Make my life easy!

[Sleepysquirrelin]

Probably been done to death but anyway, I love these threads. I am fed up juggling it all and feeling exhausted. From now til Christmas I just need some short cuts and tips to take the stress out of everything basically. Housework, cooking, school related stuff. What can I do to lessen the load?

Do less housework! So long as it's clean, and reasonably tidy, it'll do just fine.

I find cooking big batches of freezable stuff really helps - midweek dinners are just a heat up exercise in this house - bolognese, curry, chilli, cottage pie etc all freeze well. I made giant pots eg of bolognese sauce and freeze in portions so dont even have to have a cookathon every week. We have kids evening activities mon-wed so those are our toughest evenings - being able to sling some chilli or something into the microwave whilst doing homework helps

Cleaner, ironing lady, lawn service. How much have you got to spend?

Online shopping

And mainly just lowering standards

Mine are rock bottom hahaha

Do you iron? If so, stop it!

Give some chores to kids.
Meal plan one pot dishes as often as possible.
Make enough food for 2 nights.
Take some multi vits

A couple of service washes at the launderette. Depending on age of child get them to write xmas cards - I used to pay per card. Use present bags and just scrunch gifts into tissue paper, seal with one piece of sellotape if necessary. Print gift labels on computer. Don't get suckered into doing stuff like elf on the shelf, just keep things simple.

My freezer is small and full so I have a few batch cooked things in it but not much. I am also terrible at remembering to take stuff out to defrost. I do usually have homemade soup, pasta sauce and chilli for the DC in there though. Wish I had a bigger freezer but picked it pre DC.

Standards are already pretty low. I don't iron, do online shopping. Kids a bit young to be of any real help.

I don't have a cleaner but could probably afford one. Need to get on top of tidying first! Not sure if I'd just find it an extra pressure knowing they were coming.

I've ordered one of those food/ recipe kits to come once a fortnight. Might be a faff though.

I'm going to stop inviting people over. It's stressing me out. The house gets tidy but only on the surface and I end up stuffing things away in cupboards and then not being able to find them again.

Make a spreadsheet or database with your friends' and family's addresses, use it to mail merge and print your Xmas cards.

Use a company like merry maids to deep clean your house then have them come in once a week, or once a fortnight if you can afford it.

How old are your kids? Get them to cook a meal once in a while, and do the clean up. You could make it into a competition or build up to a reward.

I found food kits more faff than help tbh. But how about 1/2 nights a week of very easy meals (egg and chips, omelette etc)? On present shopping I’d sit down with a coffee and whizz through everything online, now or soon, so it’s not hanging over you.

If you wish you had a bigger freezer, buy a bigger freezer.

Family calendar or app to sync calendar with your partner (if you have one). We know where everyone is going to be when trying to arrange appointments and make plans.

That "good enough" is good enough. I used to really slog my guts out with housekeeping. It would get dirty in the same amount of time. Now I just use one bottle of multipurpose spray and a microfibre cloth and give stuff a quick wipe. Saved me so much time.

Buy birthday cards, sympathy cards in a box with stamps and a pen and your address book. Means you always have a card to hand instead of having to go out and purposely buy a sympathy card. Before this I'd have forgotten.

Have a box for the charity shopin your cloakroom or somewhere. Chuck stuff in as you come across it. Drove off when full.

A place for everything is helping to get my house tidier.less stuff means less to tidy. Have a declutter.

Also a box of loose change and some money envelopes for school, unless all their payments can be made online.

If you often forget to take things out of the freezer in time, you can get a defrosting tray (Amazon) that speeds defrosting up. That might help you.

Keep a daily TO Do list to help you remember things and stay on top of them. Tick things off as you do them to remind yourself what you have achieved.

I have a sheet written out that is sellotaped to the back of my wall calendar (have to have things on the wall rather than electronically but I am old and too used to this).
It has all kinds of useful numbers that may be needed on forms like NHS numbers, mobile numbers, babysitting/holiday clubs etc. In terms of online school payments etc I scribble down when the last one was made on there. I use a former (very old) postcode as password for the school payment stuff and this could be adapted to other things - scribbling it down (minus the last letter if need be, which you would remember) looks just like remembering a postcode

Are you a lone parent?.

The dishwashers the biggest time saver, but if you need a bigger freezer do buy a small one and get batch cooking.