Anyone want to join me in becoming more efficient this Autumn?

[Thatsnotmybookworm]

Would anyone like to join me in a thread to encourage ourselves to be more efficient and organised this Autumn?
I'm about to return to work after maternity leave, and I've really enjoyed how organised and (reasonably) calm my life has felt over the past couple of months; I would really like to hang on to that state when I'm back at work, but I'll need to be pretty efficient to manage it; I'll need to figure out lots of shortcuts I think . Time is going to be my most precious resource and I need to manage it accordingly!
Would love some company on my journey

Got some laundry done today but I think I am too careful about not putting 'good' things in the tumble dryer; I think I'm going to start putting more in, especially the children's clothes; I'm wasting too much time tumble drying half the load and drying the rest on airers etc.
Also tidied all 'public areas' of the house (areas that guests see ); I like to do that by Saturday morning latest so then I don't mind who calls over the weekend. Will be a challenge to try to keep this up!

Signing in...

I have just searched the DCs rooms and found copious bottles of shower gel, shower cream, bubble bath etc which were gifts. I've bought a pretty but cheap soap dispenser to have in the shower and I will just keep re-filling it from my haul. I reckon we have enough to last until the new year.

I intend to start (small scale) Xmas shopping for the DCs from tomorrow, rather than leaving it until Dec. 20th and having to blow a few hundred in one go!

I did a big clear out of mine and DH's wardrobes last night, and took a big bag of clothes to a charity shop this morning.

I went from the charity shop into Boots to buy my usual hand cream and body lotion, but at last minute decided to check out Boyes next door. They stocked my exact brand handcream and lotion, but both were £2 cheaper. I saved £4 just like that!

We’re away for a bit. I’ve organised the first two days of school. But will come back and join you once we’re back :)

Yes please sign me up! I am starting different hours at work starting next week going from 1 day to 3 morning and my child starts pre school while im at work and very aware i need to become more organised, im pregnant and being sick a lot so struggled over summer but new routines start next week!

My aims are
Be organised for morning routine making packed lunches and geting us both out door as easily as possible, make sure keep on top of house work and get ready for christmas!
When writing it down 3 mornings sounds like nothing but as taking on a lot more responsibility will be more like 3/4 full days

Me again missed big one!
Decluttering 4th bedroom ready to transfer 18 month old in and organis new baby's room and paraphernalia!!

I can join? I’m in the exact same situation. I have to go back to work after maternity (and find a new job there). I need things to be super organised to function and not go nuts I also feel I miss out on stuff/people because I can’t seem to plan more than a day ahead! So I hope to

1. Be more productive and spend much less time dicking about on the internet. I’m going to limit browsing to twenty mins twice a day and use my bj more for to dos, meal and forward planning.
2. I’m going to declutter ruthlessly. Especially clothes and kitchen stuff. I spend all my free time tidying up crap Atm.

chicken - you sound like you have a lot on your plate! Does your 18mo nap well to give you time to do some of that? I was SOOO tired in the run up to my second baby being born (21 month gap) - I remember napping on the floor in clients’ toilets...

So my meal plan has gone to pot. I don’t mind improvising and adapting on the fly, but I do want to avoid what I have been doing which is needing to pop into the shop every single day because I decide too late about dinner then realise I need to buy just one or two things (and also do big vague online shops then not use it all up because I didn’t really know what I was going to do with it all)...

I think I was possibly being too ambitious/getting carried away sitting down with recipe books to plan, and need to plan in more fishfingers and chips type meals.

Decluttering - I’ve got so much better since I found A Slob Comes Clean - podcast and blog and book. It’s a style of decluttering and household management that works for me - not naturally inclined to keep things clean or tidy! Still a few hotspots to go though - the ‘art cupboard’, which is full of old pencils and bits of cardboard and fabric scraps etc. And another cupboard of boxes of junk/treasures/general old stuff. I would love to get both of these clear and organised by the new year...

@Coriander - yes, your meal plan has to be achievable. I am a little guilty of trying to have an Instagram-worthy meal plan because I generally do love cooking, however, I also need to let go and plan in some easy meals.

My plan for the day:

1. My ironing (this used to be my Sunday thing then I lapsed)
2. Meal plan

I have started adding back all my to-dos in my diary in bj style, so feeling more organised on that front.

Just had a chance to read through this and have been writing down ideas in my bujo

I was getting back on top of things but then got pregnant and the past few weeks particularly I've spent the morning wrangling 21mo DD and the afternoon either on the sofa feeling sick or on the sofa crashed out Looking forward to the second trimester and feeling a bit more normal again!

I use a combo of a simple bujo and filofax alongside onenote, the bujos with project pages/weekly planners/trackers/etc don't work for me at all. I have a simple notebook for my daily bujo list, a filofax for any planning that isn't daily and Onenote for my spreads and lists. I have a moveable habit tracker that is in my filofax too.

My aims for September:

Declutter more: What will be DDs room needs decluttering, currently our clothes and all the toys not on rotation live in there along with a lot of 'Stuff'.

Clothes Sort: We should but can't afford to replace mine and DHs clothes but we do need to sort them and I can probably bin stuff as I'll be in maternity wear for a while soon. DD will go up into the next size soon and I'm going to be very sparing with buying her next size up and buy what we need when it's needed rather than having an unmanageable amount of clothes for her again!

Meals: We need to stick to the meal plan, bulk cook and do online shops. I usually have to cook lunch and dinner as I'm gluten intolerant and vegetarian (currently vegan diet thanks to bfing DD) and DD is allergic to dairy, eggs and peanuts and I suspect an intolerance to soy. So sandwiches are not a regular lunch option and most meals take a bit of prep. Now I've gone off of tomato sauces too which knocks out our favourite dinner (tomato risotto) and my favourite quick lunch (tomato pasta!). We're planning to use the slow cooker more from now on and maybe look at an instant pot for Christmas!

Freezing kids portions in muffin tins is genius, I've been using ramekins but they're slowly all breaking! Thanks for that tip!

Yesterday's Act of Organisation was to sit down with Money Dashboard and set that up/go through August's spending to get an idea of our spending habits. It was horrific and embarrassing but gave us a very good idea of where we need to trim spending! (Groceries and DHs lunches/coffees at work!)

Used to use YNAB but we kept falling out of the habit of checking it as it required using my PC to do it and effort. MD will be much easier I think.

I’ll catch up on the posts but just want to say that I’ll join in! I’m back to work after maternity leave in a month and have no idea how life will be...

Eldest DC is now settled safely at uni so I’m able to get back into this thread.
Organising the home should be so much easier with one less in it grin]

Updated my calendar and phone this morning, still have my diary to do.

Loving all the new posts and ideas that come with them. Agree with CorianderSnell and Wildernesstips about meal planning. I also need to make my menus a little less complicated.

Some great ideas here, I’m going to make a list of them! The Wunderlist app sounds good OP, I will check that out.

My biggest problem is running out of steam. I love ‘planning’ to be organised. Making lists, bright ideas are all great but when it comes to actually doing the items on the list I freeze. I think I need to start small and focus on particular areas of my life to be more efficient. I’ll probably need another list for that...

Lovely to see all the new posts

@QueenOfCatan Once the food has frozen in the muffin tins, I take it out of the freezer for a few mins; just until I can slide a knife in and pop the 'muffins' out. Then I pop them in a freezer bag so they take up very little space in the freezer.

I bit the bullet and took DS's shorts out of his drawer today; threw a couple of pairs out and the rest will go in the attic to see what still fits him next year. Also threw out several pairs of trousers that have been languishing in the 'scruffy' pile for a while. That feels like a nice bit of decluttering done for the day.

Dedicated meal planner here by the way, if anyone is interested in sharing meal plans?

I definitely want to be more organised.

The kids are going back to school, dh can't anything much as off sick and I appear to have gone from 3-4 days a week at work
I need energy and motivation

Hi all I need to catch up. My new thing this month though is trying not to food shop every week. I've just done a shop trying to shop for the month not the week so attempted to buy all the non perishables in bulk which resulted in 12 cartons of uht milk, 30 Fish fingers and so on.

The downside was that I had to stop when the trolley was full and I'm quite tired! I don't have loads of storage BUT I'm getting a shed with power so may get a chestcfreezer.

When the shed is up I will go back to ordering the dog food in bulk online which I did before I moved which is brilliant - 3 times a year huge bags of dog food arrives by magic

Coriander- yes i do when i read back i was like ! !
She does sleep in afternoon however ive been sleeping then myself quite a bit in summer, but think i need to do at least my work more than house jobs
I will gave a progress report on tuesday as first day!

Also I installed these when the dds were at dads - all their school bags and activity kits - they will love this

QueenofCatan I've done a spending audit today too and am also embarrassed at some of our spending habits. I'm glad I did though, it's something I have really been putting off.

Also done today:

• decluttered DS2 clothes and they are in the charity bag waiting to be collected (new strategy - don't chuck clothes until a charity bag comes through or they will sit waiting to go to the charity shop for months 😄)!
• ironing

Yessssss meeeeeee! Bit late to join but I am so in need of serious organisation. Bought a journal today (8nspired by this thread) and go8ng to learn how to bullet journal. Also going to try the TOMM method of housework. Am lucky enough to live in a beautiful home but it's 8n a constant state of chaos. The time is right to sort it out. Bullet journal begins on a Tuesday.

@thatsnotmybookworm thanks! Do you pop them into bags together or separately? No sticking together issues if together?

@squadronleader87 I can totally relate to running out of steam, I'm very good at making lots of lists but not acting out on them too

@queenofthedrivensnow do you have a monthly meal plan or are you bulk buying the things that you'd usually buy lots of?
We bulk buy our rats food, it's brilliant and makes life so much easier. Our last batch has lasted us a year (though we are down to just 4 rats now!) but we need to order more soon!

@wildernesstips It's awful when you really look into it isn't it!

Yesterday's Act of Organisation was to menu plan. Lunches for DD and I are dinner from the night before for ease whilst I get back into it, and because our freezer needs defrosting and we're trying to empty it! Though I have a prospective childminding family visiting on Thursday so if they go with me and need lunch and dinner that'll have to change, which will mean defrosting the freezer this weekend and doing some bulk cooking!

@QueenOfCatan I'm not sure. I bought everything that keeps. The idea is I don't do endless top ups. I use uht milk anyway but our only buys at least for the first 2 weeks of the month should be fresh fruit and cream - kids have it on their cereal.

My other thing to add is keep food at work if you have any storage - my drawers are full of instant noodles and soup and even instant porridge. Feel like I've built something in for when the organisation goes to shit.

@QueenOfCatan I put them all into the same bag; I don't find they stick together really.

I made a pot of soup this morning so that's lunch sorted for this week; I think I probably need some new containers to bring it to work though; I like to have one for every day so I can just divide up the soup into them as soon as it's made; rather than relying on myself to decant soup from the pot each evening/morning.

Oooh I’d like to join! School term (for me, anyway) starts on Wednesday. I’ve got my bullet journal set up, shiny new stationary and everything else almost all set up ready to go. Now, if only I was on top of my planning already...!