Motherhood is overwhelming. Fact, and getting through it requires a lot of organization and planning, especially when you have 4 children with different tastes and one who needs to be on a special diet.
As a mom of 5 I am often asked by other working moms how I manage to get everything done but truth be told I have a few items that I just couldn’t and wouldn’t be able to survive without.
Having these items at home means that I have quality time for my kids and enough time to work on my blog, a balance that I really need in my life.
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1. Instant Pot
The Instant Pot is a slow cooker, electric pressure cooker, rice cooker, steamer, yoghurt maker and can do so much more, that I haven’t even discovered yet. I use my Instant Pot as much as I use my kettle and that’s a lot when you are a sleep deprived coffee drinking mom of 5!
I use the Instant Pot to make roast chicken in 20mins, I make curries, risottos, casseroles and I have even had success making a cheesecake in it. The rice is cooked to absolute perfection in less than 5 mins. You can use it to make extra portions and then freeze the leftovers for another day.
The instant Pot is expensive, but what you will save in both time and cost of energy it will pay for itself in no time at all.
If you don’t want to invest in an Instant Pot then a Rice cooker would be a fantastic alternative.
Before I invested in an Instant Pot I used my rice cooker practically every day. It cooks the rice in 15mins and keeps it nice and warm. It is electric so you don’t have to worry about the rice boiling over on the stove when you get a call from the bathroom from one of the children.
The other excellent thing about a rice cooker is that you can put the rice on when you leave for the school run in the afternoon and by the time you get home the rice is ready. I used this one
2. Plastic Tupperware for Batch cooking
I usually spend one day during the week batch cooking for my family. Yes, I’m not going to lie its hard work and takes about a few hours but what it means is that I am able to spend quality time with my children when they get home from school not rushing trying to get dinner made.
The weekends are also less stressed because I have a freezer full of food so we can spend quality time together as a family without worrying about food.
I usually make about 6lb of lamb or beef mince which I can add pasta sauce in
I also make about 5lb of chicken curry which I then freeze. I use these plastic food containers as they hold just enough for my 5 kids’ dinner. I take one out in the morning and let it defrost over the course of the day, heating it in a saucepan just before dinner time.
Batch cooking has been one of the best things that I have implemented at home really made my life much easier. I now have far more time during the day to do other things. I use these Plastic food containers.
3. Cordless hoover
Unfortunately, it is impossible to lay down a blanket everywhere my baby goes. With a busy household and my mild obsession with cleaning I realised I needed something quick and easy to be able to pick up anything, the kids had dropped without lugging out the corded hoover. I have since realised that hoovering frequently is a form of baby proofing your house from a floor that is a potential choking hazard.
The most important features for me where; it had to be bagless, versatile on wooden and carpeted floors, good suction, had a decent amount of running time and had a few attachments to get into difficult to reach nooks and crannies.
The one I ended up with after using 3 different ones was this shark hoover. The leading brand which most would go for didn’t have enough battery life lasting only 15 mins and it was very expensive. Another one that I tried had no suction so I sent that back sharpish.
I ended up keeping this shark hoover as it was both affordable and gave me 80mins of battery so I could practically hoover the whole house if I wanted to.
4.Circle with Disney
This allows me to control the internet with a few clicks on my phone. My kids can do their homework without the distraction of YouTube or games. Kids not answering you when you are shouting that dinner is made? No problem a few clicks and you will see them running to ask why the internet has died!
With Circle you can also turn off all internet in the house at 12am if you are worried your teenager is watching TV. It is an absolute godsend for a busy mom with lots of kids and it’s a good way of monitoring the children when they are online.
5. Steam mop
My steam mop means that I don’t have to get out a mop and bucket every day. I can give my floors a once over and throw the cloth in the laundry. It is an absolute
6. Air fryer
My absolute favourite thing in the kitchen is the air fryer it is amazing for kids’ lunches. I can do fries, chicken nuggets, burgers and even salmon. It takes a fraction of the time it would in the oven. Since I have bought it, I have used it every single day without fail.
You can make air fried chicken with a teaspoon of oil and make healthy alternatives to most fried food.
7. Baby wipes for everything!
No home should be without baby wipes, they are useful for absolutely everything!
8. Amazon prime.
Sounds like an odd one but I really couldn’t live without it. How many times have the kids told you a day before that they need a costume for a school play? Times like this is when Amazon prime just comes into its own, things get delivered the next day leaving enough time for me to throw something together.
I am not embarrassed to say that sometimes I just cannot get to the store and need items such as light bulbs or superglue and for things like this I love amazon prime.
If you are fortunate enough to live in certain areas then Amazon now can deliver within 2 hours!
9. Amazon dot or echo
Never would I have thought when my husband bought this strange device into our home that it would become such a useful thing in the kitchen. I absolutely love Alexa and could go on and on about how much she helps me in my daily life. ‘Alexa, set reminder to give baby antibiotics at 3pm’ or ‘Alexa remind me to put the trash out every Tuesday at 6pm’. You can even ask Alexa to remind you to put the laundry on ‘Alexa remind me to put the clothes in the dryer in 20 minutes’
Alexa can do countless things such as play music, answer general knowledge and tell you the weather forecast and I’m pretty sure there will be so many new additions by the time you are reading this. Here is the one we have.
10. Dry shampoo
An absolute must -have especially if you have thick frizzy hair that takes absolutely forever to dry. It means that you have a day or two before you need to wash your hair and on days when you are running late and need to look half decent at the school gates this is something that needs to be alongside your toothbrush.