Ordering Disorder
with Busy Mom
When you have kids, the battle between order and chaos at home can take place on many fronts. Ordering Disorder is about ways to fight domestic entropy with organizing tips, tricks, meal ideas and more.
To learn more about Elizabeth, visit Busy Mom Blog or check out her Work It, Mom! profile.
I really dislike feeling like I don’t have a handle on my life. Since getting home from a trip with my husband, I’ve felt myself running about twelve hours behind since we got home Monday night at around 9pm. I’ve been thinking of some processes I might have followed to help the transition back into real life a little smoother. I thought I’d write them all out for next time.
The biggest stressor when I walked in the door was the pile of mail and school paperwork on the counters. My mom babysat and didn’t really know what to do with all of it so she created piles. I think next time I’ll put out envelopes for all the paper work, one for each kid and another for mail. I’ll ask my sitter to toss out any duplicate fliers from the school and any junk mail, everything else will be put in the correct envelope.
Before I leave I’ll write myself a very clear list of what needs to happen over the week after we return. I found I’d planned for my weekend away, making sure the kids were taken care of and all my bases were covered. I didn’t focus on the week immediately after our return. As a result I’ve missed two appointments, our laundry situation has reached code red and we’ve eaten sandwiches for dinner every night.
I think a list of upcoming commitments will get me in the mindset from the minute I unpack my bags and you know, hopefully not miss any appointments. I also need a loose meal plan in place because every night this week has found me babbling in the kitchen at 5 o clock staring at empty cabinets with no clue what to feed my kids.
How do you make reentry after a trip (with and without kids) easier? I would love to see your tips because for the last three days I’ve been running around as if my mind is set on slow motion.
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Here is what I do for situations where we’re gone for the weekend or we’ve been so busy we might as well have been gone:
1. Make sure the calendar on the refrigerator is up-to-date so on Sunday night I can remember what is happening for the next week.
2. Have emergency dinner food in the freezer. Costco has good things for this. A favorite of ours is chicken garlic pasta. You cook it in a large skillet for less than 20 minutes.
3. Save one outfit to have for Monday morning and do the most important load first either Sunday night or Monday morning.
4. Give up on e-mail until lunch on Monday.
CJ's Mom | November 8th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Clean the house before you leave on the trip.
Yes, you’ve got 5 million things to do, but there nothing more depressing than coming back home from vacation to a messy house.
I agree on the freezer meal think. I try to keep at least 1-2 frozen meal items in ours for low time/effort meals. Trader Joes has some great stuff too, and their frozen veggie lasagna is a freezer staple.
Pack a lingerie bag in your suitcase, and put all dirty socks/underwear/etc right into it while out of town. This way, when you get back, just open it and dump the items into the hamper. No digging through clothes in a suitcase to find and sort out things you need to wash.
oh, and ‘literal’ jet lag is the same as a hangover - caused and/or made worse by dehydration. Pressurized treated air in airplanes is very dry, and you get dehydrated, which is why you get jet lag and feel like crap.
Rule of thumb: Drink 8 oz of water for every hour you are in the air. This will help fend off the crappy travel hangover feeling.
To prevent an alcohol hangover, same concept, but its 1 glass of water for each drink you’ve had before you go to bed. Even shots.
Katrina | November 8th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
I try to make life post-trip as simple as possible. I’ll have the kids do hot lunch at school so I don’t have to make lunches. Before we leave I make sure we have enough staples (especially bread and milk) to get us through two days when we come back so we don’t have to go to the grocery store. I try to farm out some of the driving for after-school activities or just skip soccer or whatever for a couple of days. Laundry is a real issue — I try to get as much done before we leave, sometimes do laundry before we come home if we’re visiting family. I’m a FT WOHM, so getting behind on anything is always a killer.
Steph | November 8th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
I second the emergency dinners in the freezer idea. We’ve started keeping not only the big Marie Calender pot pies (and lately one of the small ones for our son) in the freezer because the weather has turned fall/winter-like at least in the evenings, but we also keep one of the new bagged Italian frozen dinners in the freezer for emergencies. I tend to use them for nights when whatever I thought would be thawed isn’t (I hate our fridge) or if the baby is going through a growth spurt and I can’t unlatch her long enough to safely cook a real meal.
KYouell | November 9th, 2007 at 10:54 am
I have to agree with having a clean house to return to and having a few freezer meals for those “I can’t think” nights. Without fail, there will always be a bag of veggies and a box of Morningstar Farms meatless chicken (chick’n) nuggets in my freezer. We’re not vegetarian, but the kids like them more than regular nuggets and I say, “Gof for it!” Voila…an easy peasy don’t have to think about it dinner. http://www.seeveggiesdifferently.com/products.aspx?coid=23&family=365
mary | November 9th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
We just got back from a weekend away (with the kids, though). Walking back into a messy house is a big stressor for me, but cleaning the house completely before we leave isn’t possible for me. So i tackle the things that make me craziest. The dishes get washed, or at least loaded into the dishwasher. I do laundry, but I don’t bother to fold it or put it away if I don’t have time — if it’s clean and accessible, it can be found and worn. I make sure I have leftover something in the freezer to heat and eat for a quick dinner when we get back. The dog gets picked up from the kennel the evening after we get back, so I don’t have to deal with picking him up while also dealing with the morning rush. And I make lists before I pack, so I don’t end up just throwing everything into a suitcase, and so I don’t forget something essential (like diapers).
Lylah | November 12th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Have your sitter prioritize the mail and school papers for you. That way you can take care of the immediate needs and save the rest for later — after the laundry is done. Have you tried unpacking directly into the laundry baskets, or better yet, into the washer?
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