Sometimes, just running a family and ensuring that everyone has what they need, they are picked up and dropped off on time, and they are all fed, can be a mammoth task in itself. It can often be stressful being a mom or a dad and feeling like you have many other lives and schedules to organize aside from your own. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and want some tips and tricks on how to be better organized as a family, have a read through this article.
Plan Ahead in the Kitchen
One of the best ways to save time as a family is to plan your meals ahead of time. Whether this means that you do one weekly shop and buy all the ingredients you need for all your dinners for that week or that you make food in bulk, freeze it and then defrost it for easy and convenient meals, planning ahead is always a great idea.
If you are a parent, you’ll know that one of the hardest things about being organized as a family is trying to decide what meal to have every night. This is one of the reasons why planning in advance works too well – if you know exactly what you are going to cook on any given day, you can avoid what is known as decision fatigue and save time which is better spent doing other household chores or spending time with the kids.
If you want to meal prep effectively, it’s important to invest in the right equipment – investing in good quality containers that can go in the fridge, freezer and microwave is an essential part of meal prepping. If you’re looking for excellent containers, both in their price point and durability, these are the best glass meal prep containers.
Make a Chart of Chores
Chores might be every child’s worst nightmare, but every parent knows that chores can be an essential part of working well as a family unit, teaching your kids some independence and saving time. Chores don’t have to take more than 20 minutes, but if you get your kids to help out now and then, it will really save you some time.
Making a chart of chores and sticking it up in the kitchen is a great way to ensure that everyone knows what part they have to play in ensuring the family unit runs smoothly and everything stays as organized as possible. If your kids don’t enjoy doing chores, then you can reward them with some pocket money to spend on the weekend – this is always a good incentive!
Create a Weekly Visual Schedule
Creating a visual schedule that you can hang in your house is a great way of staying organized as a family, especially when you have a lot of kids. Being a parent with more than a few children can be extremely stressful as you have to think about your children’s schedules and how they align as well as thinking about your own. Having a visual chart of everyone’s plans and commitments for that week means that you can visually see where there might be any potential clashes.
If you want to be extra organized, you could color code the chart so that every family member has a different color to represent what they are up to in the week. Make it a priority to sit down as a family at the beginning of every week and fill out the chart to the best of your abilities – this will ensure the rest of the week runs as smoothly as possible.
Whether it’s making a visual chart of everyone’s commitments for the week, encouraging your children to help out with some chores or planning ahead in the kitchen, taking steps to get organized as a family is always a good idea and something that you will surely thank yourself for later.
Taking a portion of the weekend (Sunday is always a good idea) to sit down with your family and plan ahead for the week is a surefire way to set the week up for a good start. If this all seems a bit overwhelming, concentrate on implementing one organizational change every month until, after a few months, you’ll be as organized and efficient as possible!
