Mom Hacks

Whether you’re a new mom or a seasoned pro, here are some mom hacks that we have learned—sometimes the hard way—over time that you can start using today.

Mutual Glimmer

We’re going to start with a glimmer today, and it’s a mutual glimmer. It’s a really fun one that hopefully other people can try. Ashlee hadn’t had real family pictures taken for a couple of years, and Rachel has a halfway decent camera. So one day, Rachel said, “Hey, let’s just go to Pioneers Park, and I’ll take your family pictures free of charge. I want to experiment with my camera anyway, so it’ll be something fun for me.”

We were both excited about it. And it was so fun. It went really well.

For not being professional, the photos turned out really good. The other thing that we realized and loved about the experience was that the kids were so comfortable with Rachel. We captured very genuine, real smiles, and we all had just a really great time. Ashlee’s husband left and said, “I think I actually like family pictures now.” Whereas in the past, we showed up and felt very stressed, which the kids sensed, and they felt so pressured to smile at a stranger and capture the perfect moments.

So our takeaway is if you have a friend that is in need—or you want to trade photography services back and forth—just get dressed up and do family pictures. Because proof of mom is so important. So often, we take pictures of our kids, and we have a million pictures them, but we’re not in them. So having proof that I’m there, too, and I’m part of this whole childhood experience is priceless for a mom.

Family Photo Tips

You don’t need a fancy camera to do this. I was visiting family, and they hadn’t had their family pictures yet since having a new baby. I said, “I’m no photographer, but let’s take some pictures.” I shot them on my iPhone and edited them from my phone, too. They turned out very decent, and my family is going to be really grateful that we did it.

For pose ideas, there’s some really great resources on Instagram, or I’m sure on the internet, too. But if you can find some photographers who give you ideas of how to make it fun so that you get the real, genuine smiles and not just the awkward, forced smiles that none of us want to put on our walls.

For example, we stood behind the camera. We told our kids they couldn’t turn around or tag us until they heard the secret number. So we shouted our random numbers, and the kids stood there, excitement building. Finally, we said the magic number and they came running towards us—all with huge smiles.

Another photo tip that worked during our session was having everybody frown at once until someone said the magic word. When someone shouted the magic word, we all smiled. That way, we all smiled at once. In previous family photo shoots, by the time we got our two-year-old to smile, our seven-year-old was done smiling. So getting everybody at the same time was huge, and all the smiles were so big and bright.

Also, for family pictures, I always give out mini marshmallows so that in between pictures we can keep the kids’ attention and interest with marshmallow breaks. Everybody stays upbeat and positive and the treat isn’t messy.

Leave Socks & Diapers on Main Floor

For other mom hacks, we’re going to start around the house. In my two-story house, I have socks. I’ve learned to socks on the main floor. Because when it’s about time to leave and I tell them to put on their shoes and socks, usually the kids are like, “I don’t want to go back upstairs. Mommy, will you come with me?” Instead, I just keep a whole bin of socks on the main floor. Easy peasy.

Same with diapers. We have our diaper bin upstairs, but we also have a spot to keep diapers on the main floor so you don’t have to run back and forth around the house. So just make it easy. You don’t need to make life more complicated.

Make an Art Cart

I stole this idea from Rachel because it was such a great idea. Every time my family comes in the house, the kids can easily go over to this art cart and grab whatever they need to stay occupied while I’m making dinner or finishing another task.

The art cart is just a rolling cart. It’s three tiers. I got it on Amazon. It’s full of markers, paper, stickers, and any other non-messy making materials. We organize or restock it about every three weeks. And we always keep it in the same room as us because humans want to be around each other most of the time, especially littles.

Keep & Display Art

Obviously, you can’t keep everything your kids make. Lots of art is made in this home, especially my oldest, so we have little binders for each age. I’ll have “Ellie’s Art, Age 4” as a folder and “Ellie’s Art, Age Five,” as another folder. That way, she can reference back to her work as she gets older.

And she knows our system. She’ll ask, “Are you going to put this in my file?” So, if she worked really hard on something and is really proud of it, we put it in her file. A good way of knowing whether or not to save it is if they’re feeling like it deserves to be in the file, we put it in the file.

And Ashlee, who has older kids who don’t create as much art as quickly as littles, puts their artwork up on the wall by the art cart, and everything stays up there for a long time. Once the picture has faded or needs to be replaced, we pull them down, and they’re not sad about it because they’ve seen them enough at that point. To hang the artwork, we just use tape. Nothing special. I don’t use a special frame or anything like that. We just tape them on the wall, and the kids love it all the same.

Or if you don’t like to keep anything paper, I have a friend who takes pictures of all of her kids’ artwork and creates a chat book, a digital version of their pieces—which is great if you ever wanted to print it again.

Organize Childhood Mementos

Going along with my artwork system, I have a tub in the basement for each kid. So three big tubs, each filled with files, each file with a year—kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, everything. I have them all prepped up until 12th grade, which makes me so sad to think about. Oh gosh, they’re going to be that old someday soon—sooner than I would like.

Anything that comes home from school—school pictures, report cards, whatever it is that I want to keep—goes in the binder. The preschool years are real full, and then it lightens up as they get older. I also have in there a “Tooth Fairy” file, where I keep in their little certificates from the Tooth Fairy and a “Letters From Santa” file.

If you don’t already have a system like this in place and want to adopt it but are feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone. The thing I’ve learned is if you just do a little bit at a time, it’s not so stressful. You don’t need to organize your whole kids’ childhood at once.

Use a Hair Caddy

We talked about an art cart already, and it’s a similar concept, but because we both have girls, we use hair caddies. All three of my kids, even my son, use this. It’s great.

Half the time, our daughters are not going to go into the bathroom again once they’ve left the bathroom, or trying to get them both in the small bathroom at the same time is nearly impossible. Hence a little box or a caddy! We just keep brushes, mousse, gel, hair brushes, ponytail holders, little clips—and of course glitter—in it.

I love doing my kids’ hair. It’s like a creative outlet for me. So having all the supplies on hand is really helpful. Often, I will do their hair when they’re having their breakfast. They want to be doing something while I’m doing their hair.

For the longest time, I could not get my middle child to even let me brush her hair. And she looked a little bit homeless for a couple years, but she didn’t care. It was one of those battles that wasn’t worth fighting. We just kept her hair really short during those times. But now she’s at that point where she’s letting me brush it and she’s brushing it, but only while she’s doing something else.

My daughter started piano about a year ago, and she’s supposed to practice ten minutes a day. That’s about how long it takes me to do her hair, so I do her hair while she practices piano. It’s a win-win because then she has an audience. She’s not sitting by herself playing for no one.

Kids watch what you do with the older kids. So now my two-year-old asks me, “Mommy, can you do my hair? Mommy?” She’s begging for me to do her hair.

DIY Haircuts

We each have one boy, and we’re really grateful that we taught ourselves how to give our boys haircuts. It saves $20 for a little haircut every two to three weeks. That adds up over the course of a year. To get the trimmer on Amazon, it’s not pricey. Plus then you can cut it the way that you want to have it cut, too. I just set an iPad in front of him while we do it, and that usually works really well. And our husbands can cut their own hair as well.

Buy Secondhand Clothes

Speaking of finances with kids, used clothes. We use second-hand clothes anytime we can. Rachel and I have actually have been sharing clothes back and forth for a while now. Her little boy is one year older than Levi, and my girls are older than her girls, so we drop off clothes that our kids have grown out of that are still in really good condition. It brings me joy to see that the clothing is being used again. We recommend finding someone you can clothing swap with or using Once Upon A Child.

Another thing with clothes that I really love to do is take full advantage of my credit card through Old Navy. It doesn’t have to be Old Navy. It can be anywhere that you love, but Old Navy is a really good one that I just build up rewards points on and then get free clothes over and over and over again for my kids from Old Navy. It’s basically free clothes, and it feels good to know that what you’re using rewards on is stuff that you really need.

Pack Extra Clothes

I feel really strongly about this one. I always keep spare clothes, whether it’s underwear and a dress or shirt and shorts, in my car or in my backpack any time we go to do a play date or outside the house. The reason I do that is because I never want my kids to feel like they can’t play when they’re outside.

If they get muddy or if they get spilled on or if they get messy, it’s no stress. We can just say, “Hey, no problem, I’ve got extra clothes.” Maybe there’s a fountain that we didn’t know was going to be there. Cool, go play in it. We’ve got extra clothes when we get back to the car, and that has relieved the stress on my mind so much and allowed me to let my kids enjoy their childhood in that way.

This is another good plug for used clothes because you’re not stressed about the condition of their clothes. You can keep your nice clothes for when you need them.

Set Up Inside Mailboxes

I was getting overwhelmed with mail. It would come in to our house, but there were times where I would want John to see the mail too. But we wouldn’t catch each other during the week, so the mail would pile up. It was so messy, and I felt bad.

So, we created a spot for an in-house mailbox. Now, as soon as the mail comes in, I sort it immediately. Stuff that I don’t care about goes in the trash right away, and I put stuff that I have questions about in our box. I also put anything that the kids bring home from school that they want to show me that Dad hasn’t seen yet in that same spot.

On Sunday, John and I take 30 minutes to go through the mail together. That way, John can also see the work that the kids are doing. So far, it’s been really great. I think he feels more in tune with what they’re doing and we’re more on the same page about what bills are coming up. Sometimes, finances can fall on one or the other in a couple, but it can be overwhelming when that person is having a hard week or a hard month. With this mailbox, you guys are on the same page about finances at least once a week.

On the bottom is coupons, grocery stuff, and meal-related things. Any coupons that come in the mail go in the bottom. That way, for times when I don’t know what to do for dinner, I go to the coupons before looking anywhere else to try and financially help. Dining out these days is not cheap.

Cook in the Afternoon

Ashlee and I both came to the realization not too long ago that if we’re going to cook a dinner for our family, it’s really hard to do after school. When we pick up our kids, the house just gets busy. There’s noise. There’s homework. There’s after-school activities. On those days, it’s nearly impossible to cook.

So we’ve realize that if we cook at, like, 2:00 PM, the cooking will actually get done.We have a window right before school pickup from 2:00 to 3:00 that’s our time to get meals ready for the evening when there’s a little bit of a lull in the day. It’s been a game-changer. I have cooked so much more this school year than I ever have before.

And all it took for that realization to hit me was just someone saying, “Don’t cook dinner at dinner time. That’s your problem.” And it was my problem because I want to be there for my kids when they come home from school. That’s a really special time, and they’re so excited to talk to you. The last thing I want to do is be distracted with figuring out a meal to make.

Have Weekly Schedules on the Fridge

If you have little ones who have lots of activities, especially in the summertime, I recommend weekly schedules on the fridge. Our schedules change week by week in the summer, but during the school year, they’re pretty consistent. For summer months, we might be doing camp one week and a wedding the next weekend. So I print out our schedule and create the schedule with my littles.

I pull up pictures and involve them in the process. So, for example, if we have gymnastics on Thursdays, we get on Google and we type in “gymnastics clip art” and they find the little gymnast that they like, and we print it off and put it on the fridge. I also write the words for my older one that can read.

A lot of times, kids have no idea what’s going on and they feel helpless in the schedule. This gives them a little ownership in their day.

Plan Early for Holidays

Our last life hack is very timely. We’re already talking about Christmas, even though it’s October. We’re not like trying to push Christmas too quickly by any means. We’re actually trying to do the opposite a little. We’ll explain why.

I feel like Christmas kind of can catch up on us. Planning ahead and getting your Christmas lists and shopping started now is really helpful, first of all, financially because you’re spacing the purchases out. So if you’re going to buy a few things in September, a few things in October, a few things in November, a few things in December, instead of doing everything in December, all that money doesn’t come out of one paycheck. Taking your purchases and spacing them out makes it a little easier on your family financially.

It also is just easier for me mentally to feel like I have most of it done already. I know it’s down in my basement and wrapped. Everything is ready to go, and I can enjoy the holidays and not feel stressed. I have so many things to do and get ready for the holidays that I can’t even enjoy the fun and the beauty that it is.

Whatever way you want to purchase your gifts, whether it’s Black Friday or Prime Days or just seasonal sales, finding those little ways that you can get ahead so you really can soak up the special holiday time with your kids and not stress financially is so worth it.

So much falls on us as mothers to create this magic during the holidays, and we want it to be just that—magical, not stressful. So thinking a couple months ahead might seem a little early. But honestly, we think it will pay dividends in the long run, for sure.

What are your best parenting or life hacks as a mom? Drop them in the comments. We would love to hear your ideas, and we might do another post with more life hacks in the future.