ORGANIZING ERRANDS

Welcome to my home away from home… my car.

In my frustration this year, I made a list of ALL the things hubby and I do WEEKLY to keep this house running. It’s insane and totaled 30 hours!! That’s a post in itself!

Errands eat up a ton of time, so I try to bulk schedule my errands and do them all in one day. Part of organizing your home is having a plan for when you can deliver, get rid of, and replenish the items you have.

Here are 3 different ways to organize errands.

An Errand Or 2 A Day

There have been a few times in my life where doing an errand or 2 a day worked best.

One stage was when I had babies. Joey loved to go out, and so every morning we would wander around a store like Meijer, Walmart, or Target. I bought house decorations, toys and crafts. I would run an errand on the way to or on the way home from the store. The daily trip kept him occupied, kept my creative juices flowing, and then we were better at home the rest of the day.

Another time in my life when I did daily errands was when I worked full time outside of the home. I could drop something off at the post office on the way to work or pick up a prescription on the way home.

Occasionally, I will still do an errand here or there. I find I resort to this currently when I will be out and have time in-between appointments. AND my NEW FAV is to drop the kids off at the store with cash and sit in the car while they do the errand… SCORE!!

Teaching my kids how to use money, buy items, remember my directions, shop from a list, and make choices without me are all things I will be consciously be working on this year.

One FULL Errand Day

Making a MASSIVE errand list is so much fun for me. I know, I’m crazy.

I make a list of EVERYTHING that needs to be done outside of the house:

gas station
dry cleaner
pharmacy
copy store
bank
post office
returns
things to buy
things to sell
donations
items to deliver

When my kids were little, I would get up early on Saturdays and tackle this list.

As they got older, I would take a school day and tackle the list.

Now neither day works because I need to do “work” work instead. So, while this is still my favorite way to run errands, I have now moved to …

Sunday Errand Planning & Outsourcing

This one sounds crazy, but I bet it’s kind of what you do, too. First, I plan on Sunday all the errands we need to do and how much they will cost. Then, I order as much as I can ONline. It saves time and gas, and I know it’s on its way. Next, I OUTsource. For a few months, I had a personal assistant who did most of my errands in 2-3 hours each week. I can’t wait until we are doing that again! Honestly, with our schedule, I don’t have enough working hours, and I can’t take them from family time anymore, so I’m outsourcing errands! Here is a post I wrote (and podcast) about 10 household tasks you can outsource. I also wrote a post (and podcast) about 10 tasks you can do on Sunday to save you 10 hours each week.

My Summer Plan

Last Summer was a decluttering-life-season-shifting one for us. I am working FULL time now, and that will continue into the next school year. My kids were entering 9th and 11th grades. It was time for some old toys to go. And I completely redid their rooms. Here is a post about how to decorate teenage bedrooms with before and after pictures. There are a lot of LIFE skills on my list to teach my kids in the next few summers. I am excited for my time WITH them and my time AWAY. So this summer, I am making an errand bag. On Sunday night, I will pack the bag and make a weekly list. Then each morning, I will put the errand bag and list in the car and bring it back in the house each night to be replenished. This summer will involve a lot of bags and car organization! In this podcast, I share how my errand organization has looked at other times in my life and how other people get their errands done. What about you? Do you have an errand routine?