AN EASIER LIFE

I like anything that makes my life easier. I have always been happy each day if the beds are made and the dishes are done. It doesn't matter what else is out of place, if those two things are done then the house seems tidier.

One of my bug bears is the mess that accumulates on the kitchen table. We all do it. We walk in the door. Dump our bags on the table with the keys before putting the kettle on. Mail and junk mail join it and before you know it the table is looking like the proverbial dung heap.

I think this is the next habit I need to address. While the kettles boiling I will walk my bag up to the bedroom where it belongs and put my keys in their spot. I will pick through the junk mail and put the stuff I don't even look at straight into the recycle bin. 

While having my cuppa I'll go through the mail, put the bills into my bill folder for paying. The rubbish into the recycle bin. 

I'll then go through the rest of the junk mail. If there;s anything that catches my eye I will tear it out, write the store on the picture and put it in my purse. The rest can go straight into the recycle bin.

If I did this over a cuppa every night when I walk in the door my table will stay clean and ready for dinner. Between doing this, my beds made and dishes done, add a quick fifteen minute walk round after tea my home will always be manageable and ready for unexpected visitors.

What do you do to make your life a little easier?

BEING PREPARED

Oh No !! Now What ?

NO POWER

I

It's funny how a simple conversation can get you thinking. We get used to the inconvenience of a blackout every now and then. It never lasts for long. A couple of hours, maybe 6 on a bad day and we just deal with it. But what if the power went out for longer. Some idiot flipped the wrong switch and now we're told no power for a least 2 days. Even worse the grid got overloaded and now we're looking at a week. What would you do to keep your home and family running smoothly and how prepared are you?

Some homes have gas ( I don't ) so that will help for a while but for the rest of us everything comes to a screaming halt. I wrote a list of everything I rely on power for and found that yes it was just about every thing so how can I continue with my day without too much of a hiccup and without running off to a family members home ( who I hope isn't affected ).

Looking at my basic needs list as a starting point, there are a few things I need to prioritise but more importantly I need to collect the information for each item in one place. So that's where I'm going to start. I might want to live simply but I am a technological user and if your anything like me you keep a large portion of your life on the computer. I'm also a survivor so I'll look at the worst case scenario of 1 week without  power. If I can manage that then a day or two will be a walk in the park.

My first task this week is to  

• Back up all my files onto a flash drive.
• Make a folder and print off all my necessary information

I proberly would have a couple of folders for different things to make it easier for myself to find what I'm looking for.

•  Favourite recipes that aren't in my cookbooks
• .Instructions on making cleaning products
•  Personal information
• "How to" folder with D.I.Y in it.

I'm sure I would think of of a few others as I go along. At least now I can access the information I will need. I will also go through my library and see if the books I've got have everything I need in them. If not I will look around and pick up some more.

Here's a couple that I have that I would recommend but there are plenty out there that may be more to your taste.

Back to Basics by Readers Digest

The New Self Sufficiency Book by John Seymour

Now I can work through my list. It wont be in order of importance but in which I can achieve easily. Some things I will need to research a bit and then practice, practice, practice. There's not much point in having the information and not being able to do it or put it into place when needed.

This post is getting a bit long so I'll finish up for today, I'll have a cuppa and decide which step I'll take next. Let me know what you would do and and share your ideas. Every little bit helps and we'll help each other to sail through whatever gets thrown at us.

MENU PLANNING

Dinner is served

One thing I keep trying to remember to do is to write a menu. I just need to do four and rotate them. Menu planning is the best way to save money in the kitchen. 

You  know how much of the ingredients you need and only buy them. You don't waste food by throwing excess in the bin. It also allows you to stockpile most common used items when they are on special, saving more money.

It also saves you time. Knowing what your having each day takes all the guess work out of making a decision. You pop your hand in the freezer take out the meat and put it into the fridge to thaw. Vegies can be prepared the night before or in the morning. 

The added bonus is you find you no longer run out of things and so you go to the shop less saving you more time and money because lets face it. Nobody pops in to buy a loaf of bread and doesn't pick up something else.
If you shop fortnightly like I do it saves you a lot more.

A SIMPLE MENU PLAN

There's no doubt about it. A menu plan takes the hassle out of what your going to eat every night. If your anything like me though it all becomes too hard when I'm deciding what to eat and which night and all the ingredients I need.

i personally have a few meals that I like to cook over a 4 week period. They use a lot of the same ingredients which means I'm not buying fancy stuff that only gets used once or twice and then goes in the bin.

Weekly Menu

When I shop for meats it's the same nearly every fortnight depending what's on special. My vegies don't really change that much depending on if it's winter or summer. I find that I don't have a lot of wastage because it's all food that I eat and I change what I do with the food to keep it interesting enough that I don't feel like I'm eating the same meals week in week out.

One thing I really don't like is complicated menu planning.  Breakfast and lunch is a hit and miss affair in this house so I cant see the point in planning anything for those meals. Dinner is the only one that I want to worry about.

Each Sunday night I check out what meat is left in the freezer, scribble it down, decide what nights I want for these meats ( I like to rotate my nights....chicken, meat, fish ) then decide what meals I'm going to make with them. It doesn't take long and I can tart the meals up into something different each week while still buying the same meat. Less thinking for me.

Eg. Chicken over 4 weeks

• Roast Chicken
• Chicken Stir fry ( pulled apart from left over roast the week before
• Devilled Chicken Marylands
• Honey and Mustard  Chicken Marylands

I have a Menu planner on my pantry door in an A4 frame with glass on it. I write a short version of the meal for each night on it with a whiteboard marker and I'm done. It wipes off with paper towel easily.

The best bit is that it reminds me to actually get the meat out the freezer the night before haha.

Here is a PDF that you can download and print off that I've used from the Orchard Girls website that I found. Weekly Meal Planner

Jan

HERBS AND SPICES

Have you noticed how expensive herbs and spices are to buy. The fresh ones are the worst which is ridiculous as they are so easy to grow.

Granted they don't grow all year round but if you grow enough it is easy to dehydrate them and bottle them up.

At the end of the season put into a food saver for topping up your jars when you run low.

Of course the packets in the supermarket aren't too bad in price but the herbs always seem to be crushed  into a powder. Probably from being handled too often.

I opened one and compared it to some I had done myself and the difference was incredible.

Not only was my colour more intense but so was the aroma. 

Not to mention the fact that mine were nice and healthy flakes compared to the powdery mix in the packets.

Why don't you give it a go.

One of the things that has been driving me crazy is my spice cupboard. Everything was piled on top of each other and I had to pull everything out to find what I was looking for.

I finally decided how I wanted it to look and this is what I did.

After pulling them all out I'm putting everything into new containers and labelling them.

This is what I started with. I had two shelves like this

Lime for herbs and red for spices

And a new home in the drawer

With their little hats on I wont have any problems finding what I need now. 

Now to finish the rest.

15 MINUTES

So I was chatting with a friend today and we got to talking  

about the every day mess that accumulates during the day.

You know the kind of thing. Kids toys, junk mail on the table and it goes on. After working all day the last thing you want to do at night is spend it tidying up, but if you don't it builds up and eventually it gets on top of you.

I started telling her about my 15 minute rule. Each night after tea and the dishes I set the timer on the oven for 15 minutes and grab a basket and pick up things lying around. When the timer goes off I stop and put what's in the basket in their rightful places.

That's it. By the end of the month it takes about 5 minutes of my time each night and I find I'm sitting down with my feet up, not giving it a second thought. It's a habit now. Part of my winding down for the night.

I like going to bed at the end of the night with the house tidy. I like even more getting up to a tidy house. Housework day takes half the time because half the work is already done.

Get the little ones involved. Half an hour before bed help them do the same. Then it's 15 minutes quiet time where you can have a cuddle before bed. It sets up a routine they get used to and makes bedtime a little easier ( at least that's the goal ), and you never know it might even become a habit they carry on with as they get older.