20 Life-Changing Mom Hacks

If you’re a mom (or if you know one), you’ve probably seen for yourself that keeping up with kids can get a little crazy. When you’re juggling school, work, extracurricular activities, and general upkeep, it’s nice to have a few tried-and-true hacks up your sleeve.

Continue reading for 20 life-changing mom hacks that can help you stress less and focus more on what’s important: self-care and spending time with your kiddos.

1. Use Baby Powder for Post-Beach Cleanup

Did you know that baby powder can remove the sand off your little one’s feet?

Always keep a bottle in the car for all those beach trips to take the sand off their feet. That way, you can leave the sand at the beach where it belongs instead of tracking it into your car. Just make sure to be careful when you apply it, as you don’t want your child to accidentally inhale any.

If you’re looking for the perfect beach bag to hold the baby powder (along with all your family's beach essentials), check out this beautiful Monogrammed Mega Beach Bag.

Made from durable and easy-to-clean polyester canvas and featuring an open top for easy access, this beach bag will soon become your go-to beach essential. This bag comes in six fun colors and patterns, plus you can monogram it for the ultimate customization. Who knew a busy beach day could be so chic?

2. Make Your Pizza Cutter Do Double Duty

Pizza cutters aren’t just for cutting pizza. To make your life much easier, you can use them to cut just about anything for your child to eat.

Whether your little one enjoys pancakes, grilled cheese sandwiches, waffles, hotdogs, and toast, using a pizza cutter can make mealtime that much easier. To mom in style, try cutting your baby’s food on this beautiful personalized cutting board.

Equipped with non-slip backing and measuring a generous 11 inches by 14 inches, this cutting board is ready to tackle any cutting duties you throw at it.

3. Make Kid-Friendly Grape Ice Cubes

For children who are old enough to safely eat grapes, simply throw some in the freezer to use as ice cubes in their juice. This not only helps to keep their drink fresh and tasty but can also provide a great source of fiber.

Tired of your kids fighting over the cups? Make your life a little easier by personalizing this monogrammed tumbler with each child's initials. Your child can even choose the font and color of their initials.

This durable tumbler comes with a double-walled insulated shell to help minimize condensation, making it an efficient and stylish way to keep their favorite juices cold. You can leave the lid off so that your kiddos can enjoy their frozen grapes, or use the matching lid and straw to keep your younger kids from accidentally swallowing the grapes while they’re still frozen.

4. Marshmallow Cold Packs

For all your little ones' boo-boos, comfort them with a cold marshmallow pack. All you need to do is throw some marshmallows in a plastic bag and stick it in the freezer.

Marshmallows are lightweight and don’t get too cold, so they make the perfect cold pack for all your child's minor injuries. Just remember to follow the RICE rule: rest, ice, compress, and elevate. And, of course, see the doctor if there’s anything out of the ordinary.

5. Formula Dispenser Machine

This one’s for all of the new moms out there. From heating the water to the perfect temperature, dispensing the perfect amount of formula, and mixing the formula to perfection, a formula machine can truly change your life.

Instead of taking a few minutes to make a bottle while your baby is screaming at the top of their lungs, you can use a formula machine to whip up a bottle in only a few seconds. This can help you feed and comfort your child quicker — and get more much-needed sleep.

6. Alarms Are Your Friend

Are you struggling every morning to get your kids up, dressed, fed, and out the door in time for school? Simply setting an alarm for each one of these tasks can help your children stay on schedule and teaches them time management skills in the process. 

7. Pre-Pack for the School Day

If your school mornings involve frantically packing lunches, dressing the kids, and getting them to eat breakfast, all to realize that you left their class notebooks at home, don’t worry. It’s hard to juggle so many priorities, and every mom has at least a few moments like this.

While this may not be a hack in the truest sense of the term, simply packing lunches and backpacks the night before can help make those busy mornings less stressful. You can even put on your favorite movie or TV show and make it an evening ritual with your partner.

To help make getting ready for school even easier, check out this beautiful monogrammed backpack. Made from Neoprene, this backpack is lightweight, washable, and durable and comes with a front pocket, two side pockets, and an inner zipper pocket to help keep everything within arm’s reach.

This spacious backpack not only comes in seven fun colors and patterns, but you can also add each child's initials to it so they know exactly which backpack is theirs. Plus, you can also pick up a matching lunchbox — monogrammed, of course!

8. Park Close to the Shopping Cart Stall

Most people want to park as close to the store’s doors as possible. But when you’re a mom, parking close to the shopping cart stall is actually more important.

When parking close to where the shopping carts are stored, allows you to belt your child into the car and safely return the cart without having to be too far away from them. You must never leave your child unattended, so this hack isn’t just about convenience — it’s about safety, too.

9. Caddies Are Your Best Friend

If you haven’t already embraced the power of the organizer, then you definitely need to start. Having a special caddy for each of your children is key to this mom hack.

Utilizing individual organizer caddies for each child, you can simply pick up whatever they have left out around the house, put it in their organizer, and leave it on the stairs. This way, they can put away their toys or clothes on their own time without costing you your sanity.

Our Tote Organizers are perfect for this hack. They can easily blend in with the background to help hide the clutter, but you can still monogram them so that each child knows which one is theirs. Plus, you can get one for yourself to make sure every marker, coloring book, and snack in your mom's tote has a place.

10. Keep Your Drink Incognito

Whether you want to enjoy an evening cocktail without attracting attention or you simply don’t want to share your sweet tea with your kids, we have a hack for you. For this hack, simply fill a double-walled, insulated tumbler with ice and insert your canned drink of choice. Screw the lid on and make sure your straw goes into the can, and there you go! The perfect sneaky drink.

To try this hack for yourself, grab one of our Monogrammed Travel Tumblers. These double-walled tumblers come in 15 different colors and patterns and feature a removable lid and straw so that you can enjoy your favorite drinks in style.

11. Invest in a Handheld Vacuum

As lovable as children are, they often come with a mess.

Whether they spilled a bowl of Cheerios on the kitchen floor, tracked dirt into the house after playing outside, or filled their pockets with sand, the mess just can’t be avoided. This is why investing in a handheld vacuum can make all the difference.

Instead of taking the time to lug your big vacuum out, clean up the mess, and then go through the whole process again of putting it away, a handheld vacuum can have the mess cleaned up in no time. Plus, you can avoid the hassle of wrapping up the cable and fitting it back into the cleaning closet.

12. Dry Clothes Faster

Life with children can sometimes seem like it comes with a string of never-ending laundry.

Whether they got mud on their clothes from playing outside or they got their dinner all over their new onesie, it seems like the laundry just never stops.

To help speed up the laundry process, simply throw a dry towel into the dryer with your load of wet clothes to help absorb moisture.

Speaking of towels, are you in need of some new ones? Check out this stylish monogrammed bath towel. It’s stylish, it’s comfortable, and its classy monogram can help make sure everyone knows whose is whose.

13. Hide Your Valuables in a Diaper

We all love a good beach day — after all, what’s better than a little time in the sun? However, a beach day can quickly become hectic when you have to start chasing the kids around.

When duty calls, you don’t want to leave valuables like your phone, car keys, and wallet lying around. Instead, wrap them up in a clean diaper and store them in your beach tote. No one will ever think to look for your valuables inside a presumably used diaper.

14. Wash Socks In a Mesh Bag

We’ve all lost a sock or two in the laundry. But with children, it seems like their tiny little socks always go missing.

That’s where this mom hack comes into play. Simply toss all your family's socks into a mesh garment bag before throwing them in the wash.

Not only does this save you the hunt for missing socks, but you also don’t have to worry about finding a sock stuck to your sweater in public.

Been there, done that, right?

15. Pack Outfits in Plastic Bags When Traveling

No matter how neat and organized your suitcase is, after one day, it can easily become a mess.

Everyone is pulling things out, deciding they want to wear something else, then haphazardly throwing everything back in. Soon, your suitcase can become a disaster — even worse, no one will be able to find what they need.

To solve this problem, simply pre-pack outfits into our Monogrammed Packing Bags. You can include everything from a pair of pants to underwear to socks — you can even include accessories.

This way, your child can simply grab a bag and have everything they need to get ready for the day. Or, you can give them each their own kid-sized Monogrammed Packing Bag to keep everyone’s things separate.

16. Use a Dustpan To Pick Up Small Toys

If you’re a mom with small children, especially those who love Legos, you can probably relate to that unmistakable feeling of stepping on one. To save time (and your feet), simply sweep smaller toys into a dustpan. This works great for anything from Legos to crayons.

17. Essential Oil Bathroom Deodorizer

Now that you have children, you are probably more safety-conscious than ever before. This may mean that you’re less inclined to leave candles burning at all hours of the day; you may even be wary of aerosol air fresheners if your little one is especially curious.

To solve this problem and still keep your bathroom smelling fresh and clean, simply add a few drops of your favorite essential oils to the inside of the toilet paper roll.

Every time someone spins the roll, the smell will waft into the room, creating a pleasant smell without all the dangerous chemicals typically found in deodorizers. Just remember to keep your child away from the essential oils, as they’re not meant to be ingested.

18. Band-Aid Removal Hack

Normally, the hard part of fixing your child’s boo-boo is getting the band-aid to actually stay on. But what happens when it is time to rip it off and it’s ended up being a little too sticky? You don’t want to just rip it off and hurt your little one. So what do you do?

That’s where baby oil or vegetable oil comes to the rescue. Simply soak the band-aid with oil (a cotton ball works great for this), and then you can easily peel it right off.

This trick also works great for removing temporary tattoos and stickers.

19. Make Your Fitted Sheet Work Overtime

Fitted sheets are just for your bed, right? Wrong! 

When you are at the beach with your family, simply place a fitted sheet upside down on the sand and spread it out. Use larger items that you have brought to the beach, such as your cooler, to prop up each edge of the sheet to create a sand-free play area for your kids.

Are you looking for the perfect cooler to take on your next beach trip? Check out this personalized canvas cooler that can keep your favorite drinks cold while you’re out and about.

This fully insulated and zippered cooler has a removable shoulder strap for easy carrying. Whether it be at the beach, at your child's sporting event, or out camping in the woods, this cooler will soon become an essential part of your travel gear.

20. Get Out of Jail Free System

For those moms out there with slightly older children, disciplining them can sometimes be hard. Simply grounding them doesn’t always do the trick, and it can end up being harder on you than it is on them.

That’s when this genius “Get Out of Jail Free System” comes into play.

All you’ll need to do is leave your child a list of things they can do to get ungrounded. For instance, maybe they’ll need to rack up 500 points to get themselves out of being grounded.

You could award them 100 points for doing the dishes for the day or 75 points for vacuuming the house. Not only are you getting help with things around the house, but this can also teach your child a valuable lesson that their actions have real consequences.

Mom Hacks Help the Whole Family

These life-changing mom hacks can help simplify not only your life but that of your whole family, as well. If you and your spouse can get everything done that you need to without being overwhelmed and stressed, that can help free up space for you both to do the things you actually want to do (like watch the newest episode of The Bachelor — we have to see who gets the rose!).

When it comes to getting it all done in style, look no further than our selection at Marleylilly. We’re a family-owned business, so we know a thing or two about the ins and outs of motherhood. Whether you need a bag to hold activities or personalized boots to keep the kids from fighting over them, we’re here to help and look good doing it.

Sources:

6 Ways to Get Beach Sand off Your Feet | Swim Guide

Starting Solid Foods | HealthyChildren.org

RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevation) | UK Healthcare