3 Ways to Simplify Homemaking When You’re Overwhelmed

So you're overwhelmed, eh?  Join the club.

Life is so crazy and I'm trying hard to slow it down, but honestly there's not a whole lot I can eliminate.

Homeschooling just takes a LOT of time and there's nothing I can do about that. Trying to stay on top of housework besides is about all I can handle. Okay, it's kind of more than I can handle because I DON'T stay on top of it very well.

I'm constantly looking for ways to simplify life and I'm choosing not to feel guilty about any of them.

Here are 3 ways to simplify homemaking when you're overwhelmed:

1. 1. 1. Use paper plates
         Yes. I just said that.  It's not exactly the most “green” thing to do, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.  (I actually came up with a different solution to mealtime dishes that I'm testing with my family.  So far, so good, so watch for an update!)Ok — here's that update I promised! We purchased a set of plastic dishes for the kids. Each child gets one color and those are their dishes. They are responsible for washing their own dishes after meal. We got rid of all the other dishes, which means if their dishes are not clean, they won't have anything with which to eat. This prevents dirty dishes from piling up around the kitchen.  It only takes a minute for each person to do their dishes, and having no other dishes in the house means there are none to get dirty! After many months of using this system I can say it's been a success — not perfect, as sometimes they will leave their dirty dishes until right when they realize it's time for another meal and they have nothing clean — but definitely better than the piles and piles of dirty dishes we used to have. We bought a set of Ikea dishes which come in four different colors. When we added a 5th child who needed dishes, we searched everywhere for an extra color and finally bought a set at Target.

1. Automate your shopping
   Yes, I said automate.
   That means a lot of my shopping gets done without my actually doing it!
   I've been using Grove Collaborative to keep myself stocked up on household supplies and it has taken so much off my mind.  No more do I have to remember what I need at the store or make emergency runs if I forget to pick things up.  When I'm out of laundry detergent, a new bottle appears on my porch almost like magic!  Automating as much of my shopping as possible has freed up so much brain space!(By the way, you can get a free gift set from Grove Collaborative when you sign up through this link.)

    
   A great place to automate shopping for healthy food is Thrive Market. There are so many healthy food options and supplies for special dietary needs. There is a membership fee each year, but I calculated that after just 3 orders, I had already saved well over what the membership fee was. If there is something you order frequently, you can set up a subscription and have it delivered to your house on the schedule you select. Set it and forget it.

    
   You'll still have to go to the grocery store for your fresh foods of course, which is why I love using Real Plans. You can set up the types of meals you like to eat (traditional, keto, gluten free, etc.) and then your healthy food menu is generated for you each week automatically (there's that magic word again!) Not only will your menu be automatically made for you, but your shopping list will too! You don't have to think about what to eat or do any work at all to make your shopping list. How de-overwhelming is that?! (But you can always customize the menu if there's something on it you don't like. Here's my complete review of Real Plans which gives an insider look inside the program.)

 

2. Simplify meal prep
   If you're happy with planning your own meals, one way to streamline your meal prep is to cook one-pot meals or use “dump recipes.” I cook one pot meals a lot because it means I only have one pan to wash!  An even better idea is to use slow cooker “dump recipes”.  You assemble your ingredients into freezer bags and fill your freezer with multiple meals of this type.  In the morning you pull out a freezer bag, dump it in the crockpot and dinner will be ready that evening!  My friend Sharla has written some amazing recipe books full of dump recipes.

    
   Freezer cooking is another fantastic way to eliminate overwhelm in the kitchen. You take one day a month and have a cooking marathon. Everything goes into the freezer, and for the rest of the month — no cooking! How awesome is that?! You'll just pull out your meal and heat it up each night. Once a Month Meals provides freezer cooking plans with all the instructions and shopping lists to help you pull off an organized freezer cooking day.

These three simple things will have a massive impact on freeing up some of your time, leaving you able to keep up with some of your other homemaking duties a little more easily — I know they have helped me not feel so overwhelmed as a homemaker!