- Make our bed...every day! (I am sadly not a bed maker. That is changing!)
- Plan meals for dinner and do pantry inventory
- Cook dinner at least 4 nights a week (with football and busy weekends, I started small)
- Stay on top of laundry before it gets out of control
- Keep cabinets and closets organized and clutter free
- Create a grocery budget and stick to it!
- Keep playroom and toys under control. This is a job by itself! I think it's time to go through toys again and put some up for a while. She can only play with so many.
- Same goes with her books! She has a small library in her room and I try and rotate them out every month or so. I took them all off of the shelves and dusted and re-organized. Here's hoping they stay that way!
- Keep my work materials organized. Right now, they are piled in boxes in our carport. That is the goal this week. FINISH up organization of carport and trunk. BIG task!
So far, we are on week 2 of this and it is going great! Now for most of you, this is already a part of your daily routine. It is ours somewhat, but I am not very strict about many of them. I have cleaned out all of my kitchen cabinets, fridge and pantry. I have planned dinners for the last 2 weeks and it has been so much easier with the planning ahead and shopping for just the few ingredients I need to complete those meals. Don is now taking his lunch to school every day so that means I have to have lunch stuff/leftovers packed and ready for him every morning. With Ellie going to MDO, I also have to pack her a lunch twice a week so I will need easy to pack things that I know she will eat at school. Don also has to have work clothes and practice clothes packed for each day which is why laundry is so important.
I told him last night I feel like we "have our groove back". It is nice to have a normal, steady, predictable routine. We had a nice relaxing weekend without much football, film or practice or many outside plans. So far, all of the change is working out well!
Here is our meal plan for the week, in case anyone is curious. (I won't do this every week, promise!)
Sunday: Grilled chicken, roasted potatoes, broccoli, and herbed monkey bread
Monday: Chicken, green bean, and wild rice casserole
Tuesday: Spaghetti with meat sauce
Wednesday: Chicken pot pie
Thursday: Jambalaya with turkey smoked sausage
Friday: Football jamboree!
Yes, we eat a lot of chicken and I am by no means a gourmet cook. I need easy, affordable meals that I know Ellie will eat too. The goal is for me to not have to make her something separate to eat each night. Wish us luck!
We cook a lot of chicken in our house too, the recipes are just so easy!
ReplyDeleteAs for your organization, I think they are GREAT goals!
I too am not a bed maker and I never have been. You'd think with my mom being one I would too, but sadly I am not.
Planning meals and doing freezer/pantry inventory once a week is such a time and money saver! I've been menu planning for a couple years now (with some breaks in between) and when I menu plan I stick to our budget and our meals, it makes life so much easier. And when I didn't menu plan, dinner was boring and I didn't look forward to cooking since I had to make it up. I hated it! And 4 nights a week is a great goal. I did 5 for awhile and always made adjustments where needed. I now do all 7 nights, but again I'm flexible. If something comes up or we want something else, I just move things around and its no problem. I try not to get stuck in it if it's not wanted.
Daniel has eaten out once since he started working downtown almost 4 years ago. He takes his lunch everyday. I call them our "convenience meals." Whatever I have leftover gets stored into a plastic container for him to take the next day. If I have a lot leftover I divide them up into 1 person portions and label them, stick them in the freezer and put them on a list. That way if we don't have leftovers one night or nothing gets cooked there's always a few things in the freezer for him. He takes out what he wants and marks it off the list. It's just another way to save money in my book!
And laundry, where does it end? I really try and do 1 load everyday to every other day. I know I can stay on top of it that way. Sometimes the clothes don't make it out of the dryer, but at least they're clean!
Check out I'm an Organizing Junkie's website. She loves to organize everything and she menu plans. She's an encouragement to keep the clutter out. This year she's doing a 52 week thing where she organizes 1 thing/area a week and then links to see what other people are doing too. It's a big help! Her site is:http://orgjunkie.com/
Sorry this is so long, I could talk about organizing and menu planning all day! :)
I hope you accomplish all your organizing goals and stay on top of them!
we also cook a lot of chicken in our household. Have you ever looked at plainchicken.com? She has some wonderful recipes!
ReplyDeleteYour list sounds a lot like ours for organizing. I love orgjunkie.com she has wonderful ideas!