Knead to Know With Hollis- Nov 5th

Hey Hollis,
 
I know you have those chores that you dread every week. I mean, probably all of them, but there are some that just urk you more than others. I will do laundry loads and fold them but the putting away is painfullllllll. It has no appeal to me. It just doesn’t get done if I am being honest and then my baskets sit there getting rifled through on the daily until everything is an upside down mess. Blah.
 
And as much as putting away laundry isn’t my jam, there is yet another task that I just seem to avoid all the time….meal planning and its sister task, grocery shopping.
 
I will say I used to enjoy grocery shopping pre-pandemic. I genuinely liked wandering the aisles and just rolling along with my cart. But since March’s lockdown and our subsequent reduction in outings, it has just lost its appeal. No longer does wandering feel fun and relaxing. It feels stressful and almost careless as I roam about in my mask trying to steer clear of people. So to save time and keep me sane, I’ve taken my shopping online instead. And it has proved to be a huge win and change for me.
 
On Sunday nights I take my recipe binder out and decide what I’ll be making for supper that week. I only do Monday to Friday as weekends are a little more spontaneous. Also, lets be honest, there is at least one weeknight of leftovers so I am looking at coming up with just 4 meals. It is doable, even for me. My recipe binder is nothing glamorous but damn is it helpful. Its literally a binder with colourful tabs for each category (Beef, Chicken, Quick Ideas, Vegetarian etc) and I have printed out or photocopied my recipes into the right sections. I own a tonnnnn of cookbooks and I love flipping through them, but in the name of efficiency I photocopy my favourite ones and put them in the binder so its all in one place.
 
Once I have picked my meals, and scanned the fridge for the usual kids lunch staples, I place my grocery order for click and collect for bright and early Monday morning. And do you want to know what? From start to finish, meal planning and online grocery shopping takes me under 15 minutes. 12 last week to be precise. 12 minutes. I can’t even get in my car and get to the grocery store in that amount of time. Even with the dramatic increase in time saving, it’s still not my favourite task. But I had read a post from The Birds Papaya on Instagram awhile ago that was talking about her least favourite chores (emptying the dishwasher) and how she decided to time herself to actually see how much time it took to do the task she was avoiding. I think it was only like 4 minutes.
 
How crazy is it that we dread things that take so little time? I am certain we spend double or triple the amount of time dreading doing the task then the task itself takes. Phew. It is exhausting! Anyways, all of this to say, I feel your dread of the mundane house chores. I highly recommend timing yourself and you may be surprised how little time it takes, and *maybe* it will be more motivating to do!? Just maybe…..