He gets quiet time while we’re at the gym. In return, I get some time to take a long luxurious shower while he feeds them lunch and gets them ready to nap. If he’s traveling for work? They watch TV and I take a shorter shower and skip some of the more involved steps. 

It’s not always easy to make time for yourself! But when you can shift your mindset away from “I don’t have time for myself” and towards “what do I have time to do for myself?”, you can make a version of this routine that does what self-care is really about:

• It shows love and care for yourself 
• it makes things a little easier the next day and the day after that, 
• and it reminds you that you are important and you deserve these acts of kindness. 

30 Minute Self-Care Sunday Ideas

Sometime we just carve out a half-hour before taking a parent to the doctor or when we just put her baby down for a nap. Then, the pressure to “do self-care” can do more harm than good. It might just feel like another thing that isn’t good enough. 

 If she can put deep conditioner in her hair two hours before her two-minute shower and chop all the vegetables for this week’s dinners, that’s self-care. And if there’s five extra minutes there, maybe she even manages to make some tea in a travel mug. With six minutes, she might take three mindful sips before running out the door or back up to the nursery. 

A couple of possible schedules:

I woke up an hour before my family and

• Made the good coffee and stood outside for a few minutes with it and
• Did a sheet mask while I
• Cleared out my WFH desk and returned all the things that didn’t belong in this room so I would have a clean and calm space Monday morning

or 

While I was waiting for the school bus I

• Did a 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique while 
• Tossing all the trash or clutter from my car and
• Popping on some press-on nails

Final Thoughts

Self-care Sunday is a great way to look after yourself, even if it’s a struggle to make the time. Giving your mind and body a little break and showing yourself love is one of the kindest things you can do for yourself. It also helps your productivity the rest of the time to be able to slow down. Going into the new week with a positive mindset is so helpful to showing up as your best self!

If you liked this post, you might also like:

• How To Create A Self-Care Day Routine That is Perfect For You
• Self-Care Aesthetic Pics to Get You Excited and Inspired
• 10 Best Tips for Self-Care When You’re Struggling