Help organising myself

Urchhhh

Tomorrow will be the start of my second week at my new job. I'm out the house from 7am till between 5/6 (this is occasionally different but by only half an hour ish), my partner is out of the house 11am - 8pm.
We have a 9 month old daughter aswell.
We aren't very good at organising ourselves, when I'm in a routine I'm fine I can follow it no problem but I can't seem to plan a routine. The house needs hovered daily as the cats seem to get their litter everywhere, I'm not organised enough and sometimes it can be days before I get a minute to hoover it up. Its stressing me out, I cope a lot better with structure in my life!
I need help coming up with a routine to tidy the house and ideas for cheap, easy dinners for us. I've got in a habit of stopping in to asda on the way home and its costing us loads! We have a slow cooker, just not really sure what to make in it!

flutterbyuk25

Urchhhh wrote: »

T The house needs hovered daily as the cats seem to get their litter everywhere,

Is your litter tray on it's own?

I put the litter tray inside a cardboard box, the banana ones from supermarkets are good (Sainsbury and Morrisons always have them at tills to take away). We very rarely have problems with litter escaping with the box, two cats here.

mrsscattercushion

First of all, well done on your new job!

Re hoovering....we used to used a lidded/hooded cat litter tray with ours and it did save on cat litter flying around, worth a try? have you tried a hand-held mini vacuum cleaner? I've got chronic health issues and cannot always use/carry the full size hoover around so my mum in law bought me a hand-held one from Asda. Is fully portable and does about 15mins with all charge, so great for picking up bits off floors, work surfaces etc, means I can keep on top of it for only a few mins a day if needed until feel able to use full hoover.

Little and often works well for me, else it can feel like it's getting on top of me if not have energy/strength to do. I have a "swiffer" type thing too for hard floors and a mop with built-in spray so can just quickly wipe over surfaces. Also have some wipes in for a quick wipe around kitchen/bathroom whilst in there. So I'll do a bit if waiting for the kettle to boil, running a bath etc. Then maybe once a week/fortnight it will have a "deeper" clean (there's only 2 of us here).

As your time with work and little one is quite limited, maybe break it down into a room/area a day, so doesn't feel all consuming. Toys away, pots done and tomorrow's lunches done before going to bed, so not waking up to a muddle in the morning?

Loads of recipes on here for slow cookers. I use mine for stews, curries, soups. I tend to try to do a meal plan for the week, to help with shopping. I've just done a cupboard/freezer stock take so am making the meals around what we already have in. I try to so some meals that can do multiple meals, such as bolognese, which can also turn into chilli, eaten with tortillas. Or savoury mince that can turn into cottage pie or pasties. Big vats of soup that can be frozen. Investing time in having things in for quick cooking after work saved me a lot of time (and urge to go shopping/takeaway)

You'll definitely find bags of helpful advice on here!

Floss

Our cat's litter tray is one with a lid - keeps smells & bits of litter all contained.

Can your partner vacuum after you've left the house before they go to work? One less thing for you to do at 6pm.

Check out the slow cooker threads - you can cook most things from "roast" chicken to jam!

Also meal plan according to what's in your fridge, freezer & cupboards, then shop ONLY for what you need for the week. Get your partner onside with doing prep either the night before or in the morning if time, and make the oven do double work. For example, if peeling spuds for Sunday dinner of slow-cooker roast chicken, peel extra to keep in a bowl in the fridge til Wednesday to make potato wedges. Then when they're in the oven, roast some sliced peppers, courgettes & aubergines with chunks of onions to have alongside your wedges & meat / fish/ chicken / sausages. Use half the veg, put the other half in the fridge & have them the next night, placed in a shallow ovenproof dish & reheat in the oven for 15 minutes. Then top with slices of brie or mozzarella over the veg, pop back in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

That's just a few ideas for you - there are lots of others to pick up from other threads. Good luck!

maman

Meal planning is definitely the way to go. It's not just very mse but it saves time too. When I was working 60+ hours a week I found that by being organised it helped enormously and the freezer is your friend!


Like floss said, start by checking exactly what you have in. I have an inventory of my freezers (sounds posh but it's a list stuck on the side of the microwave) and the cupboards and fridge I can check at a glance. Write a simple meal plan for 7 evening meals (or fewer if you'll be eating out at all) using what you have in as a guide and particularly planning to use up anything from the fridge. Make sure you have all the ingredients you need for breakfasts and lunches. I don't plan those but you can if you need to. It sounds as if you need quick meals every night except perhaps at weekends. It depends what you like to eat but omelettes, jacket potatoes, pasta and stir fries are incredibly quick or things straight from the freezer like fish. Don't be afraid to buy ready meals but you'll eat more cheaply and healthily if you make your own. Your partner has plenty of time to fill the SC in the morning or batch cook some meals at weekends. I'd start with Bolognese sauce, eat one and freeze the rest in portions. Then move on to chilli or savoury mince. Over time you'll build up a supply of HM ready meals you can cook in minutes.


It's much quicker to scoot round Asda (but if you want to save money I'd recommend Aldi or Lidl) once a week with your list than pop in every night and it's definitely much cheaper!


Good Luck.:)

Urchhhh

I think I'll ask my partner to hoover in the mornings, he'll do whatever I ask him to but I just need to actually ask him to do it! He doesn't notice when things need done though ugh its annoying!

When I do my weekly shop its in Aldi but asda is on the route home and all of last week I nipped into get something quick for tea but came out spending at least £15 each time on other things, I'm sure I would be quicker cooking from scratch, on Thursday I was somehow in there for 45 minutes?! I just get distracted and look at everything I don't need! I came out with leggings I didn't even need!

Definitely going to look into a litter tray with a lid, I don't even understand how they manage to make such a mess!

I have a fully stocked freezer (I have a big stand up one) and all my cupboards are full, I just don't plan my food so no meat gets taken out to cook so I end up not even using it!

I've just made the babies lunch and started making mine. Snacky things prepared and carrot and coriander soup is in the soup maker! Just need my partner to make his lunch and we will all be organised!
I'm thinking baked potatoes in SC for tomorrows tea but last time I made them they were still hard 7 hours later! I put them on low but are they meant to be on high?

whiteguineapig

i sometimes look after the cats next door and they have a litter tray which has like a lip inside all the way round which is supposed to keep the litter inside
it doesn't really work though its still all over the floor, so i would try maybe that type of tray then stand it in one of the boxes like the other person said works
i often see them at the checkouts so its worth a try

monnagran

There's plenty of advice here on the meal situation, but you really need help with an overall routine for keeping on top of things. This also needs to address the fact that
a) you are going to be very tired.
b) you have a baby that you will want to spend time with.

I suggest that you have a quick look at FlyLady.net.
This will give you a morning and before-bed routine that you can tweak to suit your life. It will also give you a sneak peek for the week which gives you ONE 10/15 minute job to do in the room of the week. Perhaps you can divide it up so that your OH does some of the routine before he goes off in the morning.
Your family time will be very precious and you must not feel that you have to spend every weekend catching up on household chores.

Can I suggest a kitchen timer. Setting it for 10, 15 or even 5 minutes and getting one job done before it goes off will keep you focussed and stop jobs dragging on.

Good luck, don't be hung up on doing everything perfectly, good enough is good enough, and none of it is more important than spending time with your gorgeous baby because they grow up while you blink.

You will have so much love and support on these forums - stay with us.

x

monnagran

Jacket potatoes need 1 hour in a fairly hot oven...200C, Mk 6. If pushed for time give them 6/7 minutes in the microwave and 20/30 minutes in a hot oven to crisp up.

x

elsien

This is OH responsibility as much as it is yours - you're both working full time and out of the house for similar numbers of hours.
So split the jobs between you so you're each doing your fair share. Work out what needs doing each day and what can be left. Then you don't need to ask him because it should be on his list for the day anyway.
When you're cooking, try batch cooking - 4 lots of mince base that can be turned into spag bol, chilli or cottage pie, for example, then you can defrost it when you need it ready for the next day.
Ditto lunches - either of you can make a bulk load of frittata, for example, and get the out of freezer ready for the next day's lunches.

And dust is fine, honestly. I tend to work on the "if the bathroom and kitchen are reasonably hygienic, the rest can wait" principle. Clutter bothers me, so I have a quick tidy most evenings. Life is too short for a spotless house - in my book anyway.

Nargleblast

You could do an online supermarket shopping order to be delivered when your pay has gone into your account. That saves a lot of time, you just have to be at home during the two hour delivery slot. I get meat and fruit and veg from a wholesale butcher, but you could include some meat, fruit and veg for a few meals in your supermarket delivery. Then once it has been delivered sit down and do some meal plans - one week, two weeks ahead to begin with, taking into account stuff you already have in store as well as the stuff you have delivered. Knowing what the planned meal is in advance means less having to dive into shops after work. Put a shopping list on the wall, adding things to it as you think of them, but wait until there are at least a dozen things on the list before going shopping.