1. Using a crock pot

2. Having 10 meals that you always have ingredients on hand for

3. Cooking meat in the crock pot and freezing it

4. Making combination meals whenever possible, and

5. Putting something in the freezer each week.

Join Donna and she gives you inspiration and ideas for becoming more efficient in your kitchen.

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The post Wondering Wednesday Podcast: Five Tips To Be More Efficient in the Kitchen appeared first on Character Ink.

What non-daily jobs do you dislike the most?

For me, it is errands (agghh….they feel so purposeless….then you have to come home and put things away/cook things/organize/store/sort…) and little tasks like writing a letter/email explaining something or preparing a package to mail or cleaning a stack of something….etc.

For those jobs I dislike, I do the following:

1. Make a list for the week

• Find student’s contest paper and edit it
• Write letter of recommendation and email it
• Sort Christmas receipts and invoices
• Clean out purse
• Clean corner of bedroom where I have stacked things
• Print off library list and gather items/put in drop
• Print off recipes for cooking day
• Sort new free make up I just got
• Pack editing bag for the week
• Print off editing docs for the week
• Clean out go bag
• Refill cleaners

2. Prioritize them A or B or C

A. I will definitely do this week

B. I really should get to

C. Could move to next week’s list if needed

3. Then I do one task a day off of it

That’s it. I can do one boring task a day and move on. I don’t have to let this list get so unbearably long that I hate thinking of tackling it. One thing a day.

If you find those “extras” always piling up, you might want to try this. Granted, if you are a “gonna make my way through this entire list this afternoon or else” kind of person, then keep doing it the way that works best for you.

But if you continue to look at stacks, papers, sticky note reminders, etc., because you hate trivial tasks, then give this method a try. Your list will eventually get smaller. You won’t dread doing the tasks. And you can focus on the things you enjoy doing! 🙂

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The secret to a clean refrigerator is FREQUENT attention! That is, the secret is in the frequency with which you deal with said refrigerator.

A refrigerator is a lot like a toddler. It doesn’t need long, drawn out time periods from us–it just needs lots of little snatches of time! I can remember when my littles especially were toddlers and preschoolers. It was easy to get busy with the olders and not spend as much time on the littles. I made it a point each day to put in my schedule little snatches of time that I would devote to the little guys. A quick story. A little rocking. Getting out something interesting for them to play with or do. Putting Lego heads on their Lego men. Just little snippets of time—but lots of snippets throughout the week!

I try to spend time with my refrigerator at least once a day–and sometimes twice a day….but only for thirty to ninety seconds at a time (consider it the equivalent of putting Lego heads on your little guy’s Lego man….we do that without thinking, sometimes several times a day!).

I go in, say hi, rearrange what the other people who don’t appreciate that refrigerator as much as I do messed up. This goes back in there; this goes over there; what are you doing here, ketchup?

I might pull out something and put it in the chicken slop bowl. I might wipe down a shelf. I might put an open package into a zipper bag. I might move a couple of things from too-large bowls into smaller ones and stick the dirty ones in the dishwasher. In forty to sixty seconds, the refrigerator is happy (just like a toddler!)–and I am happy.

Not to belabor this point, but there are many studies nowadays proving that little tiny snatches of success, as well as “busy-ness of hands” (not just mental work–which I tend to do too much of), are like anti-depressants. I believe it! My fridge and I are both very happy!

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