What do you do to get on top of things at the weekend to make the following week easier?

I do a pot of lentil stew that I decant into 5 takeaway boxes and stick in the freezer for my lunches through the week. Only works if you really like lentils! One less thing to think about in the mornings.

I make DC lunches for the whole week, all uniform is ironed for the week, house tidied. We've tried batch cooking but never really stick at it.

Meal plan so on the days I am home later I can just get food read in 20 mins or DH can.
Make sure all uniform is ready washed and ironed for week ahead.
Check school stuff top up lunch money and see if any admin or letters to reply to.
I sometimes batch cook a load of bolognaise that can used or made into chilli.
Often have to do a food shop.

We make sure all the laundry is done and clean clothes put in everyone’s wardrobes (DH does all the ironing on Sunday morning). We do a weekly meal plan on Friday night and the food shopping on Saturday. I do the cooking, and I make sure we have a mixture of quick meals and home cooked stuff depending on which days I am most busy. When DDs were at school, we made sure all uniform was sorted for the week.

Probably not the answer you want and would not work in many jobs, but I always made a choice to work Saturdays to leave DH to care for DS and I had a peaceful day off in the week to myself .

I found the easiest way to batch cook is to make one thing each week, but make at least 6 portions - a portion being enough for the family, not a person. Eg
week Item
1 Chilli

1. Curry
2. Bolognese
3. Shepherds pie filling
4. Cheese sauce for Mac + cheese
5. Chicken casserole

so by week 6 you’ve got a freezer with 1 portion of chilli, 2 of curry, 3 of bolognese etc. on week 7 you make more chilli.

I make sandwiches from frozen bread, wrap them in cling film and put them in air tight container in the fridge. To my initial surprise, the sandwiches are fine still on Friday!

Putting uniforms for the week ahead assumes you can afford 5 days worth..... rather than washing mid week - uniforms are still very expensive despite the new government rules

Meal planning and batch cooking and family wall planner

If this is to me, my DC have 2 summer dresses each, they wear for 2 days. The last day is PE uniform.

Their winter is 1 dress each and 2 shirts.

Having a weeks worth of uniform looks different to different people.

We meal plan, write out what clubs/activities are happening (so we know what time the food needs to be) and assign cooking days to everyone.

When I commuted and the kids were younger and not taking their turn to cook, I used to batch cook at least a couple of meals but don't have to do that now.

DH does the washing now but I used to make sure I'd rescued (from the floor) and washed all the uniform to try to avoid panic on weekday mornings.

2 summer dresses each, they wear 1 dress for 2 days.

I write the weekly planner on Sunday evenings.
It's one of these sort of things.
I put every sports practice and match, every early finish, every WFH, club meetings, extra shifts, early starts, social stuff, library day, special days at school, lift-shares, driving lessons, EVERYTHING.

I shout out to everyone to let me know if there's anything else this week. Then I live my life by it for the next 7 days.

I don't think my pans would be big enough to make 6 X family meals in one go. How do you do it?

Great thread.

I'm terribly disorganised and remember things just in time usually. To help with this, I make sure that during Sunday dinner, we all eat together and we all talk about what's going on for everyone during the week.
If I tell dc1 they have a dentist appointment or that they have non uniform day etc, they'll remember it themselves so will prompt me if I forget.

I also make sure all laundry is done, swimming clothes and towels are in the bag, PE kit is ready all together and I have food in for packed lunches and meals for the week.

Looking forward to reading the collated requested "examples" on Reach in a few days, or am I mistaken in the destination publication?

Usually a food shop is done on Friday, meal plan updated, uniforms washed and ironed, school bags emptied/cleaned/homework done and planners signed.

Batch cooking favs for the freezer inc: sausage casserole; chilli; chicken, tomato & spinach curry (SW); cottage pie; soups; bolognaise/lasagne; homemade tomato sauce for pasta; portions of cooked mashed potato.

I buy burger buns and finger rolls when reduced and put in freezer for easy “can’t-be-bothered” tea of burgers or hotdogs. And another easy win is a couple of packets of Aldi/Lidl microwave rice (40p?) to accompany chilli or curry dishes.

Love the idea to batch cook cheese sauce for mac&cheese - love mac&cheese but put off making it due to faff of making the sauce usually.

We are at the other end. "Kids" at uni and home for the odd weekend. So we meal plan and do food shopping bearing in mind we may have 2 or 3 or 4 or more at the weekend. Also do laundry Wednesday so the washing machine and dryer are free.

Very small thing I do a batch cooked meal in the oven with dinner on Sunday usually something like chilli/ bolongaise. If feeling very organised I also make a soup (we have soup 1 night a week in the winter). So meal plan is :
Monday :batch cooked meal
Tuesday : usually a quickish pasta thing
Wednesday: Stir fry
Thursday:soup

All uniform washed and dried.

I clean the bathroom and make sure laundry is sorted.