While you may be taking a well-deserved summer break from homeschooling, it’s a great time to turn your attention to homemaking. When you take advantage of the summer months to set up some routines and systems in your home, you’ll be much more productive and efficient this fall when you start you new homeschool year. One such homemaking task that you should tackle this summer is prepping your pantry. This includes creating a short term storage solution, plus coming up with a meal planning system that will help you get dinner on the table even after a long homeschool day.
Prepping for Emergencies
You never know when the grocery store shelves will be low on supplies, or in the worst-case scenario, when they will be absolutely empty! Having a short term storage plan for your pantry is a great way to start prepping for emergencies. Whether it’s a financial crunch or a natural disaster, you’ll be glad you prepped.
Karen Morris, author of A Year Without the Grocery Store, has an amazing back story to her interest in prepping. You can hear her on the Homeschool with Moxie Podcast where she walks moms through the most essential steps to prepping. She has a realistic view of prepping and walks you through the simple steps to take to get your pantry ready for any emergency that may come.
Here are some of the steps to take:
- List out the meals your family members love
- Determine which meals work well for food storage
- Make a list of ingredients for those meals
- Purchase enough for a three month supply
- Make sure you rotate through your pantry storage!
A great idea for your summer is to enlist the help of your kids and teens in prepping your pantry for emergencies. Check out this High School Life Skills Elective – Essentials for Stocking a Kitchen & Pantry.
Organizing the Pantry
Once you’ve made a short-term storage plan, it’s time to organize the pantry! This can be fun for some personality types, and totally overwhelming for others. The key is to do what fits your style best. But remember, by taking the time to make these plans and systems in the summer, you will be much more efficient in the kitchen when you’re back to homeschooling in the fall.
Here are some excellent resources to get you started:
Inventory & Organizational Printables for Your Freezer & Pantry
11 Tricks to Organize Your Pantry
10 Ways to Double the Size of Your Pantry
Organize Your Pantry & Tons of Kitchen Organization Hacks
How to Organize Your Pantry & 3 Reasons Why You Should Even Bother
Meal Planning
Finally, go ahead and come up with a meal planning routine that you can implement during the homeschool year. Some families love to shop once a month and do a big freezer cooking day. Others like to make dinner each night, but rotate through the kids for an extra set of helping hands. Whatever your preferred method, go ahead and make the plans now so you’ll be all set when the new school year rolls around.
Check out these resources:
19 Freezer Meal Prep Sessions That Take an Hour or Less
Freezer Meals You Can Prepare in a Pinch
Free Printable Food Budget and Meal Planner
Essential Large Family Meal Planning Guide
Monthly Meal Plans (Downloadable with Clickable Links)
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Abby is a former public school teacher, now homeschooling her five children. She’s in the trenches just like you and knows it can be challenging to be home with your kids all day while you struggle to keep up with the housework and educate your kids (and maybe even work on the side!). She blogs over at www.4onemore.com and hosts the Homeschool with Moxie podcast.
