I'll be the first to admit, I'm not the most organised person when it comes to home life, in fact my house is a little bit chaotic. This is something I am desperate to work on because mess causes stress and as a busy mum of two, I could definitely use less stress in my life. As a parent, it is a known fact you will rarely leave the house on time, it was bad enough when we had one baby but now we have two it takes us four times as long. Yes you read that right, not twice as long, but four times as long. Not only do I have to get myself ready, I have to feed two babies, change two sets of nappies, dress two kids and pack a bag for them both! Getting out is like a military operation in this house! I shout a lot, I frantically search for missing items (normally George's shoes), and to top it off I have to get both of them in my bulky double pram or one in a pram and one in a sling! My washing pile is now ginormous (seriously, how much washing can a newborn accumulate?!), my sink is full of bottles and plastic dishes. So what do I do to manage all this? Here are a few tricks I've picked up along the way:
THE CHANGING BAG HACK
THE OUTFIT HACK
Do you see a theme here? Okay, I don't always do this one, but I really should! Especially as George has a habit of taking his socks off and leaving them round the house resulting in me never being able to find a matching pair.
THE MAKEUP BAG HACK
I have a lot of makeup, I love makeup. My makeup collection is huge. However, I put my essentials in a small makeup bag which I can take round the house with me meaning I can do my makeup in the living room if necessary. I do try to get ready before Pete has to go to work but some mornings this isn't possible so being able to get ready wherever the boys are makes things dead easy.
THE DISHWASHER HACK
Empty the dishwasher every morning so it can be filled throughout the day, then be switched on of a night. Repeat.
THE LAUNDRY HACK
Did I mention newborns seems to rack up more laundry than a family of 6 ever could? I normally put my washing machine on a timer so it a load can start when I'm out and be ready to hang up for when I get home.
THE BOTTLE HACK
Make bottles up in advance. Yes, this a controversial one. I always make 4 bottles up in advance and put them in the fridge. As long as the boiled water from the kettle has killed any bacteria in the milk I don't see any harm in pre-making them.
THE DISTRACTION HACK
I would be lost without my iPad. Every Wednesday I go to my Slimming World group and my tablet manages to keep George entertained for an hour. If you ever need to go somewhere, such as a doctors appointment I highly recommend you take one. George will happily sit still as long as Peppa Pig is on. But make sure it's fully charged!
THE SNACK HACK
If I have learnt anything in the past 2 and a half years, it's that food keeps kids quiet. I even bribed George home from the park with a little chocolate bar last week! I always take snack boxes of raisins, Organix oaty bars, and these horrible little packets of Smoothie Melts which are freeze dried smoothie pieces - they're gross but George loves them!
THE PYJAMA HACK
THE CLEANING HACK
Baby wipes clean everything! Need to wipe your couch down? Baby wipe. Deodarant on your black top? Baby wipe. Beans on the carpet? Baby wipe. But really, are you even a mum if you don't use baby wipes to clean everything?
So there's my top 10 mum hacks to make life easier. I don't manage to do these all the time and writing it out, I reckon if I did these more often, my life would be 10 times easier!
What are your mum hacks?
Rachael xo
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