Life has been so busy lately for me. If I am being honest, with 5 kids and a full time business…life will always be busy. One thing I have learned the hard way is not everything can have my full attention. Some things just get pushed aside. So today, I am sharing some of my life hacks to help save time or frustration in our home. They might not be for everyone, but the work for us and save my sanity!

1. The sock baskets-
You know what I hate…mating socks! We always seem to lose the matching socks and for years we had this big basket of unmatched socks. Mornings we would dig in there hoping to find a pair and waste a lot of time doing that. So I did something unheard of. I threw away ALL our socks. ALL OF THEM. And I went to Target, and bought ONE BRAND for each size we needed. We are lucky that Ames and Finn wear the same size and so does Ashton and Alex and sadly Austin can fit the same size as Travis and I. We buy hanes brand socks for the kiddos which have the Hanes logo on the foot in a certain color for each size (blue, green or red!) I found that we were still sorting through the basket looking for the color we needed so I took it a step further. We bought 4 sock baskets- one for each “size” and when I pull the laundry out of the dryer, I simply put that “color” sock in the basket and the kids just grab two. Mating socks has never been so easy for us! These baskets live on the shelf above our washer and dryer. So no more mating socks and sending them to the kids rooms to be put away. I just sort and go!  Don’t judge my photo…it is real life guys…the laundry space is anything but pretty in our house. ha!

 

 

2. EXPRESS LANE GROCERYS!
I find myself CONSTANTLY getting groceries for our family. Feeding 7 people can be crazy at times! I normally buy our groceries at Harris Teeter (which is 30 minutes from our house) because they have the best deals and we love their meat department so much more than our local stores. I used to go there after doctor appointments, sessions or clients meetings since I am near there all the time but I found that a lot of times I was so tired when it came time to get groceries that I forgot half of what I needed or I rushed through the store. So last spring, I tried out the express lane feature and I was hooked. The mobile app saves my recent purchases so when I log on, I can shop my past purchases of the things we normally buy super easily! I have found that this also helps me to NEVER forget an item since I make our meal plan and then shop from it and I spend way less money this way! I don’t end up buying things not on the list! One other thing I will note about the app is that you can shop the sales flyer too! I know we try to plan our meals based on sales so this is so helpful!

3. AMAZON PRIME DELIVERY DAY!
In the same note as above, I used to go to Costco for our school snacks and household items (toilet paper, paper towels, diapers, etc). But we cut our cable a few years back and got the amazon fire stick with amazon prime. So I started shopping the subscribe and save store for those items now. We buy the majority of our school snacks that way- chips, pop tarts, fruit snacks, organic applesauce and we also stock up on household items- paper towels, trash bags, toilet paper, dish detergent, wipes, etc. Another cool thing is you can schedule out how often to deliver the items (monthly, every 2 months, etc) and you can also use coupons on the purchase! Amazon mom members get 20% off diapers too! My kids love delivery day because they get a HUGE box to play in after we put it all away!

So there you have it. You will either think I am crazy or genius. Ha!

If you liked this post you may also like 10 things you may not know about me or focusing or marriage.