Wonderful Wednesday

November 15, 2007

Filed under Confession, Cooking, Home, Ramblings

7 responses

My original title for this post was “Hump Day,” but it set me off into such a fit of giggles that I had to change it. Why, yes, I am 12!

Thanks for all the encouragement about my new life schedule. Jessica actually suggested checking out FlyLady. Ah, me and the FL go waaaaay back. She was my original declutter-and-clean mentor. After a while, though, I tend to bristle at the constant intervention. It’s just my nature. I still recommend FlyLady to others because the program absolutely works — you do have to make the commitment, though.

I’ve been using the FlyLady principles to get things on track here. One of her guiding concepts is that taking on a messy, cluttered house has to be done in little bites. Try to dive in and do it all at once will just result in burning down your house with all the clutter inside giving up in frustration. So I’m taking baby steps and working on just one room or area of the house each day. And it’s not that bad. Have a peek at my schedule (subject to change):

Monday
Laundry
Living room
Vacuum

Tuesday
Master bedroom
Sewing (10 a.m.-1 p.m.)

Wednesday
Kitchen
Dining room

Thursday
Laundry
Bathrooms (master & upstairs)
Mop/sweep bathrooms & kitchen
Sewing (10 a.m.-noon)

Friday
Vacuum
My car
General cleaning as needed

Saturday
Sewing (2-4 hours)

Sunday
Weekly planning

Basic, every day chores like dishes and cooking are an understood. Theoretically, I’m also exercising six days a week; however, I’m just now recovered from Saturday’s hilly-5K debacle so no exercise yet this week. There’s also a block of time set aside for “creative time” every day, as well as “Internet/correspondence.” So far, some of that has been taken up with mindless surfing and watching TV.

Like I said, it’s a work in progress.

The menu planning has been a nice change of pace from the habitual “oh my gosh it’s 6 o’clock what the heck are we going to eat?” mess our evening had become. Not to mention that I always spend more on those daily trips to the store than I would if I did one big grocery trip.

Honestly, if you really feel like you need to get a handle of things, start with planning your meals. Dinners, in particular. My basic starting point is to make a list of every main dish I know will be eaten in this house, then flip through a couple of cookbooks or magazines for ideas of new things to try. (As I add those to my list, I write down the source and page number so I can find it later when I make my grocery list, and then cook the dish.)

My next step is to make a calendar grid that covers at least two weeks. I check our family calendar to see if there are any evening obligations and make note of those, and then I just fill in the blocks. I try not to bunch up “like” foods, such as pasta or ground beef or chicken. Seriously, I could not eat chicken every night for a week. I also try to keep in mind what side dishes I usually prepare with something, so that I don’t end up with mashed potatoes two nights in a row.

I block out usually one night for leftovers (although many of our leftovers are packed and sent to work with Honey for his lunch) and I typically plan out at least one night for eating out.  Then I use the calendar to make my grocery list and it’s all good from there.

It really is a simple thing and it makes such a difference, not only in the dinnertime stress level but also in the amount of money I spend at the grocery store. I don’t know about you, but I rarely get in and out with only what’s on my list. Boy, do those little unplanned purchases add up — especially if you go to the store every day!

I’m hoping to return to my regular crafty discussions soon. I have a hard time concentrating on projects when my house is not in order and that’s really where things have been lately. Actually, tonight I’m going to watch TV downstairs (the return of Project Runway!) while I reclaim my craft space, which has turned into the most chaotic mess of messes in the history of crafty messes. It’s so bad, in fact, that I refuse to take pictures and share it, lest I have to live with the embarrassment for  the rest of my natural born life or be blackmailed.

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