By Heather Knight
Staff Writer
At the beginning of this year I struggled tremendously to get everyone ready and out the door. This being the first year having both children in school and me working full time it was beyond chaotic for us. In turn, when the mornings were chaos, I struggled to not make the whole day that way. It just set the mood for my day and I could never quiet catch up. So, I sat down one night and made a list of things that could be done on Sunday to prep for the week and things that could be done the night before school. I began implementing those and it was a life changer!
Someone actually gave me the idea and it has been extremely helpful of laying our girls clothes out Sunday for the week. LIFE CHANGING! The girls help me pick them out so there is no fighting over things in the mornings. Everything is picked for that day and sits in the bottom of their closet in a nice neat pile. Tops, bottoms, socks, shoes and jackets so there is no searching for things either. This mama has a tendency of not being able to find matching socks some mornings.
Lunchboxes: Wash all of your fruits and vegetables on Sunday and baggy them in snack size bags or small containers. This saves so much time during the week. We also choose things like frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and those easy to open ravioli containers I can just pop into their lunchbox in the mornings. I either purchase the individually wrapped snacks or I prep them in snack size bags on Sunday.
I purchased both girls’ containers for water and only water can be put in them to keep them clean and we rinse them and refill them every morning, so they have something to drink during the day in addition to the juice in their lunchbox. I just slide them in the side pocket of their backpacks, and they are extremely handy and easily accessible during the day.
Each night before school I prep the lunchboxes and put them in the refrigerator. I make sandwiches for them if that’s what they will have the next day, so I just have to grab and go in the mornings.
Backpacks are prepped the night before. Everything is signed and sitting next to the door when they are ready to leave.
These small changes take ten minutes to do each night but feels like it saves far more time than that when you aren’t rushing when morning comes.
If you have any questions or ideas, please feel free to share them with me at hknight@riverregion.news
Follow me at www.facebook.com/elmoreautauganewsheather
