8 clever hacks for busy Mums

The author of The Little Book for Busy Mums shares her time-saving tips with LISA SALMON

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NO one ever said being a mum was going to be easy. But there are many ways to reduce the load by being smarter and more organised.

Mum-of-two Rachael Shephard became particularly aware of how time management was a "crucial yet challenging" aspect of a mum's daily life after she had her second child and struggled to cope with the “disproportionate” number of tasks she needed to complete.

"I jumped on the parenthood treadmill with full abandon, blissfully unaware that once it starts, you can never really get off. It doesn’t stop. It rarely slows down," she laments.

And although she thinks she was "relatively adept at managing mum life" by the time she had her second son, the reality was that adding another child made a huge difference. “It turned parenting into a full-blown juggling act,” she explains.

"I didn’t just lack time, I was stretched thin on patience, peace, and my nerves were like old guitar strings, one strum away from snapping completely.

"I wish I knew then what I know now. As a seasoned mother of two boys, I’ve learned I have to be OK before I can make sure they are. I actively prioritise making my life easier, and I keep that priority solid."

Rachael, 42, wants to help other mums by sharing the ways she’s made her own life easier, so she’s written The Little Book for Busy Mums, to outline the tricks, hacks and shortcuts she’s used to reduce the parenting load and rebalance self-care and motherhood.

She says: “It's about cutting corners without cutting yourself out of the equation.”

Here are some of her tips and tricks...

1. SKIM-CLEAN