Most of us are caught in the daily grind, trying to balance work, social life and personal time. It can be challenging to juggle work, grocery shopping, cooking, staying active in conversations with friends, and maintaining a relationship with your partner. On top of that, you might want to fit in exercise or other hobbies. No wonder it’s hard to find balance without feeling exhausted and drained.
Since I started organizing these three practical tasks— grocery shopping, cooking and laundry—I’ve found much more time and energy in my daily life. The increased energy can enable you to handle life’s challenges, whatever they may be, and thereby enhance overall quality of life.
This isn’t rocket science, but it’s definitely hard to actually establish and maintain a consistent routine. Especially in the beginning! Feel free to copy our routine to make it easier for yourself. You can always adjust it, to fit your life and schedule.
Grocery shopping
Shopping once or twice a week has given me so much more time, money, peace and energy in my daily life. I used to shop almost every day, which was both time consuming and annoying. I wasted time on deciding what to buy every day, commuting, unpacking, cooking and more.
Every sunday, we make a shopping list along with a meal plan. We plan it, so that we eat the same meal for two days in a row, simply cooking a bit more to last for both days (sometimes more). Be sure to pay extra attention to expiration dates, especially if you only shop once a week. The list also includes everything else we need, like shampoo, toilet paper etc.
This way, you only spend time once or twice a week figuring out what to eat, and only spend time commuting and shopping once a week. It’s a HUGE life hack that offers more benefits than you might think.
Since we started shopping this way, we’ve saved a lot of money. Reducing the number of shopping trips also reduces the opportunity to grab things off the shelves daily. This can help reduce the amount of unhealthy snacks and replace them with healthier alternatives, that you’ve already planned and listed before you left. Right? 😉
As a bonus, to make the shopping trip more enjoyable, I always listen to good music or a podcast while shopping. It’s incredibly empowering to have this routine, walking with your shopping cart, carrying the bags to your car with a straight back. Once you’ve got the groceries home, you don’t have to think about it, until next time 😉 You’re set for maybe a whole week.
Cooking/Meal Prep
Alright, now that you’ve done your shopping, you have a bunch of delicious ingredients for your meals, which you planned out when making your shopping list.
As mentioned earlier, I cook enough for more than one day, often for two days. This way, I only spend time in the kitchen about every other day. I try to plan it, so that I don’t need to cook on the days I work late. On those days, the meal usually just needs to be reheated or taken out of the fridge, depending on what I’ve made the day before.
I also make sure to occasionally prepare portions for the freezer, so the meal lasts for three to four days in total. As I’ve mentioned many times, the whole point is to create more time, energy and ease in the daily life. Having food in the freezer has saved us countless of times. I admit, even though I have a good routine of doing a big shop on Sundays and maybe once more during the week, sometimes things don’t go as planned. In those cases, it’s incredibly convenient to take a meal out of the freezer and shop the next day, or whatever the case may be.
Here’s how I freeze meals. For some dishes, it’s useful to have a container to freeze your food in. I often use freezer bags, making the bag and its contents as flat as possible, for quicker thawing.
Laundry
This is the last tip of this post – Laundry.
There are several ways to handle and structure practical tasks, especially if there are two adults in the household.
You can divide some of the practical tasks among yourselves, so each person has primary responsibilities to handle and plan for. In our home, we’ve divided certain tasks to better manage our week individually. For us, my partner is primarily responsible for the laundry. In the past, we often fell behind on laundry because we both looked at the overflowing laundry basket with the intention of handling it, but then got distracted. There might have also been a small hope that the other person would take care of it.
When you’re a couple, hopefully, you’re a team and not each other’s parents, so everyone has responsibilities. However, it can be beneficial to divide certain practical tasks so there are a primary person for the specific task. This way, there’s no doubt about who handles what, and you can plan your week with the tasks you are responsible for.
Set aside specific days for doing laundry. It’s much easier to plan your time if there’s a system, and you rarely end up in situations where there are no clean underwear or boxers left. You might sense that I’m speaking from bitter experience here…
Give yourself the chance of more time and energy in your daily life. Starting these routines can be challenging, but once you succeed and manage to stick to them as much as possible – let me tell you, it’s liberating. I wish I’d had the backbone to start sooner. Of course, there are days where plans chances, and you have to move your structure around. We all have those days and situations, and it’s an art to master to be able to move your routines for some occasions, but at the same time keeping it fixed.
Embrace the routine, and who knows, you might find yourself with more free time, more energy to handle life and a sense of control, that feels pretty amazing.