Simplify life with an infant

[StanleyR38]

Just recently returned back to work full time with a couple of days in the office and the rest wfh. DD is looked after by grandparents and goes to nursery. We seem to be getting there in terms of our morning routine to being able to get out the door on time but the rest of my life seems to have gone to shit!

I seem to be constantly running around, trying to clean, cook, shop, wash etc but repeatedly find myself looking for clean clothes, scrabbling around making meals because have no food in, constantly looking for stuff as never seem to get the chance to have a proper tidy. DP does his share so it isn’t a case of I’m doing everything.

Just can’t seem to get on top of things to be able to maintain a simple schedule so always feel I’m on catch up! Any tips on how to get organised and save me from chaos?! Be quite happy for those small win tips too, as hopefully they’d free me up gradually. Dont have masses of child free time where I’m not working so I suppose I need to be able to do things on the go or be more efficient.

At the moment the only solution feels like taking a month of work to turn the house inside out 😵‍💫

Get a cleaner! Even once a fortnight. Your DH can pick up another chore. Get a robot vacuum while you’re at it.

For essentials (baby formula, toilet paper), buy a new large thing of it as soon as you open one. That way, you’ll never run out have some warning before you run out.

Meal plan. Specifically very quick, mostly nutritious meals, and/or meals you can keep in the cupboard. Mine’s scrambled eggs and/or pasta with jar sauce and frozen peas. Eat exactly the same thing one day a week (taco Tuesday!) to take some of the load off.

Capsule wardrobe for yourself - or failing that, two outfits that are easy to wash and you love. Then build up from there.

Drop your standards to the (dirty) floor. This is a short season of what is hopefully a long life. The dishes will get done at some point!

Plan meals for week - do one weekly click and collect shop or delivery
keep meals simple
always prep/pack bags and tidy the night before
but more socks/pants if it helps with reducing laundry
make Sunday an overhaul/get ready for the week day
Know that you are not alone!

Outsource whatever you can afford (cleaning, ironing if you need to, gardening, car cleaning, etc). Weekly online shop, meal plan beforehand. Find a routine for breakfast and lunch meals so you have the same or roughly the same thing every day, then you only have one meal to worry about. Load of laundry every day without fail. As per others, prep work bags etc night before so you’re not rushing in the morning. Pay for more childcare if you can so you have even 30-60 mins to yourself after work a couple of times per week.

That said, even with doing all of the above, it is still hectic. It does get easier as time goes on and things settle down, but accept for now you will drop balls left right centre and continually feel rushed. There aren’t enough hours in the day!

Laundry: check you’re not doing too much, things like jeans and cardigans can be worn several times.
if you’ve got a tumble dryer lots of stuff can be given a quick tumble and hung on hangers rather than ironing. Remove promptly from washing machine and only use the mega fast thing for towels and stuff that doesn’t matter if it’s creased.

I tend to break jobs down into 10 minute slots. Most things can be done to an acceptable standard in 10 minutes.e.g. Change bed linen, hoover a room, quick swish of bathroom, put laundry load away. This can make things more manageable .

Anything you do weekly see if you can stretch to 10 days e.g. fresh pillowcases on bed but no need to change the whole thing every week.

Re food, unless you love cooking and really love big proper dinners, cut right back.
jacket potatoes, omelettes, good soups in the cartons.
make sandwiches for a couple of days at a time?

If you need to declutter do it a bag or two at a time then make sure to drive past a charity shop or clothing donation bin when you’re next out of the house.

if you send cards or need cards for dc buy a nice generic multipack.

Take a break sometimes. You might be more effective sitting down and recharging for 20 minutes rather than dashing straight into doing jobs in the house? Have a good book or programme on Netflix to dip into. Don’t become a martyr to the house or childcare.

if money permits eat out sometimes or buy stuff like ready chopped vegetables. If you can buy a decent lunch at or near work go for it and have peanut butter on toast or similar at night.

What works for us:

As minimal as possible with all of our belongings. Clothing, bedding, towels, kitchen utensils/dishes/appliances, kids toys- everything! A cluttered house just triples your work. You’re forever moving things about in order to clean or tidy. Own only what you really need and use, and make sure every single item has a “home”. Our 3 year old can tidy up everything he owns because he knows where it all goes and there’s not so much that it overwhelms him.

Keep meals simple. We rotate the same meals, throwing in something different maybe once a month. I use the slow cooker a lot.

I set out my son’s clothes the night before. In the morning he is first priority- toilet, breakfast, brush teeth, dressed. He’s completely ready to go within the first half hour and can play while I sort myself out.

Tumble dryer- couldn’t be without this!

Laundry- one load a day so that it never piles up.

Meal plan. I decide on 5 meals for the week but not necessarily what days we’ll have them on. They also won’t all be different meals each day- at least one meal will be something big I can make in the slow cooker so that there’s enough for leftovers. So we’ll usually have two days of curry or bolognese, for example. On the Sunday or Monday I make sure we have everything in for the week ahead for 5 dinners and whatever else. The remaining two days will just be something simple, usually tuna pasta or omelettes as we always have the ingredients in.

So many great tips! Thanks so much!

Theres some really obvious things in there that I don’t do, probably because I’m running around can’t see the wood for the trees.

Think I need to associate days with jobs so that for example wfh days is when I put a wash on and get a food shop delivery. Everything at the minute is a bit reactive rather than planned. And perhaps implementing a change a week until it becomes second nature- I’m guilty of trying to change everything at once which just doesn’t work.

Thanks again - feeling more positive than I did last night 🙂