It doesn’t matter if you’re a first time mom or a mom of eight, I promise these mom hacks will rock your world. They have saved me so much time, money, and sanity!
This post contains affiliate links.
1. Use an Expo Marker on the Top of the Washer
All of us have ruined at least one piece of clothing before by putting it in the dryer when it wasn’t supposed to be dried. An easy way to keep this from happening is by keeping an expo marker with your laundry detergent. Once you load the washer, note anything that cannot go in the dryer in a note on top and simply wipe it clean when the laundry gets switched!
2. Keep a Bin of Toys in the Changing Table
For the longest time I was fighting with my toddler to stop rolling over during diaper changes. That’s when I decided to keep a bin of toys inside our changing table that are unique only to diaper changes. This way, they are new and different to keep them entertained and still. I recommend using silicone or plastic toys or ones that can easily be wiped down.
3. Utilize a Shoe Organizer for Extra Nursery Storage
At our first place, we had a very small nursery closet and a large amount of stuff that needed to fit in it. I found an over the door shoe organizer to be the easiest and most efficient way to organize all the small things that come along with a baby. It held everything from breast pump parts and bottles to baby safety latches to actual shoes. This one is super affordable and comes in a ton of different colors to match whatever your nursery theme might be.
4. Hole Punch Recipe Cards & Plan Out Meals
Planning out my meals before the week starts is the only way I can stay sane every day when dinner rolls around. I like to hole punch all my recipe cards so that I can put them together with a carabiner and hang them alongside my menu board each week. My menu board is from Hobby Lobby and I absolutely love it!
5. Baby Proof Your Cords with a Basket & Command Strips
Quite frankly, most of the options for baby proofing are just ugly. This super simple hack keeps your cords neat and off the ground cheaply while not making the area look ugly.
6. Keep an Emergency Diaper Caddy in Your Car
This is one of my all time favorite mom hacks. If you’re like me, you’ve gone out with your baby, they’ve had a blow out, and you discover that you forgot to restock your diaper bag. Keeping a diaper caddy of all the essentials in your car will save you from having this awful panic moment. If you want the complete list of everything I have in mine, you can check it out here.
7. Use a Lysol Container Filled with Doggy Poop Bags for Diapers
If you’re tired of searching out Walmart bags for dirty wipes and diapers, try this. While diaper poop bags are almost five times as expensive, doggy poop bags are super inexpensive. Combine doggy poop bags and an old Lysol container for the perfect diaper bag dispenser. I added some colored drawer paper to make it look a little better sitting on my changing table every day.
8. Wash Kid Toys in a Mesh Laundry Bag
Kids hands are always sticky and therefore their toys get yucky fast. But moms don’t have time to hand wash toys all the time. Any plastic toys, such as building blocks or Legos, can easily be thrown into a mesh laundry bag and thrown in with the laundry.
9. Use a Pizza Cutter to Cut Up Toddler Foods
Toddlers need their food cut up into lots of little pieces, but the constant cutting can get old after awhile. To speed up the process, use a pizza cutter to cut up anything from fruit to peanut butter sandwiches.
10. Create a Safe Cabinet in Your Kitchen
Whenever I was doing dishes, my toddler was pulling every pot and pan out of my kitchen cabinets. This always ended with me having to do twice as many dishes and it got old after awhile. When I decided to lock up my pots and pans, I cleared out another cabinet on the end and gave him his own cabinet to play in. I stocked it with a pot and a pan, kitchen utensils, old water bottles, measuring spoons, etc. He was happy and I had a whole lot less dishes to do.
11. Make a Medical Travel Kit in a Make Up Bag
Moms can never be overprepared and this is one of those mom hacks that will save you big time. You never know when your kids will get sick or spike a fever while teething so having a medical travel kit on you can be a huge game changer. Ours has saved us a few times when sickness popped up out of no where!
12. Make Gripper Socks with Puff Paint
When my toddler was learning to walk, I had such a hard time finding socks with good grippers on them. They always had too little grip or cost way more than any baby sock should. So I DIYed my own with a cheap pack of socks from Walmart and a $1 bottle of puff paint! They work great and you can even customize them to your kids’ favorite things too! This is also a fun craft for older kids too!
13. Use Pedialyte Pops for Teething Toddlers
Pedialyte freezer pops always seem to do the trick on my toddlers worst teething days. Plus, they have tons of nutritional benefits and less sugar than other popsicles do. Most Walmarts have them with the Pedialyte in the baby section. You can also easily order them on Amazon here!
14. Make Soft Ice Packs with Mini Marshmallows
Keeping a few ziploc bags of mini marshmallows in your fridge makes the perfect ice pack that’s not going to break and isn’t too cold or too hard. Plus, they can have a sweet treat when they are done using it!
15. Keep Your Chocolate Stash in a Frozen Veggie Bag
If you want to keep your kids from finding your secrete chocolate stash in the freezer (we all have one), try throwing them in an old frozen veggie bag. As a bonus, it also works on most husbands.
16. Make Frozen Yogurt Bites Using a Yogurt Pouch
Yogurt drops can be extremely pricey and its actually super easy to make your own. If you get one yogurt pouch for under a dollar, you can make a whole cookie tray of frozen yogurt drops!
17. Use a Rubber Band or a Hair Tie to Keep Doors from Locking
My toddler is always wanting to close doors behind him. Now that he is learning to lock them this hair tie hack has come in handy.
18. Use a Shower Caddy for Stroller Organization
I grabbed this $1 shower caddy from Dollar Tree to organize the bottom of my stroller and it has made our long walks so much more pleasant! Now we’ve got toys, snacks, waters, sunscreen, and sunglasses all organized and ready when we need them!
19. Use Coffee Filters for Dry Snacks
Kids snack all day long and the dishes add up fast. If you use coffee filters for dry snacks like goldfish, crackers, dried fruit, etc. you can save yourself tons of dishes! These coffee filters are also fully compostable!
20. Use Old Coffee Creamer Bottles as Snack Dispensers
Old coffee creamer bottles make the perfect snack dispensers for things like cereals, goldfish, teddy grahams, etc. Just take the labels off and clean them out good before you use them.
21. Make Toddler Trail Mix Instead of Multiple Different Snacks
Rather than having to stock your diaper bag with seven different snacks before you leave the house, try making toddler trail mix!
22. Organize Puzzles in Poly Folders
I found these plastic poly folders at Walmart for $4, grabbed a few sticker labels, and now our puzzles have never been the same. I’m no longer searching for the missing piece to the puzzle every time and they are put away neatly instead of just stacked up on their own in a corner.
23. Use a Clothes Basket for Groceries
This hack is especially useful if you shop at Aldi. You can simply throw your clothes basket into the cart the cashier is loading into and then walk out the door after checkout without having to stop to pack up any bags. I personally love using a clothes basket for any store or errands, because I can carry a toddler on one hip and a clothes basket on the other! It saves me a lot of trips back and forth to unload the car too.
24. Organize the Back Seat of Your Car with Half a Shoe Organizer
Cutting a shoe organizer in half is a great way to organize your back seat and all the things that come with little ones. All you need is a few zip ties to tie it to the back of the head rest. I like to stock ours with toys, wipes, snacks, and things like band aids for any boo boos we get while we are out.
25. Use Swim Shirts for Teething Drool
When my toddler was teething really bad, he would soak through his clothes every 20 minutes. But he was too big for a teething bib and pulled them off after only seconds. So instead of his regular t-shirts, I started putting him in swim shirts. Not only do they dry quickly, but the fabric also has a rash guard to make sure they don’t constantly get rashes from the teething drool.
26. Make Cheerio Necklaces for Snacks During Errands
Snacks make errands much easier, but they also tend to get dropped along the way. An easy solution is to use Cheerios or fruit loops on a piece of floss for a super yummy necklace.
27. Use a Fanny Pack Upside Down as a DIY Tush Baby
While this definitely isn’t as good as the real thing, it will do the trick in a pinch. On the days my toddler is teething and clingy, an upside down fanny pack with a few wash clothes in it really does the trick!
28. Use a Gift Bag for Outgrown Clothes
Sometimes it feels like kids grow out of their clothes in a matter of hours. While I do keep bins of outgrown clothing in our basement storage, I don’t want to wander down there every time a t-shirt gets too small. So I started hanging a gift bag with all the clothes. Whenever something is too small, it gets thrown into the gift bag. Then once the gift bag is full, I take all of it to put in storage.
29. Tape Marker Caps Together with Packaging Tape
Marker caps have an amazing ability to vanish into thin air, leaving you with every single marker and not a single cap. A super easy solution I learned from my teacher days is to use packaging tape around the caps! All the caps stick together and they can just pull out each marker as they need it!
30. Use a Mesh Bag for Bath Toy Storage
Bath toy storage hangers are expensive and the suction cups never work. A $2 mesh bag and a cheap carabiner will do the trick to keep your bath toys dry and out of the way.
You can check out full videos of each of these hacks (and many more) on my Instagram @justabeautifullybusymom. I post a new mom hack every Monday and I’d love for you to join our mom family!
