About a year and a half ago I shared 7 Things I Do to Make My Life a Little Easier. It was a fun post to write and to share with all of you. Well, I’m back with 7 more things! Why? I love to make things easier when and where I can!
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1. I grocery shop one time per week. In my last “easier life” post I mentioned that grocery shopping online definitely makes my life a little easier. I also find that shopping just once a week (aka: ordering groceries once a week) makes my life a little easier. I don’t have to make multiple trips to the store, and I have what I need for the entire week.
2. I plan simple meals. While we are in the category of groceries, I find that planning simple meals makes things a whole lot easier. A meal doesn’t have to be fancy to be good. If you love making elaborate meals, go for it; but don’t let the need to make something super special keep you from feeding your family healthy meals each night. Simple is possible! Check out my prior meal planning posts to learn more!
3. I order the majority of our clothes online. If you have been around this blog for even a little while now then you know I am a fan of online shopping. I especially love shopping for my kids’ clothes online, and I find a lot of great deals at The Children’s Place. I tend to order many of my clothes from thredUP, a great online, second-hand store. I do enjoy frequenting some of our local thrift and consignment shops, but I avoid the mall like nothing else. Online shopping is the right choice for me right now. When shopping online don’t forget about Ebates. Who doesn’t want to get cash back on purchases?!
4. I do one load of laundry a day. There are countless laundry schedules you could follow. I find that doing a load a day keeps the pile in control. I don’t have to spend a whole day being a slave to my washer and dryer, and I keep the process flowing the entire week.
5. I have water proof mattress pads on my kids’ beds. Were you expecting to find this on my list? It really does make things easier. We recently bought 3 new twin mattresses for a great price, and I want to keep them protected. These pads keep me from having to spend time scrubbing a mattress that gets wet or dirty from water spills or other “accidents”.
6. I prep school lunches the night before. Anything you can do the night before a new day will save you time and your sanity the next morning. I like to make my children’s lunches while I prep dinner. Sometimes in the morning I have to assemble a few last things, but completing most of the process the night before makes for a much smoother start to the day.
7. I keep running lists. Lists (in general) are super helpful, and I like to keep running lists of several things including: clothing items I need to buy, books I want to read, and blog posts I want to write. I find that keeping these lists frees up mental space and makes so many future tasks easier.
I hope you found a little inspiration and encouragement from today’s post!
What about you? What do you do to make your life a little easier? I would love to hear your ideas, so drop them in the comments below!
Until next time,
Charissa
I am such a list maker as well. I especially appreciate numbers 1 and 2. When I meal plan simple meals I free up so much time throughout the week, and I save money as well! Great read!!
Thanks, Krystal!
Meal planning is definitely something that helps cut down on stress and makes day-to-day life easier! Keeping a running list of things is a great idea too.
Thanks for reading, Jennifer!
It’s all in the little things! These may seem small to some people, but they can make a big difference in how smoothly your day runs, and your overall well-being!
All the little things add up!!!
Great ideas, thanks! I have recently started to limit the grocery shop to 1 time per week, it not only saves time and money but also sanity too!
Sanity saver, yes!!!
I’ve got to learn to prep school lunches the night before so I’m not driving myself crazy in the morning!
It really does make the morning run more smoothly!
I find making lunches the night before helps the mornings go so much more smoothly too—but I’m so bad at actually doing it when all I want to do is sit and relax!
I hear you, Mary! I have been making lunches while cooking dinner and that seems to help the “I just want to sit down at the end of the day” problem.
Great suggestions. Always looking for ways to make things easier!!
Thanks, Holly! 🙂
nice list… I do a lot of those things too both the original list and this one.
I buy some clothes on-line but I buy quite a lot of clothing at thrift stores so on-line doesn’t work and I never buy shoes on-line- gotta be sure they fit because *I hate to make returns!* – that’s 2 trips to the store!
I iron only certain things and only as needed… I used to iron a lot… but now I’ve got a system that allows wrinkles to be at a minimum and I only iron special things as needed.
I bath infants and young children once or twice a week instead of every day – if there is another reason for them to bathe then yes but otherwise they don’t really need it (every family is different).
Instead of a waterproof mattress pad I buy a sheet of flannelized rubber from the fabric store to put under the sheet and over the mattress pad in case of bed wetting.
I love wicker waste baskets but with little ones plastic is better- in case of night time tummy troubles plastic is easy to use and easy to clean.
Oxyclean is Mom’s best friend for any kind of stain on clothing… a little hot water in the sink and soak that thing for 30 minutes and wash and insto-presto looking good again!
When I had 4 kids at home I had a weekly routine- groceries on Monday and Tuesday morning ( stores are empty of people and carts and hangry folks), laundry on Tues and Wed, one outing per day (am or afternoon) with other errands done at the same time, the other half of day uninterrupted at home, social days I tried to keep to Friday. For a while Monday was MY quiet day- I read, rested, relaxed, did correspondence ( like letters to my grandma or mothers day cards etc), sewed or crafted, because weekends were so busy I needed some down time… it might have just been the morning but I tried to keep to it and it helped me keep my cool. I had evening appointments only on T W or Th. We didn’t do too well with this but building in “date night” was something we tried to keep in the routine.
We also had a Sunday family meeting to go over the week’s plan, appointments, commitments and fun for each member so we would all be aware and on the same page with busy days.
I love all your ideas, Ellen! Thanks for sharing 🙂