These are the little tips that take the mental stress out of meal prep.
I once went to Monsey to help a friend organize her garage before renovations, or so we thought. What actually happened was… we organized her life.
It started out as, “Let’s make the freezer space look better,” and it turned into a whole conversation about what to stock, when to shop, how to prep, and how to work backwards so that Shabbos doesn’t arrive like a tornado every Friday afternoon.
I thought I was sharing pretty basic skills. She looked at me and said, “This is life-changing.” That’s when it hit me — we’re all raised with completely different ways of running a home. We grow up thinking, “Doesn’t everyone do it this way?” And the answer is… no.
That’s one of the things I love about Between Carpools — you get to peek into how other women actually run their homes, and sometimes one small idea changes everything.
So here are 2 simple routines that, in my experience, make running a home and family feel calmer and more doable. Tell me if these are obvious to you… or if one of them changes your day to day.
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The Wednesday Shop = The Calm Shabbos
The single biggest Shabbos game-changer: do all your shopping on Wednesday.
Not Thursday night. Not Friday morning. Wednesday.
Here’s what that one shift does:
• You can cook on your schedule — Thursday or Friday, whatever works.
• There are no more “I’d totally make that now, but I don’t have the pecans / coconut milk / parchment paper / extra onions.”
• If something is missing, you have time to fix it without stress.
In my friend’s case, she has cleaning help until 12 on Fridays. Once she shifted her shopping to Wednesday and her cooking to Thursday, her kitchen could be fully cleaned on Friday — and stay clean — all the way into Shabbos.
It didn’t just change her prep, it changed how her whole Friday felt.
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2. Double, Freeze, Label — and Thank Yourself Later
Whenever you’re cooking anyway — soups, dinners, desserts — double or triple the recipe.
Cook what you need. Freeze the rest. Label everything. It saves time, money, and honestly so much mental energy.
When I’m making chicken, why not buy the huge “family pack” of chicken thighs and chicken cutlets and prepare multiple dinners. Marinades don’t take that long to prep once you’re in the kitchen and have your ingredients out. Marinate and freeze everything in labeled bags right away.
Need that just-great marinade that suits all taste buds? | 3-Ingredient BBQ Marinades for Chicken and Steak | Grilled Chicken Schnitzel!
A simple rule to remember: NEVER put a closed package of raw chicken or meat straight into the freezer. It takes an extra minute to season or marinate, label, and freeze — and then the future-you has instant dinners ready to go.
Soup days are also magic. Take out two or three big pots (borrow if you need to).
Peel, chop, mix, boil. Cool, container, label, freeze. Done.
You’ve just stocked your freezer and bought yourself time.
Simple systems remove decision fatigue — and decision fatigue is one of the biggest drains on a busy mom. None of this is revolutionary, and that’s exactly why it works.
The power of these “golden rules” isn’t that they’re fancy.
It’s that they become automatic.
No more standing in the kitchen staring into space wondering what comes next.
You can be on the phone with your mother (please use an AirPod) while you’re breading cutlets.
You can be telling your toddler a story while you’re putting in a load of laundry.
You can be present and productive at the same time — because the system is carrying you, and that’s really the goal.
I hope one of my basics helps, and I’d love to hear yours — what are the little systems or habits that make your cozy home run more efficiently?
Let’s keep sharing what works 💛
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