Minimize Errands While Having Fun: Get the Most Out of Your Trips

Get the Most Out of Your Trips Like death and taxes, there's no escaping errand running. Supermarket, drugstore, dry cleaner, library, post office. Pick up, drop off, wait for kids -- or parents. If you're not careful, you can spend more than half of your leisure time with your butt glued to your car seat running errands.

So what does any of that have to do with health? Plenty. All that errand running stresses you out and sucks you dry of energy. It also eats up hours better spent exercising, relaxing, cooking, having fun -- the healthy stuff of life. So our goal here is to get you through your errands faster, easier, and with less stress. Just be sure to use the time you gain wisely!

1. Group your errands. This is a golden rule: Never run just one errand at a time. You'll save time, gas, energy, and stress hormones by grouping your errands into batches. If you have to drop a kid at piano practice, you can also swing by the bank and deposit the check, pop into the market for a gallon of milk, and pick up the dry cleaning.

2. Run your errands in off hours. In other words, not on weekends (which is when 92 percent of us run our errands). Instead, make sure your dry cleaner, bank, doctor, supermarket, etc., are near work so you can take care of these mundane tasks on your way into or out of work, or on your lunch hour. You'll avoid the jammed stores and byways on the weekends, and have those two days just for you and your family. One of the best times to grocery shop? After dinner, when the kids are in bed. One parent stays home and one goes to the store. You'll be in and out in half the time it normally takes with kids in tow.

3. Create an errand center in your house. This is where the library books that need to be returned, the dry cleaning that needs to be delivered, the packages that need to be mailed, all live. Everything in one place (ideally near the door you use most often) will make it easier to run "bulk" errands. Another option: Keep these things in your car, in the passenger seat. They'll be a visual reminder of all you need to do.

4. Keep an errand list with you at all times. This includes both the ordinary errands that must be done (dry cleaning, library, post office), but also those little things you keep forgetting (pick up socks for the six-year-old, make vet appointment for the dog, buy underwear for husband, find organic potting soil). Use a sturdy notebook that you carry with you at all times, and make sure the rest of your family knows where it is so they can add things to the list.

5. Buy in bulk. The less often you have to go shopping for mundane items like toilet paper, paper towels, dog food, cat litter, toothpaste, deodorant, tampons, etc., the less time you'll spend running errands. Storage space tight? Most of these items will hide under the bed quite nicely.