Try Saving Time Before School Starts

September is coming quickly! With the beginning of a new school year and scheduled extracurricular activities kicking back into high gear, it’s a great opportunity to try new things.

Have you ever wished you could start September on a calmer, more collected note? (Or, at the very least, a better organized one?) Do you want to pre-plan more meals and shrink your grocery shopping time? Are you interested in trimming down the amount of time you spend tidying? We’ve got two time-saving hacks to test before school starts that could save you time and energy!

Order your groceries online

Can’t find time to make it to the farmer’s market? Wish you could better avoid temptation and make healthier food choices in the supermarket? Or maybe you’re inclined to make meal plans for the week but tend to toss items in your cart and plan to figure it all out when the mood strikes? If you’re short on time or always find yourself questioning whether you still have key ingredients in your pantry while scanning the aisles, ordering groceries online is the answer to simplifying your grocery shop while saving time and money. Filling your online cart is also a great opportunity to sit down and think through your week and determine when you can carve out time to cook or if need to plan quick ‘to go’ meals.

You have plenty of options when it comes to grocery shopping online. Some local farms offer produce delivery. Companies, like SPUD will drop food off at specific times within the week. If you are a fan of locally sourced, organic produce, Blue Moon Organics delivers fresh, weekly (or bi-weekly) produce to your door, and they deliver to most of the Fraser Valley! It’s a great local company that’s been in business for almost 20 years.

Save On Foods recently introduced online shopping, with pickup and delivery available in a variety of locations across the province. (Langley’s Willoughby and Abbotsford’s North Parallel Road locals are pick-up locations available!) You can choose the perfect two-house window to pick up your groceries for free, or opt for a convenient time to have them dropped off to your front door for $7.95. (Delivery is limited to specific postal codes. Check whether yours is included online.)

Tidy with a laundry basket

Shoes, socks, cups, food wrappers, plastic bag clips – in a mad rush to get to where we need to be (or, let’s be honest, a fit of laziness that deems picking up laundry and tossing it into the hamper to be too much work), stuff ends up everywhere. Bags and purses tossed by the door. Shoes and boots falling off the rack and spilling into hallways. Water glasses collecting by sinks or on side tables. Tidying can feel like a never-ending task, bouncing from one room to another making sure everything ends up in it’s rightful place (or, at the very least, the proper room)

Next time you’re tidying, grab an empty laundry basket and stash all of the misplaced items from one room in it before you move onto the next. The theory goes that as you move from room to room, you’ll be consistently adding and leaving items, saving you the extra steps and time in the process. Want to speed it up even more? Let your kids loose with their own laundry basket and make it a race. Come up with a creative prize, like maybe the winner gets to pawn a weekly chore off to their brother or sister!