This last week, I shared with you all my updated Spring/Summer monthly menu plan. Although I can compile a monthly menu plan fairly easily since I have been following this method for a few years now, I rarely break it down week by week for myself. I haphazardly live day by day more often then not. What’s for dinner tonight? Shoot…I forgot to thaw that meat out. Now what? Recently, I realized I just needed to get something visual before my eyes. I needed a place in the kitchen to display my menu to serve as a gentle reminder to make sure I make necessary dinner preparations for the week.
My solution?
I took an old 8×10 picture frame with the glass inside and printed out a free menu planner document behind the glass. I then hung it up on the wall in my kitchen with a dry erase marker resting on the top of the frame. With this method, I can easily write in my menu for the week and see it clearly every day! I can erase with a napkin, toilet paper, or a rag, and start afresh next week. I like to make a monthly master list of my menu plan, but then like to break it down week by week and chose from the 4 selected recipes ideas for each day of the week (following my daily themes for meals) to see which is most appetizing for our family for the week. This gives us more variety and flexibility each week.
I tried it with both a monthly menu plan printable (pictured at top) and a weekly menu plan printable (pictured just above), and I think I have concluded that I prefer to display one week at a time so that it isn’t as cluttered or confusing. But feel free to use whichever method you prefer! You could also use this same idea with a plastic sheet protector and tape it to your fridge!
There is no end to the ideas for using a repurposed frame for helping you stay organized. You could put your weekly schedule in there or keep track of whats in your fridge/freezer with an inventory sheet. Have fun!
As a new stay at home wife (due to loss of employment) this blog is such a gift! I’m so excited that I need to take a break from reading so that I can slow my mind enough to actually process the information on this site.
I finally got around to making my framed menu plan. What a great idea! Now my menu is in a place I can see it and it doesn’t get lost in a pile of mail. Also, if something comes up and I have to change the plan, I can easily erase and revise the plan. It also helps to write down our snacks so when my daughter says, “I’m hungry”, I have a list of options available. Thanks for the idea!
I pinned this one becuase i think that it could work great for daily chore (both mine and the kids) and homeschool daily to-dos. We may have frames all over the house!
I do this too, but just write my weekly meal plan in my weekly assignment book. It works well as I don’t have to clutter up my wall calendar (which mostly lists my husband’s trip locations and birthdays).
And in my assignment book I write in the day’s projects, activities, household repair, and cleaning items. I like crossing stuff off as I do it, even the meals.
Wow ,very useful!!!! I don’t have any children yet but this will be extremely helpful for me my husband and I. As a new wife,I am still trying to improve my organizing skills. Thank you for this sweet idea!!
Love your ideas:) I have 4 kids 4mo to 10yrs and am constantly inspired by your website. Planning is key to healthy meals, so you dont settle for something quick and unhealthy (like we did tonight:(). I am inspired to get back on track and plan. Still adjusting to now having 4 and got distracted dealing with mastitis and soothing teething baby, but it’s so worth it to set aside that small amount of time. I usually just write it on the bottom line of my lined mom calender, since I have it up and visable for everyone to see what’s happening that day/week/month.
I stop by your blog on occasion and always love it, but I just had to say that I just did this same thing!! It really is life-changing, isn’t it? I was always so disorganized and running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the last hour or 2 before dinner, but the dry erase picture frame totally makes me think ahead!
I love your ideas! We are moving soon and a visible schedule would really help me stay on top of packing, plus I could keep track of what I had already packed. I also recently became vegetarian and since I am now cooking all my own meals, a meal plan would be excellent! Thanks for sharing and I hope you and your family had a wonderful Mother’s Day!
Great!
This is a wonderful idea. I like the weekly plan so that you can clearly see each meal of the day. Thanks for sharing this.
Love it! Who doesn’t have a picture frame laying around that they’re not using?? This is a great way to re-purpose it. I’m definitely doing this tomorrow!
Lol I just finished one of these for my kitchen! Only I used paint chips and colour-coded each type of meal i.e chicken – blues, mince – reds, fakeaways – oranges, soups – greens, crockpot – browns, etc so I can grab one of each for the fortnight (I have blutac on the back ans stick them to the frame when they aren’t in use) then I have breakfast and lunch options typed on the bottom half of the page and we pick out of that daily. Its great having it easily accessible and even DH has taken to looking at it for lunch ideas or to see if he can do anything to help with dinner prep if I’m extra-tired or our 3wk old is feeding constantly and I’m getting behind.
This is how I was keeping track of my daily routines for awhile- and I loved it! Such a cool idea. I like not wasting paper, and like you said, visibility is key, whereas when I have a meal plan stuffed away in a home management binder it is easy to overlook. Great idea!
This is a great idea and I had actually thought of doing something similiar – love it!
That’s a great idea! I like the fact that it’s reusable, too. I’m collecting quite a pile of meal plan papers, so maybe I should switch to this!
I have some friends who have a set of double sliding glass doors in their kitchen. They use dry erase markers to write their to-do lists right on the glass doors!
I have done this for months with a white board that I keep on my fridge. It makes a huge difference! So helpful to just glance at the board in the morning and know what I need to thaw or prep – and so refreshing to not have to answer the “what’s for dinner question” over and over in the afternoon as my children keep asking me. I’ve trained them now to just go and read the board!
You are so full of great ideas!!! Thank you so much for sharing! We use a plain ol white board on the fridge (but I don’t even plan a whole week half the time) but I like your idea because you have an entire month up there. I also love that you have have themes for certain days. I’m inspired once again!