Pandemic Organizing: Grab and Go-Get-Social Bag

As I’ve written before, pre-packed bags for different activities make it easy to get out of the house quickly with what you need. The pandemic has created a few new categories of bags at my house.

In late spring we started to drive to different spots for weekend hikes, and put together a hiking bag with water bottles, granola bars, hand sanitizer, bug spray, and sunscreen.

Now as the weather in New England is getting cooler, we’ve created a grab and go-get-social bag for hanging outside in friends’ yards. Everyone in our area seems to be getting a fire pit, fire table, or heat lamp to extend the season for safe outdoor gathering.

For our bag, we used a favorite tote and loaded in:

• bug spray

• blankets

• hats/mittens

• disposable hand warmers

• our own plastic drinkware

Having this “kit” ready to go means we’ll be prepared, whatever the weather, to keep socializing with friends outside this fall. What would you put in your bag?

Get Organized to Grill

Our family loves to grill and eat outside on our patio. My husband is the grill master, and is super organized when it comes to his grill things. Here's how he does it:

• Dedicated spot for grill things: We have one small shelf in a kitchen cabinet that holds skewers, trays, a cutting board, plus the BBQ sauces, seasonings and rubs. It's all in one place and easy to find.
• Prep: My husband follows the culinary practice of "mise en place:" getting all ingredients prepped ahead of time, in a bowl, and ready to go. This is especially important since our grill is a flight of stairs down from our kitchen. Having everything in it's place helps avoid running up and down the stairs.
• Smart storage: My husband has re-purposed a small metal rolling cart we used to have in our kitchen to hold all the grill things in the basement: tools hang from clips on the side, grill accessories are in the bin, and charcoal is in it's own special container on top.