5 Ways to Simplify Your Home as a Toddler Mom
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My love for motherhood shocked me. It truly caught me off guard! I knew I would love my baby, but I figured I would inevitably hate my sleep-deprived, overwhelmed life for a little while. After hearing toxic mommy culture complain for so long, I spent my first year as a new mom waiting for the other shoe to drop.
But it didn’t happen. I didn’t get tired of motherhood or caring for my little girl. Not when she got older, not when I had my second 15 months later, not when I became pregnant (by surprise) with my third six months after that.
All along I’ve wondered “Am I missing something?” Is there a chore or life skill I’m forgetting about? Maybe. But if there is, I don’t want to know! I like our life, and our home runs smoothly at a level of cleanliness that I feel good about. For now, I’ve made a list of things I don’t do on purpose to keep life simple and peaceful.
Is it possible to love life as a mom? As a two-under-two mom? As a three-under-three mom? As a mom of however many children God blesses you with? Yes. My belief may be put to the test with each new stage, but I’m done waiting for the overwhelm to set in. I’m determined to love motherhood at every stage and create a simple life with household systems that serve me instead of enslaving me.
1. I don’t fold laundry
It seems like every time someone is trying to catch a mom’s attention and manufacture a relatable moment, they bring up laundry. People talk about it as if it's this never-ending chore we all have in common, but I’ve never found it that way. Even as our family grows, laundry is not an overwhelming chore.
Maybe you thought I was kidding when I brought this up, but I truly don’t fold laundry. It's not an oversight. It's not something I feel guilty about. I’ve intentionally crafted a system that doesn’t involve sorting or folding clothes. I save hours each week!
The first step? Throw out all your dressers.
Okay, I’m being drastic, but dresser drawers don’t set you up for success. They’re small and hard to close and require things to be arranged in a certain way. That doesn’t suit my lifestyle. Instead, we use cube storage and a few hangers for special items. Each person has their own cube shelf with a bin for shirts, pants, sweaters, pajamas and underwear.
When it is time to do laundry, I take one person’s laundry hamper (I don’t need to spend time sorting clean loads because I wash one person’s clothes at a time), run it through the washer and dryer, and put it away straight out of the basket.
The most time-consuming step is matching up socks and hanging church clothes. My laundry routine only takes a few minutes per person per week.
It's important to note I also keep minimal clothes on hand for each person. If a bin is full, it means it's time to declutter. I’ve decided to buy mainly plain black pants for each of my kids going forward so we also save time choosing outfits.
How can I stop folding laundry?
get rid of all your dressers
opt for cube storage instead
minimize the amount of clothes you keep on hand
commit to washing a load at least once per week
put it away straight from the basket without folding
2. I don’t cook every day
I shudder when I remember how it felt working all day at my 9-5 and getting home exhausted only to realize I still had to make dinner. And since we didn’t have anything on hand, I had to go to the grocery store on the way home.
I’m so thankful to be a stay-at-home mom. But even though I’m home all day, I don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen. I value from-scratch cooking and saving money by eating at home as much as possible, but I knew there had to be a way to have homemade food without slaving for hours.
When my daughter was born, I discovered the power of batch cooking. Since it was only my husband and I eating solid foods at the time, I could double a recipe and get 4-5 dinners from one cooking session. In the early days (after he went back to work), I cooked once a week and put the rest in the freezer.
While cooking 4-5 meals at a time would feel extreme as our family grows, I’m often able to cook 2 portions at once. I make a weekly meal plan that involves cooking 3 large dinners instead of several small dinners. We eat the same meal two nights in a row, which means I only cook dinner every other day.
I also don’t cook at 5 p.m. anymore. Usually by 5, I’m tired, the kids are tired, and if daddy isn’t home yet, we’re all counting down the minutes until he is. I spread out dinner prep as much as possible by making sauces or chopping veggies in the morning, and I use crockpot or instant pot meals as much as possible.
Meals to Batch Cook:
Shepherd’s Pie
Enchiladas
Beef Stew
Lasagna
Pulled Pork
Burgers
Most meals can be cooked in a large batch. Soups and stews are easy to reheat (and often taste better the second day) and so are most casseroles. If I’m making homemade burger patties or buns, its always easier to make a big batch and freeze some for later.
3. I don’t give my kids access to all their toys at once
I loosely do toy rotations. Most of our toys are stored in a closet, and I pull out 6-8 activities at a time. At the end of the day, even if they have played with every item they have access to, we can reset it for the next day in less than 20 minutes.
This also keeps toys fresh and exciting. If I have an especially busy day, I will swap out the toys the night before to ensure they’ll be intrigued for longer!
I strategically choose which toys come out at the same time to make sure there are only a couple of activities with small pieces. I keep craft supplies like colouring, playdough and sticker books stored away to monitor how those items are used.
More stuff does not equal happier or smarter kids. I constantly come across articles that support this! If you want to raise creative kids, don’t go spend hundreds of dollars and hours of your time coming up with craft ideas for them. Give them access to your recycling bin and see what they dream up!
4. I don’t use social media
I don’t subscribe to mom guilt. Easier said than done, right? This is a topic I need to write about more, but I’ve always had a firm belief that I’m the best mom for my kids and even if I don’t do everything perfectly, I’m loving them well. This is a gift God has given me along my motherhood journey and I didn’t realize how unique it is to feel this way until almost a year in.
With that said, I also don’t use social media. I’ve been firmly convicted to get off Instagram a few times, but of course, it took me a while to finally listen. Silencing outside voices in this way saves me hours I could spend scrolling and hours comparing myself to other people.
The main way I liked to use social media was as a creative outlet and a way to store my memories. Once I realized I can find both of those things in other places, social media lost its appeal.
5. I don’t physically go shopping
I don’t like shopping. I didn’t realize until recently, but I genuinely don’t enjoy the act of comparing a bunch of items, trying to make decisions and filling my home with more stuff. I’m a pretty content person, and I think about purchases for a long time before I buy something.
Of course, as much as I try to eliminate shopping from my life, I still need groceries, cleaning supplies, and clothes for the kids every time they grow. I’m so thankful to live in the times we do because everything is available to me online!
Where do I buy groceries?
I prefer not to trek through a store, so I get groceries delivered from Costco or place orders for pick up at my local Walmart and Lawblaws store. Online ordering helps me stay on budget as I can look at the sales and watch the total increase instead of being surprised at the checkout. Placing orders from my phone allows me to check what is in my pantry and avoid overbuying items I already have.
Where do I buy household items?
I use natural products as much as possible, so when I need to stock up on my favourite cleaner or personal care items, I order from Young Living or subscribe to some of my go-to's on Amazon.
Where do I buy kids clothes?
Again, there are so many options online. I was excited to discover I could even thrift shop online using Thredup! Otherwise, I order a lot of neutral pants and filler items from H&M or Carter’s. I like to keep my kids’ closets as simple as possible.
Final Thoughts
Often, we get stuck folding or laundry or going to the grocery store because its the way we’ve always done it. It can feel challenging to break out of those moulds or take the time and mental energy to reevaluate our systems, but I believe its worth taking time to build a life you enjoy.
If you’re nervous about giving up on folding laundry or getting off social media, try a 30-day experiment. You don’t have to quit cold turkey. Just take a break and see how it feels.
I truly enjoy my life even with a growing family and growing responsibilities. The systems in my life must work for me instead of enslaving me!
I’m always looking for more ways to simplify, so if you have anything you don’t do in pursuit of peace, let me know in the comments!
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