Few things demand resiliance the way Swedish winter does, especially if you live in the southern parts where we get very little snow, a lot of Scandinavian grey sky ( guys, there is a reason for why this color trend is inspired from the Nordics ) and rain. December is cute, there are lights everywhere and the childish excitement for Christmas leaves us with temporary memory loss on what is about to come once the gifts have been opened and all that is left from the Christmas cheer are empty chocolate boxes ready to be taken down to recycling ( something which us Swedes , go figure, are also insanely proud of ).
So here we are, 5th of January and I am looking to remove all possible frictions in life which I can control, to make this coming month ( or three ) smoother in any way possible, to spare my little neurons (and family) from loosing my shit over something as simple as cooking a recipe which requires rice, only to half-way into it realise I have everything BUT rice.
I shared a list with you on Instagram ( in Swedish, but hey – use the translate button and you are golden) where I described in which ways I do things now, to make my life easier tomorrow, and you really like it and want more tips on how to make the future you, more zen.
We all want ..or need more zen in 2022.
So here is the list :
Go over your financial goals for the year with your partner that requires planning and team work NOW, and decide how to be able to meet these goals & dreams in a realistic way.
It can be anything from a wedding, a divorce, a party, the kids needing new winter jackets in autumn, a trip or a move. In our case it is 1 Trip to Rio de Janeiro to visit family and friends and the tiny tiny MASSIVE task of renovating a kitchen and two bathrooms to turn our already wonderful flat into our dream flat. No pressure.
Create a standard grocery-list with your home-delivery service with items you always want to have in your fridge and name it accordingly. That way your order will go much faster when you need to order it and you won’t have to keep adding everything manually. I use Mathem for 99% of all our groceries and the lists there are a life saviour.
Choose 5-10 recipes which will become your staple recipes in times where you simply cannot be bothered being creative in the kitchen. Create small images of the recipes with photo and share with your partner ( if you have one) so that groceries needed, recipe and image is available anywhere from your notes on your phone. Pronto, that is my solution to having to ask and get asked over and over again , what would you like to eat for dinner tonight.
Go through every inch of your home to find those things which are no longer serving you or serving its purpose and SELL IT , GIVE IT AWAY or just actually fix the things which have been broken for as long as you can remember.
Grab a large box where you put all those little items around the house that have no place to live, you know , those keys you have no idea where they belong, the vase that you are not sure you still love or whatever you can think of that you see all the time but nobody seems to be using in your household. Put all these wonderful little energy-thieves in the box and close it. Mark it with todays date and put it away. Have you not looked in the box in 3 months from now , get rid of it immediately.
Happy New year and good luck with your friction free life 😉