by Kara | Jul 16, 2024 | Grocery, Health, Home, Organizational, Outsourcing, Residential
If you’re responsible for family meal planning, including grocery shopping, meal prep, and cleanup, you know how many hours it can take in any given week. What if you could manage those tasks more effectively and save yourself a lot of time along the way?
The good news? You can. With an efficient planning process, some household support, and a customizable family meal planner template, you can become a meal planning pro and get back hours in your week.
5 Steps to Successful Meal Planning
Planning meals in advance delivers a host of benefits. In addition to saving time, it makes grocery shopping more efficient and takes the stress out of meal prep. As a result, you can approach each meal knowing exactly what’s on the menu and how long it will take to pull the meal together.
Weekly or monthly meal planning is a great idea for any household, but getting started can be a bit overwhelming. There are many factors to consider, and you may not know much about selecting a meal planning template. However, by following the detailed steps below and getting familiar with meal planning best practices, you can plan delicious, nutritious, and stress-free meals every day.
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Here’s how to get started:
1. Set a solid meal planning foundation.
Before you sit down to populate a monthly meal plan template, you’ll need to determine what meal planning will look like for you and how you’ll make it a part of your routine. Setting this foundation ahead of time will ensure meal planning doesn’t become something you do only once and then abandon.
Some of the questions you’ll want to answer during this step include:
- Are there any nutritional goals I want to accomplish?
- What kinds of cuisines and food groups do I want more or less of each month?
- Do I want to plan meals for the week or the month?
- How much time do I want to spend on grocery shopping and meal prep?
- What menu alternatives can I use when there’s no time for meal prep? Leftovers? Preprepared meals? Takeout?
2. Build your family meal planner template.
Fortunately, you won’t have to create a family meal plan template from scratch. Several meal planning apps, printables, and free meal plan templates exist online. You can also access editable weekly and monthly meal plan templates in our family meal planning guide.
Whether you select a weekly or monthly template, make sure it includes enough space for menus, recipe ideas, and notes. Your template should also be printable so you can share it with your family and anyone helping with grocery shopping and meal prep.
3. Involve your family in the meal planning process.
Family meal plans work best when they incorporate everyone’s food preferences and nutritional needs. Get input from family members about what they want to see in the meal plan. You can also post the whole plan in a central location so everyone knows what’s on the menu and can help when needed.
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4. Get support from a household assistant.
Considering that household chores can take more than 21 hours per week, it makes a lot of sense to lighten your load with household help. In addition to the other household activities a household assistant can perform, such as doing laundry, running errands, and supervising vendors, your assistant can manage the following meal planning tasks:
- Grocery shopping
- Pantry and fridge inventory planning
- Meal prep and cooking services
- Researching new recipes based on your dietary preferences
5. Refine your meal plan periodically.
Like anything else, periodic improvements to your meal plan will make it more efficient and dynamic. For example, you can add new recipes and evaluate menus for more nutritional balance. You can also optimize meal prep by adding slow-cooker meals and freezing portions of meals beforehand. Each month, you’ll become more skilled in creating menus and getting everything on the table with less fuss.
Make Family Meal Times Less Stressful and More Enjoyable
If you’re ready to add time back into your schedule and prepare nutritious meals your whole family will love, make meal planning a regular part of your household management activities. It’s an excellent way to eat the foods you want without the stress of last-minute shopping and meal prep.
We want to help make meal planning as easy as possible for you. Get on the road to becoming a meal planning pro by downloading The Ultimate Guide to Family Meal Planning: Strategies, Templates, and Resources.
by Kara | Jun 27, 2024 | Grocery, Health, Home, Organizational, Outsourcing, Residential
If you’ve ever considered hiring a personal assistant for your home, you’ve likely thought about what your assistant would do, how many hours it would take, and the logistics of getting them onboarded. After all, hiring the right personal assistant for your home isn’t something to take lightly. The ideal assistant must manage tasks according to your preferences, work independently, and take initiative where it makes sense.
Thankfully, that’s all possible. There’s an efficient, no-fuss way to find, hire, and onboard a home personal assistant so you can lighten your load and get more time to do what matters most to you.
The Time Spent on Household Chores
Time is one of life’s most precious resources; you want to use it wisely. But spending too much time on household chores leaves you with less time for your family, friends, career, and self-care. And if you have children at home, you may feel even more stretched. In a recent survey, 62 percent of moms said they got less than an hour a day to themselves.
Household tasks eat up more time than you might think. A five-year time-use study conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that unpaid household chores took an average of 21.5 hours per week. Just imagine what you could do instead of spending that many hours a week doing things you may not even enjoy, such as running errands, doing laundry, and waiting for the HVAC maintenance technician to arrive.
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Hiring a Personal Assistant for Your Home Adds Time to Your Day
There are many signs you’re ready for a personal assistant: You’re stressed, overwhelmed, and have little to no time for personal interests. Most days, it seems there’s too much to do, you feel responsible for doing it all, and you rarely, if ever, get a break.
However, a personal assistant can address those issues by taking the following tasks off your hands:
- Shopping for groceries
- Running errands
- Doing laundry and dropping off dry cleaning
- Preparing meals and cleaning up
- Organizing and tidying rooms
- Making reservations
- Scheduling and rescheduling appointments
- Coordinating deliveries and making returns
- Supervising repairs
And that’s not all. An assistant can also help you complete dream projects for any space in your home and property—whether you want to reorganize your patio or redecorate a spare room. By managing these projects so you no longer have to think about them, a personal assistant makes your life easier and more enjoyable.
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Getting Started with a Pepper’s Personal Assistant
Pepper’s personal assistants are quick learners, able to work independently, and eager to bring you ideas for keeping your home tidy and organized. You don’t have to do everything yourself, and getting started with your new personal assistant is easier than you may think.
We can have you up and running with your assistant in less than three hours with these five steps:
- Step 1: Discovery call to discuss your needs and how a Pepper’s personal assistant can help (about 30 minutes)
- Step 2: Deep-dive discussion about exactly what you want in an assistant, including your preferences, pet peeves, and must-haves (about 45 minutes)
- Step 3: Onboarding forms for your hand-picked personal assistant (about 15 minutes)
- Step 4: Initial kickoff and introduction call with your new assistant (45 minutes)
- Step 5: First-day tour with your assistant (one hour, in person)
At Pepper’s, we’re committed to helping you save time and spend it how you want. Once your personal assistant begins work, you can expect a weekly 15-minute check-in to discuss progress and any new projects you need help completing. We take care of everything else, including your assistant’s payroll, employment taxes, and health benefits.
Add 21-Plus Hours Back into Your Week
Hiring a Pepper’s personal assistant for your home means you won’t have to worry about mundane household tasks again. You’ll also get those dream projects completed and have more control over your time.
See how a Pepper’s personal assistant changed one busy woman’s life and home. Check out Chores and Beyond: A Case Study Exploring the Full Potential of What a Household Assistant Can Do for You.
by Kara | Jun 26, 2024 | Grocery, Health, Home, Organizational, Outsourcing, Residential
Outsourcing household chores isn’t a privilege reserved only for the rich. You also need time for yourself, and you shouldn’t have to spend all of it on mundane housekeeping tasks. While life is full of less-than-glamorous chores, no one needs—or wants—a calendar packed with nothing but running errands, doing laundry, and preparing meals.
Having a household assistant doesn’t mean being waited on hand and foot—it simply means having help to manage the tasks you don’t have time to complete.
What does a household assistant really do?
Depending on your lifestyle and schedule, household assistants can assist with any number of chores in your home, including the ones you dislike most. Your assistant can manage all of the following:
- Running errands or shopping
- Planning and preparing meals and washing dishes
- Doing laundry and dropping off dry cleaning
- Tackling home maintenance tasks
- Organizing and tidying
- Managing appointments
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Common Misconceptions About Household Assistants
Many people think household assistants are just for celebrities, but anyone can benefit from the help of an assistant—especially if you’re also juggling a career, family, and other responsibilities. In fact, one Harvard professor says that outsourcing household chores can make you feel as happy as getting a sizable salary increase.
Perhaps you have a lot on your to-do list, but you’re not sure you have enough for a household assistant to do. In reality, there’s no shortage of tasks your personal assistant can take care of for you.
In more than a decade of service, Pepper’s assistants have never struggled to find things to do. In fact, there are probably a few things you didn’t expect a household assistant could handle, such as:
- Managing home renovation and redecorating projects
- Planning travel, including packing and unpacking
- Planning parties, including setting up and cleaning up
- Scheduling and supervising vendors
- Caring for pets (e.g., dog walks, vet visits, and trips to doggie daycare)
- Paying bills
- Decorating for holidays
And that’s only scratching the surface. A private home assistant goes beyond chores and day-to-day housekeeping to ensure your time remains exactly that: yours.
Why choose Pepper’s Personal Assistants?
We understand getting household help isn’t just a matter of finding someone to take care of your to-do list. You also need to connect with someone you trust who understands your preferences. You don’t want just a pair of hands; you need the right person—one who can handle your responsibilities as well as you would.
This is exactly what we strive for at Pepper’s. We offer a tailored approach to home maintenance and management, helping busy professionals—not just the uber-wealthy—get the helping hand they need.
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But Don’t Take It from Us …
We believe the best household assistants find joy in making your life easy, taking ownership of household tasks, and conducting themselves with integrity at all times. And that’s exactly what you get with Pepper’s. Here’s a sampling of what some of our clients have to say about working with a Pepper’s personal assistant:
“We went on vacation, and everything went really well. It was so lovely to have the peace of mind while traveling that the house was fully taken care of. Our personal assistant managed my household and vendors flawlessly, and we had groceries and a full meal ready for us after a long journey back.”
—Anura, client
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“My PA is really good at organizing. It’s one of her superpowers. Some of the simple reorganizing things that she has done have made a big impact. For instance, she finally can see stuff in her cupboards. Master genius on this. Another example is how she organized all the cat stuff in the garage and took the initiative on her own. She’s bright and cheery—no moaning, whining. Very great.”
—Emma, client
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“With our personal assistant on our team, our lives are more manageable and less stressful, and thus, we have time to better prepare for our challenges and joyfully celebrate our victories. She contributes daily to the success of our family!”
—Case Study: How One Mom Got Back Her Time
Outsource household chores—and much more.
Getting household help isn’t unrealistic or unattainable. It’s also not reserved for celebrities, high-profile influencers, or the super-wealthy. You, too, can get household help and make more time for what matters most in your life.
With a household assistant, you no longer have to feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities of managing a home, family, and career. You can tackle everyday household chores and the dream projects that have been on your to-do list for a while.
See how a household assistant made a dramatic difference in the life of one busy professional. Download Chores and Beyond: A Case Study Exploring the Full Potential of What a Household Assistant Can Do for You.
by Kara | Jun 24, 2024 | Grocery, Health, Home, Organizational, Outsourcing, Residential
When you’re responsible for managing your home and all the related chores, it can seem like your to-do list just keeps getting longer and longer. Not only are there daily and weekly tasks to perform, such as doing laundry and shopping for groceries, but you also have home renovation projects you would love to get off the ground—and off your to-do list.
Though you may be feeling overwhelmed with working, raising a family, and managing your household, you can make life more manageable with a household assistant. In fact, a Pepper’s assistant can take on everyday chores and so much more, including managing vendors, planning travel, and helping make your dream projects a reality.
Day-to-Day Responsibilities of a Household Assistant
If you’ve been wondering whether you need a household assistant or have enough work to keep an assistant busy, consider this: Research has found that the average person spends nearly two hours a day on household chores. And 80 percent of people will spend nearly a year of their lives on these chores!
Though you may have a lot of household responsibilities on your plate, a skilled assistant can give you some of your time back and ensure everything gets done right. Your household assistant can do all of the chores you would love to never do again, including:
- Preparing meals and cleaning up
- Shopping for groceries
- Making returns
- Doing laundry and dropping off dry cleaning
- Making and rescheduling appointments
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Go Beyond Typical Household Chores
Household assistants can work wonders performing everyday household tasks, but they can also help with one-off and longer-term projects. Whether you’ve got a spare room you would like to reimagine or some items in storage you want to organize, your assistant can help.
These projects can include:
“I want to mention what a fantastic personal assistant Billie is to me. We were on vacation last week, and she managed my household and vendors flawlessly. With very little direction, she redecorated my office. I asked her to make it nice and functional and—my goodness—did she ever!”
—Anura, client
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Shrink Your To-Do List and Add More Time to Your Day
By outsourcing household chores, you can get tasks done without rushing and feeling frazzled at the end of each day. Working with a Pepper’s household assistant allows you to spend more time with family and personal interests and less time carrying the mental load of everything that needs to get done in a day.
Pepper’s assistants are trustworthy, considerate, and resourceful, striking the optimal balance between keeping you informed while working independently. Your assistant will take your to-do list and keep track of your ideas, favorite stores, and must-have grocery items. Even if you’ve never had household help before, you’re likely to find a Pepper’s household assistant is exactly what you need to reclaim your free time.
“The gift of this is that I’ve been ‘managing’ myself … and learning a lot of things about some of my own work habits, which has allowed me to actually make some changes. Because many of my other tasks have been managed and handled by [my PA], I have a sense of peace while I’m investigating this other part of my life. Very, very valuable.”
—Libby, client
Manage Household Chores and Much More
Delegating your household chores means freeing up time to do what you love and worrying less about constant home upkeep. With a Pepper’s personal assistant, you won’t just have reliable help for daily chores; you’ll also have a partner to help you manage the home projects you always wanted to complete but never had the time to do.
To discover the full potential of a household assistant, check out Chores and Beyond: A Case Study Exploring the Full Potential of What a Household Assistant Can Do for You.
by Kara | Jun 6, 2024 | Grocery, Health, Home, Organizational, Residential
If you’re responsible for preparing nutritious and satisfying family meals, you know how challenging it can be to plan, shop, and ensure everything gets on the table on time. But there’s help available!
By creating a detailed monthly meal plan, you can transform chaotic mealtimes into stress-free moments. And with a household assistant by your side, family dinners become even more seamless and satisfying for everyone.
Benefits of a Monthly Meal Plan
Creating a family meal plan is generally better than coming up with something to make and eat on the fly. But if the idea of developing a detailed plan for your family’s meals seems daunting, just know there are many available resources to help you. You can create your own template or use family meal planner templates and weekly meal plan printables. Sites such as Canva and 101Planners offer free, downloadable meal prep templates.
With a meal plan in place, you can realize the following benefits:
Save time.
Planning meals in advance gives you more time to cook and enjoy meals with your family. You already know the day’s meals, so you can get right to defrosting, cutting vegetables, and preheating the oven instead of taking time debating meal options.
Make mealtime less stressful.
With a set meal plan, you don’t need to plan on the fly, feel rushed, or work under pressure. You can take your time and ensure meals come out as you envisioned.
You may eat healthier.
A recent study found that American families spend about 20 percent more on restaurant food than they spend on groceries. Meal planning reduces the odds of throwing your hands up and deciding to go out or order a quicker—but potentially less healthy—meal.
You could save money.
Planning your family menu makes grocery shopping more efficient. You can buy in bulk where it’s practical and purchase produce items when they’re in season or on sale. One mom says she cuts down on food waste and saves $500/month by meal planning.
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Three Game-Changing Family Meal Planning Ideas
If you would like to simplify daily meal prep and give monthly meal planning a try, here’s how you can get started:
1. Build your family menu plan template.
An editable monthly template allows you to avoid starting from scratch every month. Some elements to include in your template are:
- A list of potential meals
- All the ingredients you’ll need for each meal
- A list of items you’ll need to replenish routinely versus staples you always have on hand
To stay consistent, pick a time each month or week to create and update your meal plan. If you have a household assistant to help, they can match your shopping list with what’s already in your fridge and pantry, do the shopping, and handle the daily meal prep for you.
2. Consider meal choices that mesh with your schedule.
Since each day is different, it’s a good idea to determine which meals are better for busy days and which are more appropriate for days you anticipate having more time to pull meals together.
For example, you may decide to have designated days for cooking, ordering in, and going out. You can also have days when you’ll prepare meals from a food delivery service such as Blue Apron or HelloFresh. And don’t forget leftovers! They can be great for those days when you have no time to cook, order in, or go out.
3. Incorporate a variety of food.
Planning 30 days of meals allows you to build variety into your plan. You can categorize meals by:
- Cooking time
- Cooking method: Hands-on versus slow cooker and one-pot meals
- Complexity level: Meals your partner or older children can handle and those you’ll need to prepare
- Cuisine: A mix of Italian, Indian, or whatever you choose reduces the chance of hearing “Not chicken again!” from the family
- Meal type: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and desserts
As your monthly meal plan comes together, it may be beneficial to post it for everyone in the family to see. If you’re running late or busy at mealtime, someone else can cook or at least get the meal started before you arrive.
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How a Pepper’s Household Assistant Can Help
Pepper’s household assistants are quick learners capable of executing your monthly meal plan, so you don’t have to do everything yourself. They’re well-trained and work independently, saving you time and money without sacrificing quality.
In addition to all the other household chores a Pepper’s household assistant can perform, your assistant can also take on these tasks:
- Planning meals based on your input and direction
- Shopping for groceries (including at the faraway shops you usually don’t have time to visit)
- Organizing your refrigerator and pantry
- Keeping a list of your preferred food brands, stores, and other preferences, such as organic, non-GMO, vegan, gluten-free, and so forth
- Performing meal prep
All you have to do is come in and cook. Alternatively, if you need an assistant who cooks, Pepper’s can help you with that, too!
Simplify Your Life with a Household Assistant
Meal planning is just one of the many time-consuming tasks a household assistant can manage to make your household run smoother and give you more time for the things that matter most in your life. To learn more, download our guide, What Your Life Could Look Like With a Household Assistant.
by Kara | May 30, 2024 | Home, Organizational, Residential
If you’ve decided you need household help but aren’t sure you have enough for a household assistant to do, think again. Besides doing laundry, tackling meal prep, and handling other everyday chores, a skilled household assistant can organize your home inside and out and help you tackle the dream projects you always hoped would be possible.
Everything a Household Assistant Can Do
Chances are, if you’ve considered a household assistant, it’s because you’ve felt the pressure many busy professionals and overwhelmed moms feel—your to-do list keeps getting longer, and it seems there’s never enough time in the day. All the behind-the-scenes planning and anticipating you do often leaves you little time for yourself and the things you love.
But there’s hope. Even if you thought household assistants were just for celebrities or that you didn’t have enough for an assistant to do, there are several ways an assistant can organize your home and give you your time back. In fact, in all the homes Pepper’s assistants have worked in over the last 12-plus years, they’ve never had a problem finding enough to do!
At Pepper’s, we have a team of more than 30 highly skilled personal assistants ready to help you tackle a broad array of household tasks and projects. Upon entering your home, your assistant will look for opportunities to make improvements, organize household chores, and create a system for completing them efficiently. You’ll have a household guide that outlines everything from your favorite grocery store to the location of your water shut-off valve.
You can rely on your household assistant to handle tasks such as:
- Planning travel (including packing and unpacking)
- Decorating for holidays
- Doing laundry (including making dry cleaning runs)
- Planning and managing home parties
- Shopping for groceries and running errands
- Preparing food
- Taking out trash and recycling
- Scheduling and supervising on-site vendors
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Your household assistant can also take your home organization and special project ideas and make them a reality. Examples include creating a home art space, transforming outdoor areas to be more enjoyable, and finding home service contractors for maintenance and repair jobs.
The support you receive from a Pepper’s household assistant isn’t one-size-fits-all; it’s flexible to adapt to your specific needs. And if we don’t have a household assistant that fits the criteria you seek, we’ll find one. So, if you need an assistant who cooks, we’ll find someone who can cook your preferred cuisine. And if you need an assistant that’s great with pets, no problem! Our goal is to help you build a collaborative, stress-free relationship that meets your immediate and ongoing needs.
Steps You Can Take to Determine Your Household Help Needs
It’s not always easy to visualize what a household assistant can do for you day to day. That’s why Pepper’s assistants are trained to work with you at your pace, offering support and suggestions to ensure a smooth transition of chores from you to your assistant.
A great way to create a clearer picture of what your life could look like with a household assistant is to start with a list. Itemize all the things that you would love to never do again that someone could do for you. It might be doing laundry, standing in line at Costco, decluttering countertops, or making Amazon returns. Whatever it is, add it to your list.
As you continue this process, you’ll begin to see you’re probably spending more time on household chores than you realized. One study found that unpaid household chores took an average of 21.5 hours per week—three hours a day!
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Tackle Household Chores and Much More
Imagine what you could do with three more hours in your day. You could spend more time with family and friends, reconnect with an old hobby, or even find a new one.
These are the kinds of benefits Libby Wagner enjoyed once she began working with her Pepper’s household assistant. In a case study of Libby’s experience, we discuss how her assistant took time-consuming chores off Libby’s to-do list and helped her complete dream projects that made her home more enjoyable. Having household help transformed her home and life.
“I’m able to spend the time I need to on my business, which is a lot, and then I get to enjoy my home and my life and the precious unstructured time that I have not taken up with doing errands and chores,” she said.
To learn more about Libby’s experience with her Pepper’s household assistant, download the full case study.
