If you’ve been on the internet at any point during the last couple of years you’ve no doubt seen “hacks” for about everything under the sun. There are life hacks, cleaning hacks, back to school hacks, even Christmas hacks.
If they include good tips and not just the obvious, you’ll likely read them and think the person writing them or the person that shared them on Facebook is just SO brilliant, and has her life all together. In reality, she probably just heard the idea from some one else and forgets to use it herself 90% of the time.
With that in mind, I’ve finally compiled a list of real-life mom hacks that we’re all using but no one is talking about.
Laundry hack
To do this laundry hack take your full laundry basket to your laundry room. Make sure you also have high hopes of getting everything done today and finally defeating your laundry pile.
Start a large load of laundry.
Forget about the load of laundry for 3-5 days to get that perfect “no-longer-fresh” laundry scent.
Dishes hack
Very similar to the laundry hack, this cleaning hack requires your best intentions gone awry. Plan to finally take control of your kitchen. Think for several minutes about implementing the “clean as you go” method and remember to scrub every pot, pan and plate spotless the moment dinner is over (never mind worrying about giving kids baths, and getting everyone to bed, just plan to magically create an extra hour for yourself between dinner and bedtime).
Then, throw all those plans out the window, continue as normal and try to pretend the dirty dishes don’t exist.
Baby/child sleep hack
Read a wonderful article on the internet about how to get your kids to sleep through the night. Complete all the steps successfully and get a full night’s sleep exactly ONE time.
Brag about it on Facebook.
Toy organization hack
Buy new storage bins that will help you create the perfect cleaning method that your preschoolers can understand. Set up the bins and organize their rooms precisely one time.
Collapse with exhaustion while the children completely destroy the room you just meticulously organized and use the new storage bins as pirate boats and battle in the living room.
Cry.
Meal plan hack
Read the epic 5 minute meal plan method. Spend the better part of three hours making the last meal plan of your life.
Realize how wonderful life is with this method for approximately 9 days.
Run out of milk and make an impromptu trip to the grocery store and stock up on frozen pizza and spaghetti sauce and go back to normal.
Realize you’ll never make all those tasty recipes on Pinterest, but keep hope alive by continuing to pin them and consistently hope to get back to meal planning.
Order Pizza.
What about you? Are there any home hacks or mom hacks you’d like to share? Leave them in the comments OR share on social media with the hashtag #actualmomhacks It will be a fun way to bring a little more reality to the internets.
I know we can all share a laugh about our shortcomings, but at the end of the day still feel guilty for them. I encourage you to STOP feeling guilty. Remember what a great mom you are.
Yes, the laundry pile will never be empty for more than a minute or two. Sure, dishes could get done faster. But the truth is, a lot of time those things get put off because we’re choosing to be in the moment with the kids. Laugh a little with them, help with homework we struggle to understand ourselves. Have a heart to heart with a child that turns a 5 minute bedtime routine into a 50 minute bedtime conversation.
Sometimes, there are more important things to do than keep everything running to Pinterest perfection. Other times, those hacks really do help and free us up to spend more time with family. It’s about finding the balance that works for your family, and realizing that balance might look different every day of the week.
Here’s to motherhood, hacks and all!
If you’d like to read more encouragement, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter. When you subscribe you’ll receive a short-and-sweet ebook called confessions of an imperfect mother with lots of fun realistic encouragement like this in it! You’ll also get weekly notes of encouragement to your inbox (and can unsubscribe anytime if it turns out to not be your thing)
Also, be sure to check out this post about 10 things all good moms have in common (hint: number 6 is having a bad day from time to time…) I think you’ll love it!
Leave a Reply