MomHacks for 2023 with Erin the Cha Ching Queen – Episode 173
There's nothing better than making days easier. These mom hacks with Erin are going to help you make everyday activities easier or better!
Today's guest is Erin.
Erin is the cha ching queen and as the mom of 3 young children she loves to help others live a happy life on a budget on chachahingqueen.com Erin shares green cleans tips and ideas for your entire home.
With 3 kids time is of the essence. Erin loves to share mom hacks that will make your life (and your kids lives) easier. From age appropriate chores to how to store fruits to make them last longer, Cha Ching Queen shares it all. Bonus- she also shares tips for navigating twins.
In addition to taking care of 3 kids full time, and running Cha Ching Queen (with her husband) Erin also owns Cloth Diaper Basics. A blog that shows how simple cloth diapering can be.
Big thanks to our sponsor Family Routines getting in a routine is my BEST mom hack, come join us in there to make 2023 easier!
Producer: Drew Erickson
Transcript
[00:00:00.160] - Hilary Erickson
Hey, guys, welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today we are talking about mom hacks for 2023. Let's untangle it.
[00:00:17.660] - Hilary Erickson
Hi, I'm Hilary and the curly head behind the Pulling Curls Podcast: pregnancy and parenting untangled. There's no right answer for every family, but on this show, we hope to give you some ideas to make life simpler at your house. Life tangled just like my hair.
[00:00:38.740] - Hilary Erickson
Today's guest is the queen behind Cha-ching Queen. She has three kids, including twin two-year olds, guys. So you know she is busy. She also owns Cloth Diaper Basic. So if you're looking to cloth diaper, I will put the link in the show notes. I know Erin will be able to show you the way since she's doing it with twins. I want to introduce today's guest, Erin.
[00:01:03.340] - Hilary Erickson
Are you overwhelmed by all there is to do around your house? As a new mom, I felt overwhelmed at every turn. Fortunately, I turned to systems to make a change. Whether it's mornings, dinner time, or even just to climb out of a pile of kids clothes. My course family routines can save you. I hold your hand as we smooth out these rough patches, making every day easier so we can more easily handle when your preschooler tells you they can use their urine like a lifesaver. Parenting is always going to be a wild ride. Routines are just your seatbelt and they can support you. Use coupon code UNTANGLED to save 15% a checkout link in the show notes.
[00:01:40.310] - Hilary Erickson
Hey, Erin, welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast.
[00:01:42.960] - Chaching Queen
Hi, Hilary. How are you?
[00:01:45.010] - Hilary Erickson
I'm so good. Erin and I met at a conference and she has all the good mom hacks for us so we can charge 2023 with as little effort as possible.
[00:01:53.410] - Chaching Queen
I'm excited. New year, new me.
[00:01:56.890] - Hilary Erickson
I don't feel that new, I have to be honest. But new plans, new ways to do things right.
[00:02:03.210] - Chaching Queen
Right. There's always something new that we can do, always a change that we can make on something that helps us save a little bit of time, makes our life a little bit easier. And so I always like to start a new year with, I don't know, just different ideas and different approaches to things.
[00:02:20.250] - Hilary Erickson
Yeah. Because I think so much of motherhood is just repeating the same tasks over and over. So even if you can be just like 2%, faster, better, cheaper, it's a big win when you think of the whole year.
[00:02:30.480] - Chaching Queen
It is. And even when you add like, those 1% or those 2% or those tenths of a percent up, you know, in the long run, they make a big difference. I'm reading a book right now that actually mentioned that. So it's funny that you say, like, the 2% because it says, like, all the small things will eventually start to snowball and big changes will come. It might not be right away, but eventually you will see the difference. If you stick with it.
[00:02:54.660] - Hilary Erickson
I agree. Okay, so what's our first mom? Hack?
[00:02:57.390] - Chaching Queen
So I have twins. I have twin girls, and they're identical, 100% identical, minus a little mole on the bottom of one of their feet. And so in the winter, we are wearing socks all the time, or they're wearing pajamas when they were little babies. So one of the ways that I tell them apart is how I put their ponytails. So they both have, like, this shoulder length early blonde hair. There is very minuscule details between the two of them. They are so identical, but I do their ponytails differently. We wear ponytails every day in this house for the girls. And Alison's ponytail goes to the side of her head, so it goes to the right side of her head. And Elizabeth's ponytail goes to the back of her head. So that means I take out a lot of clear little rubber band ponytail holders. And I kept noticing all this hair coming out every night when I was taking out these ponytails, and I was just like, these are going to be bald eventually. Use a seam ripper. And for people who don't know what a seam ripper is, it is a little sharp tipped piece of metal with a plastic handle.
[00:04:01.090] - Chaching Queen
If you're sewing, you use it to rip thread out of a seam. But I hook it around the little plastic piece of the rubber band that's in the girl's hair, and I pull, and it breaks very easily and lets me really just remove the rubber band without pulling hair out. Additionally, I don't have hair all over my house, and I don't have little girls that are losing their hair every day.
[00:04:24.160] - Hilary Erickson
Oh, that's such a good idea to repurpose, like, something that you have around your house for other things to something like that. And I think a lot of people would be like, well, then I can't reuse those rubber bands. But honestly, those rubber bands aren't great to reuse either way.
[00:04:36.390] - Chaching Queen
They aren't! No, I wish they were, because I am all about reduce reuse recycle, and unfortunately, it is what it is with these.
[00:04:44.640] - Hilary Erickson
Okay, Erin, what's your next best tip?
[00:04:46.540] - Chaching Queen
Okay, so one of my very, very favorite tips or things for moms to do is to repurpose toys. We all know that kids get new toys, and they're so excited about them for 37 seconds, and then they want something new or something different. So my kids are very, very into magna tiles right now, and one of my favorite repurpose for these is to take them outside. And I know that in a large portion of the country right now, it's cold outside. So taking toys outside might not be ideal, but when the weather breaks and spring comes and summer comes and you want a different take on this toy, we take our magna tiles outside to the driveway, and I let the kids play with them on the garage doors. So magna tiles stick to garage doors and it kind of just breathes a whole new light into the magna tiles and they make a great vacation toy or busy activity for kids, whether you're on an airplane or if you are going on a road trip, which we love to do. We give each kiddo a cookie sheet and a bit of Magna tiles and we just let them go to town.
[00:05:56.280] - Chaching Queen
They are less likely to fall. And it's not going to be a screaming vest if I dropped it. You know, they stick right to the cookie sheet and it keeps them busy. And when they're done, we line the magna tiles up on the cookie sheet and we tuck it right into the seatpack of the seat in front of them. And it keeps them busy, it keeps them entertained. They have the imagination. They built just all kinds of different crazy things and I love to see it. So repurposing toys, especially those magna tiles, is one of my favorite things to tell parents about.
[00:06:29.280] - Hilary Erickson
Yeah, because you've already paid for the magna tiles. But I agree. Kids magna tiles, I think we maybe got an hour out of. But after that they were like, well, I built a house. I don't know what else on earth I could do. So I'm done.
[00:06:41.410] - Chaching Queen
Well, take them out to the garage and stick them on the door. Also with the magna tiles, I love to. When my twins, when they were little and they wanted to be right under my feet while I was cooking dinner, we have stainless steel appliances. So we brought them into the kitchen and we put them on the dishwasher or on the stove or on the refrigerator. And it let them kind of build outward three D a little bit. So they had so much fun with those.
[00:07:06.810] - Hilary Erickson
That's such a good idea. I love it.
[00:07:08.800] - Chaching Queen
Yeah.
[00:07:09.540] - Hilary Erickson
Okay, next mom tip.
[00:07:10.840] - Chaching Queen
Okay, next one. Tuck this in your back pocket. Moms and Dads, if you're listening too. So this is a summertime hack and it's not relevant right now, but it will help you in the long run. Come to summer, every kiddo has to wear sunscreen. We have to wear sunscreen as adults. But it's never fun to put sunscreen on a wiggly, toddler, or even like a little kid who wants to run away because they don't want you to put it on their face or get it in their eyes or get it in their mouth because it tastes disgusting. Right. One of the best and easiest ways to put the sunscreen on is with a beauty blender. So I buy a five pack of beauty blenders every year from Amazon. They're a couple of bucks. I keep one in the car, I keep one in our swim bag, I keep one in the back of the stroller, and I keep one where we keep our sunscreen in the house for before we leave to head to the pool. And you just put the sunscreen on the beauty blender, and you just gently hold the little kiddo's chin, and it blends right in.
[00:08:09.700] - Chaching Queen
They are not running away. They think it's fun. If your kids are small enough, you can give them a beauty blender and, like, let them help you. Let them think they're helping you. You don't have to put anything on theirs, but it is the easiest way to apply sunscreen to a little one's face and have them not run away.
[00:08:26.560] - Hilary Erickson
Oh, that's such a good idea. And honestly, even for the ten year olds, because a lot of times they have a hard time blending them in with their fingers because the fingers get so full of sunscreen, they can't blend it in. So a beauty blender would be a good option, probably, for me. Let's be really honest.
[00:08:42.360] - Chaching Queen
Well, get you some beauty blenders, girl!
[00:08:45.710] - Hilary Erickson
And we learned about how bad spray sunscreen is when you spray it on your face. So that's a good option versus the spray sunscreen, which I'm trying not to use. But Boy, oh, boy, I wish spray sunscreen was good for us, because I do, too.
[00:09:00.560] - Chaching Queen
It's not good for the environment either, so let's stick to the squirt bottles and do it the old fashioned way. Sometimes things that are easier aren't always better.
[00:09:09.730] - Hilary Erickson
I know. Yeah. All right, Erin, let's give our last best mom hack for 2023.
[00:09:14.700] - Chaching Queen
My last mom hack for you guys, going into the new year is about flowers and how to keep them fresh longer. So who doesn't love to get fresh flowers? Either by surprise or on a birthday or a holiday? Anniversary, mother's Day, whatever the day is. Fresh flowers are amazing, but they don't have the longest shelf life. Right? Like, they're super pretty for a couple of days, and then, you know, they start to wilt and turn brown. But one of my best and most favorite mom hacks is put a little bit of sugar in that water with those flowers. Either regular sugar or I like to use Sprites. I always have Sprite around my house. I pour a can of Sprite in the vase with the fresh flowers, and I not exaggerating last three times longer. You'll have to change the water and add more Sprite every five or six days, but the life of your flowers is going to extend, I would say, double or triple the length that you would normally get out of fresh flowers on your counter or on your table.
[00:10:19.800] - Hilary Erickson
Oh, I love that. Because the worst is when somebody buys you this beautiful bouquet, and then two days later, it's just, like, melted on your counter, and you're like, well, that was sad. It's just disappointing every time you stare at them, right.
[00:10:32.520] - Chaching Queen
Until you finally find the time to clean it up. Right?
[00:10:35.400] - Hilary Erickson
Yeah.
[00:10:36.160] - Chaching Queen
All right.
[00:10:36.580] - Hilary Erickson
That's a great tip. Everybody needs to tell their husband that right away.
[00:10:40.410] - Chaching Queen
Go by yourself. The flowers. Don't wait for someone to get them for you.
[00:10:44.460] - Hilary Erickson
We need to try out this tip. I heard I'm going to go get me some flowers. A trader Joe's.
[00:10:50.210] - Chaching Queen
First of all, yes, they are my favorite flowers. Do it.
[00:10:53.770] - Hilary Erickson
Yeah. All right. Awesome tips, you guys. I loved how we talked about at the beginning that small changes can really make a big change. So check out Erin at Cha-ching Queen. She has tons of good ideas around your house, especially if you guys have smaller kids that can really help you save money, save time, save your sanity, all those different things. Thanks for coming on, Erin.
[00:11:12.550] - Chaching Queen
Thanks, Hilary. Have a great day. Happy New Year.
[00:11:15.120] - Hilary Erickson
Thanks.
[00:11:15.910] - Hilary Erickson
Okay, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode, and hopefully I love how each of them could kind of spark ideas about, like, using toys in other ways or prolonging the life of something. So whatever hacks you're getting, come tell us on Instagram. We're gonna have a mom's hack spot where you guys can give us your favorite mom hacks, too, so we can extend the conversation over there.
[00:11:34.800] - Hilary Erickson
Stay tuned. Next week, we are talking about what to do if you are afraid of the epidural. And if you're not so interested in pregnancy, come back in two weeks where we are talking about decluttering. When you feel overwhelmed, raise your hand, if that's you. It's totally me. Stay tuned.
[00:11:48.520] - Hilary Erickson
Thanks so much for joining us on today's episode. The Pulling Curls Podcast grows when you share us on social media or leave a review. If you do, please tag us so that we can share and send you a virtual hug, which, frankly, is my favorite kind of hugging. Until next time, we hope you have a tangle free day.
The post MomHacks for 2023 with Erin the Cha Ching Queen – Episode 173 appeared first on Pulling Curls.