Here are some of the best products, services, subscriptions and Apps for Working and Entrepreneurial Moms of school aged kids.
Home Life Management
Food/Grocery and Home
I spend an enormous amount of time on food. Whether it is planning, shopping for or cooking meals. Though I do actually love the experience of grocery shopping I know a number of working moms and entrepreneurs that hate it and love food and grocery delivery services like:
Instacart – delivers groceries from local stores in two hours. Choose from stores like Whole Foods Market, Target, Costco and Petco.
Amazon Fresh – Shop groceries online (fresh meat, organic veggies, etc.), schedule delivery and have it delivered to your door.
HelloFresh – Yummy, delicious, healthy recipes with pre-measured ingredients delivered straight to your door every week. Just prepare, cook, and devour. Meals starting at $6.99 per meal.
Grubhub – When you need lunch or dinner from local restaurants delivered in a clutch.
Slow Cooker – Let me tell you what, slow cookers are an OG product that saves so much time and effort. I’m the last to get home every night but the best cook. My husband does a few good dishes but I tire of them. Eating out and ordering in is expensive and often not as healthy as cooking at home. The answer to this is slow cooker Chili, Pot Roast and a plethora of comfort foods my husband or sister only have to plate and garnish. Sometimes I will prep tomorrow’s dinner for the slow cooker the night before or while I am preparing another meal (two birds, one store). I’m also considering an Instant Pot since everyone is raving about it like it’s the second coming to cooking accessories.
Target in-store and drive up pickup – Target’s shop online and pick up services has saved me time and money. I often shop for toilet paper, dish liquid, school snacks, dance leotards, school supplies, birthday gifts, and even event outfits during lunch at work to pick up super quick after work and am on my way. Target employees shop for you and the bags are ready to pick up in 2 hours.
Laundry
I hate doing laundry with my whole heart and a single mom and entrepreneur told me she used a laundry service while writing her book and I was shook. This just makes sense!
Laundry Care – Laundry Care is a nation-wide laundry service. Pick-up and delivery is free with same day, next day and two-day turnaround.
Rinse – They personally pick up, professionally clean, and hand deliver your clothes to your door. (Serves San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and D.C. Metro Area.)
Cleaning Service
I find a messy house deeply disturbing and though my husband does a great job helping to keep the house clean, I occasionally like to have a deep cleaning of the bathrooms and kitchen for my own mental health. On Valentines one year, he actually paid to have the all the common areas deep cleaned and it was heavenly. Acts of service is my love language and it meant the world to me. So, though most of the time my husband carries more than his fair share of the cleaning weight, especially when we have dinner parties, engaging a cleaning service makes sense if we are both busy or if we need a next level bathroom cleansing.
Try this service (if you can’t find a local entrepreneur to work with):
Merry Maids – provides customized residential cleaning & maid services near you throughout a network of over 950 areas in the United States.
Get Organized
Getting organized is really half the battle. We use a mix of digital calendars (updated monthly and as needed) and physical wall calendars (updated weekly) to manage and coordinate schedules.
Shared Google Calendars
My husband, sister and I coordinate our schedules around the kids, so once a month we each input school holidays, work trips, and special events. For instance, if I am out of town for business for 3 days, I will add to my personal Google calendar as an event (with 1-week and 1-day reminders) and invite my sister/husband to notify and make sure they know they need to coordinate school pick-ups amongst themselves while I am gone.
Wall Calendars and Chore Lists
As a visual reminder in a common area that the kids can also see we list after school activities, kid’s chore responsibilities, special events and update weekly. This has helped with the kids being involved and taking some measure of ownership in our household process.
See the magnetic chore checklist and calendar we use here. You can also find free downloadable chore charts here.
Tech Products / Apps
Chromecast – We’ve had a Chromecast for a few years now and it is a convenient entertainment lifesaver. Chromecast is a small and affordable device that you plug into your TV’s HDMI port, powered by a USB cable (included). Using your smartphone or computer as a remote control, you can use Chromecast to access video content from Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, the Google Play Store and other services (TV networks videos like Disney and PBS). You essentially play streaming content on your phone to your television. There are interactive and upgraded TVs that have apps for all the streaming services, but if you either don’t have one of these TVs or don’t want your children to control a TV with these features, Chromecast is a great option. I may be in one room working but can control what my kids are watching without leaving my seat as long as we are on the same Wi-Fi.
Overdrive App – A free service offered by your library or school that lets you borrow digital content (like ebooks and audiobooks) anytime, anywhere. Every OverDrive collection is slightly different because each library or school picks the digital content they want for their users.
I read 150 books a year, most are library books downloaded as ebooks to my Kindle and Kobo and audiobooks downloaded to my phone via Overdrive. When I need a audiobook or book for my kids to read before bed or on a drive, I download to my book reader for them to read or to my phone to listen to while driving (we have listened to Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Family Link App – I purchase a Chromebook for my 3rd grader and I use the Family Link App to choose what websites my child can access using Chrome, supervise my kid’s app usage, and more. If my kid tries to access a site I haven’t preapproved, they can send a request to me that I can approve or deny access to site or apps in real time no matter when I am.
Bambina – A popular free app that helps parents find childcare and babysitters on short notice. It allows sitters to be reviewed by a network of friends and neighbors, and also simplifies booking and payment. I’ve never used this app but I have heard good things.
These are some of the Apps, services, and products that me and many mothers I admire use to simplify and support their dreams and/or ability to provide for their family. This is by no means an exhaustive list, are there any products and services your family swears by, let me know in the comments below.
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