Let’s assume I work 8 hours a day (which I do) and get 6 hours of sleep (which I don’t).  Let’s throw in another 2 hours for things like going to the bathroom, brushing teeth, and commuting.  For those of us who also have to drop off and pick up our kids at daycare, you get another hour taken from your day!  That’s 17-hours gone, just like that.  But let’s not get too carried away.

For the purposes of this scenario, let’s pretend I’m left with a full 8 hours of “down time” (I’m being generous here) to squeeze in everything else I’d like to take care of in my personal life – you know, stuff like cooking, eating, grocery shopping, and cleaning.  Oh, and breathing – let’s not forget to breathe.  Whether you stay-at-home, work-at-home, or work-out-of-home, you know those hours literally evaporate at the snap of a finger before a new day starts again.  Here are few tips that have helped me take advantage of the little remaining time I have:

1) Take Advantage of the Night Before

These are all the things we do the night before so that we can do less in the morning:

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Dinner.  I don’t want to end work at 5 pm, come home, and scramble to put dinner on the table.  My dinners are really easy so doing it the night before isn’t too much of a time suck.  I do a lot of stir fries and crockpot dishes, and I always make sure we have rice in our rice cooker and enough for leftovers.  Doing this allows us to just heat and serve right when we come home.  One thing I don’t know how to do and really need to learn is how to make freezer meals.  For some reason it seems so daunting to me, but Mrs. Polish’ Frozen Meal Plan post inspired me to get moving on that.

Toddler Breakfast.  I pour milk into a straw cup, and assemble her breakfast on this stainless steel breakfast plate, then cover with saran wrap so it’s all ready to go the morning of.  This way, all I have to do in the mornings is grab everything and put it on the table.  No running back and forth for multiple things.  I also make sure breakfast is on the table before I wake her in the mornings.

Toddler Lunch.  She usually gets dumplings as her main entree for lunch, which I make in the morning.  However, I put everything else I want in her bento the night before (fruit, veggies, cheese, etc).  It can be time consuming to assemble a bento, but it’s very easy when it’s all ready to go in the morning with the exception of one or two items.

Lunches for me and Mr. Heels.  Our lunch entrees are usually sandwiches, or leftovers from dinner the night before.  I put everything in our lunchboxes and store it in the fridge so we can just grab and go the morning of.

Bottles for Baby.  I mix what I pumped at work the day before and older frozen breastmilk, then divide it into 4 bottles that I keep in the fridge so that my MIL can easily grab and go when she needs them while I’m at work.  Once he goes to daycare, I’ll continue to make sure my bottle are prepped the night before.

Pump Parts.  I’ve had dreams about forgetting my pump parts at home, so I make absolutely certain the night before that all my pump parts are cleaned, in good working condition, and packed away in my Medela bag.  In addition to that, I also keep an extra set of parts at work.

2) Bulk Breakfasts and Lunches

What works for our family is making easy, make-ahead, repeatable breakfasts and lunches.  I like to make quiches,breakfast casseroles or baked oatmeal on Sunday nights that will last us for breakfasts through the week.  These are extremely easy, healthy, and versatile breakfast options that can be tweaked to your personal preferences.  With these breakfast options, all you have to do in the morning is slice and microwave – no mess or clean-up to deal with!  If you’re into smoothies or juicing, I would put all the ingredients together in ziploc bags for each day of the week, so all you have to do is throw it all in the blender or juicer the morning of.  Lunches are often a variation of tuna, chicken, or egg salads prepped on Sunday night ready to be slathered on bread throughout the week.

3) Divide and Conquer

Ever since I got pregnant with #2, Mr. Heels has been handling Noelle’s bath and bedtime routine. He continues to be in charge of that, so while he’s managing her I’ll clean up and wash the dishes.  It may not be realistic to always divide and conquer, but we try to whenever possible!  By the time both kids are down for the night, the house is also spic ‘n span!

4) Lists Lists Lists!

I’m a list maker – always have been, always will be.  It’s become even more essential now that I’m a mom of two.  I also have a terrible case of mommy brain, and I fear it may be chronic, so I need everything written down.  Everything from grocery lists to packing lists to to-do lists, you name it I’ve got it.  I even have a to-do list for all the things I need to get done “the night before” that I check off as I go along.  If I don’t, I know I’ll just forget something crucial.

One list that has come in extra handy lately is our morning routine list.  As Noelle grows, she’s become increasingly more opinionated and insistent on doing things her way in her own time.  To remedy some of that, I reread Mrs. Jacks’ post on how she sequenced her morning routine with Little Jacks to help us be more efficient in the mornings.

I created my own morning routine using only visuals because Noelle can’t read yet (I found images online and inserted them into a word document).  It’s laminated so I just use a dry erase marker and check it off as we go along.  It’s broken down into 5 simple big steps that are easy for Noelle to understand – 1) Eat Breakfast 2) Change diapers/clothes 3) Brush Teeth 4) Choose Gummi Vitamins 5) Go with Daddy to Car.  This particular list has helped condense our mornings into a relatively short 30-minutes.

5) Shop During Your Lunch Break

Sometimes it’s a necessary evil, but I really don’t like spending family time on the weekends grocery shopping.  We do 1-2 big Costco runs per month as a family, but other than that, I try to do my grocery shopping over my lunch break whenever possible.  This ties into point #4 about creating lists because ever since we started meal planning, I’ve only had to run to the market once a week.  Now that I’ve switched to using mostly frozen vegetables for my cooking, there are weeks when I don’t need to grocery shop at all.

I’m constantly racking my brain for new ways to streamline and simplify our routines so that we can have more quality time together as a family, and downtime to recharge.  Sometimes it feels like an impossible goal, but we do what we can.

Do you employ some of these methods?  What are some things you do to streamline your life?