Organisational tips and tricks to start in the new year

[WireBrushAndDettolMaam]

Do you have any?

I’m going to set up a standing order for £10 a week to save for Christmas next year.

I’m also going to save £5 a week into and ASDA card to help with the Christmas shopping next year.

I’m going to mark all the birthdays/anniversaries/whatever on the calendar and have a box with cards, stamps etc ready to go.

I’m also going to have a huge declutter and donate/sell as much as I can to get some much needed space and organise what’s left.

Any other ideas gratefully received!

I seem to get loads of pretty little zipped bags as parts of Xmas gifts every year with make up or perfume in them and they’re really handy for the pouch system you use johnny. Also my son has started to sew and makes lovely fabric zippy pouches too. I have more than I can use!

The clothes thing I am going to start doing. Definitely.

I’ve also got a couple of the bigger male up bag pouches which I keep in my desk drawer at work with an “emergency kit” so paracetamol and ibruprofen, spare tights, small make up kit, deodourant hair brush, vitamin c tablets toothbrush and paste, hair bands gym socks etc.

The other lives in the car - two nappies for each kid wipes pre mixed formula and a spare bottle for Dd, plasters sudocream antibacterial wipes nappy bags sunscreen.

I used to frequently forget to take my medication; and some days I couldn't be sure if I had taken it or not, so didn't take it to be on the safe side. To manage this I bought a weekly tablet organiser from the chemist which has been great. As I'm refilling it, I can tell when I need to order more and do so before I run out.

I have a basket in each car with snacks, water, blankets etc for break downs or ravenous children

My DH always puts what ever change he has in a jar. He’s always done it. Anyway last week he counted it up and had £500! He’s off on a golf trip abroad so using it for that.

Can I ask all of you with school age children to go and write your child’s name in their uniform please? I am amazed at how few parents do this and regularly get them at the classroom door asking to look for a cardigan or jumper. Biro will do! Thanks.

I used to use a Filofax but now make good use of ‘notes’ on my phone. I just put any dates in and delete as I go. I have different pages that keep track of savings, periods, DC grades and appointments, books I want to read, recipes I see on tv. All in one place. I’ve become much more phone based in the last year or two.

So im always so disorganised but one thing that used to help my meal planning was using bbc goodfood their website u can create an account and have collections where i would put recipes for the week in a collection

Also seeing the TOMM method im going to have a go as never seen it before

TOMM is fantastic. Only time my house has ever been all clean at once was when I was doing it.

Though of another I got from here a few years ago ... before your next flight stick a strip of washi take to the back of passports and using a sharpie write the holders first name on. That way when scrabbling around at passport control you can easily see who's is who's and pop boarding cards in rather than having to open them all.

What is TOMM?

@DuchessDumbarton our meal planner days revolves around basic theme days - e.g. pasta, vegetarian, roast, curry, egg, fish etc.
Some of our easy everyday favourites are:
Chicken thighs tray baked with potatoes, olive oil, lemon and thyme.
White frozen fish piled over with frozen sliced peppers and spinach, breadcrumbs and grated cheese, baked in the oven along with a pyrex lidded dish of white rice.
Pea and bacon pasta - brown off diced bacon while pasta cooks, chuck peas in pasta near the end, mix a tub of philadelphia into the bacon along with some of the cooking water to loosen sauce, drain pasta/peas and combine.
Instant pot risotto - butternut or mushroom. Game changers.
Home-made soup and garlic bread.

We have a list of
a) each person's favourite meals
b) with ticks/crosses to show other family members preference to that meal
I then sit with whoever is available/interested for 10 minutes on a Sunday and plan the following week according to what we have on. So pasta night goes where we need a quick meal, fish night goes where the fish hater is out, etc.
It's great because you can make the shopping list at the same time, jotting down next to each meal whatever ingredients you don't already have in (I also yell at Google to add it to my shopping list). You can also focus on what you do have in to keep costs down - I keep a list on a whiteboard inside a cupboard door of what's in the freezer and what needs using up from the fridge. Then I jot the meal plan on another whiteboard (just a quick M T W and main meal list) so no suprises for anyone. I also use the whiteboard to assign a day to cook to each capable person in the home!
We only do evening meals at the moment, but have done lujches too and it worked well especially helpful for thinking about take to work lunches from previous meal.
Breakfast is everyone's own responsibility. There's stuff in, eat it!.

TOMM is the organised mum approach i googled it, its how to organise the housework

@DuchessDumbarton we use a failproof recipe for chicken curry my child learned in food tech: (guess who gets to cook it on their night!!)
Brown diced chicken, stir in a pot of curry paste (we use the little tubs of Pataks Madras but there's lots of others), add a tin of tomatoes and some yoghurt and simmer for 15 mins. Delish!

I have decided to pop a £1 in a large sweet jar for Christmas. I am going to put a £1 in every day and try and not dig into when short of change.

Thanks @chicken2015

I’m in! I have to get more organised as I’m spending lots of money unnecessarily, mainly on last minute food purchases. Love Pinterest for storing all my recipes. Will sit down every Sunday morning and plan the meals ahead, go do a big shop, and then meal prep.

Ive just brought some index cards and going to write all the recipes i know and the ingredients and then pick out 5 for meal plan and then order as do internet shop. I find deciding what to eat everyday so stressful! Im so indecisive

Oh my goodness, how generous.
Thank you @Twillow for your long detailed posts- that's exactly what I need to put together a list.
I'm up to 8 every-day recipes that my fussy family will eat; or be able to throw together themselves on an evening when I run late at work.
You curry recipe is exactly what DD1 needs to be able to produce- give her some pride in her ability to do one meal for us.
Thanks

and to add another tip-
We have a kitchen whiteboard, whereon we stick things that we've run out of....grocesies, lightbulbs, the library books that need returning etc.
During very busy weeks, we write out the schedule so that the kids can check for themselves as to what the plan is.

House cleaning- I've tried the TOMM method, and I think she's fab. I'm just not very good at sticking to it!

Funky Pigeon have cards at 50% if you buy 4 or more... I'm up to about June doing 4 or more at a time. Some I've set to preload. Others coming to me. Never done it before but feel it's a good start to the year.

We have to de clutter & reorganise our house this year or one of the kids will have to move out

@NWQM thanks for the funky pigeon tip just ordered 4 cards got a couple of birthdays anniversaries coming up all organised now .

For anyone that takes photos on their phone to be organised but then worries about finding things again, theres a great app called NINE thats a photo based notes/list/etc app.

Basically you item in it is a photo that you put some text over and you can add dates and other stuff too as well as sorting stuff into categories.

To find stuff you look through a list of photos with big labels on top of them.

I have folders in my photos that I’m using more for organising some photos which helps but there are a few photos that I use for reference on a regular basis so just use for those to get really easy access to them.

It was on a thread like this that I learnt about the app, albeit about 3 or 4 years ago!

I'm following the Declutter 365 calendar to get my home organised over the course of the year www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/declutter.html