Mom Hacks To Help You Stay Organized, Happy And Sane!

Mom life is the best life, but moms are very busy! It’s a fact of #momlife. You’ve got your baby/kids to take care of, your husband, your home, and yourself. It can get overwhelming really quickly. This is why you need mom hacks! The more, the better.

Here are 37 great tips and mom hacks to help you along the way. These mom hacks cover:

How To Make Life Easier For Yourself

1. Try To Get And Stay Organized

You’ve probably heard this before. You may think it’s a cliche. However, getting yourself organized and staying organized is important.

By being organized, you are not only clearing your environment of clutter, but you are also clearing your mind.

Being organized also helps you increase your productivity. By staying organized, you will save time looking for things and will have more time for your family and other important tasks.

1. Take Notes

According to Getting Things Done author, David Allen, your brain is not a reliable place to store important things. #Momlife means you have a lot of things to think of and probably not a lot of sleep. Chances are therefore good that you could forget things.

This being the case, take notes. Whether you do so on your phone or a regular notebook, get into the habit of making notes of things that you would not want to forget.

1. Delegate, Divide Or Delete

Your to-do list is inevitably going to be long. You will not be able to get everything done. Go through your list and identify what you can delegate, divide or delete.

Delegate – You don’t need to fold your kids’ socks. Once they are old enough to do so, kids can do it themselves.

Divide – Make a master list of all the household chores that have to be done daily, weekly, or monthly. Assign jobs for each member of your family.

Delete – If you baked Christmas cookies for the entire neighborhood last year, you don’t have to do that again. Identify the todo’s that you can completely delete.

1. Ask For Help

You don’t need to do everything! Someone else can water the plants, take out the garbage, walk the dog, etc. If your list feels overwhelming, look for help. Some people would be more than happy to help you.

1. Make Lists

Whether you do it on paper, a whiteboard, or electronically, make lists. Making lists helps you stay organized and track your progress.

You have lots of options:

• There are many apps designed for greater productivity;
• Notebooks and bullet journals are extremely popular;
• A large dry erase board on the wall is also helpful.

Regardless of which productivity tool you use, it is important to write everything in one place so you can chip away at things throughout the day.

1. Prioritize

Once you have a to-do list, prioritize the items on it according to your personal goals and schedule.

Keep the most important to-dos at the top of your list and tackle those first. As priorities change, (and with children, they will,) update your list.

Accept the fact that some things will not get done. You cannot control everything. There will be a diaper blowout or a cold or a baby who refuses to nap. Things like this will set you back, and you need to be okay with that. It’s #momlife!

1. Set Reminders

Once again, with so much to constantly be thinking about, consider making your life easier by setting reminders. You can do this with your smartphone, an Amazon Echo, or a similar device.

If you have a well-visit scheduled for your child, set a reminder well before the start of the appointment. Make sure that the reminder goes off with enough time to get you and your child ready, plus drive time to the appointment.

1. If You Need Coffee In The Morning, Set It Up The Night Before

Some of us rely on coffee to get our days started. If this is you, set up your coffee machine the night before. By doing this, you are not walking around like a zombie while you wait for coffee.

1. Schedule Relax Time

It is so common for moms to put themselves last. This is human nature. However, if you don’t take care of yourself, you are going to burnout. It is inevitable.

Levels of burnout can be light or severe. Avoid it by making time for yourself, even if it’s just to take a relaxing bath once a week.

1. Don’t Fret About The Small Stuff

You’re going to make mistakes. You’re normal. However, don’t allow your mistakes to bring you down. Instead, find satisfaction in knowing that you are doing your best. Also, find satisfaction in today!

1. Wake Up An Hour Before Everyone

For the mother of a newborn baby, this will not be possible. However, once the season arrives that you are not chronically fatigued, wake up an hour before your family.

Getting that extra hour for yourself is empowering in many ways. Getting stuff done while everyone is still asleep offers a wonderful sense of accomplishment.

With this hour, you can choose to workout, meditate, journal, or whatever you believe would be well served at this time. This could even be your quiet time.

1. Embrace The Chaos

#Momlife is chaotic – you are raising little humans who do not understand the rules of life yet. This is bound to result in a few crazy situations. Accept it, embrace it. If you don’t, motherhood will be extra challenging.

Mom Hacks For Your Household

1. Have A Central Location For Important Things

Do you find yourself running around looking for your car keys, your purse, etc? Put that hassle to rest once and for all by setting up a central location for that. A good spot is to create a central location by the door. This alleviates a hectic search looking for it first thing in the morning.

Use this strategy with other important things too.

1. Keep Your Counters Clear

Your kitchen countertop is probably one of the busiest spaces in your home. This is where family inevitably throw things down throughout the day. It can become chaotic.

Every night before you go to bed, clear your countertops. Seeing a cluttered countertop first thing in the morning is mentally and psychologically draining.

1. Get Creative About Running Your Household

Actively look for ways to run your household more efficiently. For example:

• With the help of an Amazon Echo and your smartphone, you can effortlessly maintain your grocery list. There are lots of helpful apps that sync with the amazon echo, (like Anylist for example.) Once you are set up, simply say “Alexa put milk on my shopping list,” and the grocery list on your phone is updated. No more pieces of paper everywhere, or forgetting to write things down. Then as you buy groceries, you can check items off your list. A system like this is efficient because it’s easy to maintain. Grocery lists can also be synced to mom and dad’s phone.
• Instead of taking an hour or two out of your day to get groceries, order it ahead of time and simply pick it up. Costco, Walmart, and Target offer these services. This will save you a lot of time and effort.
• Have a weekly meal plan set up ahead of time. That way, you won’t need to worry about what to cook every night.

1. Declutter

This is probably another cliche for many of us but seriously, this is good advice. When we have less stuff, there is less cleaning to do, which means less for you to do.

Sporadically sort your items. Look for things that you haven’t used in the past year and recycle them, donate them, or sell them.

1. Organize Things Where You Use It

Proximity and common sense are important when it comes to keeping your home organized.

Keep things close to where it is usually used or needed. For example,  if you are always opening your mail in the kitchen, set up a mail center with a handy letter opener somewhere in your kitchen.

1. Sort Your Mail Quickly

So many of us bring the mail in the house and we allow it to pile up. At the end of the week, the pile looks huge and it feels overwhelming. Don’t do that to yourself!

When you pick up the mail from your mailbox, sort it as you walk to your house. Separate the bills and other important mail from the junk mail.

Toss the junk mail into the recycle bin immediately, and organize your other mail accordingly. When the day comes to pay bills, all bills will already be in once place, neatly organized and ready for you.

1. Wash Socks In Mesh Bags

No one knows what happens with lost socks in the laundry. Avoid the hassle and use a mesh garment bag for washing socks, particularly baby and kids socks.

1. Buy Socks In One Color

Sorting socks suck! Why do it? If all the socks look the same, there’s no need to match socks because they will all match one another! It’s a genius plan!

Mom Hacks For Your Kids

1. As Soon As You Can, Teach Your Kids To Do Things Themselves

Kids love doing things themselves. All moms know the level of patience you need to watch a kid who wants to “do it myself.”

Let them!

Yes, it will take a bit of time to teach them how to zip up the zipper, brush their teeth, put on their clothes. However, this is time well spent because he/she will then be able to do it without you!

Kids can start doing chores from age 2. If your little one(s) can help you around the house, why not!

1. Set Naptimes & Bedtimes And Try To Stick To It

If you want a crabby kid, skip or delay naptime.

The fact of the matter is, kids, regardless of age, get crabby when they don’t get enough sleep. Save yourself the hassle and set nap and sleep times. You don’t have to be rigid about it, but do try to adhere to it. This is not only good for your kids, it’s great for you! When your children are asleep, you can rest or get things done that you otherwise might not have been able to do when they are awake.

Getting them to sleep is a win-win.

1. Don’t Plan Anything During Naptime

Respect your baby’s nap time. Never schedule anything during this time. If you do, you will inevitably regret it.

1. On Sundays, Pick Out Outfits For The Week

Some kids don’t care what they wear. Some kids will (figuratively) throw fits if you selected outfits they don’t agree with. If your kid(s) is like the latter, save yourself the trouble and pick out outfits on Sunday.

1. Reorganize Your Children’s Closets For Easy Reach

If your children can easily reach their clothes, they can get what they want and dress themselves. If you believe your kids are old enough to pick their own clothes, reorganize their drawers so they can reach all of their clothes on their own. By doing this, you are taking another to-do off your list.

1. Make Baby Food In Batches

Prepare your baby’s food in large batches. Freeze it in ice-cube trays or baby food containers and defrost it when needed. This saves you time and your baby gets homemade baby food. This is also a great money-saving mom hack.

1. Make Healthy Snacks Accessible For Your Kids

When your child is hungry, he/she is going to come to you. Chances are good you may be busy and unable to help at that time. But you can’t ask a toddler to wait. A minute to you is ten for a toddler!

Solve this hassle by having a place where your kid(s) can easily access healthy snacks. Here you can store raisins, crackers, fruit, and any other snacks that you allow them to eat.

1. Have An “Oops” Kit In Your Car

Accidents happen at the most inconvenient times. Prepare yourself for it by having an “oops kit” in your car. Here you can keep wipes, a change of clothes, water, snacks, a flashlight, an umbrella, a first aid kit, paper towels, plastic bags, and anything else you think is necessary.

1. Have Busy Bags Ready When Needed

When you’re trying to get a task done and you just need some time, give your kiddo(s) a busy bag. These are also great to take with you if you’re going out to dinner.

There are so many things you can do. Type busy bag into google for tons of ideas that match your kiddo’s age.

1. Have A Backup Of A Favorite Toy

Some kids get very attached to toys. If this is your kid, make sure you have a backup of that favorite toy because toys are bound to get lost or chewed up by the dog.

Without your kiddo noticing, alternate between the two toys so that he/she doesn’t notice there is actually two. It’s important to alternate the toys so that they age at the same rate. If you don’t alternate, your child will know something is fishy is his/her favorite toy is suddenly new.

1. Save Money (And Time) By Buying Clothes That Match

When you are buying clothes for your kids, buy clothes with a specific color scheme. With a simple strategy like this, it is more likely that the tops and bottoms will always match one another.

Easily matching clothes is a great time saver and mom hack.

1. Clear Night Time Accidents Quickly

If your baby or toddler has a leak in the middle of the night, changing the sheets takes time, and it is bound to fully wake you. This hassle can easily be solved by layering two waterproof mattress pads and two fitted sheets on your kiddo’s bed.

Layer it with a waterproof mattress pad on the mattress, then a fitted sheet. Layer the second waterproof sheet and finally the fitted sheet.

When an accident does happen, simply peel off the top layer, and your kiddo is ready to sleep on the next layer. No fuss.

Mom Hacks For Meal Planning

1. Do Your Meal Planning Ahead Of Time

After you’ve had an extra-long day, the last thing you will want to do is try to figure out what to have for dinner.

If you do your meal planning, you won’t have to worry about what to eat during the week. The groceries would already be available because you planned everything ahead of time.

1. Or Batch Cook

Batch cooking is when you prepare meals ahead of time, saving you lots of time later in the week.

For example, you could grill on a Sunday and cook all your proteins for the week. On the weekdays, you can complement those proteins with a freshly made salad, vegetable, starch, etc. By batch cooking, you are only spending a few minutes on cooking every day. 

1. Or Use A Crockpot

Crockpots are what make is why mom life is the best life. It is one of the best mom hacks! It would literally take you 5 minutes to put 3lbs pounds of beef, a stick of butter, and a packet of onion soup in your crockpot. Set in on high, and 4 hours later, you have a delicious dinner of butter beef.

There are several easy crockpot meals like this. Pick your favorites and prep them on the rough days when there will simply be no time to cook dinner.

1. Or Cook Double Recipes & Freeze

If you are cooking a meal that is freezer friendly, consider doubling the recipe. It won’t take you that much extra effort to cook, and you can freeze the rest for another night.

1. Prepare Lunches The Night Before

If your little one needs a packed lunch, packing it at night, when you are already tired, may feel like too much to ask for. However, trying to pack that lunch the morning of school will be worse. You will already have your hands full with trying to get your kid out of bed, not watch tv, put on socks, eat breakfast…

Having to pack lunch will make your morning more stressful. Avoid it. Take 5-10 minutes before you settle down at night. This is one of those mom hacks that will make your mornings smoother.

Note From The Author

As a mom of 5, things can get really hectic around our household. What keeps me sane are these mom hacks. I encourage you to try them and even more, I encourage you to share them with other moms who might need it. Being a good mommy is hard. We all need a little help and it always feels great if the help comes from someone who knows what it’s like.

You’ve probably seen some amazing moms. They seem to have it all figured out. They inspire me. I figured – if they can do it, so can I. In that endeavor, I’m often on Youtube and Pinterest looking for more and more mom hacks to make our home more efficient. As I find great ones, I’ll add them here. If you know some, please be sure to add them to the comments.