Classic + Bright Master Bath

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you a mood board for the erstwhile new kitchen for my in-laws. This week I'm sharing the design concept for their master bath. This is an inspiration board that was meant to set the tone for the design, so it has more links to other finished spaces rather than actual products. This would have evolved into a board that contained all of the actual products we'd be putting in their space.

The goal is pretty much the same: bright and white, classic, timeless, and a teeeensy bit southern/farmhouse/cottagey.

meal planning the easy way

Do you have any routines in your life that are so ingrained that you're totally blown away when you find out everyone else doesn't do it? That's how I feel about meal planning. I've been doing it for about 4 years now, and I nearly shudder when I think back to the times when I didn't. Aimlessly wandering about the grocery store multiple times a week like a lost puppy, darting between the aisles for forgotten ingredients. Oh, the humanity.

If you've never tried meal planning, or tried it and got sick of it and gave up, I'm going to try to convince you to give it a go. There are 3 huge reasons why meal planning is the best thing ever.

1. It saves you money. A LOT of money, actually. No more forgetting needed ingredients and making extra trips to the store, and impulse buying a bunch of junk you don't need while you're there. End cap display of Doritos, I'm looking at you. I talk a lot about couponing and saving money at the grocery store here and here if you're interested in learning more about that topic.
2. It saves you time. I go to the store exactly once a week. The same day, every week. Barring some strange unforeseen circumstance (oh, family is coming in town this weekend, you say?) I don't have to make extra trips to the store to pick up the eggs I forgot, or that one random spice, or whatever.
3. It saves your sanity. We have enough stress in our lives without that panicked feeling at 5:30 that we have NO idea what we're making for dinner. Kids hangry-crying at your feet in the kitchen as you dig through the pantry trying to put these random ingredients together to make something that resembles a meal. There's only so many times you can eat cheerios for dinner before you start to hate yourself.

Convinced yet? I promise it's not that hard to pull off and you'll thank yourself for it a thousand times over. This is how I approach meal planning. Find a way that works for you if this doesn't feel quite right. Run a little "meal planning" search on Pinterest and you'll find a lot of resources to help you.

On Sunday evening (or, if I'm running behind, Monday morning) I bust out my calendar for the week. When I worked full time, I did this all electronically. Now that I'm home full time, I find it more convenient to use a paper calendar posted on the fridge. Just do what works for you.

You'll need something detailed that gives you some space to write. I use the Intentional Home Printables because it breaks each day up into 3 categories: Things I need to do, things I want to do if there's extra time, and what's for dinner.

Here's why that's important. Fill out your commitments for the week first, and then you will realistically see what days you'll have time to prepare a nice meal and what days you'll need to have leftovers or something really fast. My calendar is almost always overflowing Monday - Wednesday, and then starts to taper off towards the weekend. I typically plan quick dinners for Monday - Wednesday and leave the more complicated or time consuming ones for later in the week when I can actually spend the time to enjoy making them. I like to cook. You might not. If you need fast and easy ever night, then go for it! Make it your own.

The one big issue people seem to have with meal planning is that when it comes time to decide what to make for the week, you suddenly get amnesia and have no idea what you even like to eat. Like you couldn't name two meals that you know how to make if your life depended on it. So you head to Pinterest and give up 4 minutes later because you're completely overwhelmed.  I have two strategies to overcome that.

First, keep a list of all of your family's favorite recipes. I know that sounds dumb because people have kept recipe boxes for hundreds of years, but most of us don't take the time anymore to hand write recipe cards out.

I use the Paperless App for iPhone and iPad. It allows you to make a list of anything really, and you select a fun icon for your list (and who doesn't love a good icon), and it's all in one place. I have a list for warm weather dinners and cold weather dinners. Each list holds all of my favorite recipes that fit that season. I may have the details of the recipe typed out, or it might just be a link to something on Pinterest or a blog. Either way, it's there.

Here's where it gets really useful. I also keep my grocery list here in the app, so I can review my recipes, make my grocery list, and keep it all in the same place. And because I'm so list-crazy, I also copy the recipes I want for the week into ANOTHER list called "dinners this week." Once I've settled on what we will eat that week, I transfer those meals onto my calendar so I have it on the wall. The iPad comes with me to the store in case I need to check my meal list for ingredients or something.

My other strategy for coming up with what to make this week is to give each day a theme. You absolutely don't have to be rigid about it, but it will help get the juices flowing. Here's what that looks like for us. Each night of the week we will have one of the following:

• Soup/salad/panini - some combination of these or all 3. I do this the day I grocery shop because I'm usually beat after an hour in the store and this takes little to no effort.
• Mexican night
• Italian/pasta night
• Asian night
• Classic American night - meat, potato, vegetable. Or burgers. Or some kind of comfort food.
• Something new - a Pinterest recipe or something from a friend I've been meaning to try
• Leftover night - because give yourself a break.

Knowing I have these categories or themes helps me to quickly fill out my meal plan for the week. If we want a break from Asian food one week, I skip it. If there's 2 new recipes I want to try, I do that. It's not meant to be limiting, but only to help the process move faster.

That's how I do it. It takes around 15 minutes or less a week and is worth every second. Once I do the meal plan, I typically make my grocery list and go through my coupons in the same sitting (if possible). Really savvy couponers will review the coupons and sales first and then make the meal plan based on the best deals for the week. You can totally take that approach as well. The times we've been really hard up for money, that's what I've done. It takes a bit more commitment to plan meals based on what's on sale rather than what you really want to eat, so I only do this occasionally or if there's a deal that's too good to pass up. You can read more about that couponing strategy here.

Anyone else out there swear by meal planning? Or do you have some meal planning obstacle that you could use some advice on? Do share!

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organizing out of control dresser drawers

Here's the scene: you planned your whole outfit around wearing that one grey cami which you just KNOW is in that drawer somewhere. You pull everything out, give up, and then find it right on top of that very same drawer the next day. 

Sound familiar?

Ok, how about this one. Your toddler insists on picking out their own outfit. They dig and dig to find that one red-jake-the-neverland-pirate-shirt-not-the-blue-neverland-pirate-shirt. He finds it. And all of the other previously folded shirts are now in a pile resembling Jabba the Hut (or Pizza The Hut for my fellow Spaceballs fans).

The solution - organize your drawers like you pack a suitcase (or how you should pack your suitcase if your not already). My good friend Dawn is the Dalai Lama of packing. It's an art. She taught me everything I know. I was once able to pack 5 days worth of clothes, coats, shoes, and toiletries into a carry on for a business trip to Chicago. In December. I even had room to bring back goodies from our Lincoln Park shopping extravaganza. It was my masterpiece. 

So the drawers. Here's the secret. 

STOP FOLDING YOUR CLOTHES. 

I'm serious. Ditch the fold and start the roll. Rolling clothes in your drawers does three things:

1. Gets more into your shallower drawers. 

2. Keeps things from getting wrinkled. And most importantly,

3. You can see everything you own all at once.

No more digging for the charcoal grey tights, kiddo sweatpants, striped onesie, the list goes on. 

Go from this:

To this:

In about 10 minutes. And to speed up the bedtime routine, I roll the sleep pants/shorts right in with the shirt. No more searching for the matching pants. Not like it really matters in life if your kid is wearing coordinated pajamas, but it's nice once in a while. 

As a bonus, use this opportunity to purge things that no longer fit, are damaged, or you haven't worn in a year. One organized drawer will give you the amazing zen feeling that because you've conquered this drawer, everything is gonna be fine. 

Another bonus, in my humble opinion, rolling clothes is a lot less tedious and painful than folding. It makes laundry day (which is every day around here) a bit more bearable. 

Cotton candy, sweet as gold, let me see that laundry roll. 

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