10 Genius Time-Saving Tips for Busy Stay at Home Moms

Do you constantly feel like there’s never enough time in the day to do everything that needs to be done?

I hear ya!

I have a chronic case of not-enough-time-itis and I’m always looking for ways to create more time in my day.

As a busy mom, you have an endless to-do list and what you could really use are some time-saving tips to make it all work.

While it would be nice to be able to wave a wand and magically make your days longer, that’s just not how life works. But the good news is, there are some things you can do to reclaim hours of time each and every week.

Sounds good, right? If you’re on a quest to save time as a busy mama, here are some tried-and-true ways to manage your schedule like a boss.

10 Amazingly Simple Time-Saving Tips for Moms

1. Become a meal planning master

Meal planning is one of my favorite time-saving tips because it’s so simple.

Planning out meals means you no longer find yourself standing in your kitchen at 5:00 pm on a Tuesday wondering what the heck you’re going to feed your family. Instead, you always know exactly what’s for dinner according to your weekly meal plan.

If you’ve never tried meal planning before it’s not super complicated.

You pick one day to plan out your meals for the week, or if you’re feeling really ambitious, for the entire month. That includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and, of course, snacks for those always-hungry kids.

If that sounds overwhelming, there are meal planning services you can try that will do the work for you.

eMeals is one; $5 Meal Plan is another. Both are low-cost and they take the hassle out of meal planning so you can save time.

Bonus tip: Plan meals around leftovers. 

If you’re smart about meal planning, you can cook once and twice (or more, depending on what you make). As you map out your menu, incorporate ingredients that you can repurpose for multiple meals so you can spend less time cooking.

You might also like:

10 Simple Meal Planning Tips for the Total Beginner

2. Buy your groceries online

If you aren’t buying groceries online yet, you’re seriously letting hours of time slip through your fingers.

Here’s what a typical grocery trip used to look like for me.

I’d spend an hour making my list, then hustle the kids into the car. We’d drive to the store and waste a few minutes cruising around the always-crowded parking lot to find a space.

Then we’d spend an hour, sometimes an hour and half, trudging around the aisles getting everything we need.

We’d stand in the checkout line for at least 20 minutes before getting everything into the car and driving home. Then we’d spend another 20 to 30 minutes unpacking it all and putting it away.

Just writing that was exhausting and actually doing it was even more so.

Thanks to a certain global pandemic I discovered the time-saving miracle that is online grocery shopping.

Now I use Instacart to buy my groceries and have them delivered every week.

I spend 30 minutes or so adding items to my cart. My Instacart shopper leaves them on my doorstep and it takes about 10 minutes to put it all away.

Easy peasy and it saves a ton of time. Not to mention, I actually save money on groceries now because I’m not tempted to add things to the cart I don’t need the way I used to do when shopping in the store.

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3. Automate your family finances

Paying bills probably isn’t your idea of a good time but it has to be done. And one of the best time-saving tips for getting it done faster is putting everything on autopilot.

Setting up bills to be paid automatically means you don’t have to write out checks or worry about missing due dates. And that means you have more time to focus on other things as a busy mom.

Bonus tip: Automate your savings, too.

Saving money isn’t always easy, especially if you’re a one-income family. But when you automatically transfer a little bit of money to savings each payday, you can watch your cash stash grow without having to lift a finger.

4. Set up a family command center

Do you constantly find yourself chasing down phone chargers, car keys, appointment cards, grocery lists, bills, receipts and other odds and ends?

If so, then you need a family command center in your life.

Uhhh…what’s that? It’s simple. A family command center is a dedicated area of your home to keep all the “stuff” you use to manage mom life.

It doesn’t have to be big. A corner of your kitchen or a nook in your office, if you work from home, will do. The idea is to keep all of the things you need to run your home in one place so you’re not wasting time looking for it all.

My Amazon Picks for Home Organization

5. Get everything delivered

Groceries are just one thing you can delivered these days. Another one of my best time-saving tips for busy moms is to get everything else delivered, too. Here are a few of my favorite online shopping options to save time:

Amazon delivery

Amazon Prime is one of the best investments you can make if you shop online regularly. You can get free two-day shipping on most items, plus you can stream movies and TV so you can cut the cable cord and save money.

The subscribe and save feature is also great for getting diapers, wipes and other baby items delivered automatically. You don’t have to take your baby out to the store and you don’t have to worry about keeping the essentials on-hand.

If you don’t already have Amazon Prime, you can try it free for 30 days.

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Walmart delivery

I jokingly refer to Walmart as the $200 store because I never seem to spend less than $200 any time I go in there. My son is that kid who’s always tossing stuff into the cart when I’m not looking.

So to solve that problem, I started shopping Walmart online instead. It saves me time and money since you can get free two-day shipping on orders of $35 or more.

Walmart.com is great for buying household essentials, especially if you like to pick up things like pantry staples or pet food in bulk. But you can also shop for everything else, from outdoor items to kids’ clothes to save time.

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Target delivery

Target has been my true love since college and I never get tired of shopping here. But since I live an hour away from the nearest store, I rely on delivery to get my Target fix.

Just like Walmart, Target offers free shipping on orders of $35 or more. And of course, if you have the Target REDCard you always get free shipping on most items, plus you save 5% on purchases.

Some of my favorite things to buy at Target are home decor items and school supplies. But it’s also great for stocking the pantry, getting cleaning supplies or buying baby essentials online.

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6. Maintain routines for everything

I know, I know. Routines sound boring but believe me, they can save you so much time as a busy mom.

Setting routines for your morning and evening can help you start and end your days with less stress. And having a daily routine for kids when they’re home all day can keep you from going nuts.

It’s also helpful to have a routine if you work from home. As a veteran WAHM, I can tell you that a routine is the only way I get things done around here.

While you’re working out your routines, don’t forget to include one for self-care. As a busy mom, taking care of yourself is non-negotiable so make sure you’re putting yourself on your priority list.

You might also like:

15 Brilliant Ways to Practice Self-Care in 15 Minutes or Less

 

7. Do small cleaning tasks daily

Cleaning house and doing laundry can take up a lot of your time each week, especially if you have messy kids.

While you could block off hours over the weekend to deep clean, who really wants to do that? Not me.

So what do you instead? Easy. You find some time-saving tips to clean daily in small pockets of time.

For example, that means things like:

• Putting one thing away each time you enter a room
• Sweeping once in the morning and again at night
• Cleaning the kitchen as you cook

You can also cut down on cleaning time by using technology to help.

For example, I got an Amazon gift card for Mother’s Day this year that I’m planning to use on a Roomba. Our dogs shed like crazy so I’d much rather let this little gadget keep up with the floors so I can do something else.

You might also like:

11 Daily Tasks to Clean House Quickly When You Don’t Have Time for the Mess

8. Declutter and organize

Having less stuff means less to clean and more time you can save.

Here are some simple time-saving tips for decluttering fast:

• Set up a donation box by the back door or in the garage
• Declutter one thing every time you leave a room
• Donate or throw away at least one thing every day
• Put your kids on a toy rotation so there’s less mess to clean up

Decluttering can make your home more comfortable and it doesn’t have to take up hours of your life.

You might also like:

100 Things to Declutter Right Now to Make Your Home More Livable

21 Painless Ways to Declutter Your Home When You’re Tired of the Mess

More Amazon Picks for Home Organization

9. Become a laundry ninja

Laundry is one of my least favorite chores and it can turn into a never-ending cycle if you let it.

If laundry is eating away at your time every week, it’s time to get it under control. You can do that by;

• Organizing your laundry room so everyone has a bin
• Keeping all your laundry supplies in one place
• Doing one load a day instead of letting things pile up
• Getting your kids in on the folding and putting away action

Another awesome time-saving tip to try is going minimalist with your family’s clothes.

You can set up a capsule wardrobe for each member of your family that’s built around core clothing pieces. I have a friend who recently downsized her family of four into a tiny home. When they moved, they got rid of everything except four outfits for each of them that they rotate through.

It saves her space and it saves time since there are fewer clothes to wash.

You might also like:

11 Time-Saving Laundry Hacks for Moms Who Hate Doing Laundry

10. Just say no

As a busy mom, you probably spend a lot of time feeling like you’re being pulled in 100 different directions.

Want to know the best way to fix that?

Just say no.

Say no to things that don’t enrich your family’s life in any way. Say no to buying things you don’t need. Say no to being a people-pleaser.

I know that’s not always easy. Because as a mom, you’re expected to be super-woman.

But even if you don’t follow any of the other time-saving tips on this list, I promise you doing this one thing can change your life in a positive way.

So next time you’re tempted to be a “yes woman”, try saying no instead and see how much of your time you can reclaim.

What are your best time-saving tips for busy moms?

As moms, we do a lot and our time is precious. So it only makes sense to try to make the most of it, right? And I hope these time-saving tips will help you do just that.

Do you have a tip for saving time as a busy mama? If so, head to the comments and tell me about it. 

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