- Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
Today I'm gonna share with you
my top tips on how to be an organized mum,
or an organized parent.
If you're new, my name's Emily,
and I post three videos a week,
mostly to do with parenting topics.
If you like that kind of thing,
I would love for you to subscribe and stick around.
But, yes today as I said,
we're talking about organization,
and I'm not gonna pretend
that I am always organized all of the time.
I'm a busy mum of three,
and I work, so there are times
when balls drop and things are forgotten.
But these are my top 10 tips
that help me stay organized as a busy mum.
Tip number one is online shopping.
I do almost all of our food shopping online,
and it is incredible.
Imagine going shopping with no children,
from the comfort of your own home.
There's no one screaming for a Kinder Egg.
It's incredible, and it's guaranteed to
save you time, money, and calories.
So, tip number two is to have
a planning center in your house.
In our kitchen, we have an area
where we have our calender,
so we can see the month in full view.
Then we also have a board
where we keep all of our meal planning for the week,
so everyone can see what's coming up for food that week,
and then I also have a pin board
where I put things like party invitations,
and random things I need to remember for school,
and just other little reminders.
By having it all in one place,
it's easier for us all to see what is going on.
We can see what we're having for dinner that week,
we can see what's coming up on the calender,
and little pin board reminders
are also right there for us to see in full view.
Another tip to keep up with party invitations
is when you get a party invitation and you RSVP,
I like to write on the invitation that I have responded.
And while we're talking about parties,
I also like to keep unisex birthday cards in the house.
I bulk buy them, and then I also do it for gifts.
If I see something on offer that'll be good
for a birthday party, like a Spider-Man figure,
or something for a girl, I keep them in our garage,
so I'm never running out of birthday presents,
or having a last-minute dash to the shops.
But if I ever completely forget a birthday present,
or run out, money in a card is a great option.
My next tip is to meal plan.
Now, I will link a video down below that I made
completely just on meal planning.
By meal planning weekly or fortnightly,
it will greatly cut down on the amount that you spend,
and also the amount of food that you waste.
I have a meal-planning board in our kitchen,
so on a Sunday night, I will write the menu for the week,
so I can get organized.
And there are weeks that I don't do this,
but on those weeks, I feel like I am forever
running to the shops, or just feeding the kids
stuff out of the freezer, which I really don't want to do.
Another big tip is to use your slow cooker
or your crock pot, especially for working mums.
You can wake up, just throw some stuff in,
and come home to a delicious-smelling house,
and a lovely meal.
Also, with meals, remember
you don't always have to be supermum.
There are a few nights a week when
I put all of the boys to bed on my own.
So it's literally three to one,
and by the end of it, I'm exhausted.
So one of those nights a week,
I make sure that we have a posh-ready meal in.
I get these home-made ones
from our local farm shop, and I love them.
They're a tiny bit more expensive,
but I can literally put it in the oven
while I'm getting the boys to bed,
and then once they're down, we have a lovely
lasagna or meal like that,
and there is barely any washing up,
it's still a home-cooked meal.
I also normally have wine on that night as well.
My next tip is a big one, and that is
to get everything ready the night before.
And I always mention this in my evening routine videos,
but it makes such a difference.
And sometimes, I just pull everything together
while I'm making dinner, or I'll get the boys' uniforms
ready while they're in the bath.
You can kinda work it around things,
but it makes such a difference if you just
pile everything up for the next day,
football kits, uniforms, shoes, jackets,
it's all there laid out,
and you're ready to go in the morning.
The next tip is to write lists,
whether it be on your phone, or actually on paper,
whatever you prefer, write it all down.
With three children, I find if I don't
write things down straight away, I completely forget it.
And there is something really satisfying
about ticking off a list.
Sometimes I like to write lists on my phone
at the beginning of the day of things
that I want to achieve or get done that day.
And I also like to use the Reminders app,
and one really nice thing about it
is that you can share it with family.
So my husband and I have a list that we can share
between each other, so if it's like get bread, get milk,
someone can get it and then tick it off of the list,
and we don't even have to talk,
we can just look at the list.
The next tip is quite a new one for me,
and that is to get your children to help you.
I think as mums of young children,
we get in the habit of just picking up after them,
and just doing everything for them.
It's almost easier and quicker sometimes.
But, my boys love to help out.
So, I go over the top with praise now.
If they put something in bin,
I make them put their dirty washing
into the laundry bin, and help tidy up their toys.
These are just small things,
but it's teaching them some good habits.
And also it does help you with managing the house.
My next tip is the 10-minute tidy up.
Have you ever noticed how you can completely blitz
your whole house in 10 minutes
if someone calls and says
they're coming for a surprise visit?
It is incredible how much mums
can get done in just 10 minutes.
So sometimes I like to challenge myself.
That might sound really sad,
but sometimes if my baby is napping,
I'm like, "Right, I've got 10 minutes
"to blitz my bedroom."
And I just see how much I can do in 10 minutes,
and it's actually a lot.
I hope my next tip doesn't make me sound gross,
but wear clothes more than once.
Don't just automatically wash things.
If they're not dirty, don't wash them.
'Specially jeans, I leave them for days.
If my eldest son's trousers for school aren't dirty,
he wears them again the next day.
Don't just automatically wash everything.
As a family of five, we have so much laundry,
so I had to cut down on how much we're washing.
I wash our towels, probably every three or so days,
and I wash our bedsheets every one to two weeks.
In the winter, it is more towards the two weeks,
because if you think about it,
we are putting our children to bed
completely clean, 'cause they just had a bath,
and we're putting them in clean pajamas in the bed.
So you don't have to wash it every single week.
I would almost wash pillow cases more often
than the whole complete bed set.
My next tip that makes me stay so organized
is to have a cleaner.
I always joke that when you become a mum,
you either need to lower your standards
for cleanliness, or hire help.
You can get a cleaner for about 60 pounds
to come in and do a one-off spring clean,
do all of the jobs you hate,
like pull your couches out,
hoover and clean under them,
do your skirting wood, dust your lights.
You can get one-off cleans like that,
so I used to treat myself to stuff like that.
But now that we have three children,
I have a cleaner that comes in once a week.
They actually do four hours between two of them,
so it's only two hours that they're here.
And it is 35 pounds a week.
It is so nice to know that once a week,
my house is going to be cleaned from top to bottom,
and I'm not spending all day
Saturday or Sunday doing it.
I can spend those four hours that they clean for me,
and they're professionals, they're way better than me,
I can spend that time actually playing with my children
or tidying and organizing the house.
Obviously this is at an expense,
but it is 35 pounds a week,
so personally, I would rather not
do things like get my nails done, buy a new top.
I would much rather have that cleaning service,
because it makes such a difference.
My final tip is to break up big tasks throughout the week.
So, as I said, laundry's a big one for us,
so I just put on a load of laundry every morning,
and it's part of my routine,
and I'll tumble dry it every afternoon,
and put it away.
I find this much easier to do daily
than to spend a whole day just concentrated on laundry.
And the same goes for, if you wanted to do something
like reorganize a room, but you couldn't
spend a whole dedicated day on to it,
you could just spend 15 minutes a day
focused on reorganizing that room,
and then by the end of the week,
you will be amazed at how much you have actually got done.
Right, so that's it for this video,
I really hope you liked it.
Please comment below if you have any other tips
for organization, because I am
a crazy busy mum of three,
and I can do with all the help I can get.
P.S. Give it a thumbs up if you liked it,
and I will see you very soon.
Bye!