How to live smarter and more efficiently

Cherie - posted on 12/30/2012

I work and go to school. I have a 2.5yr old and 7yrvold. For me my only time with my girls is also gone time I have for house work. I looked into daycare assistance from government it helps with cost a lot. I schedule my classes around work and my kids schedules and usually end up with one night class after they go to bed. I looked into an after school program in the park district that accepted the government assistance. So straight from work I get my girls go home and made dinner that was prepped the night before. There is one day on the weekend I don't work and that is dedicated to my house chores. Evening during the week are for my girls, and they help clean up. As for myself my ti.e for me is after they go to bed. I put them to sleep between seven and eight. After that is mommy time.

Amber - posted on 12/25/2012

Hi Annie,
I think it's one of the most common problem of motherhood, well I am having a 4.5 month cutie and first month was terrible. I was so lost. Then started planning, now everything is cool. Here is the method which I follow I hope it will help you.
1. Priorities work ....cleaning, cooking, washing
2. Do grocery shopping on weekend.
3. Schedule baby vaccination and hospital visit and mark them in calendar, reminders are best.
4. Schedule visit to salon once in every 2 weeks
5. Go to a walk in park or take out time for engaging in some kind of physical activity talking ur kid in strolley, it really help
6. Socialize... Invite friends or visit them.
It sounds pretty cool but believe me achieving every step in very useful and you will find it helpful.
Regards
Amber

Annie - posted on 12/23/2012

Btw, I collected tips about various services from other moms and put them on a blog for the benefit of other moms (creative-bit.com).. if anyone is interested. I'll keep adding more (like schwans.com - thanks Amy)... I hope it would be useful

Annie - posted on 12/23/2012

Schwans.com looks very promising. I'll try them out. Thanks! :)

Deanna - posted on 12/23/2012

Hi Annie,

Questions.1) Is it going to hurt waiting to do dishes until later? Would you rather spend that time with toddler or spend that time wasting away doing chores?
2) Are you a stay at home Mom? If so, it might be best to keep toddler home a couple days a week. To get to know them. On the days where they are at day care, that is when you do your cleaning and running around.
3) Do you have any trustworthy friends or family nearby? If so, USE THEM!!! As Mothers, we forget to do that.

For cleaning (professional cleaner here), a secret of professional cleaners is to keep everything on hand. Start top, end at the bottom. You don't need to sterilize everything every day. That gets to be too much and you lose too much time with family. Also, toddler is old enough to help. Putting dishes away, in the washer, clothes into the dryer, hand over clean ones to fold. And at this age, they will LOVE to help. It also helps with chores later. Also, make a schedule. For example; Monday, clean livingroom, tidy kitchen, dishes. Tuesday, Clean kitchen, tidy livingroom, dishes. Wednesday, bathrooms...ect. I hope that makes sense. Not everything will need to be done each day. It is about prioritizing. You will find a groove. Then the rest will fall into place.

Babysitter. Do you have teenage nieces or nephews who would love to make a few dollars? Or an Aunt or Uncle who would like to spend more time with toddler?

The hardest thing a Mother can do is let someone else do it. Does toddler still take naps at home? If so, opportunity!! Do a load of dishes, clean a bathroom, a load of laundry.

If all this is impossible, the last options are nanny and/or maid service.

Hope something in here helped.

Amy - posted on 12/17/2012

Try http://www.schwans.com/ they deliver frozen foods, meats, vegetables, ice cream, they are a little expensive but we get all our veggies from them. They are in upstate NY, I am originally from there!

Annie - posted on 12/17/2012

Thanks Amy,

Peapod is exactly the kind of service I'm looking for... too bad it's not available where I live (upstate NY). When I lived near Seattle, I used to use Amazon "Fresh" a lot.

Amy - posted on 12/16/2012

I have in the past ordered my groceries through peapod and had them delivered to my door, it's nice to not have to go to the grocery store. My only problem is I'm always waiting till I have nothing and can't afford to wait another day or two for delivery.

I do meal planning for the week before I go to the grocery store. I try to use my crockpot as much as possible so that my time cooking after work is minimal, 20 minutes of planning saves me lots of time during the week.