Welcome to The Sunday Reset, our series brought to you by the legends at My Food Bag, where well-known Kiwi women tell us how they actually spend their Sundays. The fridge clean-outs, the wellness rituals, the shortcuts they swear by, and the stuff they happily ignore: it’s all up for a yarn. Some are wildly organised, some are running on vibes and dry shampoo, but all of them are real, candid and a fab insight into how Kiwi women prepare for the week ahead. This week, Capsule catches up with broadcaster and sports presenter Laura McGoldrick, who takes our call in the middle of fronting New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games coverage, an assignment that comes with a daily 3am alarm! Between the brutal wake-ups, two kids (one of whom makes a VERY memorable cameo in this interview) and a husband who never knows which of her 27 personalities he’s going to get on any given day, Laura’s Sundays are a military operation of clean sheets, pancake flips and laid-out uniforms. Honestly? We’ve never related to anything more.
Capsule x My Food Bag
Kia ora mate! What does the average Sunday look like for you and your family?
Okay, so Sunday is my day to reset. I clean like a madwoman. Everyone’s sheets get cleaned, the fridge gets cleaned out, the laundry is replenished, everything’s put away. It’s like a spring clean every Sunday. Plus we restock and go through everything we need. Our My Food Bag arrives, and that’s also my sign to go and check the meals that I’ve ordered for the next week. It’s a full reset – it’s tidying anything that needs tidying, and in my case that’s usually my wardrobe, where things just get a little out of hand during the week.
So you actually are a real Sunday reset kind of person, because your week is chaos every other day.
It can be! The only time Sunday goes slightly skew-whiff is when the Warriors are playing on a Sunday. I’ll never be mad at them for that, I just have to slightly move my Sunday frenetic, frantic to-do. That’s the only time I would ever shift it. But it’s ok, I love the Wahs.
Up the Wahs! Do you actually look forward to the Sunday reset? Because when you’re describing it, yes, it’s a bit of a chore, but it also sounds like an actual mental reset as well.
It’s actually lovely. I love it, because it makes me go, ‘right, I’m ready for the week’. I can tackle whatever’s coming at me because my floors are cleaned and vacuumed, everything’s put away, the bathrooms are clean, the kitchen’s clean, the fridge is clean. I am good at tackling Monday, whatever that looks like!
And I think that’s a real Type A gal kind of thing, eh (from one to another?!).
Oh, I have a lot of types of gal, let me tell you that! [Laughs]
Does it depend on the day?
Oh yeah, I’ve got about 27… My husband [former Black Cap Martin Guptill) is just constantly trying to guess which one he’s going to get! But on Sundays? Definitely Type A.
It’s like he married one of those Griffin’s biscuit sampler boxes. So many biscuits, so many choices.
Yeah, I’m like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get! When I was nominated for [TV] personality of the year, he joked that he wasn’t sure which personality was up for it.
All 27 of them, combined, I’d imagine? He’s a lucky guy!
But do you know what? He’s never bored, is he? And he’s not complacent, let’s be honest – He’s constantly on his toes. You’ve got to keep them working at it [laughs]. We haven’t stayed together this long because he knows what’s coming, you know what I mean?
I love this so much. Okay, you’ve described what your Sunday realistically looks like, but tell me about your dream Sunday morning. What would you be doing?
I honestly live my dream Sunday morning! Sunday is pancake day. The kids love it, they make them – well, we’re working on our pancake flips. It’s about mid-morning, about 10.30 or 11, where I shift gears and become that manic person. And don’t get me wrong, most of the cleaning’s done in my pajamas anyway. But I do love my slow Sunday mornings where we just have pancakes and we chill, and we might watch a little bit of a movie, especially in winter. So I’m quite lucky in that regard.
On food, are you a meal planner or a meal prepper for the week? Is that part of your Sunday?
Look, yes and no. Yes, because obviously it’s prepped with My Food Bag, and I know what I’ve got. We just plan it out by our calendar, like for example Harley has dance and singing on Monday, so I’ll do the slightly easier meal that’s quicker to make, because we don’t have as much time that night. Thank God for that!
At this point, we’re interrupted by the arrival of Laura’s five-year-old son Teddy, who is in tears over a devastating injustice: he wants to go to the Backstreet Boys’ concert, and it turns out Vegas residencies are not particularly accessible to Kiwi preschoolers.
“Say hi to Kelly! Tell Kelly what you told me in the car,” Laura says, before reporting back: “He wants to go to the Backstreet Boys’ concert in Vegas. I think my work as a parent is done, I’m so proud!”
Teddy is dispatched to his dad to plead his case – with love – and we crack on.
So you’re raising a mini version of yourself, then.
Both Teddy and Harley. It’s really exciting!
Is there anything that’s a non-negotiable for you on a Sunday? Something you love?
Sunday is real family time. That’s always just sort of been the way, where we go and catch up with my mum and dad, or my brothers. So after the cleaning and the frantic do-up, it’s time to catch up with family, see how everyone’s going, and get ready for the week that way.
Nice. Now, you know when you’re scrolling Instagram or TikTok and there are all those people who always have hacks, and it always seems to involve some kind of storage container? Are you one of those people who goes, ‘I’m gonna try that’?
They’re just not real people, are they? I just can’t get my head around some of them. I’m like, ‘how did you think to do that’? They’re like, ‘You just take that out of your washing machine, put in a lemon and some toothpaste, and off you go.’ What is happening? Why are we putting toothpaste in our washing machines? So no, I’m not super good at that. Don’t get me wrong, I watch it and wish I could be that person. But I can’t.
It’s the same logic as when you look at an oyster and think, who was the first person to give that a go and WHY?
You know those puffer jackets that we all wear, especially if you’re a Christchurch girl? The Kathmandu ones? Someone said to me, ‘Oh yeah, you put it in the dryer with a tennis ball to keep the shape,’ and the first thing I thought to myself was ‘who the hell thought to put a tennis ball in there?!’ Or, you know, when you’re making jam, you just put a marble on the bottom of your pot to stop it catching. Why would I do that? Why am I putting marbles in my cooking?
I always really wanted to be the Better Living lady, it’s one of my not-so-hidden dreams in life. But I think you’d do a better job of it. I really do.
I don’t know. I just don’t know. I mean, I love Glad Wrap, and I love Snap Lock bags. But I’m not sure!
Do you have a hack of your own, though? Something you do that’s actually genuinely useful?
I freeze a lot of stuff.
A woman of the people.
I don’t know why it took me so long into my 30s to figure out that freezing stuff is the way forward. I don’t know what my problem was.
Okay, but what about an organisational system or trend you’ve actually followed? Have you done Warehouse run for the containers?
Oh, I love a container. I’ve got containers everywhere. I love a container. Does everything stay in the container? Maybe not, but I do love a container!
What is the most “I have my life together” thing that you do, even if you don’t?
It’s when there’s nothing on the floor in my wardrobe. When my wardrobe is spotless and everything is where it’s meant to be, I feel on top of the world. I could run a country. I feel so put together, like, ‘get out of my way, I cannot be stopped!’ Do you know what I mean? And I’m a big handbag girl, so when they’re all lined up perfectly? Oh my God. An eyeliner, a lip gloss and a put-together wardrobe, and you just get out of my way. I will achieve.
Well, right now your schedule is jam-packed with all of the sport you’re covering. Is that one of your lovely little moments in the day, when you look at everything all put together and think, this is fantastic, let’s go?
Yeah, so I’m a big prepper, and it’s even like that for the kids and stuff. All of their uniforms are laid out the night before, ready to go. Everything, lunches, the whole thing, is done. My bag too: earpiece, pens, paper. You know what it’s like, you’re a journalist – you’ll have a thousand pens in your bag, and I feel uncomfortable having less than a thousand in my bag, because what if they all run out at the same time?
It could happen!
The things I can control, I control. Control the controllables. That’s pretty much my bread and butter at the moment.
And then when the uncontrollable happens, which it does, it makes it that much easier to deal with.
That’s right. Like when you can’t find your car keys at three o’clock in the morning, and then you realise they’re in your pocket, but you’re so tired you forgot that’s where you put them.
Was that this morning?
It might have been. And it’s something I don’t want to talk about. It’s really upsetting. [Laughs]. Ah well, what can you do?
Wanting to refine your own Sunday reset? Check out myfoodbag.co.nz to find the perfect bag for your whānau!
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