I’ve looked forward to writing this post all week! I’ve really enjoyed blogging lately and this is a fun series to kick off the new year. If you missed it last week, I’m sharing all of your weekly favorites, a round up of recent blog posts and a little behind the scenes personal blurb too - like a recipe I enjoyed or what I’m reading or listening too. I also thought it’d be helpful to share the questions I’ve answered throughout the week on Instagram so that’ll be here too.

Q + A

Q: Mental load!

A: I’ve spent the last two years really working through this for our family and I’ve come a long way. I’m really wanting to share the system I’ve put in place in my home that have GREATLY reduced my mental load. Its nothing fancy but it does take some initial set up time. I’m trying to figure out the best way to share that with y’all and gauge interest. One of the best outcomes is that I don’t have the constant to-do list running in my head (and its glorious!). There are still things to get done, I’m not trying to remember them all in addition to when was the last time we gave the dog heartworm meds or changed the HVC filters. All of this is automated and makes it easy to delegate/ask for help. And I trust that its not getting missed which eases my stress!

Q: Meal Planning!

A: This is a big piece of the mental load puzzle and looking back I’ve really been working on these systems for 10+ years. From when Ty and I starting sharing our Google calendars to meal planning to the capsule wardrobes to creating a list of all the stuff that has to get done around our house. Here is how I meal plan.

Q: How to do capsule wardrobe when you really love color, patterns and lots of clothes

A: Capsule just means a select group of clothing that jive together.

1. Select a color palette for the season. If you love color - pastels or jewel tones or pink and purple, for example.

2. Use my guide as a blueprint to what types of items you need but inject your colors/style into those itmes. If I say basic tshirt, mine may be white because my palette is neutrals. Yours may be baby pink because your palette is pastels.

3. Core items are still important for versatility so a great fitting pair of jeans, favorite tennis shoes (thinking mom life here!) and a basic white tshirt go a long way.

I don’t recommend more than 25-30 items in a capsule (including shoes!) because the goal is to decrease decision fatigue and make it easy to get dressed. It doesn’t mean you get rid of all your other clothes either. Just only look at the at selection for the season. You can make 100s of outfits from just 20 items and whole season is only ~90 days long (3 months).

Thanks for trialing out this new series with me. If there is anything you’d like to see, DM me over on Instagram and I’ll be sure to respond. Have a great week and stay warm!

PS - Here are all of the Amazon Daily Deals and Sale items I shared on Instagram this week!