Brilliant Mom Life Hacks During Quarantine

With the lockdown still in place for many of us mamas, we have come up with 12 tips anyone can follow. With these hacks, you can get it all done and stay sane doing it.

And, even if you don’t have kids, we can all learn a thing or two from the mamas who are the other superheroes of quarantine — getting it done all day every day!

#1 Have a Self-Care Power Hour First Thing in the AM

Seriously, wake up a little earlier than everyone else in the house and have a full glorious hour to yourself. Take this time to drink your coffee in peace while listening to your favorite podcast, get a 20-minute FitOn workout in, and blend up a nutritious smoothie.

Starting your day with a heavy dose of self-care will make a huge difference in how you handle any stressors that may come your way once your day really gets going.

#2 Make Batch Cooking Your BFF

Batch cooking is one of our fav sanity-saving tips because not only does it cut back on cook time, but it can help you stay on track with healthy eating.

Try batch cooking by doubling or tripling your recipes to freeze and reheat and mix and match ingredients that you have on hand to make various meals.

Doing this as part of your weekly meal prep will help you keep healthy foods stocked in your fridge and freezer at all times and will mean less time in the kitchen during the super busy week.

#3 Make Use of Your Instant Pot or Slow Cooker

And speaking of making dinner time easier, take the hard work out of prepping dinner and let your Instant Pot or slow cooker do the work for you. Pick recipes that can easily be made in the slow cooker or an Instant Pot. It will require less cooking and cleanup time as well. Win!

#4 Multi-task Like The Queen That You Are

Us mamas were made for multi-tasking, so use your superpowers and multi-task like the queen that you are to make quarantine life a little easier.

Do some deep breathing while taking your morning shower to get your Zen on, grab your headphones and catch up on phone calls while folding laundry, and get ten squats or 15 lunges in during that evening reality TV show binge.

#5 Get Dressed… Yes Seriously!

For reals — even if you just feel like lounging around in your PJs all day, getting dressed (even if it’s just in a workout outfit) can make a big difference in how you feel. You may feel more motivated to get the things done that need to be done, and if you have your sweat dreads on, you’ll be ready to tackle a quick workout whenever you have a spare 15 minutes on your hands.

#6 Grocery Shop Online

This is one of those sanity-saving tips that’s a total lifesaver, especially during this time of quarantine.

We’re talking grocery delivery. If you are new to grocery shopping online, now’s the time to take advantage of it! Many grocery chains like Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, and Target offer grocery delivery straight to your doorstep. All you have to do is select your items, and a shopper will shop and drive your groceries to you.

Yep, it’s that easy, and you’ll wonder why you haven’t treated yourself to this little gem of a mom hack sooner!

#7 Cut Down on Laundry Time

If you feel like you just can’t keep up with laundry with everything else on your to-do list right now, we feel ya. Laundry can be daunting, especially when you’re homeschooling and trying to keep everyone in the house sane.

So, here’s one of the top sanity-saving tips that can really benefit anyone who does laundry in the house. Simply use a mesh laundry bag that you would generally put delicates in to place your kids socks in instead. If you have three kids, have a mesh laundry bag for each. You’ll be happy you did when you literally save yourself a half-hour not having to sort through and find each matching pair of socks!

#sanitysavingmomtips for the win! Ok, now go share this amazing hack with one of your fellow mama friends who’s tired of spending hours each week sorting through her kid’s laundry.

#8 Schedule in Alone Time Daily

Yes, we’re serious. While it’s easy to say that you don’t have time when you’ve suddenly taken on a whole new role as a homeschooling mom, fitting in a 15-minute brisk walk or drinking your coffee in peace is absolutely essential to helping us all stay sane.

We all need alone time, and now more than ever to just take a moment and breathe!

#9 Use Affirmations to Get Through the Hard Parts of the Day

The power of positive affirmation is pretty amazing and can really help you get through a rough patch in your day. Repeat positive affirmations to yourself like “I am in control” when things feel like they are spiraling or “I am calm” when you feel like you’re on the verge of lashing out.

Just repeating these can really make a big shift in how you power through everything you have to juggle each day.

#10 Stay Organized Throughout the Day

Yeah, we know — it’s hard to stay organized when literally everyone is home. But, if you can manage to tidy up throughout the day, instead of leaving everything until after dinner, you’ll feel way more productive and way less stressed at the end of the day.

This way, you can take some much-needed relaxation time once the kids go to bed without worrying about doing the dishes, folding the laundry, or cleaning up your kids’ mess from the day. And, if your kiddos are old enough to help out around the house, get them involved! Even toddlers love to be given a “task” to help out with like putting their toys back in their toy basket. So, get the fam involved and stay on top of it instead of leaving it all to the end of the long day.

#11 Create a Break Room or Space

And with that comes the need for a break room or space. Set up an area in your house to be used as a retreat where everyone can take a break away from their work.

If you have the space, this is a great spot to put a mini indoor trampoline for older kids or puzzles, and a reading corner with some books in a basket to help keep their minds active and busy, but to still allow them to check out from their school work for a bit and have fun!

Hey, you may even find you like hanging in this new space and you may want to keep this “break room” around long past this time of quarantine.

#12 Take 20 Minutes to Wind Down Each Night

At the end of the day, take 20 minutes to yourself to do what feels good. Read a book, take a bath, do an evening FitOn stretch — whatever it is, just take 20 minutes to decompress from the day and just let it all go.

You’ll thank yourself when you get a better night’s sleep and wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day ahead.

You Got This!

Times are uncertain and stressful right now — we’ve all had to adapt to this “new normal,” our kids included. So stop right now and take a deep breath and use these 15 sanity-saving tips to help make the rest of this quarantine a little less stressful. And don’t forget to take care of you!