Usually when you hear the word “hack,” you think of a cough or a breach in online security. A life hack, however, is a good and useful thing. It is something that makes life easier. Moms like easier. Knowing that, because well, I am a mom, I rounded up some Mom hacks to save time and money.
General Mom Hacks
Motherhood Sprouting has hacks aimed at mamas of little ones. She has 36 hacks ranging from using a cookie cutter to baby proof cabinets, to hot gluing the holes in bathtub toys to prevent mold from growing in it. Wish I had these hacks when I had wee ones.
Alysia, a mom of littles, gave me this hack to share: she uses a link from a baby toy to keep her hair ties under control.
But First Coffee is both a blog and a You Tube channel. It’s creator, Kallie Branciforte, is a young mom with two littles. She has posts and videos on subjects such as decluttering, Dollar Tree organizing and purchasing, cleaning, budgeting, and of course, hacks. On her blog you can find a page devoted to hacks. I personally loved her “26+ Command Hook Hacks.” She also has hacks for organizing, fashion, cleaning the kitchen, decluttering, and more.
This YouTube video channel “What’s Up Moms” has lots of funny and informative videos. Designed by moms for moms, they have a huge playlist of genius mom hacks. Check out their other videos as well. The moms have a great sense of humor and their videos have a professional look to them. They even have a Mom hacks “Dad’s version.” Hacks include using a pipe cleaner to secure a daughter’s ponytail, and using a can opener to open hard plastic packaging.
Cleaning and Organizing Hacks
Lifehack has a post called “50 Cleaning Hacks that Will Make Your LIfe Easier.” What I like about these hacks in particular is that they use non chemical materials such as vinegar, sea salt, and baking soda.
Cass from Clutterbug specializes in cleaning and organizing. It’s been fun to watch her YouTube channel grow while she shrinks. In her typical candid style, she has shared her weight loss journey as well as her tips and tricks to make things tidy. This video shows 9 Weird Cleaning Hacks that Actually Work! If you watch her videos, make sure to stay until the end. She typically shares a funny story. Beware though if you have little ones around, not every story is completely appropriate for little ears.
Interestingly enough, Cass teamed up with two of my other favorite cleaning/organizing YouTubers to make “5 Best Cleaning Tips” videos. She collaborated with Clean Your Space and Do It On a Dime.
Melissa Maker from Clean Your Space has a professional cleaning business. She has over 600 cleaning videos on her channel (and she’s a young mom!). She put together a “20 Brilliant Cleaning Hacks” video to highlight her favorite tips. Here’s her collab video. I appreciate as well that she finds so many uses for simple products. She has a baking soda hacks video and a vinegar hacks video among many others.
Kathryn from Do It On a Dime is a Dollar Store organizing phenomena. In fact, her collab video is “The Best $1 Cleaning Tips.” She is an expert on how to organize, clean, and even decorate using Dollar Tree items. Among her many other videos, she has a “Dollar Tree Hacks that Actually Work, “ and 10 *NO PLASTIC* Dollar Tree Organization Hacks (you will actually use!) She does some great DIYs as well.
Food hacks and tips
LoveFood.com has “50 Food Hacks that are Borderline Genius.” I figured they must be European when one of their tips was to grate the bottoms of “biscuits” when they are burned, and the biscuits were what we would call cookies in the US. Check out their other tips, such as a fabulous way to cut a mango.
BuzzFeed is a reliable source for useful information. They have a “17 (Legit Useful) Food Hacks That Actually Work” post. I never thought of making bacon in a waffle iron. I’ll have to give it a try! How about this amazing post, “15 Boxed Food Mixes You Never Have To Buy Again.” I’m a big fan of making your own mixes (I have some recipes in my e-book), so I’ll be giving some of these a try.
Another mom friend of mine, Sharon, gave me these tips:
Place a piece of bread in your brown sugar to keep the sugar from hardening.
Clothes pins from the dollar store make good chip clips.
Use a piece of bread to soak up grease from soups.
Freeze fresh herbs in olive oil for later use.
Cooking hacks
The next three YouTube channels don’t necessarily focus on hacks per se, but they do focus on how to make cooking easier.
Jamerill from the Large Family Table is the queen of freezer cooking. What is freezer cooking? It’s cooking or at least preparing dishes ahead of time and then freezing them for later. Jamerill makes food in huge quantities because she has eight kids (with another on the way). She has multiple freezer cooking playlists so you can take your pick. I enjoy watching her videos because she is so down to earth and does “real life.” She also makes videos on how to feed a big family on a budget. You don’t need to have a big family to benefit from her expertise.
Sarah, at Our Tribe of Many, shows how she and her husband food prep for their family of 12. Yes, you can see I enjoy watching moms of big families. I can relate so well to them! She has both a playlist of food prep videos and a playlist of recipes. Sarah is another “real” mom and she has such an easy going attitude, you feel like she’s a friend.
If you’ve looked for recipes online or on Pinterest, you may have seen posts from Six Sisters’ Stuff. The six sisters also have a YouTube channel that focuses on freezer meals and Instant Pot meals. Check out this video where Kristin makes 15 make ahead freezer meals in 2 hours. One thing I really appreciate about the videos is that all the recipes are linked in the description box. I have used many as I love quick and easy recipes.
True confessions, while I was writing this post, I wanted to make a quick dinner so I used this recipe for sheet pan grilled cheese sandwiches. What makes these sandwiches quick to make is that you use two sheet pans and bake them in the oven.
When do I have time to watch these videos to save time?
If you read my post on YouTube exercise channels for moms, I gave my goofy hack on how I exercise and watch the news at the same time. It’s all about multi-tasking. I watch my mom hack videos on my tablet while I’m cooking. They are definitely worth your while.
E-Book on Mom hacks to save time and money
I have a free e-book that is, no surprise here, “Mom Hacks to save time and money.” Just sign up below and you’ll be given a password into my free resource library. You’ll find the e-book there.
Leave a comment with your favorite mom hack. We can all learn from one another!