Mom Organization Hacks For Overwhelmed Parents
Life gets hectic with young kids, and adopting some solid mom organization hacks has saved me a lot of time, money, effort, and sanity! Plus, staying organized at home keeps my family rocking and rolling and models important organizational skills to my kids.
Here are some of my favorite ways to maintain an organized home and mindset to keep my days with little ones simple and efficient!
1. Create a Minimalist Mom Wardrobe
Simplify laundry, mornings, and closet clutter by curating a minimalist capsule wardrobe. Having a handful of nice outfits in my closet (and nothing more) is a simple way to feel like a more organized mom.
Having fewer clothes to organize automatically makes you more organized!

My capsule wardrobe makes getting dressed so quick and easy. I also find myself appreciating and loving my clothes more. I share here how I went about Building my 33-Item Stay at Home Mom Capsule Wardrobe.
2. Install Shoe Cabinets
Staying organized at home is a little easier with shoe cabinets.

Instead of having a big messy pile of shoes at our front door, we now have a couple of shoe cabinets that keep all our shoes consolidated and out of sight.
Having our shoes off the floor makes it easier to vacuum and mop as well.
3. Embrace Open Shelving
A lot of clutter gets crammed behind closed cabinets and closet doors. As a busy mom, I tend to throw things in closets and tell myself I’ll deal with them later. Unfortunately, “later” usually never comes. So more and more clutter accumulates until I can hardly find anything.
A great solution for cabinet clutter is to remove cabinet doors and embrace open shelving! When I cannot hide items behind doors, I have to find permanent homes for them and preserve the beauty of my open shelves.

So far in my home, we have torn out the upper cabinets in our kitchen and taken off the doors of our living room cabinets.
We now have two open shelves in our kitchen to house everyday cups, mugs, wine glasses, bowls, and plates. And in our living room/playroom, we now have a set of open bookshelves to house books, puzzles, games, and toys.
4. Participate In No-Buy Challenges
I realize that I’m never going to be an organized mom if I keep bringing more stuff into my home. If I can stop the influx of stuff though, I have a chance!
So every now and then, I take a month and decide to say no to buying anything other than essentials. I stick to buying only items like groceries, toilet paper, toothpaste, etc.
5. Suction Cup Toothbrush Holders
Little puddles of water and toothpaste on bathroom countertops are so annoying. It’s a constant mess and feels unsanitary. The perfect solution is to get suction cup toothbrush holders! My kids love them and it keeps our countertops clean and clutter-free.

We bought our suction cup toothbrush holders off of Amazon.
6. Have a Designated Bin For Kids’ Artwork
Young kids often bring home a boatload of artwork from school. At least my preschooler does. His precious little artworks could be found in a dozen different spots around our home at any given moment; on the kitchen counter, on the dining room table, on the floor, on the couch, everywhere.
Now, whenever I see a piece of artwork floating around, I simply put it in our big art bin.

Once this bin gets full, I go through it and throw away or recycle unwanted artwork. I put favorite pieces in a small box to store or find a place for them on the wall.
7. Sleep On a Silk Pillowcase
Sleeping on a silk pillowcase helps tame my frizzy postpartum hair and dry itchy face. As such, it makes my mom organization hacks list because it helps me feel a little more put together and refreshed in the morning. This fresh feeling is essential to propel me into organized mom mode for the day.

The Sleep Foundation explains that silk creates less friction with skin and hair than many other fabrics. It also absorbs less moisture, resulting in less face desiccation and hair frizz. All great news for postpartum mamas.
8. Stock Up On Essentials
I’m not a huge fan of storing a ton of goods in our home; however, there are certain items I want to buy once and then not have to think about for a long time. These include items like;
- toilet paper
- dishwasher detergent
- laundry detergent
- garbage bags
Stocking up on essentials has become an important part of our home management system. I do not have to think about buying toilet paper every couple of weeks and buying in bulk also saves some money long-term. We buy a lot of our bulk items from Costco or Target.

I store bulk items in our hallway closet. Even those who have little storage space can find clever ways to store extra toilet paper and detergent. Under-bed or under-couch storage bins, or ottomans that have built-in storage offer good storage solutions. Over-the-door storage racks can also effectively house overflow items.
Figuring out what to store or not store in our hallway closet has been quite the process. I say this to acknowledge that developing an organized home management system takes time for many of us. Check out Realistic Minimalism For Busy Moms to see some “before” closet pictures and other ways I’m learning to organize our home.
9. Premix Dry Ingredients For Favorite Recipes
I have started premixing and storing dry ingredients for our favorite baking recipes, and have found this eliminates a huge barrier to baking things like homemade muffins and waffles for my kids.
I premix a quadruple batch of dry ingredients for homemade waffles as well as for these Healthy Banana Spinach Muffins and Healthy Carrot Muffins. My kids love these foods; however, getting myself to make them is sometimes a challenge.
Anyone who bakes with their toddlers or preschoolers understands the extra effort it takes. When I know I have fewer steps and ingredients to get ready though, I find myself baking and inviting my kids to help quite often!

I have a jar with dry ingredients for premade waffle mix, spinach muffins, and carrot muffins. I have a label on each jar with the amount of dry ingredients to scoop for a batch, along with the instructions for the wet ingredients to add.
Having these premade mixes makes it so much easier to whip up a batch of yummy and healthy homemade baked goods.
10. Keep a Kids Knife Set in the Kitchen
Whenever my five-year-old begs me to play with him while I’m trying to meal-prep, I invite him to help me chop some fruit or veggies with his set of kids’ knives. He loves doing this and is always proud of himself for contributing and practicing his cutting skills.
When I can keep my kids busy, I can stay on track with organizing meals.

We have a set of kid’s knives made of serrated plastic with grippy handles.
11. Utilize Drive-Up and Go Services
Ever since my second child was born, I have become a big fan of drive-up-and-go services. Our local Safeway and Target both offer this service for free. I shop online, and then within a couple of hours, my order is ready for pick-up. I do not even have to get out of my car. On days when I’m exhausted, a drive-up-and-go order definitely beats taking my one and five-year-old into the store with me.
I also love that Target now lets you choose the option to have your items loaded into your own reusable bags rather than their plastic bags for drive-up orders. Additionally, they offer a decent discount using their Circle Card along with intermittent promos through their app.
12. Create a Breakfast Menu
Since I struggle in the early morning hours, I have a breakfast menu for my kids pinned to our kitchen wall. This way, I can glance at it every morning so I do not have to think through breakfast options when my brain is not quite up to speed. It also takes away some decision fatigue right off the bat, so I can focus on other things.

Here are our go-to 10 Healthy Breakfast Ideas For Kids that make up our breakfast menu.
This menu also keeps me organized by helping me know what food items I need to keep well-stocked.
I’m working on creating lunch and dinner menus as well.
13. Organize a Snack Drawer
The topic of kids’ snacks could be a blog post all on its own. Not only do kids love snacks, but snacks can prevent major meltdowns and hangry attitudes. Not just hangry attitudes from kids, but moms as well! I regularly use snacks to help manage my Mom Rage.
For these reasons, a well-stocked snack drawer and travel snack bag is essential.
While I try to give my kids as many fresh whole-food snacks as possible, we rely on a fair amount of packaged snacks when we’re out and about. So for our packaged snacks, we have a designated snack drawer in our pantry.

I buy packaged snacks in bulk at Costco (granola bars, crackers, etc), fill the snack drawer with what fits, and store the rest in a large container. Taking individually wrapped snack items like granola bars out of the box helps with storage space.
As soon as that snack drawer starts looking depleted, I restock it from our overflow snack storage. Having bulk snacks stored in an easily accessible spot means I rarely have to think about adding snack items to our grocery list.
I also keep a designated on-the-go snack bag stocked and ready to grab and go. I keep ours next to our snack drawer. It always feels like there are a million things to do before leaving the house with kids, so having a snack bag ready to go subtracts at least one item from the get-out-the-door to-do list.
14. Organize a First-Aid Kit
I learned the hard way that having a first-aid kit with me at all times as a mom with young kids is a must.
One day I was meeting a friend and her daughter at the park for a playdate. As soon as my one-year-old started walking to the playground, she fell flat on her face. She cut her forehead on a little rock and started screaming. The cut looked pretty deep, and I immediately realized I did not have any first-aid supplies with me.
Luckily, my friend who arrived a couple of minutes later had a first-aid kit and shared some antibiotic wipes and butterfly band-aids. Since we were about an hour’s drive from our house and our go-to hospital, these first-aid items kept panic at bay. The butterfly bandage held my daughter’s cut together and she ended up being completely fine.
So now, I have a small first-aid kit that goes everywhere with us and a larger first-aid kit we keep in our closet at home.

I assembled a first-aid kit by referencing the American Red Cross’s first-aid kit supply list. You can also buy first-aid kits online or in stores like Target.
15. Organize an Emergency Preparedness Kit
Having an emergency kit is one of those things I hope I will never need, but want to have just in case. If my family has to jump in the car and get out of town, I want to be able to grab our emergency preparedness kit and get everyone to safety as quickly as possible.
Ready.gov offers a list of supplies to create your emergency kit. You can also buy kits online.
16. Create a Password Storage System
There’s nothing more annoying than not being able to access an account online because you forgot your username and password.
To avoid this problem, keeping passwords in one secure place and organized categorically or alphabetically is incredibly helpful.
17. Create an Adaptable Mom Routine
When I maintain a routine with my kids, I feel more organized and grounded. When something is missing from our routine, I know exactly what it is and what I need to do to get back on track.

Since a rigid schedule does not work for my family, I have created An Adaptable SAHM Routine to Cultivate Joy. This means we have a list of daily routines and activities; however, they do not always happen at the same time. This gives us flexibility while still keeping us organized.
18. Constantly Declutter
Learning to declutter has been a long and semi-painful process for me. It’s hard to let go of stuff! Even stuff that is of little value and serves zero purpose in our lives. I have found though, that constant and sometimes ruthless decluttering is essential to maintain an organized home.

Reading up on decluttering tips helps make the process a little easier.
19. Set Up Kids’ Activity Stations
When my kids have designated areas to play and create, they tend to keep their messes contained. They even take pride in cleaning up and organizing their special spaces.
So to help keep an organized home when it comes to kids’ stuff, I have set up some activity stations. My kids have a sensory table, a drawing/playdough table, an art table, and a snack table. They happily migrate around these stations throughout the day.

They also know to keep materials for different activities at their designated stations. Yes, our home has been taken over by tiny tables, but they are all contained, and we no longer have as much clutter floating around our house.
Creating a kid-friendly home has so many benefits when it comes to staying organized at home as well as to child development.
20. Utilize Fruit Hammocks
I do not know about other parents with young kids, but we go through an insane amount of bananas. Fruit in general is a very popular item with my kids. As such, banana hammocks are the last item on this parent hacks list.

Kitchen countertops get crowded really fast, so preserving any space possible is helpful. So forget about that fruit bowl and hang a fruit hammock! I’ve also found that I have a better visual on our fruit this way and do not let things rot as they sometimes would when buried in a fruit bowl on the counter.
Becoming a More Organized Mom One Day at a Time
Life with kids can get overwhelming, but I have found that tackling projects slowly and bit by bit has been a great way to become a more organized mom and enjoy all the benefits.
I’ve also learned that it’s the cumulative effect of implementing all the small parent hacks that creates a big impact. While hanging a fruit hammock is certainly not going to change mom or dad’s life all on its own, hanging a fruit hammock in addition to implementing 20 other little organization hacks does have a big impact on life at home with kids.
What are your favorite mom organization hacks? Please feel free to share in the comments below!

Stay-at-home mom blogger with 2 wild ones in tow. I love to write about my favorite kid-friendly recipes, activities, and childhood development topics. Most importantly, I spill the beans about the greatest joys of motherhood, along with the struggles that too often get swept under the rug.
Find out more about the Shiny New Parent blog on my About page.
Master of Arts in Art Therapy & Counseling, Marylhurst University
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Lewis & Clark College