My darling friend V is brilliant when it comes to parenting hacks. She has given me several of these ideas, crediting Pinterest. I clicked over to Pinterest the other day to check them out for myself and found a few more. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Days of the week bins for clothes give kids the responsibility to choose their outfits and dress themselves. (It also ensures I’ve done enough laundry to last the week.)

   

   

2. When the kids want to watch a show, give them a time limit and use the sleep timer on the TV so it shuts off automatically. (Then hide the remote.)
3. Glue the holes on bath toys so water can’t get inside.
4. Heat a wet dishcloth in the microwave for 30 seconds before cleaning it. The steam loosens up the mess. (This one isn’t really specific to parenting but more for people who find themselves constantly microwaving pasta sauce.)
5. Store Christmas ornaments in egg crates. Brilliant! (Confession: My Christmas ornaments are still in a pile in my home office because I broke the box they were stored in last year and haven’t gotten around to finding a new one.)
6. Put a hair band around a sliced apple it to keep it together and fresh until lunch time.
7. Wash Legos in lingerie bag in the washing machine. I’m guessing this would work in the dishwasher too.

As I clicked around on Pinterest, I started to get overwhelmed. Does that happen to you? So many tips and ideas and solutions. Do I have that many problems that need solving? Or are we creating them by over-engineering our lives in some respects?