I need help!

mrsiwannabefree

Hi everyone
This is my first post on here, I've been lurking for the past week reading and have to say you all impress me so much.

You all seem so organised, with housework and meal planning. I on the other hand am the opposite.

I work full time, live with my husband and son. I try hard to keep on top of things but I'm normally lagging behind with the housework, have piles of paperwork, and never know what I'm doing for dinner until it's dinner time and have to rush around finding something - which is normally in the freezer!!

My weekends are spent doing hours of housework, washing and food shopping instead of spending time with my family.

It doesn't make it any easier that I am trying to lose weight and both hubby & son are naturally slim and really don't want or need to eat low fat dinners. So I end up cooking different dinners each night!

Could someone please point me in the right direction to get some sort of organised system going? I have just printed out freezer & pantry inventorys as I honestly couldn't say what is in my cupboards or my freezers - I just keep buying!!! I intend to fill these in over the weekend and maybe I can post what I have next week and I can get some help for dinners that I can make with what I already have.

Sorry it's soooo long, thank you for your help

immoral_angeluk

I'm new on OS too but have you seen the flylady thread? Everyone seems insanely organised on there so it might give you some ideas or managing your housework??

kittycat07

I'm fairly new to this too - what I've fond useful though is meal planning. It gets some order in so that a) everyone knows what they're having (so if I'm home a bit later OH can start on the prep!) b) If I know wat I'm having I don't snack c) it focusses my mind for when we shop - that way I don't get tempted down the aisles I don't need (chocolate!) or seduced by special offers (well that part works in theory anyway!). Also you might find that if you plan meals you can do one thing for all of you to eat. Low fat bought meals can be like eating cardboard - but low fat home cooked meals can be yummy and the other two won't know what they're eating is low fat (unless you tell them!). That's about as far as I've got (other than eagerly filling my cupboard with bicarb and vinegar which I'm using to great effect) so I'll be interested to read what other people say too!

mrsiwannabefree

Hi

Thanks for your advice - how do I find the link for the flylady thread?

belfastgirl23

There's a whole flylady website. I'd recommend you start here

http://www.flylady.net/pages/begin_babysteps.asp

I'd start here because absolutely no offence to any of the fully fledged flyladies here, I am so impressed by their thread but it scares the heck out of me cos they do a lot of stuff properly that I only half do I do look at it sometimes to motivate me though!

As a part-time at best flylady I've found some of her tips incredibly useful. Especially morning and night time routines and 'fling boogies' where you quickly do what you can in ten minutes. I've got much better at picking up after myself too. I dunno if I'll ever be fully fledged though!

The other thing I've found useful is meal planning and online shopping. Trying to have a sense of what I will eat in the month ahead and ordering from tesco to make sure I have all the basics to hand. Re the losing weight thing I've found that having a smaller portion of whatever DH is having plus a lot of veg from the freezer is a way around the need to cook different meals. Usually now I leave out dinner in the morning and it's defrosted by the time I get home. I do big cookups on a Sunday while doing Sunday dinner but also try to get DH involved and have a chat while doing it so it isn't time lost. What I cook then tends to last through till tues evening anyway and I'll always freeze some so we can have it the following week too.

But as flylady says it's one step at a time. maybe use some time over easter to start getting things in order and thinking about food planning etc.

Good luck. It does feel great to be sort of on top of these things!

mrsiwannabefree

Thanks Belfastgirl23 - you're right maybe I am running before I can walk!

First thing I'll do is the freezer/pantry inventory and try to use up the mountains of food I know I have before buying more stuff.

Then i'll have a go at menu planning, that should free up a bit of time in the evening to do a bit of housework while it's cooking or being heated up, it should be easier as I'll know what I'm doing when I get home instead of trying to find something!

After I've got that sussed I'll sort out some sort of routine for the housework so that I've got a bit more free time at weekends

kittycat07

I know it may not be totally OS (I'm a newbie after all) but I do put simple things on my menu planner if I know I'll be late or want to give myself a night off to do other things - so things like toasted sandwich and soup or jacket potatoes do feature on ours. Maybe when I'm better organised I'll have full extravagant meals on every night but I reckon I'm better to take babysteps for now!

seraphina

Get your family on board - if you're working full time it is not fair for you to be expected to do all the housework etc.

How old is your son? How much can he help out with? You could get him to help cook (or cook entirely) one or two meals a week if he's old enough. Also get your H on board as well - is there any reason why he can't do his fair share? (Apologies if he does already - you haven't mentioned how you divide chores and you sound as if you're being run ragged trying to do everything:o )

I would sit down together and write a list of what *needs* to be done each week - sorting out paperwork, washing, ironing etc and figure out who will do what and what you can do without - I don't buy clothes that need ironing now, and I can live with a bit of dust. However I'm meticulous about clean bedclothes and a clean bathroom, so I prioritise this above the other cleaning chores.

I would also get menuplanning- again involving your DH and DS - if everyone writes down a list of what meals they like, then you can come up with a bunch of meals for the week. There are loads of ideas/recipes on here.

As for trying to lose weight, obviously your meal suggestions can be low fat/low calories. When your DH/DS wants to have cheesy creamy pasta dishes, then you can have smaller portions and "behave" during the day by eating lots of fruit and veg to fill up on - I had this problem when I was trying to lose weight and I found this worked well.

Good luck, and remember baby steps! I do think it is crucial that you get your family on side - there is NO REASON for this to be 100% your responsibility. If nothing else, if being organised makes you happy, then that should be reason enough for them to at least help.

Sorry if that sounded preachy!

belfastgirl23

seraphina wrote: »

I do think it is crucial that you get your family on side - there is NO REASON for this to be 100% your responsibility. If nothing else, if being organised makes you happy, then that should be reason enough for them to at least help.

You are completely right! I can't work out if I'm frustrated by the fact that the flylady site assumes you'll do it all yourself or if I'm relieved that we don't have to keep up the pretence that someone else will do it. I support you in principle 100% though

ixwood

Seems to me, the flyest thing you can do is get your lazy hubby and son to help!!

DawnW

We are not all organised on here:) I work FT as well, bring work home, house is often a tip, but enjoy cooking - and my OH isn't much help either, though he thinks he is.