• Laundry
• Grocery Shopping
• Housework
• Cooking

Laundry
Dirty laundry is one of those mysteries of housework. I have found that dirty clothes, if left alone for a long period of time in the laundry basket, will mysteriously take on a life of their own and multiply like rabbits. Two towels in the basket will suddenly turn into four, four towels will somehow be sixteen and so forth. If this is not kept in check, the exponential growth of dirty towels will eventually take over the house (not to mention the fact that your family will be using the hairdryer to dry themselves after a shower).

In an effort to save myself and my family from the onslot of dirty laundry, I've developed a few easy tricks. Instead of waiting and doing laundry all on one day, try doing one or two loads each day or every other day. This keeps you ahead of the game and doesn't allow the towels to get too friendly with each other.

If you are like me, the actual washing, drying and folding of laundry is no big deal. It's the sorting and putting away step that backs up the process. To save time and keep the process moving along on schedule, try giving each individual a laundry basket and also, put one in the bathroom. Then, rotate from basket to basket every other day. Here's an example; on the first day, wash all the clothes in the bathroom hamper. All these clothes can be folded and they all go back into the bathroom. Wow, what a concept! No sorting required. On the second day, wash all the clothes from individual #1 in the family. All their clothes should go back in the same room, and so forth. You get the idea.

So, you're thinking "yea, but what about sorting light and dark clothes?" Well, if you are rotating every day or every other day. By the time you get back to the bathroom hamper, you will probably have enough for one or two full loads. And an individual's hamper will have enough variety to wash one colored load and one light load.

Here's another shocking idea. When you wash the clothes out of an individual's hamper, sort them and fold them and put them back into the hamper and that individual is responsible for putting the clothes away that evening before bed. Toddlers have a little trouble with this, but Hey, even a toddler can go up the steps with you carrying a pair of socks. At that age, kids love to feel like they are helping out, and you will be teaching them good habits.

Grocery Shopping
Have you ever gone to the grocery store because you've run out of one item, like milk, bread, or eggs? How much money did you spend in total on that trip? A gallon of milk is less than $3, so how come you spent $45? And how much time did it take you (be honest, from the time you left the house until the time you returned)? These quick trips were costing me a bundle of money, and a lot of wasted time.

Try going to the store once a week, or even (gasp) once a month. This requires a little planning, but believe me it's worth it and saves time and money. Grocery stores spend big bucks hiring folks whose only job is figuring out how to get you to spend money once you are in the store. That's why, that gallon of milk trip cost you $45. Once you are in the store, you are going to see all sorts of things that you suddenly NEED.

The first step is to keep a running list. If you see you are getting low on peanut butter, write it on the list. Use the last of the package of noodles, write it on the list. Build up a stock of items that you use regularly and buy more when you are beginning to get low on stock.

If you have a freezer, you can keep some of those perishable items that seem to always send you running back to the store. Keep an extra carton of milk in the freezer. You can leave this to thaw on the counter over night and your family will never know that it was frozen. You can't tell the difference.

Buy frozen bread dough. I was amazed to find that I can buy frozen bread dough cheaper than fresh bread. The dough will thaw overnight and can be baked in 20 minutes. Not only does this keep you from running to the store for bread, but your family will think that you are Super Mom! I overheard my husband bragging to his friends "my wife bakes bread all the time." Making home made bread is not difficult if you don't want to buy the frozen dough. You can even make a couple of double batches and freeze your own dough. Go to my Recipes page for a good home made bread that freezes well.

Of course you could also use a bread machine. Breadman TR2200C Ultimate Bread Machine

You can even freeze eggs. Please don't put the whole carton directly in the freezer. You won't be happy with the results. Instead, break one or two eggs into a ziplock sandwich bag and freeze them that way. They are then fine to be used to bake with or can be scrambled for breakfast. Butter and cheese can also be frozen for emergencies.

And of course, buying meats on sale and freezing them is an great idea. One of the best investments you can make is to purchase a vacuum sealer. Foods that are vacuum sealed keep great in the freezer. Check out these links: FoodSaver Vac1050 Vacuum Sealing Kit or Black & Decker Seal-Away Vacuum Bag Sealer.

There have been times when I've looked around my house and thought I'd be better off to burn this house to the ground and start from scratch with a new one. The trick to avoiding that overwhelming feeling of an insurmountable cleaning job, is to do one room at a time and rotate through all the rooms over a period of time. Smaller jobs don't bring on that feeling of wanting to pack a bag and move to another state (a cleaner state).

Don't lock yourself into a set schedule. For example, "every Saturday, I'll clean the bathrooms." Instead, clean the bathroom whenever you begin to notice something is amiss. If you do it often, the bathroom should only take 10 minutes. Spray everything but the floor with tub and tile cleaner. While the toilet is "soaking," take a sponge mop and wipe out the tub/shower. Wipe off the sink top and then clean the toilet. Now go back and mop the floor. There, you're done and it only took 10 minutes.

Breaking things down into smaller jobs and rotating these jobs from day to day keeps things from building up.

Here's another tip: "Never go empty-handed." Everything in my house seems to get out of place. Upstairs stuff always ends up downstairs and visa versa. So, I never go upstairs without carrying something with me, a stack of laundry, some shoes, a toy, whatever I find that belongs upstairs. Then, when I come back down, I bring something down with me (usually some laundry).

Cooking
If you took the time to record all the minutes/hours you spend each week planning and preparing meals, you would be amazed and the amount of time this takes. You can make this task easier by doing a little advance planning. When I talk about "planning" I'm not referring to "OH NO! Everyone will be home in 5 minutes, and I haven't fixed dinner!" That doesn't count, sorry.

The more planning you do, the better your meals will be and the easier the job. I know women who plan their menus a month in advance, shop once a month, and cook all the meals and freeze them. For those of us living in the real world, that might not work so well. The happy medium is somewhere between planning a month in advance and planning 5 mintues in advance.

If dinner is your main meal of the day, the best time to plan the meal is the night before. If you are using meat that has been frozen, that gives you plenty of time for it to thaw.

No matter what's on your menu for the evening, try to do as much of the preperation as possible in advance. For example, if you are having a potato dish, peel the potatoes in advance and keep them in a dish covered with water. That way you aren't scrambling around the kitchen trying to peel potatoes at the last minute.

Another way to cook in advance is using a wonderful invention called the Crock Pot. This is great for working moms. Most recipes for a crock pot have cooking times of 8-10 hours. This means if you are late getting home, you have a 2 hour grace period (no more brick hard pot roasts). Go to my Recipes page for some great crock pot recipes.

If you really want to cook in advance (like a month in advance), check out: Frozen Assets : How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month