Author: littleredstool

I’m a reader. In fact, for years I hauled boxes upon boxes of books with me each time I moved. Three big bookshelves worth. Y’all, books are heavy. (Here is my sincere apology to all of the wonderful people who used their time and energy to help make that happen.)

I had books from college, seminary, an amazing internship, and just life. I also had notebooks from all said stages of life. I was convinced that I needed all of these books. That I was one day going to need to look something up from one of the books that I was required to read and that if I couldn’t look it up that I was going to let someone down in a way that would ultimately crush them. That might sound extreme to you but it ran through my mind each time I thought about going through my books. How many times did I go back to those books? I’ll give you three guesses.

 

(image of a client’s curated bookshelf of Newberry Award wining books)

 

About two years ago, after yet another move, I decided that I just wasn’t reading the majority of the books that adorned my book shelves. Although I am a reader, I am not much of a re-reader. If it’s a story of any kind I’m probably not going to read it again. And unless it’s a super amazing book of truth or insight, my eyes aren’t going to see those pages again. Armed with my new knowledge about myself, I set out to decide which books I would read again. I was ruthless. That is what it took. I was also ready. I had spent years of building my decluttering-muscle.

I am now down to one shelf of books that I will recommend in a heartbeat and will read again, a stack of books for my profession (books that may or may not make it to the prized shelf), three series of books that I treasure, and a rotating stack of books that I am reading and then giving away.

I have substantially lightened the book load around here but I am still a heavy reader. The library, passed along books from friends, and the internet all help me to keep the book load under control.

Recently I came across these little treasures that might help you to think through some of your own clutter and why you might be keeping it around.

It’s Tuesday night and you’ve already run out of steam. A cry comes from the front door. “Whaaaaaat’s for dinnnnnner????” You have no idea. The pantry scramble comes and something that resembles dinner is on the table. Sure, you’ve filled the bellies and probably even satisfied the taste buds of each one in your home but your brain is probably stresssssed. Let’s talk about a few ways to make this scenario end with a little more sanity in your head and household.

Before we move into the tricks I want to let you know that the best first step is to have an organized pantry, fridge, and freezer. That way you can see what you have and use it.

If you need to declutter and organize your pantry, do that with these questions in mind.

1. Is it expired? If it is, why do you still have it? (You might not care about expiration dates. In which case I would say, go ahead and use it up ASAP. See challenge below.)
2. Do we like this food? Will we eat this food?

I love a good challenge! Do you? How many meals can you make without going to the grocery? Exception: fresh produce. If you use AllRecipes.com’s ingredient search it is amazing what you can find. (This post is in no way affiliated with or sponsored by allrecipes.com.)

The rule of thumb for this is:
Plan what you eat, buy what you plan, eat what you buy.

So here we go, let’s see what some of these tricks are for figuring out how to prepare meals and not go crazy doing it.

Make a written plan for each meal and snack.
You may choose a week or more. It’s totally up to you. If you are just starting out with meal planning, try a week.
If you have just cleaned out the pantry, fridge, and freezer for the first time in a while, you’ll want to use up all those expired or almost expired items. (For the record, I’m in the “throw it out” expired food camp.) So look at the items you want to use up and make meals around those items.

Make a written grocery list.
Since you’ve planned meals around the foods you want to use up it’s as if you have already done some of your shopping and you didn’t even have to leave your house or tip the grocery delivery person! Hooray!
Okay, now’s when you see what else you need to buy based on the meals and snacks you have planned. Put those things on your written grocery list. When you get to the store, buy only the things on your list. Be strong, you can do it!

Make your meals. Prep your snacks.
Now that you’ve bought what you’ve planned it’s time to eat what you bought by making your meals and prepping your snacks. You may choose to do all of this on one day and prep for the week. You may choose to make and prep as you eat. Different things work for different households at different seasons.

And just like that you have streamlined your eating for you and your household!

BONUS SIDE-EFFECTS:
You will save money.
Less food will go wasted.
You may actually lose weight. If you plan, buy, and eat food that is good for you in appropriate portions.
Once this is a habit for you, you will end up with more time and less stress.

Yes, these take time to do. Yes, it will take time to develop into a habit. Yes, you can help teach the other people in your family to help. Yes, it will pay off in the end.

Happy Meal Planning!

 

 

Just for fun, here are some other names I thought of for this article.

Food Tricks – makes me think of a circus with fruit and veggies doing acrobatics
Food Organizing – this screams “pantry” and that’s not what this article is about
Meal Planning – again, that totally gives it away, well, mostly
Meal Organizing – that gets the job done but how boring

I can’t tell you how many people ask me about laundry. “What tricks do you have?” “What systems do you recommend to families for laundry?” “How can I get out from underneath Laundry Mountain?”

You might not like my answer but here it is… Do it!

Do your laundry from start to finish. There is not magic life-altering system.

Now, your family might have some different laundry needs that you can use a system for but the bottom line is, you have to do your laundry. With that said, there are a few tricks that can help you to accomplish that.

• The less clothing you have, the less laundry you will have to do. I have a list of questions to ask yourself about what clothing to keep and what clothing to get rid of coming soon! Keep an eye out!
• Set a timer for when the washer will be done. When the timer goes off, change the clothes over to the dryer.
• Set a timer for when the dryer will be done. When the timer goes off, fold the clothes.
• When you are done folding, put the clothes away. Right away.
• If you have children, teach them how to do their laundry. It takes time and patience, but it is more than worth it to raise helpful contributors to your family.
• Play some Beat the Clock games. Plan other things that will take the same amount of time to do as your washer or dryer. Perhaps spend that time picking up the little things around the house that never made it to their appropriate homes. Get a basket or bin, carry it with you to pick all of those little items up. When the basket is full, put everything in the basket where it goes. Repeat until everything is put away. By this time the laundry is ready to change over or fold and put away.

What ways have you found to make sure you get the laundry done from start to finish?