Have you ever made plans and forgot to tell your partner that that particular day/night is your time off? This happened to me a few weeks ago. It was Thursday evening and I had arranged to have lunch with my friends on Friday and automatically assumed that my husband was going to pick up the kids. Little did I know he had arranged something else but forgot to tell me. I got angry, he got defensive and I began to think about a babysitter or call my inlaws. But it was minute and one of us ended up canceling our plans.
Has this happened to you? Most importantly, how was the dynamic in the home afterward?
Having a whiteboard in a visible area of your home with the days of the week and room to note down appointments is key to having a flow in your home. It is easy to embed in your routine and is something that everyone in the house can get on board with. In fact, there are so many reasons to have a whiteboard in your kitchen!
Top 5 reasons why you should have a whiteboard in your kitchen
1. Meal Planning Made Easy
Imagine you have worked all day, you are tired and hungry and your kids are looking at you wondering when you will bring them food. You walk to the fridge and open it and take a quick look at the ingredients in the fridge but your head hurts, you’re tired and you really can’t think of anything to cook. In my case, when this happened to me , I used to grab the eggs and make an omelette. But one day my youngest child looked at me and said – “omelette again?!” Time to make a change I thought!
Many people quiver at the thought of doing a meal plan for the week. But once you start meal planning a habit is formed just after a few weeks and suddenly you automatically start writing a meal plan together with your shopping list. If it seems at first a massive undertaking perhaps try planning a couple of days a week first. Note down on the white board what will be cooked (and who will cook it) at the same time you do your shopping list. Then buy the ingredients in your weekly shop and put them apart in your fridge so no one accidentally cooks it on another day.
Having a visual meal plan on your fridge allows you to mindfully plan your day. A simple glance at the fridge tells you if you need to take something out of the freezer for lunch the next day and if you even need to cook at all? I do love pizza night! Try it and see if it makes your home run smoothly those evenings because you know exactly what to cook.
2. Everyone in the home knows what’s going on
Imagine you are working late and you had planned in your head to use the remaining chicken from the other day so it doesn’t go to waste and you arrive home late. Your partner decides to get started on dinner before you arrive home – how wonderful! But what about the chicken from the other night?
Having a whiteboard in the kitchen which is easily visual allows everyone to know what’s for dinner and lunch – no questions asked.
3. Shopping list space
Imagine you are cooking and you notice you are running low on oil and you take a mental note to buy some the next time you are in the supermarket. But that mental note fades into the myriad of all the other things going on in your life and you’ve suddenly done the shopping and you forgot the oil. How does it make you feel? Irritated right? Because you will have to work into your schedule sometime to go to the shop to buy some. Maybe popping to the shops is easy for you but if you are like me and it involves gathering the kids up putting them into the car and driving to the shop. Taking at least an hour out of your day and have some patience with that!
Take the stress away of forgetting something on your shopping list and have a space in your kitchen to quickly note these things down. Many of you have apps on your phone to note the shopping down but for me, I don’t always have my phone in the kitchen whilst I cook and a lot of times my hands are sticky and I don’t want to lift my phone. Lifting the pen and writing down what you need to buy is quick and does not disturb the flow of your cooking.
4. Daily pick ups and appointments
When I take 15 minutes on a Saturday to write my shopping list and plan my meals I also incorporate into the week my family’s appointments. Medical, school clubs, work meetings that will start late, anything that the household needs to know about also goes on in the home is on the whiteboard. It means that everyone knows who is picking up the kids and on what day. For me, it takes away any doubt that my husband has looked at our google calendar and has forgotten about a certain appointment we have that week because the whiteboard is in the kitchen literally staring him in the face!
2. Reminders
Having somewhere to note down something that suddenly comes to your head whilst you are in the kitchen is essential as a busy mum! For example, you need to call the doctor and arrange an appointment, or you need to send an email to someone. Having a space in your kitchen for things you need to do but you don’t have an appointment (hence you can’t put it in your calendar) can help you remember to do them!
Make time to get time
It is understandable when you think of meal planning or planning your week ahead it makes you shudder and you immediately say, I have no time. I have calculated that 15 minutes making a meal planner every week and noting down appointments saves me over an hour and half during the week. It evides nipping to the shops, it avoids forgetting to defrost something as you realise you don´t have anything in the fridge, and it takes away the time you use standing infront of the fridge wondering what to cook!
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