Help You Help a Friend

There comes a day when a friend needs their friends due to illness, surgery, injury, moving or grief.  It’s that time you pull out your favorite casserole, pie, cookie, brownie or salad recipe to take to their home.  There’s something about feeding a friend during time of duress that even hugs, listening or even doing tasks for them doesn’t fulfill.  Taking in food is the most complete way of showing & giving love to your friend.

Except everyone is thinking & doing the very same thing.  Your friend ends up with 4 King Ranch Chicken casseroles on the same day.  Or worse, no food at all leaving them wondering where their friends are in their time of need.

You could start an email chain.  Read back through the chain of endless emails to create a spreadsheet of who is taking what & when.  Continually update the spreadsheet based on the email chain that continues to grow.  Answer the constant questions of which spreadsheet version is the most recent.  Wish someone else had volunteered to be the contact person.

Or you could use a website like Meal Train to schedule days & time food is needed. A simple email invitation alerts everyone to select a day to bring a meal & what they will bring.  Everyone has 24/7 access to the most current sign-up list and can see what others are bringing eliminating duplicates.  Apple pie is yummy but a new one every night can get old.

Meal Train also allows you to sign up for simple household duties making it a scheduler’s dream.  The next time a friend has too much on their plate, help yourself help your friend with an online meal scheduler.

I’m here to help you by disclosing my knowledge of how to organize & be prepared for any situation.  I will show you tips & tricks through posts on the Styled & Organized Living Facebook page, @StyledOrganized on Twitter & the Styled & Organized Living Pinterest page.  Some posts will be simple tools while others will be ideas to consider.   But all will show you how to gain a little more control over your life through organization because Life is Better Organized!