What are your "do it all" life hacks?

@holyspiritleads2truth On addition to other suggestions made, I now have appts for the stores where we get things. I used to not want an app for everything, but it's so much easier to see that we're low on something and just go order it or add it to the cart than to make a mental note to do that later.
 
@holyspiritleads2truth
  1. You cant do it all. Accept it. Your house will not be spotless for many years. But also I've seen SAHMs houses and they aren't clean either- living in a house all day makes so it much messier than leaving it for 9 hours a day! When you have small kids you're gonna have mess. Lowering standards is my first hack.
  2. Leftovers. We only cook 2-3 times a week (and try for those to be weekend nights as much as possible). Cook 2x or 3x the recipe and then just reheat and eat leftovers all week. On Sunday we also make a batch of chicken (cube, marinate, saute) for weekday lunches (I put it on salad) and breakfast casseroles. The biggest time drain is going from work to cooking to eating to cleaning and by the time that's done the night is over. Cook bigger batches and yeah you might spend a few extra minutes chopping but the next night you don't have to cook or wash dishes, except a few plates (dishwasher).
  3. Roomba. Tidy up toys then run the Roomba a few times a week.
  4. Daycare extracurriculars. If you can find a daycare that offers extracurriculars (my son does a weekly cooking class, my daughter did dance) then that's one more thing they get to do but you don't have to do in the evenings.
 
@holyspiritleads2truth My biggest hack was a combo of things.

One (and this was when I was six weeks postpartum with my first and losing my mind with anxiety) take a shower and reset at the end of the day. Sounds dumb but having that time at the end of the day helped me prioritize other things and mentally made a huge difference and it also meant relying on my very willing and capable husband to help. Having someone help was a huge struggle for me.

Two, I can’t “do it all” so (and this ties back to number one) I need to decide the most important things and be flexible with the rest.

Three, remind myself that I’m enough and I deserve to set aside time for me. That turned into training for a half marathon. I had to get up at 4:45 and run in the dark, but it was my time and no one else could have it. Now that I’m not training I don’t run as much but if I’m up early I run instead of catching up on the day before and mentally I feel better.
 
@holyspiritleads2truth Outsource as many things as possible and remember there will always be more work to do. The 2nd one is my new motto and I don’t bother working as late or as many weekends anymore because - there will always be more work to do regardless of when I do it lol
 
@holyspiritleads2truth My husband I took a few hours to determine every single thing that needs to happen to keep the house in order, and how often it needs to be done (everything from daily countertop wipe downs to weekly bedding and towel laundry to quarterly air filter replacements). We put all of it in Todoist, and now we don’t have that overhead feeling of “something needs to be done right now” because we know it’s on the schedule. If we catch something that needs to be done that isn’t scheduled, we just do it and schedule it for a time when it makes sense to do it again. It’s been a major relief of emotional labor for both of us.
 
@holyspiritleads2truth My biggest hack is family vacations. We do long weekends away monthly and week-long trips quarterly. The mental reset is a special gift, and it allows us to continually feel very connected with each other and confident in our approach to family life.
 
@sharifa0725 We just got into a nice groove of it naturally at first and it was feeling really good for our marriage and and confidence as parents. Tip wise I would say that having places you like to go within a reasonable driving distance makes it more obtainable for the long weekends, we save the flying for the bigger trips. We also ended up getting cheap travel versions of most of the baby essentials so that we weren’t packing his whole life up every time we left - P&P, stroller, high chair, monitor that doesn’t use WiFi for easy set up. How old is your kid(s)?
 
@holyspiritleads2truth Not really a life hack, but more of a survival strategy: coffee, antidepressants, pain meds and a heating pad. Then acceptance - every time you are successful in one area it is because something else is taking a back seat. Try to celebrate the little successes and let go of the failures. As long as you find the balance that works for you, you're doing fine.
 
@holyspiritleads2truth I recently read how to keep home while drowning and loved it.

Your house and systems exist to serve you, not the other way around. An example was don't fold baby clothes. Why am I folding onesies?! It doesn't matter if they are wrinkled and honestly they don't really wrinkle. Also, outsource what you can. Meals, cleaning, laundry, after school care. If you can afford it, do it.
 
@holyspiritleads2truth Honestly I'm at a loss. And it's not like my husband doesn't help he does but between my 2 year my 2 dogs and my pregnancy I feel like I'm being pulled in 17 directions. And of course the 2 year old wants mommy only and my dogs were both hand raised from like 3 weeks old by me so they're super attached and pretty much will only eat and go potty for me since we moved a couple months ago and I'm pretty sure I'm going to actually tear into several pieces soon 😴😴😴😴😴
 
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