How To Organize Meal Time

On the surface, meal time should be easy. We all want to eat. All you have to do is decide what to make and then make it. Right?

If only.

As mothers, we need time to make the meal we want to make. We might have activities that interfere with the timing for the meal. We might have babies to unexpectedly make dinner prep harder one night. We also need the ingredients for said meal, which means we need some pre-planning and shopping.

So how do moms do it? I went to Facebook and asked for ideas. The main takeaway here is to plan ahead. The most sure path to success for you is to plan ahead. Plan your meals ahead. Plan your trips ahead. Prepare things ahead of time. Here is a list of the tips:

• Shop a month at a time
• Shop two weeks at a time
• Shop once a week
• Shop during a short window of time
• Add things you need to buy to your list as they run out so you know what you need
• Keep a master list of favorite meals and refer to it when making a meal plan
• Make a list of meals in four month periods and use that plan every four months
• Plan meals based on what is going on that night. You might need faster meals on certain nights depending on different plans and activities
• Get out and prepare anything you need for the next day before bed
• Order groceries online and pickup. This helps you avoid going over budget
• Check cupboards and fridge when writing grocery list so you don't forget to buy something or over-buy something
• Get coupons from favorite sites and apps after you make your list and know what you need
• Keep a list of easy, quick, and healthy meals so you have those to refer to
• Set aside time to cook each day
• Double recipes when possible and freeze one meal
• Find a helpful app to track meal plans and shopping lists
• Create a meal exchange group

Here is what you said:

PLAN AHEAD

Diedre said:

Until a week ago we lived in a very remote area, and had to drive for an hour and a half to get to the store. This meant we only went shopping once a month, so we had to be fairly organized.

Breakfast and lunch I just kept things like oatmeal, pancake mix, PB&J, etc on hand for the month, but there was no set menu. 

I had a "master list" of all the foods we like to eat for dinner. I would sit down and plan enough meals for 4 weeks, making a list of all needed ingredients as I went. When I was done with the list I would check it against what I had in the fridge/freezer/pantry and pare it down to my final shopping list. The final list of meals was more of a list of meal options than a set menu. Depending on how the day/week was going I'd look at the list in the morning, pick what we were going to eat that night, and go from there. 

Now though, we have moved into the city and don't have as much pantry space, so I look forward to seeing others' responses to this question.

Leslie said: 

I have done the monthly shopping as well, I even made a list seperating all of my meals into 4 different months, so we just rotate through the 4 months lists. But now that I'm pregnant, half of the stuff doesn't sound or taste good anymore, so I've had to go back to shopping for 2 weeks at a time, based on what sounds good lol.

PREPARE IN ADVANCE

Casey said:

I use an "old school" calendar and keep it on the fridge and sit down and plan out our meals (dinner only) for 2 weeks at a time. I make the grocery list as I write down meals. I also write in our Family Activities so I know if I need to have a "quick meal" for certain evenings or if we're going out for dinner for a special occasion. Each evening I look at the next day's meals and put whatever meat out to thaw so it's ready for the next day. If I didn't plan, we'd eat out WAY MORE than we should. I also order my groceries from Kroger online and it has really helped me stay on budget. I don't grab unnecessary items and if I'm over budget for the month, I can easily delete items we can get buy without for the next couple weeks.

Abby said: 

I menu plan on Sunday afternoons when everyone else is napping! I have a binder full of recipes I've found over the years, organized by starch (pasta, rice, potatoes, grains, & legumes). I pick recipes for the week, write them down on a menu I printed off from Pinterest, and write down on my shopping list what we'll need (being sure to check the cupboards and fridge so I don't run out of staples or buy something I already have 3 of!) My list a split list from Real Simple, for Trader Joe's and Target. Then I hop on Target's Cartwheel app and Coupons.com and grab whatever coupons I want. If I'm feeling super-ambitious, I check StretchingaBuckBlog.com for their ad & coupon match-ups.

Sally said:

I've just started meal planning on a monthly basis rather than weekly. And it seems to take much less time!! It makes weekly food shopping easier too. If I'm making a slow cooker meal I prep it the night before so I can just get it out the fridge and switch slow cooker in the morning.

FIND QUICK AND HEALTHY MEALS

Susan said:

I've been making weekly plans for meals. And shopping once a week. I keep a list of easy dinners and since I'm home on maternity leave, I'm playing with lots of new recipes that are easy, quick and healthy that I can save for when I go back to work. Also rely on my slow cooker for easy meals when I have both my baby and toddler home.

SET ASIDE TIME TO  COOK EACH DAY

Katie said:

My planner has a small space at the bottom to planmeals (personal-planner.com is where I get it), so i plan them in there in tiny handwriting. The planner shows one week at a time. I plan the main dish and generally what will go with it (like a veggie and a fruit). I make the shopping list in the blank pages at the back of the planner. I shop once a week in the awkward space of time between dropping older kids at school and dropping my 4yo at preschool - there's about a 50 minute gap there, it's perfect.

At the grocery store, I really only pick up what is on the list. Throughout the week as things got low or ran out (or the backup ran out on an often-used item), I added that to the list. Most of our meat doesn't come from our grocery store, it comes from random other sources/farms so I don't worry about sales a lot unless it's on a type of item I use a ton (say, canned diced tomatoes).

As for my day, most days I plan to be home between 3:30-5pm for cooking. It's a lot of time but I love good food so it's worth it to me. Often baking, like muffins if they're needed on a soup night, gets done in the mornings. I often try to make extra of any meal/baked good where it makes sense and put it in the deep freezer if there's room. On the days where the kids have a late afternoon activity, I plan slow cooker or super simple meals. Each week the meals are pretty carefully planned based on what activities are going on each day.

All of my favorite recipes are typed and I print them into a spiral bound book every couple years. New recipes get printed out and put in a thin binder. All my cookbooks are kept in a cupboard in my kitchen and I really like having them there even though it takes up somewhat valuable space.

And I keep things on hand like cereal, oatmeal, PB&J, etc for breakfasts and a lot of the kids' lunches.

FIND AN APP YOU LOVE

Whitney said:

Paprika app! Best recipe, meal planning and grocery list app I have found!

MEAL SWAP

Nicole said:

I make a meal plan first that includes breakfast, lunch and supper 7 days per week. I then make a list for any items I will need during that time. Some things are standard, like apples, oranges and bananas. Other things get added based on the suppers I am planning. I shop twice per month at a major grocery store, plus once per month at costco. My meal plan is for a two week period, then I just repeat it for the second half of the month. On any given day, I choose from one of the meals I haven made yet that I have on the meal plan. It is rare for me to use all 14 dinners in two weeks because we use leftovers or we get invited out, or we eat something else for some reason. 

I'm also in a meal exchange group. We each make whatever meal we have chosen, multiplied by how many people are joining in, then we get together and swap. We are doing it monthly currently, but each person opts in by the 15 of the month, and we swap the last Monday of the month. I add the frozen meals to my meal plan either one or two times per week.

I start making supper between 4-5 pm, we eat at 6. I prefer to make fresh mealsall at once over slow cooker meals. I have a very short list of meals that I think that good when made in the slow cooker. This last year I got a pressure cooker and have been playing around with that. As a SAHM, I feel like I have a lot of options in terms of what we eat. I always have afternoon time when my kids are napping that I can start prepping or cooking for a more involved meal.

Related Posts:

• How I Feed My Family for Around $100 a Week
• Easy Breakfast Meals
• Prioritizing Family Meals
• Managing Dinner Prep Time

Tips for Organizing Your Family Schedule

Whether you are trying to organize your baby's schedule or trying to figure out how to make a schedule fit together for your entire family, you are facing a big task. It can be tricky finding a balance that meets as many needs as possible while ensuring you can hold on to the core of what really matters to you. Once you have that schedule in place, you might find it can be hard to keep track of it all!

So how do people do it? I recently posed this question to my Facebook readers. Here is their advice. 

Have One Schedule Keeper

Just as I talked about last week on how to distribute responsibilities in marriage, it is wise to have one person who really organizes the family life. For most couples, the mother will organize the baby's daily schedule, but it might not be so cut and dry when it comes to the schedule for the full family. 

Caitlin said: Having me be the "schedule keeper" helps minimize conflicts. I manage the family calendar and any travel dates, guys nights , or work events my husband has he texts me and asks me to add to the calendar. We have found that using only one calendar and having one person in charge of if ( as opposed to both adding to it) helps eliminate conflicts that one of us might be unaware of. Plus I'm type A so it fills my need for control. Lol

We do this in our home. I am the schedule keeper. I keep our schedules on a shared calendar (more on that below). I plan out the kids' activities. I schedule the time each year for piano lessons. I decide which day works best for dance class or gymnastics. Even when my husband is the coach of the soccer team, I tell him which day and time is best to have soccer practice. 

Have one person be over all and aware of everything. 

This doesn't mean the other person can't have opinions, input, or ideas. It doesn't even  have to mean the other person can't add things to the calendar. If you share a calendar, then it is easy to see what is open and what isn't. 

In your initial setup at transition points, like the beginning of summer or a new school year, have one person be over making sure it all fits. If that doesn't work for both of you (maybe you are both Type A :) ), then sit and plan it all out together at the same time. There needs to be consistency and full understanding of the big picture when planning a schedule out.

Limit Activities

A great way to keep a schedule manageable is to set limits on that schedule. How limits would look at your house will vary from how it looks at someone else's house. We all have different capacities and various levels of help. If you have a great system of carpoolers with other families doing certain activities, you probably can allow more activities than a parent driving to everything solo. If you have a firefighter spouse whose shift changes week to week, you probably won't be able to schedule as much as someone whose husband has a very consistent and predictable schedule from week to week. The family with five kids might need to put more limitations on activities than the family with two. 

• Limit number of activities: One way to limit is to limit the number of activities each child can do. Some people say one or two at a time. Some people allow a lot more. Figure out what works for your family.
• Limit ages that activities can be done: Another way to limit is to not allow certain activities until certain ages. If a child has to be 4 before soccer can start, that makes soccer season that much easier for four years. 

Angela said: "We only allow one child to do one extra activity at a time. Given that we only have 2 and they are still young and not begging to do all the things, this works for us. If the brother wants basketball, the sister waits till spring to do gymnastics. If the sister is doing ballet, the brother waits till summer swim lessons. I'm sure this will change as they enter jr high and high school, but right now it works for us. Obviously not the answer for all families, but it helps to have minimal activities for the moment."

Use a Synced Calendar

Once you have a schedule set, you need to make sure everyone can see what is going on. There are multiple apps sand programs that can help with this. I find the two most popular to be Cozi and Google Calendar. 

If one of you needs to use Google Calendar for work, it makes sense to use that for home, too. Then anything from work that will impact the family can be kept track of.

Our family uses the app Cozi. We use the free version. My husband and I can both access it from our phones or the internet. We can both add or delete things. We can easily see what is going on where an when. Each person is color coded.

Having a calendar that automatically syncs that you can both access is the best way to make your schedules easier and more manageable. It also makes it so the one who is not the schedule keeper can safely add something to the schedule. He can see what is planned and what is free. 

Faith said: "We use Google calendar and have multiple color-coded calendars syncing. For instance, my hubby's work is green, my events are pink, events for both of us are red, meals are yellow, church events are blue, etc. I love it because I have access to his schedule but can also hide his calendar so only events that involve me show on the calendar so i don't get overwhelmed. I'm a paper and pencil girl and moving to an electronic calendar was difficult at first, but now I love it!"

Conclusion

These few tips are a great starting point to get things manageable and under control. Organizing the family schedule can be daunting, but if you apply these three ideas to your family, you will find it much easier!

How To Organize Toys

When Brayden was young, I had a good friend with a boy just a few months younger than he was. I was sure we owned every toy worthy of owning at the time (which is funny to look back on because we didn't have many). When we would visit her, it would amaze me that we had basically completely different toys, and they toys they had were all great and fun, also. How could that many toy options exist in the world!

As kids get older, the toy collection grows and grows. You don't want to just get rid of the toys when your oldest is too old for them because there will be younger siblings to play with those perfectly good toys. But we only have so much storage and so much space. Decisions must be made and organization must take place. Here are some tips for organizing toys, complete with tips from fellow blog readers. 

Only Keep What You Have Space For

This seems so simple and obvious, but it is very easy for us to get to a point where we just have more stuff than we have space for. Once you are out of space for toys, it is time to make some decisions. 

I have a very hard time getting rid of perfectly good toys. I was raised by parents who didn't have much. Their parents lived through the depression and were savers. You save, save, save. 

But they didn't also live in a time like ours where there was major consumerism. They didn't have the volume of stuff that we have. You just need to have a logical talk with yourself and say, "When we are out of space, it is time to donate or sell our excess." 

Emily said: "We don't have a perfect system, but the one thing I love is an old dresser (that I refinished) that we use as our TV stand. Each of the large drawers holds a category of toys (trains/tracks, blocks, cars, etc.) If a drawer can't fit everything it's time to donate! I love that it's an easy storage system that doesn't scream "toy storage.""

Ask For Experiences for Gifts Rather Than Toys

You won't have a relationship with everyone where you can make such requests, but for those you do, ask for experiences rather than toys. I am one who finds it tacky to tell people what gifts to get unless they ask for ideas. If "the thought" is what counts, when you take the thought away from the gift-giver, you are making it the "thing" that counts. 

What you can say, though, is "We are out of space for toys in our house! If you would like to give a gift, an experience would be fantastic!" 

You can alternatively ask for no gifts or ask for smaller items or items that can be added to collections so there is not more space needed.

Emily Ann said: "we don't have a ton of toys in our house and ask that ppl not give our son toys as gifts (we would rather have experiences like going to the zoo and what not). we have a small wooden box in our living room and a wire basket thing from target in our sons room to hold toys. in our basement there is a play area with a toddler slide, swing, small ball pit, a discovery kids tent and some toys. we live in the country and its really muddy so we needed an indoor play area. i watch while hes playing with toys and if its something he doesn't have interest in after a few times i usually give it away"

Get Creative With Toy Storage

There are so many ways and places you can store toys. Under bed, in dressers, in drawers in your family room...an obvious great source for good ideas on toy storage ideas is Pinterest. I have some ideas on my Play Room board and some in my Organizing board. You can do a simple search on "Toy organization" and find a lot of great ideas and find ones that make sense for your space. 

Use Totes or Bins for Storing Toys

This post contains affiliate links. A good old reliable form of toy storage is to put the toys by groups into plastic rubbermaid-type totes or to use baskets in the IKEA type bookcases or something similar. We use both of those methods for books and toys frequently. 

The tricky thing with the totes and bins method is you either need to commit to being present when all toys are cleaned up or you need to commit to remaining calm when the items are put back in the wrong bin. You can label and that can help, but things will get put away wrong and you will need to go through them every so often to re-organize. That isn't necessarily a bad thing; re-organizing is a good chance to get rid of things. It does take time and it does add to your to-do list. 

Erin said: "My son has hundreds of little trucks. To stay sane, they are all sorted into separate plastic bins (tractors, hot wheels, diggers, monster trucks, etc). He's allowed to have 2 bins out at a time. If he wants a different type of truck, he has to clean up and trade one in. Keeps me from having to see hundreds on the floor at the same time, and him from spending 2 hours cleaning them all up. "

Donate (or Store) What Isn't Played With

Like I said, it is easiest to keep things clean when you have less stuff than you have space for. That means you need to get rid of things when you run out of space. If you run out of toy space in the house, but you have storage space, doing toy rotation is fantastic (see below for more). 

If you don't have space for storage, donate your toys. You could also sell them on classifieds. Get them out of the house and into someone else's house.

There just isn't much point in keeping out something that rarely gets touched. Getting it out of the way will keep things cleaner and will likely keep your child more engaged in what IS there since there won't be too many options. 

Rotate Toys

The concept for rotating toys is simple. You have some toys out that can be accessed. You have some toys stored away somewhere that is out of sight and out of reach. Every so often, you take the toys out of storage, add them to what can be accessed, then put away other toys. This keeps toys interesting and fresh. It is like Christmas every so often. You can decide how often to rotate. I usually like 2-4 weeks. 

Elizabeth said: "For my little girl, her obsession is books! We have three 'loads' that I separated carefully balancing it out (fiction, non fiction, a kipper book in each pile etc) and I rotate them every 3 weeks or so. That way, her book shelf isn't a constant mess and she can actually see almost all her books at a glance.

I'm about to redo our craft cupboard. But I did recently buy new drinking glasses and the box it came in made a perfect 'craft caddy' for my three year old. She got a stash of crayola for Christmas but I didn't feel good about her using everything at once. So I chose a selection of things and now she has a jar of 8 markers, 12 crayons, glue stick, scissors etc all in one caddy. I don't have to hunt for lids or missing things because there are only a few things to keep track of!"

Tips For Keeping Things Clean

1-Limit how much is out--this is when toy rotation comes in handy.

2-Have clean-up rules--have a rule that toys have to be cleaned up before they move on to a new toy. You should also have your child help. Children are more likely to be careful about what they get out if they have to help clean up.

3-Don't buy too many--When it comes time for Christmas or birthdays, be aware of your available space when buying new toys. There are a lot of fun toys out there! You probably don't have space for all of the ones your child would love, and that is perfectly okay! 

2-Toy time out--If your child won't keep things clean or help clean, have a consequence. Take toys away if your child won't help clean up. 

Christina said: "I use a ton of 31 bags to organize toys. I also have a TOY TIME OUT BAG that gets filled with the toys left on the floor for my daughter to earn back. I do frequently purge toys as well by donating them or saving them and rotating them out, but since I don't have much time to rotate toys, they are either organized and put away, in time out, or gone. LOL"

Diedre said: "All our toys are sorted by type into plastic boxes with lids. These are placed on a small shelf in their playroom. Depending on the size of the toys (some things are in slightly bigger boxes) the shelf will fit 6-8 boxes/items. They also get to have 4 larger items (think dress-up box, doll house, etc) that just stay on the floor around the room. Anything that doesn't fit on the shelf goes into a closet. This gives the kids a variety of things to choose from without having too much to clean up. 

Any time they clean-up without whining, or do an extra big job around the house, or anything else I decide is worth it, they get to trade one item from the shelf/floor of the toy room for one out of the closet. This way I get willing helpers, the toys get rotated, and everyone is happy."

Conclusion:
Toys definitely have the potential and power to take over your home, but it doesn't have to be that way! You can utilize these ideas to keep control over the toys and not let the toys control you.

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Related Posts:

• Toy Storage
• Toy Rotation