How To Unload the Dishwasher Fast depends on how your kitchen is organized. Be efficient by placing like with like and setting yourself and your family up for success!

Listen to the podcast while you work and think about what you can do to make your mealtime routines faster!

The post Podcast Episode: Organizing Your Kitchen for Efficiency appeared first on Home Plain and Simple.

We’ve created a free home management webinar to help you do just that!

Register for this FREE training and learn the exact steps I took to create the balanced life at home that I love, so you can do the same!

The mom life can be hard.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and anxious because you can’t get anything done? Interruptions driving you crazy?  I’ve been there too.  Sleep deprived? You’re not alone!  Do you ever feel inadequate or insecure just doing daily life? I did too, long ago; but I learned. I learned many lessons the hard way, but you don’t have to! I’m here to help.

I’m Kim Brenneman, and I’m just a mom trying to help other moms.

A little bit about me: I’m a homeschool mom to nine, with three teenagers still at home. I’m also a grandma to four! As a mom passionate about helping moms, I wrote Home Management: Plain and Simple… and I’m here to help YOU. I’ve learned a lot of lessons the hard way over the years and I don’t want you to go through the same struggles. You don’t have to do things the hard way!

What is your home management background?

Many women grew up in homes in which their mother didn’t really plan meals, cook for their family, or have a regular cleaning routine… many women didn’t even grow up around babies and children! Can you relate? OR maybe you grew up in a packed school + extra curricular schedule, and had such a busy childhood and youth that you’re unprepared for taking care of a home and children.

The cycle then continues and children grow up into adults who flounder with no home management skills. Let’s stop that cycle, OK?

Another issue

One more issue I see in today’s world are all the “gurus” on TV and Instagram, teaching unrealistic fluff and encouraging you to buy products that in reality, are just a pretty picture of a false reality… next thing you know you find yourself with a shopping cart full of items you don’t need, empty pockets and nothing to show for it. YIKES! Let’s not do that anymore! Are you with me?

I teach the basics, the important everyday skills.

Are you ready to let go of stress and anxiety, and have better days?  Join me for The Home Management: Plain and Simple Masterclass.

The mom life can be hard; and without home management skills you’ll find yourself looking at all the work and feeling hopeless! All you really need is someone to teach you the skills of living in a house with children, and how to actually get the IMPORTANT stuff done. Like food, floors, laundry, toys, bathrooms, sleep, bills, more food, more laundry, and isn’t having fun important too? And what about your sanity? I’ll help you do it and stay sane. We want to do better, and we can!

Let’s take the next step towards better home management.

It’s time to Stop Dreaming  and Start DOING to take your life and home management to the next level, so that your best days are even better!

So, here’s how it works I’m offering a FREE webinar where I teach you how to create a life with more peace and calm and joy.

I’ve seen time and time again how much women LOVE to consume “fluffy content”. I’m talking about home shows and social media.  It’s like comfort food isn’t it?  It just feels good to watch and pretend…

We might get inspired, excited and convicted… and then get back to our real life and get stuck in the daily grind.

You dreamt of a life, once upon a time.  You said, “When I _____” and “I’m going to _____.”  What happened?  REALITY.

Grab ahold of your future

Would you like to come and join me for a 1-hour webinar?  Would you like to walk out of a workshop with actual results and strategies that you can put to use immediately?

EMBRACE action now and let’s take the first step together! There is no FLUFF and no HYPE or BS here, just the real deal; strategies that I used in my real life to create better days.  I needed to fix my mindset, I needed help, and I needed to figure out how to manage my time better. And I did.

So, click the button here and sign up for the next Webinar.

It’s FREE.

Ready to Stop DREAMING and Start creating days that you wake up excited for? Then save your spot by clicking the button and signing up for the next webinar.

Maybe you’re feeling good about your home management, you’re getting by just fine BUT you’re feeling the call to get active in your community or church or start a business? Do you want more hours in your day? Are you ready to step out and step up?

Let’s get our act together so we can do more in life.

After you register, you will get a download for a pre-webinar checklist to help you get started on the content and making improvements immediately!

There is another bonus as a reward for watching the whole webinar! Look for that as a resource in the webinar “room”.

You’ve got this mama! I’m here with you.

The post The Home Management: Plain and Simple FREE Webinar! appeared first on Home Plain and Simple.

Some days motivation seems to hit an all time low, and yet there is work to be done! 

Unmotivated, that was me today- after a couple of days of physically taxing outdoors work my body was done! Anyone else out of shape after the winter? 

After that, I had a few days of mentally exhausting schoolwork. Now, I am mentally + physically exhausted. It’s safe to say that I’m unmotivated, low energy, and don’t want to do anything; you get the picture. 

What gets you down and unmotivated?

Sometimes stress can be the trigger. Stress is exhausting to our bodies and minds, in times of stress it’s important to focus on positive ways to manage stress and eliminate what stressors we can from our lives. 

So how do we manage times when we’re exhausted and unmotivated?

There are two ways to manage times when we’re either too tired,  or simply don’t want to do the necessary work at hand.

1. Break it up into bite sized chunks: 

Do your work in intervals. Pick an amount of time such as 15 or 25 minutes and do your work in those bite sized increments. 

Work for 15 minutes, then rest for 15 minutes. 

2. Work Fast for a set amount of time or until the task is finished. 

Your emphasis here is on speed! You’re going to power through your exhaustion or “I don’t want to” attitude and get the work done as quickly as possible. 

Work Fast is a method we’ve used many times around the house when faced with a big mess, unpleasant task, or when doing an outdoors job right before a weather event. 

Using a timer may help motivate you to “beat the clock.” When you’re working outside, the sky might be your timer. I can’t count the times we’ve raced to get a task done while watching dark blue clouds roll in, working faster and harder until big heavy raindrops started falling. (Can any gardeners relate here?) 

Sometimes the task doesn’t get done in your set amount of time, but at least you put in a good effort and made progress. Done is better than perfect.

Daily Application

The idea of Work Fast can be applied to your daily life, not just your unmotivated days!

For afternoon chore time or even your cleaning days you can use these same ideas. Race the clock! Set the timer, put your phone or distractions to the side, and work fast for the allotted time. 

Whether you give yourself 15 minutes or an hour, the idea of pushing through and giving one task your best effort for a set period of time can help you power through and get those necessary tasks done. 

You’ve got this mama!

For more great tips and hacks, check out our new e-book!

The post Podcast Episode: Work Fast: Your Life Hack for Unmotivated Days appeared first on Home Plain and Simple.

A Post by Bridgette

Spring Cleaning

It’s that season again- the weather starts getting nicer and you start feeling that extra life and energy from the promise of warmer days ahead. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and it’s the perfect time to air out the house and give it a good spring cleaning.

Some may get the urge to spring clean, and others may dread it. I’m one that gets the itch to clean! One of my favorite things about spring cleaning is that it feels different than “normal” cleaning. Maybe that’s just me, but it’s just a little more fun in the spring. Here are a few ways to make the most of your spring cleaning experience.

Plan Ahead

As Kim’s oldest daughter, I grew up living the home management strategies taught in “Home Management: Plain and Simple.” Having an organized “battle plan” and a list of tasks for each room makes the work go by quickly and so much easier. With a list and a plan, you never have to wonder where to start or what to do next.

As an adult, I don’t have my mom around all the time to make those lists for me anymore. So, if I’m not intentional about making a list or referencing resources such as “Home Management: Plain and Simple,” I end up hopping from room to room and task to task with no rhyme or reason. This causes the work to be done inefficiently, and oftentimes I’d jump from one task to another without completing it. Save yourself this trouble by making and/or using a plan for your cleaning day!

Use the Resources Available to You

Does planning out your spring cleaning day sound… daunting? Don’t know where to start? We’ve got you covered! In the Free Resource Library you will find printable lists for each area of the home.

These lists include daily, weekly, and deep cleaning/spring cleaning tasks for each room. Print these lists and keep an appropriate copy in each room. (In a drawer, taped to the inside of a cupboard door, or someplace easily accessible for reference).

Having a to-do list in each room makes it possible to send an older child, husband, or helpful family member into that room with a ready to use battle plan. This makes delegating tasks that much easier.  

Spread it out

While tackling spring cleaning in one day may sound appealing, it may not be a realistic goal depending on your unique situation.

Between your typical daily demands, distractions, and unforeseeable interruptions; it may be almost impossible to conquer this battle in one day.

For your own sanity and the well being of those near and dear to you, it may be best to spread your spring cleaning over a series of days or weeks. This may be a time when it makes sense to utilize a system such as “The Whole House Overhaul in 6 Weeks.” Or to schedule a few days or a week to focus solely on spring cleaning tasks. Think about your schedule and what works best for your family, and base your plan on that.

Avoiding interruptions

Whether you choose to do your spring cleaning in a day, or spread it over a month. It’s helpful to plan it in a way that you’re able to give it as much focus as possible. Trying to accomplish spring cleaning while distracted or interrupted can be a challenge. Scheduling a dedicated day or planning around other commitments is one way to avoid distractions and work efficiently.

For example: Schedule your spring cleaning on a day that isn’t interrupted by children’s appointments or music lessons. Picking a day that is free and clear of other commitments allows you to focus on the task at hand. 

Save Time in the Kitchen

Another way to give spring cleaning more focus is to cover your bases before you start. Plan ahead for meals and snacks. Perhaps leaving a veggie or fruit tray on the counter for children to “graze” on will save you from being interrupted by snack time. Planning a crock-pot or freezer meal for lunch/supper is a great way to save time and effort in the kitchen too!

Plan ahead for Small Children

Many spring cleaning tasks can be delegated to older children, but what to do with the littles? They typically want to be in the middle of all the “fun” and hang out where all the activity is happening. While it may be fun to let toddlers “help” for a while, here are a few ideas to keep them occupied for when you really want to focus on the job at hand. 

Spring cleaning day may be a time to set up a special activity (distraction) for the youngest children.  Or it may make sense to put an older child in charge of occupying the younger ones for the day. Another idea would be to allow the little ones spend the day/afternoon with grandma or another family member/friend. Plan ahead for how to manage the younger children so you can achieve your spring cleaning goals. Think about your family and what works best for you, and base your plan off of that.

Set the Mood for Spring Cleaning

Setting the mood for the day and being intentional about creating a positive experience changes spring cleaning from another big project, to a fun and enjoyable day of work.

Putting on some happy and upbeat music, a podcast, or an audio book helps to set the mood for the day. Maybe light a few of your favorite scented candles too! Make yourself a fun smoothie or drink to take with you as you go, or bring along a water bottle (does cleaning make anyone else thirsty or is that just me?!)

One of my favorite ways to set the mood for Spring Cleaning is to start by opening all the windows and letting that fresh air into the house. Airing out the house helps to bring that energetic springy feeling into the home to help carry you through your spring cleaning tasks.

You’ve got this!

You’ve planned ahead, prepared your crockpot dinner, thrown open the windows, and set the mood for the day. All you’ve got left to do is jump in and knock out spring cleaning, step by step.

Head to the Resource Library to access printable cleaning to-do lists for each room of the home, lets get to it!

Home Management: Plain and Simple

If you have dirty dishes, laundry, and a home to keep clean; have I got the book for you!

This book is for ANY kind of home manager. Whether you have kids, no kids, large family, small family, homeschool, or don’t homeschool. If you have a home and want to learn how to manage your tasks better- this book is packed full of the skills, tips, and hacks you need. Get it here.

The post How to Make the Most of Spring Cleaning appeared first on Home Plain and Simple.

As we all know, everyday home management tasks can be a challenge. One of my favorite strategies to make these tasks manageable is to divide work into assigned home management days. 

When you divide home management work into days, it makes that positive difference in getting the work accomplished- and avoiding living in a mess with the work piled around us.  (Read about my Days of the Week Home Management Plan here.) Implementing this idea can be a challenge though! As a homeschooling family with children home all day every day, it can be hard to know when and how to start fitting home management work into your homeschool day.

Learning to manage the time needed for tasks you intend to do on a certain day, can be puzzling.  As a busy mom, multi-tasking and being interrupted by distractions can be frustrating to our plans.

Distractions

Distractions caused by the children can disrupt our plans of what we thought we were going to do on a certain day.  This upheaval is unavoidable, so you must learn to anticipate and plan for the variables that come with each day.

Prepare yourself by thinking ahead to times of the day when your children are settled into play or school. Then, plan what you will do during that time.  Likewise, consider the times of day when the children are most busy, loud, and energetic. Plan how to manage that time; perhaps this is when they should play outside, have a nerf war, or do a kid’s exercise video. Depending on the child or time of day,  it may be a time to put on some calming music and get out a quiet activity for a set time.

Multitasking

Multitasking is something that busy women all over find themselves doing on the regular. However- multitasking only works effectively if one of the things that we are trying to do is an automatically happening circuit in a groove in our brain (to use a bunch of unscientific language on how that happens).

For example, when you’re brushing your teeth you do it without thinking about the specific actions you’re taking. You were likely thinking of something completely unrelated to the task of brushing teeth.  You might not even remember that you brushed your teeth because it’s such an ingrained habit.

Tasks like these that you can do by muscle memory are great to have, but it takes a lot of repetition for them to become automatic.  Make a quick list of your automatic habits, these are things that may be done while multitasking. 

Many things in our lives require focus.  Tasks that require focus do not work well while multitasking. It can be done, but tasks will not be done well- or may even be left incomplete.

Time Management

Manage your work with time. Look at your to-do list and write down beside each task the amount of time it will take to complete. This will give you perspective on how and when to fit tasks into your day.

When you look at your list of things to do, decide how much focus the task requires and schedule that task for when your children are in a quiet time of the day.  Assign special activities that they can only do for a certain time, while they are occupied during this time is when you should do your focused work.

When assessing your to-do list, ask yourself: can this task be delegated?  Save your time by giving the task to someone else. Your children will need to know life skills in order to function as adults and they should learn these things from you.  Teach them how to do a skill that is age appropriate and let them be helpful for the family. Hint: preschoolers love to be helpful!

Fitting Assigned Home Management Days into Your Homeschool Day

Many variables affect our life and how we live it at certain times and places. Maybe Laundry Day is difficult for a season of life or in a certain house, or Kitchen Day might be the difficult one. Perhaps you start a home-based business and it takes a while to learn how to fit that into your schedule.  New variables enter life and shake things up so you have to learn how to do things in a new way.  This is just the way life works and it can be frustrating. Learn to roll with it, keep your chin up, and pray for wisdom. Put on some happy music and write down the challenge, then write the possible solutions. 

Prioritize

To make the most of your assigned days, make a list of the top three things that you want to accomplish on those days.  Your top 3 things might change from week to week. To be prepared, make your list ahead of time as often as possible.  If you want, make a long list but be sure to prioritize your Top 3.  Make a timeframe to fit the Top 3 around your homeschooling time.  Your best work will go to what you focus on, so try to arrange your day in a way so you’ll be able to focus on the Top 3 at some designated time of day.

Helpful Hacks

• If your children are old enough to be helpful, delegate some of the tasks to them.  Don’t overload them though, perhaps give each child one big task and one small task.  Keep the tasks age appropriate. 

• Once a month, lighten your homeschooling schedule on a Kitchen Day and spend the majority of your time cooking ahead and putting meals in the freezer or deep cleaning the kitchen.  Again, delegate some tasks.

• Make a list of the Office Day work that you have to do, and another list of things that are lower priority.  Or make a list of tasks that you can do while in your homeschool time and another list for when the children are napping or having a Quiet Time.  Use these lists every week on your Office Day.  

• Attach your tasks to certain days or times or other events so that they become routine, a habit.  Doing so will help the children know what to expect and that builds security in their life.  If you involve them in the work, they will learn life skills. 

Building Your Home Management Life

Learning life skills, home skills, how to care for children, homeschooling- it’s like building a house. Each new skill is a brick that turns into a wall that bears up the next story, then you add on a room, and another. You are an architect for your life and the life of your family. 

Fitting assigned home management days into your homeschooling life is just one more skill you’re adding to your house. As you practice and put these tips into action, you will get better and better at it until it becomes second nature. You’ve got this! 

For more home management solutions, check out the book “Home Management: Plain and Simple.”  

The post How To Fit Assigned Home Management Days into your Homeschool Life appeared first on Home Plain and Simple.

Errands that require us to leave the house, and daily shopping tasks can be a time-consuming and money-draining chore. Having a Town Day frees up your week by condensing those tasks to one day.  We can’t avoid shopping whether it’s groceries, new athletic shoes for your child, toilet paper or making sure the car’s gas tank is full. I’m giving five reasons for a Town Day and simple steps to organize yourself for one.  I’ve written a lot about Town Day in Home Management, Plain and Simple, this is the quick read.

Five Reasons for Town Day

1. Town Day brings focus to your weekly errands.  Days fill up, and by holding a Town Day every week you will be deliberate with the necessary stops.
2. Holding a Town Day eases the  mind.  When you have a plan for your tasks and shopping, you don’t need to run out to pick up last minute items. You’ve prepared ahead of time. You’ve managed your time by putting Town Day on the calendar. By planning your day, you know where you’re going to stop and the items on your lists will be crossed off.
3. Your other days change for the better. Because you have Town Day tasks planned and taken care of, you’ve freed up time to focus on the things you like to do on other days.

4. Financial decisions improve because you’ve planned your stops and corresponding lists.  When you make your menu plan, grocery lists, and other shopping lists ahead of time, you end up saving money. By being prepared and shopping on one specific day, you don’t struggle with the urge or opportunity to make impulse buys.

5. You save time, in both your week and on Town Day.  When you’ve thought about your activities and plan them, you are able live more mindfully. You are able to gain time and be more productive with it.

Simple Steps to Start

• Each week, set aside a certain amount of time to make your shopping lists and plan other needed errands. Look at your family’s calendar and choose a day and time that makes sense for your family to hold Town Day.  We’re all unique in ourselves and our families, and different seasons of life call for different ways of doing a Town Day. For example, I hold Town Day on the morning that my children are at homeschool coop. This works for me most of the time.
• Have fun with Town Day by planning something enjoyable in the day! Perhaps it’s just you, so you grab a coffee or treat. On a day you have energetic children along, maybe you stop to play at the park.
• Ideas for Town Day: schedule medical and dental appointments for this day, do your big box store shopping, get groceries for the week, fill the car with gas, clean the car. Perhaps it even works for your family to do these on a day when you’re out for lessons, sports practice, or homeschool coop.
• Organize your day and your route.  Think about how much time each stop will take, plan when to start, where to start, and put your route in an order that makes the most sense for your day.
• When you get home, put your items away immediately and then have a rest time.

Town Day can bring your week from good to great! Every week that you deliberately plan a Town Day, the more organized you will get about it. With practice, this process will get faster and you will find more free time popping up in your week.  Choose one day for errands because it streamlines your life. You can do this!

Get a Checklist for Town Day in the Free Resource Library.

The post Five Reasons for Town Day and Simple Steps to Start appeared first on Home Plain and Simple.

Simple steps to start a Cleaning Day in your week and five reasons why you should. Cleaning is a necessary and unavoidable chore. Living in a clean home makes life enjoyable.  We can’t relax or have fun when things are dirty.  I’ve written a lot about Cleaning Day (and Deep Cleaning) in Home Management, Plain and Simple, this is the quick version.

Five Reasons for Cleaning Day

• Living in a clean home makes life pleasant.  Cleaning Day is something to do every week so that the dirt doesn’t pile up.  Cleaning Day is not a project day that is done when you can’t take the dirt anymore. It is most effective as a regular occurrence.  Cleaning Day is when you take care of things that get dirty and put off a smell and unpleasant texture. Things such as: dirty floors underfoot, dirty tables and counters, dirty bathrooms, and dirty sinks.
• A Cleaning Day will bring peace to your week.  When you have a plan for your cleaning, you’re prepared ahead of time and you’re ready to do the work. You have your lists ready, and your supplies on hand.  Your favorite music keeps you moving, and you finish it off with your favorite candle or essential oils diffusing.
• Free Time: you are ready for friends and family or an enjoyable weekend alone with books. When you have freed up time in life by keeping things consistently clean, you are prepared for anything.
• You can redecorate or change your furniture around because the regular cleaning is complete.  Because your home is clean you can have fun being creative with your decor. 
• You save time because it’s fast and easy to clean something that is hardly dirty at all.  When the dirt piles up it takes more effort and cleaning product to get rid of the dirt. But when these tasks are done weekly, they are easily manageable.

Simple Steps to Start

• Check your family’s calendar: choose a day of the week and time of day that makes sense for your family to have Cleaning Day.  This day ought to be a group effort by all the persons who live in the house, even little children can help “clean” with a wet cleaning cloth.
• Make Cleaning Day fun: play upbeat music, having cleaning races, and rewards. Maybe you are cleaning alone? Treat yourself with something fun when you’re done!
• Create a list for each room: list chores to do every day, every week, and every quarter.  Cleaning Day is the day of the week to tackle the bigger jobs on the list.
• Organize your cleaning supplies: and have them handy.  Restock your supply.
• Cleaning Day is essential for the good life! Each week that you have Cleaning Day the faster you and your family will get at cleaning.  The chore lists for each room will become automatic.
• Get a Worksheet for Cleaning Day in the Free Resource Library.

The post Five Reasons for Cleaning Day appeared first on Home Plain and Simple.

A home office day raises your ordinary to a new level.  We all have bills and finances to manage, lists, calendars, mail and paper clutter, and some of us even have home businesses.  I’m sharing five reasons for a home office day, and simple steps for starting a reserved day of the week to devote time to home office tasks.  I’ve written a lot about Office Day in Home Management, Plain and Simple, this is the shortened version.

Five Reasons for Home Office Day

• Our lives are full and it’s easy to live distracted. Home Office Day brings focus to details we need to manage.  Life can go by in whirl, the days and months blend together and while in our mind it’s still June, the current month is October.  By holding a Home Office Day consistently, you will have more success in managing your bills, money, calendar, home business, and to-do lists.   

• A Home Office Day will relieve stress.  You won’t have little nagging stressors that pop into your head at random times.  You know your financial situation. You’ve managed your time by planning with your calendar, your plans and lists are made, and you’re acting on them.

• Your view changes on all of life because you are dedicating time to managing the backstory.  Giving thought to life, planning, and making deliberate decisions build a foundation for success.  Your confidence grows as you build skills in taking care of details.

• You make better money decisions.  When you plan and prepare, you will make wiser choices and reach your goals.

• Your calendar and lists will be more thoughtful, and you will make better choices with your time.  As you devote time and thought to your activities and when to do them, you will get a better idea of how you want to live. This will help you know where to fit the things that are most important to you and your family.

Simple Steps to Start

• Each week, set aside a certain amount of time devoted to Home Office tasks. Look at your family’s calendar and choose a time when you can think and work in a quiet environment.  This can be tricky depending on your unique situation. I recall times in life that I had a “bill paying bag” that I toted along to my children’s piano lessons. I also liked to do office day tasks during nap/quiet time.  Other times in life I woke early before the children to do home office work.
• Set up your home office area and make it a pleasant place!  Have fun with it! Pinterest is full of inspiration for home office desk areas or rooms.  As I said earlier, I also collected certain tasks into bags or totes to carry along with me and do while my children were busy with their activities.
• Ideas to do: menu plan and make grocery lists, save your online shopping for Home Office Day, plan your calendar out for a few months and include date nights, birthday parties, home projects, and other activities that can slip by undone without thinking and planning.  And of course, get all the bills paid and check that all your autopay settings are current.
• If you have a home business, set aside a day to devote extra time to do specific tasks. Plan your business calendar, make phone calls, and other extra effort tasks for your income producing activities.
• Organize your lists.  I like to separate my lists according to different areas of life.
• On Home Office Day, spend some time cleaning and organizing your home office and removing all the paper clutter.

You can have a successful Home Office Day! The more consistently you do the home office activities, the better you will become at your tasks and achieve proficiency.  Commit to a focused day because it frees up time in the rest of your week and brain power that gets sucked away with “I should” and “I need to” thoughts. You can do it!

Get a Checklist for Office Day in the Free Resource Library.

The post Five Reasons for Office Day and Simple Steps to Start appeared first on Home Plain and Simple.

Actually, there are 1,095 reasons for Kitchen Day.  That is how many meals there are in a year! Food is necessary for life, our days tend to center around mealtime routines, and eating is a social activity.  We can keep it low key and yummy with some thought and planning. I’m giving five reasons for kitchen day and simple steps to start doing it because sometimes we just need a little jump-start. I’ve written a lot about Kitchen Day in Home Management, Plain and Simple, this is the very abbreviated version.

Five Reasons for Kitchen Day

1. We’re busy and it helps manage the time in the kitchen.  Meals and all that goes with it can feel overwhelming when our days are full of the rest of life.  A Kitchen Day is meal prep that frees up time later.
2. It’s a stress management technique.  When people are asking “What’s for dinner” or “I’m hungry” or “What is there to eat?” you don’t need to stress, you’ve prepared and have an answer.  Sometimes, it’s taking care of the basic things in life that relieve a nagging stress.
3. 
   

   You will improve your health.  When you give thought to what you’re preparing, and not rushing- you make better food and drink choices.  Your grocery list matches your meal plan and you will be less likely to throw junk food into the cart.

   
   
4. 
   

   Save money by having a plan.  When you meal plan and prep ahead you will make money-saving choices, use money-saving prep techniques, and be less prone to eat out

   
   
5. 
   

   Your food will be more creative and taste better.  With thought and preparation, you will get more color and flavor in your food.  You will have chosen family favorites and delightful new dishes that stretch your family’s taste buds. 

   
   

Simple Steps to Start:

• Each week, plan your menu; take some time to look at your family’s calendar and choose dishes that fit with the days.  One day may call for a slow cooker meal, another day allows more time for a creative dish that takes more prep, or a busy morning and day means that you have a 30-minute skillet meal ready-to-go.  Plan your meals for the week including family favorites and new dishes you might like to try.
• Make the grocery list for your choices and schedule a shopping day.  When you get home—wash, dry chop and store.
• Choose your Kitchen Day to either be the same day as your shopping day or the day after.
• On Kitchen Day, start early in the day for items that need more time to cook.  For example, cooking chicken for several meals in the slow cooker all day.  Defrost several pounds of ground meat overnight or in the morning and brown in the afternoon.
• Assemble meals (or parts of meals) for dinners, lunch salads, snacks, and breakfasts then refrigerate or freeze.  Don’t forget to add food storage containers to your shopping list.
• Clean your kitchen thoroughly.

This is do-able and with practice you will be efficient and fast.  Although it calls for a commitment of a focused day, this frees up time in the rest of your week.  You can do it!

Get a Checklist for Kitchen Day in the Free Resource Library.

The post 5 Reasons for Kitchen Day and Simple Steps to Start appeared first on Home Plain and Simple.

What does your laundry situation look like?  Right now, I have partially full baskets in the bathrooms and the laundry room.  It’s not my assigned laundry day so anything I might do today will be fit in around the edges of life.  On my Laundry Day though, I commit to completing all of the loads. Wash, Dry, Fold, and Put Away. If your laundry situation has you struggling, here are five reasons why you need to have a Laundry Day in your week and simple steps to start holding a Laundry Day.  

Assigning a day of the week to focus on laundry is an essential step to keeping it under control. I’ve written extensively on Laundry Day in Home Management, Plain and Simple.  You can get more nitty gritty details, tips and tricks there.

Five Reasons for Laundry Day

1. Stress Management: Laundry can be a stressor when it piles up and takes over the laundry room, bathrooms, and bedrooms.  Laundry Day is a commitment every week that keeps it from getting out of control.
2. Sense of Accomplishment: OK, the laundry is never ever completely 100% finished BUT when everything in the house is clean except the clothes on your backs, it’s a satisfying feeling.
3. Clean and Fresh: You and your family are not pulling questionable smelling clothes off the floor to wear, so you all smell nice.  The laundry room smells nice when it is not full of dirty clothes. The bathrooms and bedrooms smell better without piles of dirty clothes.  You can walk into a bathroom or bedroom without stepping on dirty clothes and towels. Bonus: you get to sleep in clean sheets!
4. Your people have clothes to wear: No more questions like: “Where is my ___?” “I have no _____.” “I need _____.”
5. Clean sheets and towels: These are items that can slip by the everyday laundry due to “tyranny of the urgent” laundry.  It is so nice to slip into clean sheets at night and have a fresh smelling towel after a shower.

Simple Steps to Start a Laundry Day Weekly Routine

• Identify the best day of the week to hold Laundry Day.  The best day is one that you are home for most of the day.
• Plan ahead and decide on an order for the loads.  Some things take longer to dry, do you want to wash the jeans and towels in the morning or afternoon?  Wash the sheets as soon as people get out of bed so that you can put them back on the beds before nap time.
• Get an early start.  Put the first load in the washer right after you start the coffee pot.
• Make it a goal to have everything folded and put away by a certain time.
• Get your family involved.  They can collect, sort, switch loads, fold and put away too.  Hint: listen to audio books while folding.
• While you’re in the laundry room, do a small task to clean the room. Dust, wash the window, clean the sink, organize your cupboards, add needed items to your shopping list.

You can do it!  It’s just a matter of creating a weekly routine,  committing one day to doing as much laundry as you can from start to finish.  It won’t go perfectly, there will be good days and frustrating days, but you will make progress.  To make it more enjoyable: make yourself a special drink or treat that you only have on Laundry Day. Make a fun and upbeat playlist for Laundry Day, and write a list of things you are grateful for—maybe put it on a chalkboard in your laundry room and change it each week?  Each day is a gift, our families are gifts, the laundry and the equipment are gifts; learn to celebrate all of it!

Grab a handy checklist of the Simple Steps in the Free Resource Library.

The post Five Reasons for Laundry Day and Simple Steps to Start appeared first on Home Plain and Simple.