5 Tips That Will Make Your Life Easier as a Stay At Home Mom

So have you been trying to figure out how to get your life together as a stay at home mom?

I completely understand. I’m still trying to figure that out, BUT! I think I’ve found a way that has helped me make my life easier as a stay-at-home mom.

Motherhood is hard…really hard.

Then add being a stay-at-home mom which is considered three plus jobs in one!

This is why I’ll be sharing my five tips on how to make your life easier as a stay-at-home mom!

1. Schedule blocking

Now I didn’t schedule NOTHING when I had my daughter as I went with the flow of the day when she was an infant. 

Because you know, infants require care all day and it’s pretty hard to function with a newborn needing you 24/7.

As she grew older I needed some kind of schedule to help me get things done while taking care of myself, my kid, my husband, and oh yes.. in-laws. 

It was non-stop all day and couldn’t figure out how to get into a groove even though I wrote things down too!!  

So I dived into YouTube and found another mom video about schedule blocking and this has changed my life!!

So basically I would schedule the mornings and afternoons with Luna’s feeding times, cooking meals, cleaning, getting myself together, helping my inlaws, running errands, helping my husband WHEW!!!! It’s a lot. 

So first I wrote the things I needed to do in the day and then I would create a schedule!

Now, remember not all days will be like this since life throws random things at you and you will have to make crappy lemons into lemonade!

Here is my block schedule example: (this is with an almost 2-year-old)

8am-8:30am-I wake up, read affirmations, get dressed, have a quick breakfast… 

8:30-9:00am-defrost food for lunch and prep whatever food I will create during the day…

9:00 am-Luna wakes up and she plays a bit…

9:15 am-10:00am- I make breakfast for my husband and Luna…

10:00am-I get Luna ready for the day by dressing her up…

10:00am-12:00pm-I prepare lunch for my inlaws and myself…

I don’t want to bore you with my entire day but it continues with more time blocks like this until the evening and I have a schedule!!! 

So this is my example of what my days are like but not exactly.

You can start watching the clock and see where you are when your child takes a nap or even when you wake up. 

You will eventually see that there is a schedule and you can time block EVERYTHING. 

Another tip is to use a timer on your phone for each time block so you know what to expect next.

For example, at 10 am your alarm goes off to “take care of errands” or “make breakfast”. 

Also, use your phone timer to do specific tasks so that you aren’t going over your block schedule and will have time to finish the next task!

If you weren’t able to finish the first task, either complete it at the end of the day or complete one task faster than the next.

Ex. I power clean for 15 minutes and once the alarm goes off I stop and watch the clock to see what I have to do next. 

This scheduling technique may sound a bit crazy but once I started implementing this it has helped me so much!

Plus I have a whole household to take care of and I don’t have time to wait around to figure things out. (plus I’m a Virgo so I like order 🙂 hehe

So if you are a busy mom or just want to have some kind of control in your day, schedule block your tasks.

Trust me, the day will fly and you will get so many things DONE!

2. Plan Your Days!

Ok, another planning tip! We just went from schedule blocking to this and yep PLAN YOUR DAYS! Even if it’s scheduling for 5 minutes...

If you follow me on Instagram, my posts have been planned out either weeks or days in advance so that I’m not scrambling for content.

The same can go for planning your days when you have so many things to do. 

I would think I could go in a day and just remember tasks in my head BUT I soon realized mom brain is so real!!

I can’t remember what I did the day before, 5 minutes before AND the days run together!

So planning my days have been essential.   

I plan each week where a specific task has its own day. Grocery runs would be on Friday, deep cleaning days run on Monday, errands are always Mon-Fri etc. and it keeps my whole week in flow.

If you are a visual person and want to see your tasks written down, I recommend getting a monthly whiteboard.

You can see the entire month and jot down appointments, errands, requests etc.

I do like using a whiteboard that has a magnetic option to pin paper notes. I also like larger day squares so I can write more things on it.

Whenever there is an appointment happening in the future, I always write it on my whiteboard and on my phone. So that when a week is coming up, I can see what’s going on and plan for that. 

3. Have a Group or Tribe you can Connect with

Once you become a mom, things change and sometimes your circle of friends change since you aren’t able to do the same things as you’ve done pre-baby. 

I’ve always heard about mom groups and NEVER would have thought that I needed to be part of it. 

But I do see why it’s necessary to have a tribe who can support you with no judgments.

Motherhood is definitely a roller coaster journey and to have other moms who feel the same as you who can share their experiences is a plus. 

I’m soooo grateful for having social media as a way to connect with other moms quickly and find other people who are like me!

Ever since I allowed myself to be open about my motherhood journey on Instagram, it’s been amazing connecting with so many mothers that have similar interests and experiences!

I’ve been able to learn NEW things that I wouldn’t have learned myself and I just truly believe when you allow yourself to be open, you never know what kind of opportunities await.

I’ve made new friends on Instagram and am truly grateful for that 🙂

Sometimes you just need to vent and talk about crazy ish whether it’s kids, postpartum, marriage, not being a perfect mom, etc!! 

Where can you find your tribe? Here are a few places that have worked for me:

• Your current mom friends!

• Local mom groups on Facebook

• Instagram: you can type in keywords like “motherhood” and you may find a ton of profiles who share motherhood content, from there when you follow people you can see their friends who are fellow moms too! Then you can follow people who have similar tastes as you.

• Your local park: I’ve spoken to a few moms when I would take Luna to the park and it was nice to talk about mommy things!

I’m sure there’s a long list of more mommy clubs to find your tribe but these have worked for me.

It was hard to reach out in the beginning since I wanted to figure everything out on my own and grateful to have my mom friends in the early stage of motherhood because I COULD NOT  handle all of the emotions! 

4. Try to get up Before your kids

Now I know not everyone can have the luxury of getting up before their kids since your little one might wake up before you or you didn’t even get enough sleep from the day before so getting up early might be too much.

Once I tried doing this as part of my routine, I’ve been able to catch some necessary and quick me time in the morning.

For example, I will wake up and get dressed, put a bit of makeup on, read affirmations, stretch, and fix a quick breakfast.

Once my daughter wakes up I feel like I’m already ahead of the day!

You can try this routine and get ahead of the day by exercising, meditating, listening or reading audio books, planning your day, getting chores done early etc. 

This has COMPLETELY changed the way I do things and has helped me feel more in charge of my day.

Even though it could be an hour or 15 minutes ahead of my daughters wake up time, I’m glad I can use the time for myself since the entire day revolves around my daughter. 

So try it! Let me know how it works for you,

5. Pinterest 

Pinterest is one of those things that is a MUST have on your phone and you need to seriously download the app! (if you haven’t yet, you will be happy you did)

I LOVE Pinterest! Honestly, I didn’t really get into Pinterest until after becoming a mom and I needed help with Ideas around my house and motherhood!

Pinterest is a GREAT resource if you need ideas for ANYTHING.

I’m always on there looking for things that could make my life easier with kids, home decor, cooking recipes, crafts etc. 

You will probably and eventually become that mom who can find a hack on anything!

When I wanted to create a play area for my daughter, I wasn’t sure on how to set it up or even the type of furniture I wanted to include, but I had some general idea on how I wanted it to look like. 

As I opened up the app and searched for “children’s play area” I saw so many cute decor ideas, color themes and furniture that made me even more creative and excited to put together!

Pinterest is SEO friendly meaning it is a search engine so you are able to type in anything you are looking for in the search bar and BAM! Most likely you’ll find what you’re looking for. 

Did these five tips help you? Any other suggestions? Check out more lessons from other stay-at-home-moms