Do you have young kids at home and feel like you start every day already overwhelmed and running behind? I have two kids two years old and under and I used to feel the same way! Want to know what I did to change that?
I have a routine that I follow almost every night before I go to bed that helps my days run so much smoother with my two-year-old little boy and my five-month-old baby girl. When I actually put in the 30 minutes to get this all done after my toddler goes to bed, I am able to enjoy waking up in the morning, let him make as much mess as he wants, and I am also able to get some actual personal time in throughout the day as well.
My routine consists of just a few basic things. Every night I:
- do a general tidying up
- prepare food for the next day
- repack and refresh the diaper bag
- plug in all our devices
- prepare the diaper cart for overnight use and for the following day
Doing these five things has honestly saved my sanity as a stay at home mom to two little ones, especially in a small living space.
GENERAL TIDY
WHAT I DO
I look around my house and make sure that it all feels tidy and put together. In my apartment we have a main living space that consists of our kitchen and our living room (that doubles as our playroom), a bathroom, a hallway, and two bedrooms. This isn’t a lot of space to keep clean, but it also means that it can become cluttered and disorganized quickly.
Each night I make sure the toys are put away nicely, the kitchen and living room are vacuumed, the dishes are done and put away, the front door is locked, the counters are wiped down, the blankets folded, and the throw pillows arranged nicely on the couch.
WHY IT HELPS
Going to bed to a clean house doesn’t make much of a difference to me, but waking up to one really does. My whole entire day can start on the wrong foot if I get up in the morning and the sink is full of dishes or the living room is still covered in toys and snack crumbs from the day before.
Tidying up my home at night also gives me a nice close to my day. I am able to fully relax and enjoy my time to myself, with my husband, and with the baby. I enjoy being tidy and organized. It makes my happy. So I spend time giving myself that happiness.
FOOD PREP
WHAT I DO
Every night before I go to bed, I think about the meals for the following day. I get out breakfast dishes for Calvin and set them next to his high chair. I also get out a few basic things for making breakfast the next morning. Then I decide on lunch. I have a Bentgo Kids Bright lunchbox for Calvin that he loves. Almost every night, I pack his lunchbox for the next day and put it in the fridge. I also decide what I’ll be eating for lunch. Either I set aside some leftovers or I pack my own lunchbox (a PlanetBox Rover) and put it in the fridge with Calvin’s. Then I look at my menu plan to see what I will be making for dinner. Sometimes I get meat or a crockpot meal out of the freezer to thaw, sometimes I chop produce in advance, and sometimes I do nothing at all.
WHY IT HELPS
Just knowing what food I need to be prepared for the next day is immensely helpful for me. It can be overwhelming for me to try and figure out what to feed Calvin for a meal while he’s clinging to my leg and Della is crying in the background. I love just being able to pull both of our lunches out of the fridge and immediately serve them. Also, when I pack them the night before, I find that I am much more able to have a balance in his food options, rather than accidentally serving him four different kinds of fruit and no fats or protein for lunch.
Packing my own lunch with Calvin’s also ensures that I eat lunch in a timely manner. If I don’t, I often get wrapped up in feeding him, nursing Della, putting Cal down for his nap, putting Della down for her nap, cleaning the kitchen, and cleaning the living room. Before I know it, Calvin is waking up and I haven’t taken any time to eat. As for the dinner prep, I am the queen of forgetting to thaw food properly or serving dinner late because I didn’t realize how long it would take me to chop and dice everything.
REPACK AND REFRESH DIAPER BAG
WHAT I DO
I have a checklist on my phone of all the things that are supposed to be in the diaper bag. Every night (at least on the days the diaper bag left its hook by the door) I go through the checklist and make sure that I have everything I need in the diaper bag.
If you are wondering what I keep in my diaper bag with a toddler and a baby, check out this post!
WHY IT HELPS
I have left the house one too many times with a diaper bag that was missing snacks or wipes or even diapers. I got to where I was going, reached into my bag for an important item, only to realize that I had depleted my store the day before and never replenished. I avoid that scenario by repacking the diaper bag every night after it’s used. This also allows me to leave suddenly or to send the bag with a child on an impromptu trip with Grandma without worrying about it being a useless bag full of nothing needed.
PLUG IN ALL DEVICES TO CHARGE
WHAT I DO
In our house we have a lot of devices that run on a battery and get used often. This includes: our junky old iPad Mini, the portable white noise machine, my laptop, my smart watch, our phones, my Kindle, the Hatch Rest+, the baby monitor, and our external batteries. Every night before going to bed, I make sure each and every one of these items is plugged in to charge overnight. It only takes me like three minutes to do, but it can make a huge difference the next day.
WHY IT HELPS
One of the worst feelings in the world (at least to me) is thinking and feeling prepared for anything and then being proven wrong in the moment. For me, this often occurs when I assume that the iPad or the white noise machine is charged and ready to go, only to discover it’s not and I can’t fix it. And believe me, you do not want to be the mom who just told her two-year-old he could watch Cars on the ride home stuck with a dead iPad. Or the mom with a screaming, overtired, and overstimulated baby and no white noise machine to help them chill out.
PREP DIAPER CART FOR NEXT DAY AND OVERNIGHT USE
WHAT I DO
I have this lovely diaper cart filled with all sorts of baby essentials. It mostly lives in my living room, but I have the ability to roll it wherever I need it in my apartment. Before going to bed at night, I make sure that it is stocked with clean burp cloths, diapers, wipes, bum cream, drool bibs, water, spare clothes, a swaddle blanket, Della’s outdoor clothes, her hair bows, and my laptop. When she was a newborn and waking up more at night, I would bring the cart into my room next to my bed for overnight use (and it was stocked with more breastfeeding supplies like nipple cream, nursing pads, my Elvie Curve, and snacks) but now it is just my living room baby hub.
WHY IT HELPS
Stocking this cart the night before ensures that I never have to run through the house or interrupt Calvin’s nap in search of diapers or clean clothes for Della. All of her daily essentials are in one easy place. And what’s even better is that that place is mobile. If, for example, Della and I got sick and were spending the day in my room in bed, as long as I had packed the cart the previous night, I would be able to wheel it in and have pretty much everything I needed for the baby.
The diaper cart is also an awesome tool for letting a toddler help with the baby. Calvin can reach all of the areas of the cart, so if he’s in a helping mood, he can get all sorts of things for me to help with Della.
I hope you found some of these tips helpful. If you are a parent of a toddler and an infant (or if you are soon-to-be) I wish you luck and want you to know that I believe in you. You’ve got this.
BARREL OF MERRELL'S 
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