first, let’s talk dinner themes.

I’ve been menu planning consistently since 2015. (here’s my dorky little menu plan blog of every single thing we’ve ate for dinner since 2015, if you’d like proof…or dinner ideas.)

and in that time I’ve learned I love dinner themes. kinda.

I’ve learned what works best for us is having a few dinner themes each week and a few non-themed days each week. to me this is the perfect amount of structure and automation, with still plenty of room for flexibility. because while I like themes on some days, I like having a few blank days of “make whatever you want.” and I like dinner themes that give me guidance when meal planning, but also give me lots of options within the theme so that I don’t feel like we’re eating the same darn thing.

this post is just another one of my gentle reminders to make your home work for you.

like, in our home, we have a linen closet.

and for the longest time, it was such a waste of space because I keep spare towels and spare sheets in the room they’re needed. like, our spare king sheets are kept in our bedroom in my nightstand. our spare crib sheets are kept in the nursery closet. our beach towels are kept under our guest bathroom sink.

so our linen closet was existing, but not well-utilized.

until I realized it didn’t have to be used for linens.

do you prefer paperbacks, library books, kindle books…? where do you buy your books? how do you afford books?

woo, boy. brace yourselves. books are both hidden and displayed everywhere.

ready for one of the greatest things we ever did for our household, our budget, our traditions, our home, our family, our health, our sanity?

i’m not even joking.

it’s that helpful.

I’m always talking about it on Instagram. I refer to it at least weekly, if not daily, in my own routine.

it’s our “yearly tasks + expenses list.”

it’s so stinking easy to make, yet so influential. and once you make it, you’ll wonder why you never had one before.