5 Things That Make My Mama Life Easier
Since becoming a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) in 2019, I’ve been trying to make life simpler in order to spend as much time as I can with Owen. I love planning and organizing, so naturally I’ve been attempting to find ways that I can automate things around the house.
Whether you’re a SAHM, a working mama, or a combination like myself, it can get very overwhelming to do all the things. But there are a few tricks and specific brands that I’ve found along the way that have made my life so much easier. Some I found pre-baby, and some I found post-baby.
Meal Kit Delivery Service: My husband and I have been using a meal kit delivery service since 2015! Even when it was just the two of us, we found it hard to constantly come up with new meals, try to use ingredients we already had to save money and keep waste to a minimum.
We started with 3 meals/week and sometime along the way switched to 4 meals/week. It takes so much guess work out for the week and we have no waste at all which is the big winner for us. We’ve tried 4-5 different services over the years but we’ve settled on Home Chef for the past 2.5 years. They offer a ton of options each week, the instructions are easy to follow and their ingredients are always super fresh.
However, we have been needing to get creative with our meals for a few months now. We followed baby-led weaning with our son and he has always eaten dinner with us since he was 6 months old. When he was smaller and eating less, we could just give him a little bit off each of our plates and it was fine. Now, he’s 1 year old and he basically eats an adult-sized portion which makes things a little more complicated (you can only order meals from Home Chef in 2 or 4 servings). We still want him to eat the same meal we do, so I usually try to pick up extra ingredients at the grocery store each week to make a 3rd meal. We have considered doing a meal delivery service geared for kids like Yumble, but that would mean he wouldn’t be eating the same meal as us. I’ll do another post on our baby-led weaning journey and include any additional details about his meals at that time. (Use code KATIEC43 for $35 off your first Home Chef order!)
Toy Delivery Service: We started using Lovevery when Owen was 9 months. I found myself overwhelmed with trying to figure out what toys he needed for his next stage of development. He was quickly getting bored of his toys and they weren’t stimulating him anymore, so I started looking into the Montessori method of development and play. I’ve never been a fan of all the noisy, bright, battery powered toys, so Montessori made so much sense for us. Lovevery toys are developed using this method of learning, and it takes the guess work out for me to try and figure out what he needs next.
The price tag seems expensive, but when you price out all the toys individually, it’s really not expensive at all. In fact, it’s more cost efficient to get the kits rather than constantly buying your baby/toddler toys that they’ll get bored of. I also justify the price with the idea that we’re only going to get the kits once. We will have these toys to use for the rest of our children, so once we buy all the kits for Owen, we won’t need to use this service for our next kids. He LOVES these toys. They’re simple, practical, and all of them have multiple uses for multiple stages of learning. We’ve also asked our family/friends to not purchase any noisy toys for him and instead ask for clothes or for a Lovevery gift card to put towards the kits. If you’d like to try it out, send me your email and I can send you a $20 off code!
All-In-One Cleansing Products: I’ve been using Branch Basics for all my household cleaning for 2 years now and I love it. I know a lot of people assume that a plant/mineral based cleanser will never be as good as a chemical one, but I promise, this is! Counter tops and showers and blow-outs, oh my! Seriously, blow-outs are no match for this stuff. Non-toxic, fragrance-free and hypoallergenic. I use their subscribe option to get 10-20% off so I don’t have to make panic buys. I get exactly what I need when I need it. If you’re interested in $10 off your first order, shoot me your email and I’ll send you a code!
Clean Health Products: If you haven’t heard of Ora Organics, you need to go check out their products NOW! Well, after you finish reading this…but like, right after. Plant-based, ethically sourced and taste conscious! I love that they get creative with their products. They have a collagen product that provides your body with the ingredients to help naturally boost your own collagen production as opposed to taking a supplement that gives you collagen from an animal. In addition to the collagen, I use their golden milk powder, protein powder, and probiotics.
I also subscribe to these products (catching my theme of subscribe & save?!) so I never run out and I also get 20% off! Another note to seal the deal for you, this company offered deep discounts on their products when COVID-19 first hit so that their customers could not only continue to afford the products, but so they could stay healthy as well. Pretty rad if you ask me! Click here to get $5 off your first order (I also get $5, and they also plant a tree!)
Daily Planner: I’ve used many different planners over the years. I’m very particular about what I want to track and how it’s presented and laid out. Each of us certainly have different preferences. Some people only need a monthly calendar to look at, some like it digital. Me personally, I like to see monthly and daily on paper. I can’t get down with digital calendars, but daily paper planners are typically HUGE. I finally found my perfect planner about 2 years ago. It’s a mini binder where they provide all the materials for a full year, but you can control how many months you put in the planner at a time. I usually only have 2-3 months in it at a time so it doesn’t get too heavy. Unfortunately, while writing this blog post, I received an email stating that they are discontinuing this specific planner due to COVID-19.
After I’m done with the current system I have, I’ll probably give their new STARTPlanner a try. The big take away from this is that its important to take the time to figure out what works for you! Just because all your friends use a digital calendar system, doesn’t mean that’s what’s best for you. And paper planners aren’t all created equal. Figure out what you actually want to track and how you would like to see it aesthetically laid out, and then go find it! The only way that you’ll actually use something like a planner on a regular basis is if it’s easy for you to use. (I also find erasable pens to be super helpful for my planner. I’m able to color code things so they’re easy to find…pink for business, blue for personal, green for kids, etc. It also allows me to make adjustments as needed without the planner suddenly looking like a mess with a bunch of things crossed out).
So to sum things up, subscriptions should be your very best friend! (I also have a ton of things on Amazon’s subscribe and save program, like diapers, wipes, and vitamins to name a few.) I love that it’s all automated and I don’t need to take up brain space trying to remember all the things. It also makes monthly budgeting so much easier since you can just automatically count on those things. Figuring out a new type of daily/monthly planner if your current one isn’t working is key as well.
