FROM easing the chaos of the school run, to streamlining laundry routines, influencer Jemma Solomon claims to have hacks that can save mums both time and stress.
Organisational prowess runs in the Solomon genes – her sister Stacey’s hit BBC TV show, Sort Your Life Out, has transformed countless cluttered, chaos-filled homes.
Jemma Solomon, pictured with sister Stacey, has vowed to help mum-of-three Emma Lazenby overhaul her weekly routine[/caption]
Jemma is equally skilled at simplifying family life, with her “mumpreneur” business The Label Lady.
Over five days, she vows to help busy mum-of-three and writer Emma Lazenby overhaul her weekly routine with 15 surprising parenting and household hacks.
But do her tips and tricks really make a difference?
Find out here . . .
DAY ONE
IT’S Monday morning and Jemma promises her first hack will inject organisation into my week. I love her already.
She tells me to buy three hanging organisers (like shoe racks, but wider) for each of my children’s wardrobes from Amazon, £12.99.
They have five compartments – one for each day of the school week.
With a six, eight and 11-year-old, I know all too well the weekly uniform chaos faced by primary school mums.
Jemma says: “Plan ahead, folding each child’s clothes for every day and popping them in the sections.
“Then you can just grab their pile without having to remember that day’s clothes.”
This slashed my morning stress by at least a half, plus I bagged myself an extra five minutes to drink a still-warm cup of tea.
So far, so good.
Fast forward to after-school club pick-up time, and I’m promised that a snack and toy-loaded drop-down toiletry bag for £9.99 from Amazon over the car headrests will make my weekly dash to football less fraught.
“Put toys in one section, snacks in another,” she advises.
“Add some colouring books and pens and they can grab whatever they like.”
To my surprise, there were zero arguments or snack demands. I just hope the novelty doesn’t wear off.
Bedtime is approaching, which means my least favourite part of the daily routine: tooth-brushing.
“There are some fun YouTube videos that teach kids how to brush properly and for the right amount of time,” she says. “So you won’t have to nag them.”
Incredibly, my reluctant eight-year-old DID Brush Along with Budd – for a whole four minutes. Just make sure you pop the tablet in a secure place, safe from sink splashes.
DAY TWO
TUESDAY is a work-from-home day, so I usually pre-prepare dinner in my lunch break by chucking a stew or similar in the slow cooker.
Jemma suggests I optimise this opportunity by making some ‘slow cooker bags’. Ikea’s sturdy ISTAD food bags are my favourites, and just £3 for 50.
She says: “Prepare enough for two meals and put half in a freezer bag.
“Then you’ve got a meal to chuck straight in the slow cooker from the freezer.” That’s a good 15 minutes of meal-prepping time saved.
With my whole house a trip-hazard due to scattered toys, I have high hopes for Jemma’s de-cluttering tip.
She says: “Get the kids to pick out three toys to donate, before a trip to the charity shop.
“The motivation here is they then get to pick ONE toy to buy in the charity shop.”
I enjoyed this hack. My sons chose a jigsaw and a board game.
My six year-old daughter bagged a Hulk mask. So I ditched nine toys and came away with just three. I’m joyfully six toys down.
And I grabbed a haul of 20p kids’ books to pop in party bags for my son’s upcoming birthday. Result.
It’s bath time and there’s nothing my daughter fears more than getting soap in her eyes. It’s not a relaxing time.
Jemma asks if I’ve ever tried swimming goggles in the bath. I hadn’t.
“It brings the fun factor to bath time and she’ll be able to duck right under and splash around, without the fear,” she says.
You can pick up a pair from Sports Direct for £3.99. A soaking-wet bathroom floor was a fair price to pay for a no-tears hair wash.
DAY THREE
BY Wednesday I am already drowning in midweek laundry. I usually put the washing machine on before bed, meaning damp clothes sit in the drum all night.
But Jemma urges me to use my machine’s mysterious ‘delay start’ button.
“It’s one of those functions you don’t always notice, but can be a lifesaver. Laundry will come out fresh, not foisty,” she says.
“And depending on your energy tariff and usage, you can save between £20 and £50 a year by running your machine between 11pm and 7am, due to less demand on the grid.”
I’m annoyed with myself for never trying this before. It’s so easy. I set my machine to fire up at 5.30am, then hang the washing on my heated rack before I leave for work. It’s dry and ready to put away when I come home.
But what about the four sets of clean bedding, still waiting to be put away in my chaotic linen cupboard?
“A brilliant way to keep your bedding sets together is to fold your sheets and duvet cover and pop them into the appropriate pillowcase,” says Jemma.
“It’ll keep your cupboard in order.”
Again, she’s right – I’ve never had such neat bedding shelves.
Buoyed by my laundry organisation, I’m aiming for less rushing before tomorrow’s school run.
Jemma suggests involving the kids and recommends individual magnetic ‘reminder’ charts you can stick to the fridge.
“My kids like having a reference point for the day ahead, and it’s handy for you to have everything written down, too,” she says.
The next morning, they glance at their charts and dutifully pack their school bags. It’s unbelievable. I’ll be doing this every day.
DAY FOUR
ANOTHER work-from-home day and I spend my lunch break preparing some ‘magic after-school snack boxes’ that Jemma promises will buy me a little more time after they get home from school.
She says: “If you buy three cheap bento boxes, you can quickly stuff each section with a mix of healthy snacks and it’ll keep them quiet until you clock off work.”
The novelty of brightly-coloured snacks in their own box (each a different colour, pack of four from Amazon, £9.98) went down a treat.
I’ve never seen my kids so excited about carrot sticks.
I’d say these ‘magic’ boxes bought me around 30 minutes of peace, with no screams of “I’m hungry” at all.
The kids have been pushing bedtime boundaries recently, but Jemma has a sneaky trick to try.
“Change the clocks”, she says. “Put them forward by half an hour, so you can get them to bed earlier.”
My six-year-old can’t tell the time, so this isn’t one for her, but I successfully con my eight year-old and he’s in bed by what he thinks is 8.30pm.
I can’t believe my luck.
Sadly, my 11-year-old checks the time on the iPad. But two out of three isn’t bad.
Time for a quick clean now the kids are asleep, and Jemma says I should tackle the things that have been niggling me around the house.
Mucky light switches and crayon scrawls on the walls spring to mind.
“Tell me you have a ‘magic sponge’”, Jemma says. Nope, I’ve never heard of it. Tell me more.
“You don’t need soap, just water and it gets rid of any marks on any surface.”
I pick up a two-pack from Sainsbury’s (Flash Magic Eraser Extra Power) for £3. High hopes were met.
The sponge effortlessly swiped away all greasy fingerprints and wall graffiti. Genius.
Why have I never used these before?
DAY FIVE
FRIDAY is my so-called ‘day off’ work.
Jemma advises streamlining my shopping list by clearing out the fridge before the post-school trip to Lidl.
“Consider it a stock-take and do a fridge-clean while you’re at it,” she says.
“It stops repeat-buying, so you’ll waste and spend less.”
The clear-out meant I actually enjoyed putting away my bags of fresh shopping.
I’d already discovered two abandoned still-in-date jars of pesto, so scrubbing those off my shopping list, along with some forgotten cheddar, stuffed pasta and a jar of mustard, saved me nearly £9.
Research shows a regular fridge stock-take can save larger families up to £1,000 a year. Sold.
Next up, more kitchen-cleaning before the 3pm school pick-up. Jemma raved about an electric scrubbing brush.
“It can clean your oven in half the time,” she says.
My oven was in a bad way, but this genius gadget whizzed away months’ worth of grime in minutes.
I picked up a B&Q Electric Spin Power Scrubber with five interchangeable heads for £14.99. Jemma also recommended a 30-minute hourglass timer for housework.
“The visual countdown makes you more efficient and helps to break your housework down into manageable chunks,” she says.
I found one on Amazon for £9.90, and it even looks nice on the kitchen side.
I set my timer and got to work. Just as my time was up, my surfaces were clear, and the floor sparkly clean.
Thirty-minute mission accomplished.
EMMA’S VERDICT
IT’S Friday night, and I’m thrilled to say I’ll be taking Jemma’s advice into next week and beyond.
While I invested in a few items for her mum hacks, they’re proving worth it for the stress and faff they save.
And with savings on my fresh-food shop and night-time washing, I feel like I can cut costs, boost my time and lower the stress levels even more.
Snack time is now streamlined with a bit of pre-planning, and the kids are less naggy, for now. The real game-changers? The egg-timer and electric scrubber.
Life = transformed.
