Tips for getting organised

[Bucketsofdinosaurs]

Thought we must all have one tip that we cling to, no matter how disorganised we are about other things and with some of us starting schoolruns (or playschoolruns) in a few weeks now is a good time to pool our collective wisdom. My motivation is the more organised we are, the more time we have to take it easy. Hate being rushed!

Mine is to get/make a family organiser calendar with a column for each member of the family. VERY handy if you use childcare and forces partners to become a bit more aware of the rest of the family. "If it aint on the calendar, it aint happening."

hi sorkycake.any ideas how to organise the meals for the week.i m too busy to cook daily but want fresh good food for the kids.
3 kids- 6, 5 and 8 months and 1dh.i work 30 hrs a week- every w/day morning and also fri afternoon till 6 30.i run the household as well as kids homework and most of their extra curricular activities.the hardest bit is getting the food organised.pls help!

THink it got this tip from here, but i cant find it again, but HUGE thanks to whoever wrote to put all the ingredients in their cupoards on a whiteboard so they can see quickly what they have in house. I tried it and it works a treat, and makes my shopping list making sooooo much easier

asid, try cooking double of families fav meals and freezing other half. It saves money and time. I do it with lasagne and casseroles only, but theres loads you could do. In fact, i think delia has a section online for recipies you can freeze

Here's a way to get 5 days worth chicken sorted if you can set aside time to have sticky hands. *Buy a couple of whole chickens (cheaper than portions)and hack them up with a sharp knife as soon as you can. Put the drumsticks, boned and chopped thighs and breasts into separate freezer bags. Then you can decide what you're having in advance and take out a bag to defrost all day. Add some garlic, lemon slices, chopped onions or spices before you close the bags if you like so they marinate on defrosting.
*Fry up the little slivers you end up with and stir into rice or something as a yummy reward for all this effort.
*Stick the bare bones in a big pan of water to simmer for the rest of the night to make stock, again freezable or use to whizz up a vegetable soup the next night. Cooked and pureed veg (eg the giant pumpkins and marrows that are in lots of people's gardens right now) can also be frozen and added to your stock if you need to disguise them.

Good grief, sounds like you have your hands full.
Right, I'd suggest the best way to tackle meals is to menu plan. Every saturday morning I rifle through the cupboards and freezer to see what I have in terms of meals already prepared, meat etc.
Then I plan menu's for each day and add any items needed to my shopping list.
Menu planning isn't hard and it allows you to plan healthy meals, avoids last minute take-away desicions and allows variety in your diet. Plus you waste less because you plan what to use the food for.
So, take a roast dinner:
Whole chicken, in our house only the breast meat is used. Carcuss is stripped and chicken goes wrapped and labelled into the freezer for a curry later in the week.
Veg for roast, carrots, peas, cauli, broccoli etc. Veg left in bag will need to be used up so I usually either make soup or a casserole for example.
So from one meal I have 3. I also know that we will have chicken twice that week so I want to avoid cooking it again to avoid same-iness.
That's the way I do it.
I also bulk cook, so if we have pasta/pesto with roasted veg, I know tomatos don't last too long, we need to have this early in the week, we don't want to have it on days too close together, so the sauce is made using all the tomatos and half frozen for next week.
No tomatoes wasted and for next weeks menu plan I'll check the freezer and know that I have a batch of sauce.
Lasagne, chilli, spag bol, is all bulk cooked and portions frozen. Whatever the menu plan has set for that day is removed from the freezer the night before and defrosts in the fridge. By teatime it's ready to heat in the same time as it takes to cook pasta say. The menu is on a board in the kitchen so everyone knows what we will be having.
For days when you know you will be back late you can plan to have fajita's say, for which the prep can be done beforehand and the cooking is relatively quick.
Slow cookers are worth their weight in gold if you get home late from activities as the meal can be set away to be piping hot when you get in. hth

This months You are what you eat has an A4 white board free.

I put this on the fitted sheet thread, but thought I'd pop it here too

When you are putting away bedlinen, fold everything except one pillowcase and then put everything sheets, duvet cover and pillowcases inside the last pillow case.
You can instantly spot the set in the airing cupboard and its all in one place, and you just fold the edge over and its super tidy. Hope this is useful to someone else.

Have picked up loads of other great tips on this thread too. Thanks.

I don't know if anyone has said this in prev posts, it's a bit long now, lol, but every day when I get a bill through the post, or anything which needs my attention, I put it in my clip board which sits on top of my computer, then every week I deal with it, in the past I have been known to open bills putting them down and not finding them again til the next month, lol

I now put my bills in my bag as soon as I open them, then they are all together and ready for paying when in bank. If left in the in tray they would soon be buried.

Message withdrawn

I want to resurrect this thread to see if someone else has some more useful tips to pass on.

bump

no?

No tips, but thanks for the bumpage, tis a v. useful thread!

I love this thread. sorkycake you are my hero!! I am going to follow your tips.

I have never tried bulk cooking before, i bet that would save me loads of time! :D

It's a flylady tip, but if you have less stuff, you can zip through the housework much faster and it looks tidy quicker. If it isn't beautiful or useful, get rid. Either give it away or bin it if it's beyond salvage. Our local freecycle is so full of scavengers resourceful people that we can get rid of pretty much anything within 48 hours.

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I love the sound of your Personal Organiser sortycake, is it a Filofax type thingy from WH Smiths or something different? I need something like this to get me organised