Can a Meal Plan Organize Your Kitchen?
Meal Planning. Two words many of you may hate to hear. Why bother. It doesn’t help that much. I can’t ever think of anything to cook. Clearly not worth the trouble. But did you know the simple act of meal planning can lead to a more organized kitchen (without a trip to the Container Store?). Here’s how.
Sit down for 15 minutes and complete your plan for the week. Also, complete your “What’s for Dinner” chart to avoid answering that question 100 x a day.
Review ingredients in kitchen, making a shopping list of only needed items. You’ll be surprised how short your list can be.
Go to store (don’t forget your list – my favorite move). Shop for items needed quickly with your plan. Let jaw drop when total bill is much lower than last week.
Easily unpack groceries.
Check chart. Make dinner. Sit down happy as a clam (right?) with your family (again) and eat dinner.
(Note: Steps 1 and 2 can be reversed. See what you need to use and plan meals accordingly. Oh how very intentional of you).
Or you can approach it like this:
Go to store sans list. Spend 3 times longer at store spending 3 times more money on items you actually didn’t need and will end up wasting.
Get home from mindless wander through store and attempt to unpack the 14 bags of goods.
Open the pantry, only to realize you already had 3 bags of rice, shove new rice on top of half empty bags and continue the fun with other food groups. Open fridge and simply shove everything to the back to make room for the new.
Start to think about dinner – only to realize you have nothing to make. Immediately get angry at rest of family (it was their fault somehow, right?) that this is your role. Be grumpy rest of night (but still have to make dinner).
Repeat next day because remember you have nothing to eat.
It’s your choice. It really is. Some people like the spontaneity of throwing things together. You’ll be shocked but that’s not my strong suit. I’ve noticed how much happier I am when I can say “Check the Chart” when asked “What’s for Dinner?” rather than go into a tailspin and savagely yell, “I don’t know!” Guess who likes it, too? My kids AND my husband.