Being a mother of two young children, it gets hard sometimes to fix myself up and be like those elegant sexy moms that are well put together. If you have seen Sarah Jessica Parker’s movie I Don’t Know How She Does It, you can get an idea of how crazy life can be as an American working mom trying to get everything done. If you notice, Parker’s character handles it all by always using a list. Being a mommy and juggling work, motherhood and womanhood can be challenging if you don’t have the right tools. Definitely a list makes things seem more manageable. 

I found a good list of tips in eHow Family that we can follow as a starting point for avoiding those crazy days where everything seems overwhelming:

Daily To-Do List

• As many of us might have already experienced, sometimes we have in mind the things we want to get done for the day, but then other things come up. To avoid being pulled in all different directions, keep a notepad or electronic planner to list the to-dos for the day. You can divide the list into various lists like Home, Work and School.

Grocery/ Shopping List and Coupons

• To save time in the supermarket, have a shopping list prepared and a coupon wallet organized into proper sections. One thing I do is keep a notepad by the kitchen and write down items as I go running out, then the shopping list is already created for me.
• Create a weekly Meal Planner. Avoid having to run to the supermarket every time you cook by planning ahead a weekly meal planner.  Also, if you know tonight’s dinner is going to be a quick fix and not take the typical hour or more, you will have extra time to work on other things before it’s time to prepare dinner.
• Keep a List of upcoming birthdays, anniversaries or special events that you will need to buy gifts for and list suggested gifts along with a budget.

Organized Closet

An organized closet makes it easy to access everyday apparel. I personally pick the clothes I’m going to wear the next morning and leave it all set-up in the valet by my bed. This cuts down my time spent getting ready and I can go get the kids ready and leave home early for school. You should have a section of prepared outfits for the entire week. Your closet should also be sorted so that all tops are on one end, bottoms should be next to tops, and dresses should be on the other end. Use a see-through shoe organizer to avoid opening box after box to find the right pair.