What do you do to make your life easier?

[SusanBAnthony]

I find it easier to do one load of laundry a day. The it is a small amount and I can get it put away that day, and not have a joints in of laundry.

I must meal plan or I cave and we eat out. I try to do some dinner prep ahead, either the night before or during the day.

My kids are old enough now that I withhold food/snacks/fun until they pick up after themselves. We do not move on to a new activity until the previous one is cleaned up.

Minimize toys and, frankly, everything else. Including your house. Our house is tiny, which sometimes sucks, but the whole thing can be thoroughly cleaned and picked up in an hour, tops.

Amazon prime, as has already been said! We almost never go to target anymore.

Train DH to go grocery shopping with both kids. Took awhile but so worth it!

[vanillacourage]

I put a typed list of what I have to leave the house with (varies each day) taped to the back of the garage door.

We make bottles for daycare the night before, and fill another bottle with the correct amount of water and a shot glass with the right amount of formula powder, set them on our nightstand and then in the 3am haze we just have to dump the shotglass's contents in the bottle and shake vs. going all the way downstairs.

That's all I've got, lol

[jena]

I make lists. I get easily sidetracked and staying focused on the priorities helps me feel more sane. Having the backburner items on my list makes me feel more comfortable because they won't be forgotten. Having a list means DH can ask what's on the list and then he is working to making me feel sane too.

Meal planning. I hate meal planning. Really hate it. But if there is a menu, the food gets bought. If I have food and recipes then DH can at least start the meal prep if not cook the dinner completely.

The only thing we've hired out is yard care. Because as much as DH hates doing yardwork, sleep-deprived me feels like he's getting away with something because he's by himself for a couple hours while I'm in the house with the kids. So he'd come in hot, tired and grumpy and I'd be a raving lunatic bitch. It was not good. Having yard guys magically take care of everything is good.

[Ashley&Scott]

Aug 28, 2012 23:32:35 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Aug 28, 2012 14:36:38 GMT -5 Ashley&Scott said:

Yep it's baby related. DS's sleep went to crap when he started teething around 4 months. Pre-teething he was sleeping in 3-5hr stretches. Now he sleeps in 1-3hr stretches. It is slowly improving, fingers crossed it keeps going in the right direction.

That's a really rough period. But I promise it will get better and then he will STTN and you will feel like a totally different person.

And actually sort of forget how horrible the not sleeping was and be willing to do it again.

Jenny I really hope you're right about the forgetting. At this point DH said there's no way he could do it again

[aspentosh]

Honestly the biggest thing has been grocery delivery. It's so much easier to order groceries online and have them delivered during a 2 hour window than loading up DD and going. Plus it cuts down on unnecessary bad stuff that ends up in the cart

Also, I've realized some things just won't get done. My floors aren't always clean. My windows have smudges. There is always a bottle or two in the sink... As long as we're all clean, fed and happy, that is what matters!

[McGavin]

This is a small thing but I only buy the white Old Navy socks for DD1 and DD2. No matching up socks when folding laundry or no trying to find a match when getting ready. Plus if you lose one it doesn't matter.

H also has one brand of socks so I don't have to match his up either.

[eddy]

Ditto Amazon or shopping online in general. I save so much time by not running errands and shopping. Plus I hate crowds so it is a win/win.

I just accept that my house will be slightly messy always. Once 8 pm hits and my kids are in bed I relax. My house may still look like a tornado hit it but I give myself permission to relax and not do more work for the day. This helps me mentally so much.

[mmmomof2]

I try to keep my laundry perpetually sorted (difficult, but doable). Then when a load gets big enough I start it right before bed. Then I pop it in the dryer when I wake up. If I don't want something to wrinkle I hang it up right away, otherwise I leave the stuff in there until I'm ready to put away.

Also if something only takes a minute I do it right away. Take out trash, empty dishwasher, set coffee maker, wipe down a spill/counter, etc. All those little things add up if you don't do them right away, but to just do it is fairly effortless.

[water*drop]

-Meal planning and prepping food on the weekends - DD is MSPI, so just getting takeout isn't a very easy option for me. I try to plan for leftovers, crockpot meals, or really fast meals for weekdays, and I prep everything that I can (chop the veggies, etc) on Sunday.

-Absolutely everything goes into our shared google calendar

-Prep bottles, clothes, lunches, etc, the night before...and use a coffee pot with a timer on it so it's already brewed when we get up. Knowing that the coffee is ready and waiting for me makes the stumble to the kitchen after a rough night so much better.

-Call a lawn service to mow the lawn if we're having a particularly stressful week

-Straighten up as we walk around the house to do other stuff. If I'm walking past the nursery on my way to the bathroom, I grab DD's random stuff from the living room and drop it off in the nursery on the way. The stuff that I put in the nursery probably won't be put away until the weekend (or the weekend after that...), but at least it's out of the living room. This keeps the "public" parts of our house reasonably organized, which makes me feel a lot less overwhelmed.

[wedbliss5]

FYI - I hate all you peeps with your cleaning service< i hate DH sold on it and then the engine in his Jeep blew-up. Hello second car payment. Wahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile, we pretty much clean if people are coming over, otherwise our house sort of looks like death. Every once in a while I have a compelte stress freak out and make DH help me clean.

Most of my bills are all auto-pay and my CU is in the building I work in. I also menu plan. During the summer, we spend a lot of time at in-laws so we get a chance to sit while DD swims (and they feed us).

I'm sort of getting to the point where I just don't care anymore, which helps.

Don't get me wrong, I still PLAN to be organized and make my lists of things to do, I just don't do most of them. Right now i can tell you the my carpets need to be shampoo'd, my floors need to be cleaned, the dishwasher needs to be emptied and reloaded, the living room furniture needs to be moved back after DH and DD's game of fumble-ruskey 2 days ago, and who the hell makes a bed anymore?

[h]

I just don't worry about what I can't get done--as long as the kids are cared for and happy, we are meeting obligations at work, and we aren't living in complete filth, it's all good. If that means the dishes sit in the sink too long, the laundry doesn't get folded for a week, or every inch of the house is covered in Legos, that's fine. No one will be the worse for it.

We have a housekeeper every two weeks to deal with the heavy cleaning.

I accept more or less any help that is offered and don't micromanage. If my mom or MIL offers to take the kids for a couple days or to come stay with us for a few days, I let them. I know that my mom will feed them too much junk and my MIL will let them watch too much TV, but I also know that they adore my kids (and vice versa) and that they will ensure that my kids are safe, so I just don't worry about it.

I have a six week dinner rotation with a grocery list for each week saved on my computer, so I can just print out the list, go to the store on Sunday, and come home with enough groceries to make five reasonably healthy, quick dinners. I also do a lot of short-cuts when it comes to preparing meals--like buying rotisserie chickens from the deli section and then using the meat to make things like quesadillas, enchiladas, fried rice, etc.

[Deleted]

I am so JEALOUS of those of you who have Amazon Prime. We live out in the boonies, so no trash pickup here. We already order too much from Amazon, the boxes are everywhere! If we ordered more from them, I think DH (who does all the dump runs) would revolt, LOL.

I find having a routine makes life easier for me. It's comforting to me to know that certain things get done every day, every other day, etc.. Laundry is always between DS's two morning naps, he gets bathed on Tuesdays and Fridays, etc... It helps DH too, since he has a stressful job. He knows that certain things are always done without him having to ask, and he can throw in a particular job if I can squeeze it in.

I also meal plan, which helps a lot. We really value fresh, local food made ourselves, and that can get pretty overwhelming if I don't stay on top of it. Farmer's Market and grocery store, prepping dinners, cooking, and cleaning up. I usually go to the Farmer's Market and buy whatever looks good. I then come home and make 6 meals out of those main ingredients and fill in the recipe gaps (citrus, oil, dairy) and take that list to the grocery store.