New years resolution, to be more organised in the home - please share your tips

[Honey1975]

Today I spent the morning cleaning and tidying after the christmas chaos before more family arrived to stay. I have been feeling overwhelmed with the amount of stuff needing doing before christmas since I finished work and the state of the place was starting to affect my mood. Once I'd had a good tidy up today I felt so much better.

The trouble is an organised home does not come easily to me. I work part time but when I'm not at work I'm at home with the dc's although I am hoping to start having Friday's off.

I am never on top of the housework, washing, ironing, meal planning, food shopping etc. I am always scrabbling around for clean clothes to throw on for work, and trying to cobble meals together at the last minute. It frequently all gets on top of me and it doesn't help that sometimes I'm too exhausted to do much in the afternoons as I have a chronic condition which can wipe me out. Thinvs then build up and I ger even more behind and more stressed.

Getting on top of things today made me feel so good that I want to try and make some new years resolutions that will help my home and the family run more efficiently. At the moment there is a lot of stress and tension when things are not done as I feel irritated and stressed which then rubs off on the children.

I'd love to hear what other mums do in terms of routines for all the things that need doing to keep the home running smoothly as I have lost my way and am desperate to make 2018 better.

😶. Watching and also waiting for desperately needed advice.

For food we plan a week ahead and I do an online shop one night in front of tv. Always try and plan at least one meal that does two nights (eg lasagne) and every so often do a massive batch cook of easy meals

I have Tesco app on my phone so whenever something runs out I’ll add to the next shopping list

Meal planning on a Sunday, doing the shop for said meal plan, and cooking for the week ahead on a Sunday afternoon / night. I'll generally make a batch of homemade mayo, along with something that can be reheated easily and do a couple of nights such as a shepherds pie. DH always does a chicken on a Sunday night, so the leftovers will also do another meal. I decant all meals into glass containers in the fridge which makes it easier to see what there is and to store stacked on one another.

I also have lots of easy 'go to' meals for when I'm just not organised enough - noodles, stir fry, microwave rice. We always poach a large container of chicken breasts on a Sunday night. Once cooled they go into a glass container in the fridge, and they get used as quick meal ingredients or lunches - chicken with coconut milk and baltic paste and microwave rice, same for stir fry.

I have a cleaner who comes on a Friday - I do all the tidying up beforehand, so it forces me to keep on top of things. We also have a roomba, which can do any hoovering which is needed mid week.

I have a plastic container which I use for clothes which are too small / no longer wanted, and once it is full it goes to the charity shop. Every so often I have a clear out of clothes that I am never going to wear again - no point them taking up space in the wardrobe. Other than the ones hanging in the wardrobe, I fold all my clothes and 'file' them upright in drawers so you can see instantly what is in the drawer.

I try to reduce the amount of laundry by washing things only when they really need it. We each have a chair system in the bedrooms where 'worn once' clothes reside, neatly folded. In fact I would say if you can master the art of folding properly, it will make your life much easier.

I have a chronic condition which wipes me out too, so I can sympathise.

Rankellior I use the iPhone reminders function in a similar way - I have a shopping list set up on that, and things automatically get added to the list, either via Siri or Alexa.

I must say, one of the things that has made the biggest difference has been that my DH started working from home 1 day a week. He is able to put on and hang up a wash during his lunch hour, as well as collect DC from school and other bits & pieces such as paying bills or making household phone calls. This has made a massive difference to my mental load.

Wow beryl you are super woman ! Why don't you use plastic Tupperware for food in freezer ? Iv never seen glass boxes before ? When you say you batch cook mayo may I ask why ? Is it for sandwiches or as a dipping sauce for chicken or meat

Addicted I don't like using plastic for food storage - too many xeno-oestrogens which play havoc with our delicate hormonal balances.

I've found it really helpful to make myself a safety net drawer - squirrel away one pair for each of you of clean pants, school socks for the kids, a set of uniform if you have enough spares, any special stationery they need for school (mine are always losing green pens and rulers!) and anything which you find yourself regularly stressing out looking for! It really cuts out that ARRRGGHHHH moment before school/work. And definitely do the online grocery shopping. You can get a Tesco delivery saver pass for about £7.99 a month and it's brilliant to be able to sit in front of the telly doing the shopping for the following day.
I bet you're doing better than you think you are. It's always the way

Following as I am desperate to be more organised

Less stuff, so everything has a home, really helped us. I am not so good at organising meals in a planned way, but the Tesco ap to do the weekly shop in ten minutes is great.

Uniform - I have five bags labelled with the weekdays, and Sunday nights I fill each one with a complete set of uniform including undies. Makes mornings easy! (Do-able because uniform is all supermarket supplied so it was fairly affordable to have 5 sets.) Means I only do laundry 1 day per week and don't think about it in between.

Sometimes do the packed lunches the night before. Tend to make enough of supper that I can have leftovers the next day for lunch.

Bullet journal for home and work To Do lists - I try and assign 2 or 3 jobs to each day as I find I've more chance of doing them that way than just leaving them on a long list. I like bullet journal because it makes me think a week at a time and not get too overwhelmed.

I've had the post-Christmas tidy up today too and feel much better for it! Tomorrow aiming to go through my clothes and chuck out the worn out / never worn, so I can see what I've got left. I do this regularly for the endlessly growing DC but forget to sort my own

I still am a bit disorganised but massively improved. Also shop on a Sunday. Sometimes roast two chickens and make portions of curry to freeze. Stew - buy two or three pound of beef and freeze portions. Other nights - salmon fillet and new potatoes. Pasta pesto another.

Make packed lunches as soon as I get in and put in the fridge.

Charity shop as much as you can. I got rid of another black bag today again.

I’m not terribly well organised and can sink under things at times. I find that scheduling is better than list making.

Buy a dyson fluffy or animal with hand held Hoover bit.....wonderful

Join us here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/3039784-Join-me-in-getting-rid-of-at-least-one-thing-a-day-decluttering-challenge

Berylstreep, re the pyrex dishes with lids, aren't the lids plastic? Though I guess they are not touching the food?

Double, I wouldn't use the lids in the microwave, and as you say, they don't really touch the food when they are on.

For us the thing that has made the biggest difference is de-cluttering. We still have a long way to go but we no longer spend vast amounts of time shifting 'stuff' from one pile to another. We have a cleaner once a week which forces us to stay vaguely on top of things. My biggest downfall though is meal planning - I feel like I do so much thinking and planning and organising of everyday life that I can't face meal planning on top of everything else. We'd save a small fortune though so it's on my mental to do list for next year. Our DTD's also start school next September and will need to take a packed lunch everyday so we'll have to get on top of it then!

A routine is key for me.
A load of laundry is put on and dishwasher unloaded each morning before leaving for work
Once I'm in from work I check homework/school bags, do any school paperwork, pack school bag for next day, put laundry out for drying/into drier, make dinner, half an hour of housework (different tasks each day and pop headphones on to listen to podcasts ), make lunches for next day and plan next day outfits. I prioritise things like my house routine, my Workouts and things like a bath and book over TV. TV used to eat into my time but now with online TV like Netflix I usually only watch TV at the weekend and it makes a huge difference

Also DH does meal planning, all grocery shopping and about half the cooking such is a huge help

Meal planning and batch cooking for the week on a Sunday (plan Thursday and have food shop delivered on a Friday). I make a double batch of 2 meals - i.e bolognese and a curry for the weekdays so in the evenings all I have to do is make pasta/rice. Tuesdays are pizza and salad made on ready made bases, Thursday oven stuff like fish or chicken with home made wedges and I'll cook something different on a Friday as I'm not at work.

Lunches are made the night before and put in the fridge.

School bags emptied and school paperwork dealt with as soon as I walk through the door. Post opened straight away and either shredded, binned or put in a to-do pile which I try to work my way through once a week.

My diary has a daily to do list and I write everything down in there. Family calendar on the wall and my diary has important dates like insurance renewals etc on it with reminders a month before.

Laundry put on after the kids have bathed and hung out to dry before I go to bed, folded/ironed and put away whilst DH bathes the DC.

Tidy up as I go along, never go up or downstairs empty handed.

Clear out wardrobes once a season and put bags for charity shop straight into the car.

Clean on a Friday afternoon and a top up clean on Monday (I don't work Mondays of Fridays) ready for my working week. I'm out the house 7.30-6.30 on my work days and so need everything organised.

Admittedly, I don't always keep on top of everything, the ironing is usually the thing to suffer and it really pisses me off because I hate ironing.

I find the thug about being organised is that I can never relax, I'm always thinking about what else I could be doing - or maybe that's just me.

I have a box where my keys, phone and wedding ring live when not in use. DH still finds it amusing when I can't find the box, though

Buying multiples of coffee, toothpaste, mouthwash, shower gel and other stuff we use regularly so we don't keep running out of stuff.

Laying out clothes and making lunch and laying out breakfast table the night before as I am Not A Morning Person.

There is actually a cracking book called 30 Days to a Clean and Organized House by Katie Berry. I honestly think if you do what this nice, concise and non-preachy Yank lady tells you, you could indeed get sorted in a month. I will confess to not having made it past day 6, but I do work ft and have 15 hrs' commuting on top and I dislike housework. Will try again in New Year and I do recommend it

Thanks so much for all the suggestions, some great ideas.

The biggest area I struggle with is definitely meal planning and cooking healthy meals that the whole family will eat. DS is fussy, DD and DS like different things. I need to try and eat as healthily as I can to help with my condition but the dc's have such bland tastes it makes it really hard to come up with one meal that everyone will eat!
Does anyone have any suggestioms
to ger around this? I feel like such a failure on the cooking front & this is something I'd really like to improve next year but just don't know where to start.

I have to admit that I probably also spend too much time on my phone/ipad! When I get home
from work & school run I think I'll just sit down and have a cup of tea and a little rest but then end up spending too long reading things (mn!) when I could be doing much
more productive things. It's such a time waster and worryingly slightly addictive. Does anyone else struggle with this? How do you manage your phone/ipad time?