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I changed/streamlined our wardrobes to mix and match uniforms that don't require ironing. I wear black bottoms or jeans, mostly black or gray cardigans and loose shirts or tunics that can layer under most of the time.

Instead of my dresser I now use small canvas bins and hampers in my closet where I just chuck things out of the laundry. I separate them by bottoms, PJs, shirts, athletic wear, cardigans, underwear, socks, etc. I have like 5 things I have to hang.

I run small loads of laundry every day - if I can fold and put the clothes away in under 10 minutes it's not a big deal while huge loads of laundry stress me out.

I menu plan and cook 3-4 meals on the weekend and we reheat leftovers one more time during the week to cover our meals. I pack DH's sandwiches and bags of baby carrots for his lunches once a week. I eat leftovers for lunch.

I spend an hour every night setting up for the next day. Dishes, coffee, loading cars with daycare bags, laying out everyone's outfits, filling up water bottles, putting away the laundry, wiping down the counters, etc. Once that's all done I can relax and sloth.

I use every kind of wipe (Clorox, Lysol, Windex, old English, baby, etc), Tide pods, Finish tabs, and dust wipes, Swiffer wipes, whatever to keep up with the house on a daily basis.

I have a freezer and garage fridge and hoard basics and duplicates of things like shampoo, cleaning products, paper products, Etc. Costco is my friend.

We got rid of cable and replaced with Hulu and Netflix and Amazon Prime video. Watch less TV that way anyway.

Hired a lawn service and a house cleaner.

Following!

I definitely say yes to too many things and have started to say no. I need more ideas though!

1. I do nearly all my food shopping at Aldi. Not only is it cheaper, but I love having a smaller selection. Fewer choices = less time thinking! Also less items in the pantry to think about!
2. Nearly all of our vacations are in our RV. We go to a state park for a long weekend and spend it hiking, playing in water, or just relaxing. We cook something for dinners.
3. We pulled out the landscaping that required work (roses and topiaries)
4. I have two pairs of work shoes (well four if you count boots for winter). It is either black or silver gray.
5. I go to the dealership to change my car's oil because they will drive me to work and pick me up when it is done for free (minus the tip)- a previous hour long chore is now only fifteen minutes

My latest thing is to cook a double or triple batch of whatever I'm cooking and then freeze half. It takes almost the same amount of time and then I can have a meal waiting in the freezer.

I also do this thing where I use the main course from one night as a side the next night. So if I make soup we'll have a big bowl of soup one night and then the next night we'll have a small cup of leftover soup plus a salad or a sandwich for dinner. That way I'm really only cooking one thing for dinner. I also try to make a one pot meal for dinner at least one day (basically a soup or a casserole that has protein and veg so it's a whole meal in one).

Mine are all food related, lol!

1. I meal plan and prep on Sundays, this allows me to be less stressed during the week and reduce the amount of eating out we do because meals are already planned ahead.

2. I allow myself to take a 20-30 minute bath every night, this is my unwind time.

3. I work out 4-5x a week. I HATE working out but I feel so much better about myself when I do it and I can tell a difference in my mental well being

4. I've started investing in more classic clothing pieces and have stopped trying to "keep up with Joneses" mentality when I clothing shop. I get what works on me and try to keep it classic. (I used to always have to have the latest trends)

I meal plan at least 2 weeks ahead. I wrote it down as I think of things.

Purge, purge, purge. I have a set area in the house where I put all things we don't need/use, and we donate when we have a good amount of stuff.

I shop for clothes online and only when there's a sale. I only keep things that I love and return the rest.

I have a small wardrobe. I basically know everything I have/ wear.

I do laundry once a week. Wash and dry in the evening, fold in the morning.

I do small pickups/tidying as I go along each week that take about 15 mins so I don't have a ton to do all at once on the weekends.

Thanks for all the tips peeps!

This is something I am focusing on this maternity leave - I am just home with the newborn (toddler is in DC fulltime) so I am trying to improve some things before going back to work when it will get crazy!

I started by identifying the areas that cause me stress/take time during my normal day and figured out ways to simplify.

1) Food Prep - I am going to focus on monthly meal planning and simplifying my recipes. I have WAY too many things torn from magazines - so I am trimming it WAY down. We will have 1 binder of "ideas" for weeknights and 1 binder for "special" items (ie weekends, date nights, birthdays, etc). Monthly meal planning allows me to shop for meats and non perishables once a month...which allows me the freedom to go to the fancier store weekly for produce. It is not cost effective to buy dry items and meat at the fancy store...so I normally skip it in the interest of only hitting one store per week! I'm also planning to try to prep meals on Sunday.

2) Cleaning/Household Items: We want to hire a cleaning person but it just has not come to be yet! So I am designating one weeknight to laundry, one weeknight to mild household cleaning. I can easily steal 30 mins after the girls are in bed and it will help me stay on top of things without my weekends getting cluttered.

3) Activities with the kids: I need to find a way to have crafts/projects at the house for K. I was doing Kiwi Crate for a bit...but would like to start working on building my own kits. Still researching this.

4) Household Organization: I am currently getting the last two areas in my house that stress me out under control...trying to make it so I dont see a space in my home that makes me completely cringe. Garage and Basement storage are the last two.

5) Clothing: Moving to a 40 item capsule collection.

6) Working Out: I need this for my mental sanity and physical happiness. I am trying to find a class I can do twice a week between work and getting the girls from DayCare. Then I plan to figure out when I can squeeze in a couple runs per week (1 week day and 1 weekend day at minimum)...I'm aiming for 4 workouts a week.

My strategies:
-Being too tired to care about many home upkeep items.
-Spending all of our disposable income on daycare, so now I don't buy stuff.

(I meant these to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but they are also true. We're having a bad stretch of baby sleep right now, and it's definitely helped me let a lot of stuff go around the house and streamline the rest. And earlier in the year, we decided to lay out a budget for the next 5 years until kids are out of daycare. We were $20,000 short! This took into account retirement and college savings we want to make, so it's not a true $20,000 over our income which would make it a lot more stressful. But we're working on cutting out extra spending to stay in budget. It's taught me I just don't need many of the things I used to think I did, and not spending that money has really freed up some mental space for me.)

When life is busy, I order my groceries and pick them up on the way home. Sure, I pay an extra $5 and the store is a local chain so prices are a little higher, but it's worth it to not have to spend 30+ minutes at the grocery store with a toddler.

This summer we are hiring a lawn service. I'm pregnant and while I normally love mowing, I have no interest in mowing while I'm gestating.

I also have a small wardrobe, especially now that I'm in maternity wear. This is likely my last pregnancy, so I'm not investing in a lot.

@avivoca: I would kill if one of my grocery stores started this! Our big store Meijer is testing it but the nearest store testing it is 30+ mins away!

@hb3233: I read up on a bunch of blogs then built my "dream" wardrobe. I dont count things like workout clothes and lounge items (I do limit the # of these allowed) - it ended up being about 28 work related items and 12 weekend items. No set model...just what works for me...but I used principals from other capsule efforts I saw (i.e. limiting colors to those which all work together, limited "base" colors, and lots of layering items).

Here is the thread where I am documenting more in detail how I am doing it: http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/capsule-wardrobe#post-2475099

@Veggiemama: ha! I was about to ask @looch: @hb3233: how the Roomba is holding up, too! We have lots of hardwood flooring that gets so dirty (dirt/cat hair) & our stick vac is dying. It takes forever to sweep all that floor, so I'd love to just turn a Roomba loose on it.

AFM with simplifying, I have a long way to go, but have been:
-Cooking double/bulk meals & freezing
-Using leftovers in subsequent meals
-Clearing out clutter

I need to get better at meal planning & shopping to support this. I also need a better system for filing papers & stuff after reading the mail or coming home with stuff. We keep too much, probably, so letting go of the "What if I need to refer back to this?" mentality will help.

I make 3 of DD's lunches on Sunday, so I can grab and go through Wednesday, I make bottles/wash pump parts the night before, make sure diaper bag is packed.

Our Roomba runs every day at 10, and has really cut down on my floor cleaning time!

I pick out my work clothes the night before.

We just did a big clean out/up because we are listing our house this week, and I don't plan on accumulating as much stuff from now on. Be more mindful with my purchases. As soon as I'm back to my pre-preg weight, I will be investing in quality staple pieces.

@hb3233: thanks! We'll look into the Roomba or similar brand.

Meal prep for the week on Sundays so all we have to do is heat up during the week, and we eat a lot of the same favorites over and over again.

Keep a very limited wardrobe and only buy (secondhand) things that match stuff I already own.

I quit dying my hair or having a set of nails on, so now I don't have to worry about constantly making appts to touch up my hair or nails. I also started tweezing my own eyebrows instead of going every 2 weeks.

I only re-redecorate for fall (just get my pumpkins out) and Christmas (put the tree up, put up my little xmas village, the end). The rest of the year the house is decorated plainly.

None of us do any required weekend activities (no sports or hobbies where we have to attend weekly or anything like that)

We rarely travel so we don't have to worry about prepping for trips

We stick to a super bare bones budget most of the time, so that eliminates a ton of things that can easily complicate up a life

I regularly pick a tiny area of the house (like a drawer or a closet) and organize it/purge stuff. I just do one area every few weeks and keep the house from getting too cluttered that way.

Love following this thread. We are move out of state soon and buying a home so I really want to get things started on the right foot and be more organized. I need to research meal planning and this capsule wardrobe more.

@Veggiemama: Our roomba is quite old, it's at least 8 years old at this point, but with regular maintenance, it's doing just fine. There are probably newer and better features than what we currently have, but I use it to keep the floors in decent shape between cleanings.