Sabbath Prep Work
Preparing for the Sabbath is something that I’ve found to be really helpful for me to be able to rest. My family could care less about the house being clean and organized, but I find that having a tidy space allows me to be able to better relax. Here are some things I have implemented to be able to prepare for rest on Friday evenings.
🔅Do laundry daily or every other day. Once it’s done, fold or hang up immediately -OR- on Thursday chunk out time to do a large batch of laundry.
🔅Put your kitchen to bed every night. As Lizi from The Food Nanny puts it - it’s important to clean your kitchen before you fall asleep each night - it will encourage you to bake the next day as well as make it less stressful to navigate. If you’re cleaning your kitchen Thursday night in preparation for Sabbath, you can handle your Friday morning & afternoon dishes as they come and be intentional about having dinner cooked and cleaned up prior to dinner time.
🔅How do you clean up your dishes before you even eat dinner on Friday? Easy! Two ways. First, transfer your food to storage containers and serve in them. If there are any leftovers - just snap the top on and put them in the fridge. And secondly, use paper plates/plastic utensils for the meal - it makes for easy and quick clean up!
🔅Plan and make your meals ahead of time! The Mexican Dip Dinner is one you can easily make on Thursday and heat up on Friday or Saturday! The more you can get done earlier in the week, the better.
🔅Have fruits and veggies cut up and prepared earlier in the week for easy and delicious snacking options! We love doing this on grocery day! They come in fresh, we cut them up and store them in the fridge. We always get enough fruit to last a week.
🔅Pre-plan your Sabbath day with wiggle room to set expectations and allow you to know what needs to be done.
🔅If you’re doing something for Sabbath make sure you are all packed up or prepared by Thursday.
As much as I’d love to have my life all together and say that this list gets accomplished perfectly each week - that’s not the case. Some weeks go more smoothly than others and each week is an opportunity for our family to reassess what is working and what is not. Life happens and we are flexible around it. The goal is to have the house tidy so mom can relax, but sometimes we are leaving the laundry undone and looking the other way to enjoy a day of rest regardless of our preparation. It’s all about finding what works and being adaptable.