Not Disorganized, Lazy
Yesterday Rob called me from his office, almost giddy with excitement.
I had just emailed him a list for grocery shopping, a task which he has been taking on with much greater frequency.
"I just heard the most fabulous thing."
"What?"
"My co-worker, D., came up with this fabulous time saving grocery shopping system. She made a list of all the aisles in the grocery store and the items that she typically buys in each of those aisles. Then she put it into a spread sheet and printed it out. She then hangs this up in he pantry and as she comes across something she needs she just checks it off on the list. The beauty of this is that when she is at the grocery store she knows exactly where each item is located and never has to back track through the store hunting for that one elusive item."
"Wow." Admittedly my brain went numb after the word spreadsheet.
"Amazing isn't it?"
"Who the hell has time for that? This is why I need a job. So that I can ignore it and have time to do things like this."
"But don't you think it is a great idea?" he asked.
"Sure."
"Do you want to do it? I could get the list of what is in each aisle from the grocery store tonight. And you could..."
"Oh see, I was thinking more along the lines of you photocopying her list and shopping at her grocery store from now on."
"But she doesn't live near us and her list has the foods that her family eats."
"Change is good."
I had just emailed him a list for grocery shopping, a task which he has been taking on with much greater frequency.
"I just heard the most fabulous thing."
"What?"
"My co-worker, D., came up with this fabulous time saving grocery shopping system. She made a list of all the aisles in the grocery store and the items that she typically buys in each of those aisles. Then she put it into a spread sheet and printed it out. She then hangs this up in he pantry and as she comes across something she needs she just checks it off on the list. The beauty of this is that when she is at the grocery store she knows exactly where each item is located and never has to back track through the store hunting for that one elusive item."
"Wow." Admittedly my brain went numb after the word spreadsheet.
"Amazing isn't it?"
"Who the hell has time for that? This is why I need a job. So that I can ignore it and have time to do things like this."
"But don't you think it is a great idea?" he asked.
"Sure."
"Do you want to do it? I could get the list of what is in each aisle from the grocery store tonight. And you could..."
"Oh see, I was thinking more along the lines of you photocopying her list and shopping at her grocery store from now on."
"But she doesn't live near us and her list has the foods that her family eats."
"Change is good."
26 Comments:
LOL, so funny! I never used a spread sheet, but I used to have my list organized like this. (Probably the only organized area of the house.) It reminded me, though, of a suggestion my own dh had. We had a white marker board in the kitchen. He thought I'd appreciate him writing "my" to-do list on it every day. Then I could just check off things as I got them done. (Yes, he even tried it for a few days and could never figure out why I never checked anything off-duh!) Went over about as well as your dh's suggestion.
A list? There's supposed to be a list? Argh, another thing I'm not doing.
Nice blog, I am just getting acquaited with this world and I found from DYM's blogroll. The blogging mom' sure are organized. Well I live in The Old Blue House circa 1740 and have only three kids. I will have to do a post on our recent construction.
Oh geez
I do admit that when I make a list I organize it roughly into the aisles.
My husband is always coming up with "suggestions"
A recent one was that he could bag up all the dirty laundry and take it to the laundromat to get it all done at once.
Great idea!
Do I think he would really DO that?
Uh, no.
I can just picture HIM sitting there for a couple hours.
Yeah right.
My idea was that we just throw away all the clothes we have now and go shopping and all get basic new wardrobes.
:)
Organized grocery shopping? Maps? Keeping up with what you use?
Holy cow. My ADD kicked in just thinking about it.
I'm telling you, Rob and Bill are clones in spirit.
That's funny. You are hilarious! This sounds so much like me. My typical response is "Honey, what a great idea! I'd love to look at it when you're done."
Wow, somebody had a lot of time on their hands.
I'll fess up to having a list like this. It's even laminated so I can just wipe off the previous week's needed items. My only excuse is that it's for the grocery that my husband manages so it was very easy to make up.
Is it wrong that I actually got excited by this list idea? I might even try it-thanks Rob.
That is crazy organized. I will go to the grocery store for milk and wipes and come home with 12 items and somehow not have milk or wipes. Hey if he copy's her list will you share it with us, I could use it.
Hahaha....I can relate as I'm not the best grocery shoppper in the world and can frequently be caught there for over an hour trying to buy 10 items. THEN I discovered allrecipes.com from a friend. If you plug in your grocery items, it tells you what section to buy them from. Better yet, just make recipes from allrecipes. It tells you serving sizes, configures how much you will need of everything if you change serving sizes, and will automatically categorize all your groceries you will need for those recipes and put them in the store sections. It's brilliant :)
My husband has the grocery store memorized, every aisle. He used to write out the grocery list according where he would go first and last. THIS is why I continue to let him do the grocery shopping. I'm glad he still likes it.
Yes, we both need jobs that we can ignore to create fancy maps of our local grocery stores. hahahahaha I still have to write "shower" on my daily to-do lists, there's no way I could manage a grocery list like that.
That would be great...if I shopped at the same store every time...which I don't. ;^) I have no store loyalty.
Wow. I have mine on the computer, but not by aisle, per se, but by type of food (canned, dairy, meat, etc.). It really does save time, and anyone in the fam can check off something as they use it up.....b/c of course no one EVER admits they finished the last of the pb pretzels, so would never tell me we needed more.
Hum. I have a phobia of excel. And the thought of having my grocery list on a spreadsheet sends shivers up my spine. I'm a foodie so going to the market is not a dreaded event for me. Using a spreadsheet however would be a nightmare.
On the bright side, I admire that your husband was trying to help. E for effort if not excel!
I have one of these on my fridge (never used, dropped once—just like a French WWII rifle, ba dum dum). It's right next to a photo of my friend's daughter, so one morning my five year old looked up and quipped, "We're all out of babies?"
Try the veal.
I think you should move. That is definitely the lazy mom's way out.
(I have a spreadsheet like that but it's on my PDA. Don't hate me. I'm secretly very uptight.)
What is it with husbands and spreadsheets? I remember B making one of our oldest's feeding habits when he was tiny - number of minutes on left boob, number of minutes on right side, overall pattern of nursing frequency ... (Turned out, there was no pattern, so he abandoned the chart ;-)
One of my friends organizes her list by aisle. That's just wrong people. I'm sure whoever concocted this spreadsheet did it while at "work." Any way, my hair hurts just thinking about being so organized. I admire all of you who are, though! :)
Oh, wow. That would mean I'd actually have to go to the grocery store, and Lord knows I don't do that. If I go to the market, it's to pick up hot food from their "already made so you don't have to make it" aisle. Bless them (and Orville Redenbacher) for that, or I'd never eat.
Jeana has the best idea . . . "let me see it when you finish!" That way HE does the work and then all you have to do is check off the things needed back in the pantry! Way to go, Jeana!
I love your blog . . . look forward to it every day.
Thats' a great idea until they goe and reorganize the grocery store. They renovated ours last year to fit in these do it yourself checkouts (are they going to pay me to be my own cashier) Even though it's been months I am still lost whenever I go there.
Oh my God. This is the greatest idea ever. I'm totally stealing it.
Oh no, I have to confess we do something similar at our house. Of course, NOTHING prevents us from having to backtrack at least twice. Usually, at some point in the grocery trip, I decide that I didn't really need that gallon of milk after all...
I started something like this. On the PDA, there's a program called "handyshopper" (which is totally free, btw) that lets you set aisles if you want and even different stores and save prices and everything.
I thought my wife was gonna bust her gut she was laughing so hard. She said there is NO f'ing way she will be that organized.
So, she hands me a hand written list (in four different colors and perhaps one sharpie) that has stuff scribbled in the margins (potatoes right next to baking soda next to frozen waffles) and I get to go wander back and forth through the store until I find everything.
I sound bitter, but I'm not :)
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