Mom life is the best life, the blessed life, the messy bun life. It can also be the busy, overwhelming, stressful, and complicated life. Finding ways to simplify your life as a mom can help you streamline your days and experience less stress or overwhelm. Here are 101 ways to simplify your life as a mom.
This list is by no means exhaustive, so feel free to add your suggestions in the comments below.
The list is organized by the following sections. Click on a section to jump to it:
🍋 RESET
Simplify your life as a mom by taking some time to reset particular areas of your life.
1 | Put your bills on autopay.
This way you never fall behind or miss a payment
2 | Jot down something you’re thankful for each day.
This can help to keep perspective in the midst of the busyness of life.
3 | Make your bed every day.
If you have a rough day, at least you can crawl into a made bed that night.
4 | Take a digital sabbath.
Abstain from devices and screens for a set amount of time each day or each week
5 | Get out in nature.
Go to the park. Take a walk. Lay on the grass (or on a picnic blanket) and enjoy the sunshine.
6 | Have a picnic.
Slow down and enjoy the simple things in life by enjoying a family picnic outside.
7 | Clean out your purse and your car.
These two areas usually don’t get much attention. To simplify the process, choose the first day or last day of every month to clean out your purse and the inside of your car. It will give those spaces a much-needed reset.
8 | Try a no-spend challenge.
9 | Make time for self-care.
10 | Spring clean your home.
11 | Do a monthly or quarterly audit.
Audit your time, goals, commitments, and priorities. Audit whatever you deem important in your life.
12 | Unsubscribe from emails that no longer serve you.
And be subscribed to emails that DO serve you. Ahem, might I suggest the Simplifying Mom Life email newsletter?
13 | Unsubscribe from subscriptions.
Whether it’s subscriptions that no longer serve you or ones that eat up your monthly budget, be empowered to unsubscribe.
14 | Unfollow people.
From social media accounts that you’re no longer interested in to unfriending people on Facebook.
15 | Delete apps from your phone that you don’t need.
16 | Consider your current habits.
Are there some habits you’ve fallen into that you’d like to change? Are there habits you’ve been interested in creating in your life right now? Reassess your habitual living and if you’d like to make changes.
17 | Define your family mission statement, core values, and priorities.
Knowing what you truly value will help you to better focus on what aligns with those values and to prioritize.
18 | Say no more often.
To the things that don’t align with that mission statement.
19 | Consider what you could cut out of your life or do less of in a way that would instantly benefit you.
20 | Learn something new.
Variety is the spice of life and sometimes we simply get into a rut. Reset your life by picking up something new to learn about, explore, or try.
📋 ROUTINES
Effective routines help our lives run on autopilot. We know what to do and when to do it because of our routine. Plus, we all know that kids thrive on routines. Here are some ideas that you can implement in your routines to simplify your life as a mom.
21 | Outsource what you can (laundry, cleaning, errands, etc).
Check out Task Rabbit, Care.com, and other such sites for outsourcing.
22 | Use Curbside Pickup or Grocery Delivery.
Use curbside pickup or delivery for your groceries. Then you don’t even need to leave your car and schlep your kids inside the store with you. You also may not buy as much since you won’t be tempted by things inside the store.
23 | Set yourself up for morning success.
Lay out your clothes the night before including jewelry and make-up. We know this will help us of course but getting into the habit of doing it is another thing. Set aside 5 minutes after you brush your teeth each night to lay out everything for the next morning. Make it part of your evening routine. Prep the coffee pot. Have the lunches in lunchboxes in the fridge so you can grab them and go.
24 | Pick out the kids’ clothes for the week.
A simple way is to punch a hole at the top of some index cards and label the cards with the days of the week. Then hang the hole punched part over the kids’ clothes hangers to delineate the outfits for each day. You can even cut holes in gallon Ziploc bags and put their socks and underwear in the bags. Then hang the bags over the hangers for each day.
25 | Create a bathroom caddy for each kid.
Label the side of the caddy with their name on one side and their morning routine on the other side. It could be: 1. Brush teeth 2. Brush hair 3. Wash face.
26 | Follow an evening routine that truly relaxes you.
Scrolling your phone until midnight is not a great way to fill your cup, even though we’ve all done it before. It’s not truly relaxing, yet it’s so easy to mindlessly get caught into the digital vortex until we can’t believe an hour has passed. Plus, the blue light on the screen can leave us wired even if we’re super tired. Find an evening routine that truly relaxes you and follow it. Maybe it’s reading a book, taking a hot shower, lighting a candle, or drinking a cup of tea. Honestly, as busy as mom life is, sometimes it’s nice to just sit and do nothing!
27 | Set the breakfast table the night before.
Then everything will be ready as much as possible!
28 | Drink at least 64 oz. of water per day.
I personally like to have a 32 oz. bottle of water with me at all times. Then, to ensure that I drink at least 64 oz. each day, I fill it up twice.
29 | Strive to get 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep each night.
30 | Dedicate time for family time.
Do it in a way that’s sustainable for your family.
31 | Streamline gift-giving.
At the beginning of each calendar year, many moms like to write in special celebrations like birthdays, so that they won’t forget. Knowing them in advance definitely helps, but you could take it a step further and pick out the actual gifts in advance as well. Here are 130 Clutter-Free Gift Ideas for Any Occasion – for birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, or just because.
32 | Choose your go-to products.
It could be makeup, skincare, toiletries, household products, or cleaning products. Choose your go-to products and just buy those when you’re out of something. It cuts down on decision fatigue, you can favorite them in your shopping app, and you can more easily budget without over-spending.
33 | Get your kids to help out.
You don’t even have to do reward charts or allowance or anything – unless you want to! There are age-appropriate chores for kids of all ages.
34 | Have go-to hairstyles.
Simplify your morning routine by having go-to hairstyles that are low maintenance. As a mom it seems like there’s hardly time to shower and do your hair. I like keeping headbands and satin hair scrunchies with bows on hand to spruce up a ponytail or cover up oily hair.
35 | Create seasonal bucket lists.
Not sure what to do with your kids sometimes? Create seasonal bucket lists and refer to them whenever you’re not sure what family activity to do or how to spend time together.
36 | Use a timer.
A good way to get a task done by focusing solely on that task until the timer goes off. As much as you can, of course, because child interruptions certainly do happen.
37 | Write down the 3 most important items for the day.
Whether it’s the top 3 items on your to-do list, or intentionally spending quality time with your kids, focus on 3 items for the day. If more gets done beyond those 3, it’s awesome. If not, at least you know where to pick up tomorrow.
38 | Try sleeping in your clothes.
This is an odd one, but I heard it from a fellow mom. As a mom, you could sleep in your workout clothes so you’re ready for a morning workout the next day. That is, if you’re someone who exercises in the morning.
39 | Stick to a set bedtime and wake-up time.
One of the easiest ways to simplify your daily routine is to keep a regular bedtime and wake-up time. I understand that with little ones this can be difficult, since you can’t always control whether or not your kids will wake you up in the middle of the night. However, as a mom it is possible to have control over WHEN you go to bed and WHEN you wake up. The younger your kids are, the more important this is to do for your own sleep and sanity. It may help reset your circadian rhythm.
40 | Get dressed as soon as you get out of bed.
This may not be what you imagine doing on your “ideal morning” but oftentimes as a mom, it’s one of the few factors that we can control in streamlining our morning. If you don’t want to sleep in your clothes, simply pick out your clothes the night before and get dressed immediately the next morning.
👕 MANAGING STUFF
Owning too much stuff quickly complicates our lives. Unfortunately, owning stuff is a part of having kids and a family life. Here are a few tips and strategies to simplify your life as a mom by simplifying the stuff in your life.
41 | Be prepared for emergencies.
First things first. When it comes to the stuff you keep inside your home (or car), an emergency kit should be in your possession. Be sure that you have a 72-hour emergency kit for earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, or whatever happens in your neck of the woods.
42 | Have a first aid kit on hand.
Keep one in your purse, diaper bag, and car. That way, you can easily administer what your kids need if they get hurt when you’re outside of the house. Of course, be sure to have first aid items and medicine inside your home too.
43 | Replenish medicine & first aid supplies yearly.
Set a time each year to go through the medicine and first aid supplies. Throw out expired medicine, restock the Band-Aids, gauze, allergy medicine, ibuprofen, Band-Aids, rubbing alcohol, Neosporin, etc.
44 | Deal with mail immediately.
Deal with the mail clutter before you set it down anywhere in your home. Make it a habit to head to the trash can and/or recycling as soon as you bring in the mail. Sort the pieces of mail right there on the spot: keep, trash, recycle. The keep pile should be all that remains.
45 | Go paperless.
It will save you so much time and energy. Once you have a paperless system set up you could have at most just a small bin for hanging files to keep a few pertinent documents or records. Mostly everything is digital nowadays so modern life lends itself to going paperless.
46 | Streamline your closet.
A decluttered closet allows you to easily choose what to wear in the morning (or the night before). It reduces decision fatigue so you can save your brain power for your top priorities.
47 | Adopt a “mom wardrobe” that fits your lifestyle.
Keep it simple with the color palette and options that mix and match.
48 | Declutter your home room-by-room.
Owning less is always a good idea if you want to find ways to simplify your life as a mom. Try a room-by-room approach.
49 | Try reverse decluttering.
50 | Try a 30-Day Declutter Challenge.
51 | Identify clutter hotspots.
Then make a specific home for the items that tend to end up in those hotspots.
52 | Declutter your kids’ toys.
Kids play better with less toys. Decluttering the toys could buy you precious time to relax and maybe even have a moment to drink a hot cup of something.
53 | Setup a toy rotation for your kids.
This works best for kids between the ages of 2 and 4. Have a bin of toys for each day of the week and only let your child play with those toys for that day. Having less toys to focus on at a time helps them to play longer by reducing distractions.
54 | Hide toys in plain sight.
Let’s be honest. Our kids play with toys wherever we are – not necessarily in the designated spot for toys. But you can hide toys in plain sight with these creative ideas. Or you could organize toys without a playroom with these tips.
55 | Create a capsule wardrobe for your kids.
Capsule wardrobes are an easy way to simplify your kids’ wardrobe. Just choose mix and match options and there’s less of a chance that your kids will pick out clothes that clash. It may even help you save money on clothes since you can make more outfits with less.
56 | Reduce your laundry load.
Not sure how to simplify your laundry system? Check out these 7 quick tips to make the laundry more manageable. Now, if only it could go away all together!
57 | Setup a system for outgrown toys and clothes.
Organize your kids closet so that there’s a built-in spot for next size clothes and outgrown clothes. Beyond having a bin on hand in the kids closet, it’s good to figure out what system works best for your family for outgrown clothes. Because we have very little storage space in our home, we actually don’t store hand-me-downs in plastic storage bins.
58 | Keep a Donation Box on Hand.
59 | Declutter & Organize your Kitchen.
An organized kitchen will save you time and energy in looking for things. It means there’s a place for everything and everything is in its place.
60 | Set up a Digital Photo Organization System.
Don’t worry about the years and years’ worth of photos from the past. Decide on a simple photo organization system and start it today.
It may require a new habit, and you can start that today too. Maybe it’s deleting duplicates from that month on the first of every month. Maybe it’s moving the favorites from that month into a favorites album that can then be made into a family album at the end of the year. You decide on a simple system and start today. It will simplify your life going forward.
If you want to tackle years’ worth of physical photos, check out how I organized a storage bin full of childhood photos. Or, here are 10 ideas for ridiculously easy photo organization for moms.
61 | Simplify memory-keeping with a Kids’ Keepsake Kit.
Put your kids’ school and birthday memories into binders with this printable Kids’ Keepsake Kit from my Etsy shop.
🍴 IN THE KITCHEN
Since the kitchen is the heart of the home, simplifying your kitchen will inevitably simplify your life as a mom. Here are some tips to help you figure out what in the world you’re going to feed these people 3 times a day for the rest of your life.
62 | Set up a kids’ breakfast station.
Get a cereal dispenser from Amazon to make it as easy as possible for kids to self-serve their own breakfast in the mornings. If the milk carton is too heavy for them, you could get a small carafe or a lemonade dispenser for simple self-serving.
63 | Set up a kids’ snack station.
Have a small spot in the fridge for cold snacks and a spot in the pantry for dry goods snacks.
64 | Meal plan for snacks.
You may not want your kids having access to snacks all the time. But you don’t want them constantly asking if they can have a snack. Simplify the snack situation with a weekly rotation of after-school snacks. It can include the weekends too. This will reduce your kids asking if they can have a snack and what they can have as a snack. This works if your kids aren’t in school, since most childcare centers have a snack meal plan.
65 | Pack lunches for the week on Sunday nights.
66 | Pack tomorrow’s lunches at dinnertime.
Don’t want to pack an entire week’s worth of food on Sunday? No problem. Simplify your life by packing the next day’s lunches at dinnertime while you’re in food prep and clean-up mode.
67 | Make and freeze PBJ sandwiches.
Then they will always be on hand in case you’re running late or need to quickly pack a school lunch for your child. They’ll be the right temperature by lunch time. While you’re at it, you can freeze tubes of yogurt and bags of grapes in advance as well. They will all be the right temperature by lunch time.
68 | Meal plan for kids’ school lunches.
When I think of meal planning, I usually think of dinner. But it helped me to break up my meal planning into separate endeavors or lists. There’s a meal plan for dinner, a meal plan for my husband’s lunch, a meal plan for kids’ lunches, and a meal plan for after school snacks. I keep them on separate pages when I meal plan (old school style with pen and paper). That way, I don’t get overwhelmed at the thought of planning 3 meals a day – plus snacks – for our whole family.
69 | Prep Sheet Pan Dinners in a Ziploc Bag.
Then, when you get home all you need to do is dump the contents of the bag onto a baking sheet, pop it in the oven, and spend time doing whatever you’d like while it’s cooking. Of course, it does take time to prep the freezer bags of sheet pan dinners. However, you could potentially prep a few weeks’ worth to further save yourself time and energy.
70 | Prep Crockpot Meals in advance.
Much like the sheet pan dinners, Crockpot meals and instant pot meals can be prepped in gallon-size bags. Then when you’re ready just pop them in the cooking pot of your choice.
71 | Rotate through 10-12 simple meals.
Meals don’t have to knock your socks off. Most often it’s the simple, fool-proof meals that everyone eats and enjoys. Simple meals like tacos, chili, chicken noodle soup, and spaghetti with meatballs are usually a hit. Come up with 10-12 simple meals you know your family enjoys and rotate through them. Then just follow that rotation. Of course, tailor it to your unique dietary needs.
72 | Cook meals with 5 ingredients or less.
Tired of the same meals in your meal rotation? Throw in one or two new meals with less than 5 ingredients and it will spice things up just enough. Yet still keep things simple.
73 | Utilize a meal planning app.
74 | Buy reusable kitchen items.
The kitchen is an area where we tend to buy a lot of disposable products. Things like sponges, Saran wrap, aluminum foil, paper towels, or Ziploc bags. But it can save time, money, and the environment to purchase reusable items. I’ve recently switched over to reusable items and it’s saved us money! Not to mention that I don’t come home from the store and say, “oh no, I forgot to get more (fill in the disposable item).” Amazon and Etsy are great places to find reusable kitchen products. Here are some products you can replace with reusable items:
- Sponges – washable sponges from Amazon
- Saran wrap – reusable bowl covers from Etsy
- Aluminum foil – silicone baking sheets
- Paper towels – reusable towels from Etsy
- Ziploc bags – Stasher silicone bags – these are amazing!!! (and perfect for school lunches)
75 | Only grocery shop once a week.
Reducing the shopping to once a week sounds difficult at first if you’re used to picking up different things at the store a few times a week. However, with a bit of planning, it can truly simplify your life. It could even be game-changing!
76 | Simplify your Tupperware situation.
Related to the above point, simplifying your food storage will greatly simplify your life as a mom. Choose only 1-2 (3 at the most) different sizes or styles of Tupperware and only own those. Conversely, you can find sets of silicone reusable zipper bags that nest inside each other to store your leftovers in. Or your prepped freezer meals.
77 | Purchase or DIY pre-chopped veggies.
If you have the room in your budget, purchase Pre-Chopped Veggies to have on hand for recipes or taco night. If you’d like to save money, pre-chop your own veggies in bulk and freeze them in separate baggies to then grab and defrost as needed.
78 | Make breakfast in bulk.
Muffins, pancakes, burritos, scrambled eggs, hash browns, frozen smoothie bags, waffles, or breakfast sandwiches can all be made in bulk each weekend or once a month. If it’s too time-consuming you could still prepare certain parts of the breakfast meal in bulk.
79 | Use Dollar Tree shower caps for food covers.
Have a bowl or pan that didn’t come with a cover? Grab a pack of shower caps the next time you’re at the Dollar Tree and use those instead! They also come in handy to cover food for cookouts.
80 | Put things where you will look for them.
This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s all too common to have things stored in our kitchen in a way that’s not conducive to how we operate. So, create a “drink zone” inside a cabinet near your coffee pot or blender. Everything related to drinks, smoothies, or coffee gets stored in that zone. Or use the cabinet above the stove for platters and special occasion dishware. Store silverware in a drawer that’s close to the dishwash to streamline unloading. Make a “to-go” area as the home for plastic bags, Tupperware, or lunch boxes.
81 | Use theme nights.
You could use theme nights like “meatless Monday” or taco Tuesday.” Alternatively, you could do theme nights like “sheet pan dinner night” or “crockpot night.”
🌟 MOM HACKS
I’m a sucker for a good mom hack. I don’t claim to know a ton, but here are 20 that I’ve found useful. Hopefully these mom hacks can help simplify your life as a mom too!
82 | Put your kids’ socks next to their shoes.
This was nothing short of a game-changer for me personally. Instead of storing your kids’ socks in the drawers or closets with their clothes and underwear, store them where their shoes are. That’s right. Put the socks where the shoes are. Genius. We use a few small bins that I picked up at the Dollar Tree. It’s the small tweaks that can have the biggest impact. Am I right?
83 | Put kids’ hair stuff in the pantry.
This might seem weird, or dare I say gross, at first, but it’s another game-changing mom hack. I keep a small basket of the daily tools I need to style my daughters’ hair in the pantry. Then I can easily do both the girls’ hair during breakfast. I use a large caddy to store all their other hair accoutrements besides the daily basics.
84 | Set up a “random pieces” bin.
This bin could be for toys, kid stuff, broken items, or anything for that matter. If you tend to find random pieces of stuff that belong to your kids, have a small bin or basket where those random items can be placed in the meantime. Then, when you need that missing puzzle piece, you can check the random pieces bin.
85 | Use a ChooMee Top when using squeezable pouches.
These tops made by ChooMee make it so that the squeezable pouches can’t be spilled everywhere by your toddler.
86 | Get a pancake batter dispenser to use for Saturday morning breakfasts.
Or when you have breakfast for dinner.
87 | Create sensory bins for your little ones.
These can provide at least 30 minutes of entertainment – which is a lot for a toddler! Fill a plastic shoebox with dried pinto beans and a few sand toys and they will go to town digging, pouring, and filling.
88 | Wear a robe over your work clothes in the morning.
It will protect your clothes from spills, spit up, or general kid messes.
89 | Put stickers in your kids’ shoes.
Cut a big sticker in half and put them inside your kids’ shoes to help them know right from left. It can speed up kiddos that want to put their shoes on all by themselves but struggle to do so.
90 | Create an emergency drawer at work.
Running late and didn’t have time for breakfast? Keep a few shelf-stable breakfast foods like oatmeal or granola bars in an “emergency” drawer at work. You could also include lotion, feminine hygiene products, mints, and anything else you want to have on hand.
91 | Keep an emergency “fun kit” in the car.
Grab a spiral notebook, pencil pouch, and a pack of crayons next time you’re at the store and keep them in your car. Then when the kids are bored in the car or waiting at a restaurant for the food, you will have a “fun kit” on hand to keep them occupied. The “fun kit” could be as elaborate or simple as you want it to be. For toddlers, a Water Wow would work well.
92 | Have an emergency plan for overwhelmed mom days.
You know those days when you feel like you’re struggling in survival mode, feel like a hot mess, and just need a few minutes to yourself? Sometimes those days feel like every day. Have a backup plan, or two, that can be your go-to on those days. Maybe it’s a special bag of toys for your toddler that they don’t always have access to. Perhaps it’s a kids’ tablet. Magna tiles or balloons are things that kids of all ages enjoy playing with. Or it may be that simply getting out of the house and going to a nearby park is your go-to when all else fails. Usually allowing the kids to get some fresh air and some energy out will help everyone sleep well that night.
93 | Record quotes from your kids in a Google doc.
Instead of using a traditional notebook to jot down funny and interesting things my kids say, I record them in a Google doc. That way, it’s always with me on my phone and I can use the microphone to speak into it to record it more easily. The pen and paper method is pretty, but I realized I would need to remember it to jot it down later. If it’s on a Google doc, I can just print it out and easily include it in a memory book or baby book.
94 | Use the Dot System for hand-me-downs.
I heard about the “hand-me-down dot system” from Jordan Page. While I don’t have 8 kids like she does, I like her mom hack of marking a dot (with a Sharpie) on all clothing and shoes each time the items are passed down to the next child. She knows that the 2nd oldest daughter is the one wearing clothes and shoes with 2 dots and so on. Watch her video for more info.
95 | Buy all white sheets & towels.
Buying all white sheet sets and towels can simplify your life as a mom because then you can wash them all in a large load on hot and add bleach to keep the whites, white.
96 | Get a mini car vacuum.
Amazon has a few options that are portable and meant to be used in your car. Check out this one with over 211k reviews!
97 | Keep a kids’ travel potty in the trunk of your car.
My favorite portable travel potty for kids is the Potette Potty, because it’s great for potty training. It’s also great for older kids that need to use the restroom at places where it might not be as convenient, like a farmer’s market or something.
98 | Use bins instead of drawers for kids.
Instead of using drawers or hangers for your kids, store their clothes in cubby units with bins. Organize the bins by category. So, a bin for shirts, a bin for pants, a bin for pj’s, etc. It doesn’t have to be all folded or perfect, which is why this system works best for little kids. It increases their independence, which they love, and takes something off your workload, which is a win-win!
99 | Use Glad Press ‘N Seal for Kids’ Messes.
Cover the kids’ arts and crafts table with Glad Press ‘N Seal. Then if it’s covered in paint or glitter, you can just fold it up and throw it away. Easy peasy!
100 | Use a pencil case to store on-the-go items.
Fill a pencil case with snacks for kids to eat after school or on the way to extracurricular activities. Store first aid supplies in a pencil case for your car. Or use a pencil case to store feminine products in your purse.
101 | Use your phone alarm.
The alarms on your phone can be used to remind you to leave in time to get to where you need to be, to defrost the chicken, or to help remind you of school picture day.
Which tip will you use?
Whew! What a list. If you made it this far, I hope you found something useful that you can implement in your own life to further simplify your life as a mom. If you have any tips or hacks that you’d like to add, please share in the comments section!
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