Whether you are a stay at home mom or a working mom like me, we can all agree that we are living in a time crunch constantly. Between running my three kids to school in two different directions, running a business, a home, and wifing, I am continually looking for time saving mom hacks to help with my sanity. I have found that when you add more and more to your plate, it does get full and you can either find some solutions to help with the chaos or just literally fall into a puddle of your tears and drown in straight up exhaustion.
Being a mom is hard work. There is dinner to make, homework to help with, big or little kid emotions to sift through, cleaning the house, kids destroying what you cleaned and more. If you are like me, the laundry is a never-ending battle, and I just need someone to invent the machine that will wash my clothes, fold them, and put them away in the drawer. That would be the most fantastic time-saving life hack for moms ever. Okay, now someone invent that, please. Thanks.
My time-saving mom tips aren’t that extravagant, but I do think they are pretty dang good. I have been using these hacks ever since my oldest hit second grade and my middle child hit pre-k. I also have a crazy busy toddler who cuts down what I want to get done in a day to about ½. If I didn’t have these helpful tricks for saving me time, I would get nothing done in my day.
Mom Hack 1: Auto Vacuum That House
Some would say that a iRobot Roomba is overrated and I would say you are crazy. My floors get shredded daily with having three kids. I have to sweep or vacuum that ish up, or I will be walking around with it on the bottom of my feet which feels disgusting. Having a Roomba helps to auto-pilot that floor cleaning and keep it clean and fresh without having to even think about it. It tucks away like an introverted friend when it’s not needed and comes out to party when the floors cry out for attention.
While Roombas are not the cheapest purchase around, they will help with your mom sanity, which is why having one is an absolute time-saving hack. Who doesn’t want a automatic vacuum cleaner?
Mom Hack 2: Auto Grocery Shop and Have Them Shipped or For Pick Up
There are so many ways that you can grocery shop nowadays. One way to absolutely not grocery shop is to pile all of your children into a cart and subject them and yourself to an hour of “mom can I have this…mom can I have that” kind of torture. Instead, one of the best things I’ve done this year is to use Amazon Now. It has changed my life, and I am not being dramatic. Amazon Now is free if you have Amazon Prime and with that, you can hop on the app, order your groceries, and they will arrive within 2 hours. If you spend $30, your shipping is free except for an optional tip. The best part about it is that they sometimes partner with local stores like Sprouts and Whole Foods, so you have access to even more options.
If you don’t have Amazon Now in your area, Instacart is another great option. It is a little more expensive for shipping, but I have to say that when you are running in 5 million different directions as a mother, it’s nice to have all of your groceries show up at your house.
Also, there are tons of stores now that do grocery pick-ups. So you can shop online, order everything you want and then pull up to the store and they will load it up. Any of these three alternative grocery shopping ideas save you loads of time. Plus, stores usually keep your shopping list online, so all you have to do is find your previous order, and press send. You can make a typical 1 hour grocery shopping trip turn into about 5 minutes.
You might spend an additional 10-15 dollars extra, but if you can do it, it’s the best time-saving mom hack of all time.
Mom Hack 3: Meal Plan and Prep Your Dinner
On Sunday nights I prep all of the dinners for the week so I make sure that tip #2 includes everything I need to make that happen. I get large gallon size ziplocks and place all of my ingredients for each dinner into each bag and then label them. This mom hack helps to keep aside food items I need for dinner away from hands that might munch on my plans. It takes about 20 minutes to do this kind of dinner prepping, as I am not making the meals right then but instead categorizing them into their baggies. It’s an easy mom hack that will save your brain power for bigger things.
Mom Hack 4: Prep Kids Lunches and Snacks
Like I do for #3, I also do for lunches except for a bit more detailed. Both of my daughters are in school, so I have to make ten lunches and stuff them in my fridge. Friends, I keep this simple. My kids get the same thing every-single-day for an entire week. They will live, I promise. I don’t do any fancy lunch thing because the BIGGEST mom hack is that I don’t care and my kids don’t care either. They are just happy they got Cheetos instead of something from Annies that I try to force on them because I feel like it might just be 5% more healthy.
Here is what I typically throw in a prepped lunch for my kids
Zariah and Naomi get this every day for a week:
- Cheese, crackers, and turkey or a sandwich
- Mini Peppers or Carrots
- Strawberries, Grapes, or sliced apples
- Some chips
- Z-Bar for snack time
- Drink
I do a straight up assembly line and stuff one of every lunch item I am doing that week into each Ziploc bag. I add their names to the baggie and stuff them in the fridge. This meal-prepping, time-saving mom hack takes about a half hour but also allows me to sleep in at-least ten extra minutes each morning. I call that a win. Oh, and my daughters grab them in the morning and stuff them into their lunch boxes. That is a double win.
Mom Hack 5: All the Healthy Snacks
Does anyone else not have time for lunch and then accidentally shuv fistfuls of fishy crackers in your mouth while running out the door? I am guilty. Here’s a mom hack for you, get ample amounts of healthy bars that you can just as quickly shovel in without the guilt. My go-to bar for on the go is the RX bars. They are simple, yummy and fill you up so that you aren’t starving while you do your mom thing.
What mom hacks do you use?
Muchas gracias. ?Como puedo iniciar sesion?