15 Strategies That Make Life Easier for Stay-At-Home Moms
These real-life tips and schedule tricks from stay-at-home parents are meant to simplify your days and give you time back to spend as you please.
As much as I relish the days at home with my daughters, there are plenty of aspects of parenthood I could do without. Take laundry, for example. Or planning and preparing meals. Or cleaning that perennial pile of crumbs that appears under my youngest’s chair after every meal. And yet, to be good caregivers for our children, these are precisely the routine tasks my husband and I must take on—even as doing so steals moments from snuggling our preschooler beneath a blanket fort, or sprinting beside our third grader as she sails through the neighborhood on her scooter.
Of course, it’s fair to say that each and every one of us would welcome a shortcut or two if it meant more time to spend on the stuff that really matters. That’s why we’ve compiled 15 strategies and schedules that parents in the Mother Untitled community swear by to streamline their days and find a greater sense of ease and simplicity during this busy season of life. Here are shortcuts to a simpler life at home with the kids.
1. Give Everyone a Task
On Sunday mornings we have a family meeting over breakfast. Our primary goal is to make the upcoming week run more smoothly as a team. We talk about what needs to be done each night, like washing school uniforms, making sure the cat is fed, tidying up the play area, and prepping lunch for the next day. Then, we divvy up tasks for the week and tackle it together. I’ll be honest and say my kids are not always invested, so bribing them with a small prize helps (and I’m not ashamed to say so!). - Lynn B., mom of three
2. Establish Micro-Routines
It’s always the tiny disruptions that end up throwing our days off—like forgetting to freeze a lunch bag the night before or neglecting to charge an iPad for school. As we’re walking in the door after school pickup, I give my son the same three tasks every afternoon: empty your lunch bag, put it in the freezer, put your water bottle in the dishwasher. These routines in miniature make such a difference in the next day running smoothly and take the onus off of me to remember absolutely everything for everyone! - Jenna S., mom of two
3. Schedule Meals
We plan the same meals every week: chicken and veggie bowls on Monday, taco Tuesday, pasta Wednesday, etc. I love it. Someday, I’ll be really into making dinners with fancy ingredients… but definitely not right now! - Holly B., mom of three
4. Lean Into Leftovers
I cook with enough leftovers to make lunch the next day. I also cook modular–separate and simple dishes so that they keep and I can remix them for other things. I mostly lean on dumplings and pasta. - Mimi C., mom of two
5. Be Realistic
I’m constantly reminding myself that there are limited hours in the day, so you have to choose what to focus on at any given time. - Sweta D., mom of two
6. Take Turns
My husband and I each have our designated tasks that we look after when it comes to parenting and work, (our strengths, as we often call them). He looks after wake-up, morning snacks, diaper changes, and more while I sleep in. Once I’m up, I take over while he gets ready and walks the dog. - Elisa M., mom of two
7. Assign Kitchen Duty
I hate waking up to a sink full of dirty dishes and crumbs on the floor from dinner. To make sure we (usually) start the day with a clean kitchen, our kids trade off on kitchen duty where they are required to load the dishwasher, wipe the counters, and vacuum after dinner one night each week. My 12-year-old has cleanup every Monday, for example, and my partner and I trade off helping out the youngest on Fridays. - Leah K., mom of four
8. Motivate Them Right
We turn off electronics for our kids by 6:15 every night. If they want to get in their screen time after school, they know they have to budget their time and get homework done well before then! We act like the cutoff time is out of our control, which helps with whining and negotiations. - Lina B., mom of three
9. Set Timers to Keep on Schedule
We use our Google speaker to set timers every morning. One goes off to signal it’s time to get dressed, another to get to the breakfast table, and so on. It sounds hectic, but it’s actually turned into a game we can all play together to see if we can beat the timers as a team. - Sahra J., mom of two
10. Remedy the Hiccups in Your Day
The kid sock battle is so frustrating. We mastered the sock hunt by giving each kid a lingerie bag to put their socks in at the end of the day. It goes next to their hampers in their rooms and keeps everything together. It’s a small idea that makes a big difference! - Margo S., mom of two
11. Set a “Homework Hour”
Without fail, 4:00 is homework time over here! It gives my daughter a bit of time to unwind after school, but also ensures I don’t have to remind her 10 million times to get it done. - Emma P., mom of two
12. Outsource with Abandon
There’s a local mom who has a laundry business. You better believe I support her 100 percent by using her services each week! I also use nap time to grocery shop online, place Target orders, etc. so that when my baby is awake, we can just drive around doing curbside pick-ups. It makes me feel so accomplished! - Fran N., mom of three
13. Prioritize Tasks
Given that I often work from home, I prioritize the tasks that require my exclusive attention for hours when my sons have childcare or school—like managing online orders, or drafting a blog post—and I save anything domestic or logistical for later in the day. - Sally M., mom of two
14. Reset Your Home Nightly
I set a 10-minute timer after dinner and everyone races around cleaning up as much as they can. It’s a game that feels doable and helps clean up the little messes of the day like puzzles and Legos that would otherwise be left to accumulate all week. - Annie S., mom of three
15. Commit to an Early Bedtime
A consistent (and relatively early) bedtime for my kids is the only way my husband and I can connect, even if that means just watching a show together. I try really hard to get enough sleep, so I need my kids to have an early and routine bedtime. - Holly B., mom of three
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