Homemaking in a Digital World

My grandmother has had a small metal clipboard in her cabinet below the oven for as long as I can remember.  It has scrap paper and a small pen attached.  I can distinctly remember her writing her lists on this pad:  grocery list, to do list, packing list, things she wanted to remember. 

For a while, I tried to do the same, but I always misplaced my pad.  I'd write things to remember on our chalkboard, but that never seemed to work out since I wouldn't transcribe it to bring to the store.

Then I started to use Google Drive, both on my laptop and on my phone. 

Groceries
I created a grocery list and shared it with *B* so we both can edit it.  On Friday mornings, when I go to the store, I text him and ask him to make sure he updates the list.  This is how he updated last week.  I love this guy!

His additions were an homage to the trip we took last week to Gettysburg, PA and the books on 19th century living that we've been reading lately. I literally laughed out loud in the grocery store.

On the second page of that document, I added another helpful section:

This way, we can see what we have either pre-made or in terms of available ingredients.  If I pick up, say red cabbage and some kielbasa at the store, I'll add that meal to the list.  That way I know we have everything we need to make it.  It makes the "what will we eat tonight" question a little less difficult.

Food Storage
I also keep the freezer and pantry inventories on Google Drive.  Out of all of the digital housekeeping I'm doing, this one doesn't work as well as I would like, but it's better than writing inventories that I lose. 

We've determined that I need to print out the inventory and tape it to the freezer and pantry doors so that we can mark off what we use as we use it.  As it is, I inventory once a month or two, which is nice, but not a very accurate representation of what we have at the moment.

Chores
I thought I was really clever when I came up with this, but *B* surprised me by adding another helpful hint to my digital housekeeping.  I was grumbling that I never remember the infrequent (i.e. not-daily) chores: cleaning the tub, changing the sheets, cleaning the oven, etc.  *B* suggested that I just put a reminder on Google Calendar. 

I did just that, and now I get reminders on the day that I designate for each chore.  I decided not to make the reminders as frequently as I want to do the chores.  The reminders are on a minimalist housekeeping schedule.  I have a feeling that if I were to make my reminders as often as I wished, I'd blow them off.



It's funny that in my heart-of-hearts, I desperately want to rid myself of technology.  But on a daily basis, I rely heavily on that technology to do the things I most enjoy.  It seems to be the modern conundrum: difficult to live with technology and difficult to live without it.