9 Clever Life Organization Hacks Food Allergy Moms Need to Start ASAP
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As a food allergy mom you have more tasks that pull on your already crazy schedule.
From school meetings, to all the emails for birthday parties, play date prep, to teaching about the EpiPen, to research for dining out, to finding a prepping safe food, the list is endless. Add the regular momming responsibilities and it will turn the most loving mom into a stressed out, impatient woman.
If you’re reading this during 2020, you may not be feeling all of these food allergy stresses, but it’s only a matter of time before they’re back. Take the time now to get into habits that will greatly impact you when this is all over. I’ve got some super clever organization hacks that will get you feeling ready and prepared, so read on!
Use a planner.
You all use some sort of planner whether it’s electronic on your phone or a physical planner, right?? If not, start right now! There’s no way to keep things organized properly unless you have somewhere to record it. If you’re not recording it then you’re losing things and causing yourself more mental stress having to remember it all. Tip #1: Start using a planner asap.
2. Create a schedule for meal planning.
Your next step is to schedule 20-30 minutes EVERY week to meal plan. Alternately, you can schedule 2 hours at the beginning of every month to plan for the entire month. Both will work, and you may want to try both to see what you prefer.
The mental drain of thinking about food as a food allergy mom is crazy. It’s constant and real. But, I can’t tell you how much meal planning helps me to stop thinking about food ALL. THE. TIME. and instead keeps my thoughts about “what’s for dinner” to the specific time period I’ve scheduled. Overall, this takes a huge weight off my shoulders.
If you’re not sure if meal planning will help you, and you need a bit of reassurance first, check out this post. Otherwise, start scheduling!
3. Schedule 2-3 days per year where you’ll bulk bake for special occasions.
While you’ve got your planner out, take a look at your yearly schedule. Are there special occasions that you know you’ll need to bake a big batch of cupcakes for? Maybe you’ll need safe treats at daycare or school? Or maybe you want to pre-make treats so your little has safe cupcakes during birthday party season? Don’t forget the all-important Christmas or holiday times when you need lots of special baking at the ready.
PRO TIP - Don’t forget that many allergy-friendly cakes are easier to frost if you’ve frozen them which means you’re going to get a better result when you bulk bake too!
Schedule 2-3 days per year where you’ll bulk bake for these occasions so you don’t find yourself up all night trying to bake 24 mini cupcakes for school the next day. Need I say more?
Don’t forget, the freezer is our friend and it will go a long way to helping you feel prepared and ready for all those special occasions.
4. Schedule 2-3 days per year where you’ll bulk cook allergy-friendly meals
Along the same lines as the bulk baking, bulk cooking is another must-do. By making BIG batches of meals like chilli, soups, stews, and pasta sauce, you’ll have a store of meals that you can pull out on a whim, when you need them most. I call them Freezer Frenzy meals, and they can be a huge life-saver for a food allergy mom.
5. Clean your fridge, freezer and pantry at least once per year.
Have you ever gone into your fridge and even though it’s overflowing with food, you can’t find ANYTHING to make? If so, you need to do a clean out. You’ll find SO MANY benefits to keeping your food storage areas clean and tidy. It will help you save money, feel inspired and give you more variety too. So much so that you should schedule this to happen at least once per year.
6. Sort and label.
If you keep your child’s allergen in the house, this is especially helpful. it’s a good idea to keep allergens on a labeled shelf, away from safe foods. This helps others in the home understand what’s safe and isn’t and allows you to ensure caregivers give the right food to your child without mistakes when you’re not there.
Start with labeling unsafe and safe food, but you can also sort and label spots in your kitchen for all your gadgets and utensils. Making a special home for things and always returning them to that place helps everyone find and use what they need. It also cuts down on kids and spouses always asking “where’s the cutting board”.
7. Remove old produce and food items BEFORE going on the weekly grocery shop.
When you start meal-planning, you’ll find that you only need to shop 1 time per week. Which gives you extra time during the week. Spend a little of that time becoming even more efficient by cleaning out old produce and foods that are expired. If you do it BEFORE you go shopping, you’ll have everything clean and lots of space to add that new food. It’ll also make putting groceries away that much easier because you’ll avoid overflow and be able to get things in quickly.
8. Spend 15-20 minutes per day organizing and decluttering.
Focus on 1 area per day. You can even schedule one area per day in your planner if that helps you keep on track. By spending this small amount of time everyday, you’ll find your home has less clutter and less of those pesky flyers and papers floating around.
This may or may not happen daily at my house. If so, I usually do it while my kids are cleaning up after supper (see tip #9). Since they have the kitchen clean up covered, I can spend some time getting rid of flyers and papers on our kitchen “hub”. Also, every couple of weeks, I’ll go through the house and make sure I can see all the tops of tables, desks, counters and everything is removed from the floors (this helps with vacuuming too).
9. Delegate jobs to your spouse and kids.
Find some jobs that your spouse and kids can help with. Don’t do it all alone! As food allergy moms we’re so busy just keeping our kids safe with all the time and energy we spend finding and preparing safe foods. The best way our family can help is by making home organization and cleanliness a team event.
If you have very little kids, then you may not be able to delegate very much now, but get them to help you so you can start their habits early so they can take on more as time goes on!
Conclusion
Organization doesn’t have to mean hours and hours of work every day. A few key things every week will keep us food allergy moms efficient and less stressed. You can do this!
What about you? What tip above is most helpful and what will you start right away? Let me know in the comments!
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