These quarantine survival hacks aim to make family life run a little bit smoother.
We do love a good hack around here. Anything that saves time and makes life easier is worth a shot in our book. We've explored cooking hacks, cleaning hacks and even some first aid hacks in recent months. It's now time to explore some quarantine survival hacks. That's right - we are officially at the point in all of this where something has got to give.
These quarantine survival hacks aim to make family life run a little bit smoother.
Reacquaint yourself with lunchboxes
I'll admit that one of the unexpected "positives" that have come from this time is not having to do the lunches every day. But here is the thing, it's actually worked out to be more of a pain than lunchboxes ever were. The constant requests for random snacks and mini-meals is just too much.
I seem to be constantly preparing one snack or tidying up after another. This week I've reacquainted myself with the lunchbox and it's made all the difference. I fill it in the morning and it includes snacks, fruit and an actual "lunch" such as a sandwhich/roll/crackers and cheese and once it's done it's done. It's up to my son how he wishes to spread it out!
Store Your Paint In Empty Soap Dispensers
We have gone through a considerable amount of soap over the last couple of weeks and proper hand washing is just going to be part of our new life now. We came across this paint storage hack and it is so clever. Storing your paint in soap dispensers (or ketchup bottles) is a great way to easily "add more paint" for little ones without constantly having to pour too little or too much.
Image Credit : Pinterest
Freeze Their Toys
Yes, you did just read that correctly. This activity is doing the rounds on social media and parents are loving it. It involves using a bowl (or silicone ice tray) to freeze small toys by placing the toys in to the bowl (or space), filling with water and popping in to the freezer overnight. The idea is that the kids then have to dig their toys out. We kind of love this one.
Bribe Them With A Mc Donalds
We're all about the bribery these days. You have to do what works when you are working from home and trying to keep everyone happy at the same time. We had no idea that you could download and print Mc Donalds packaging using templates like these. Parents across the world are convincing their children that they are eating Mc Donalds and it's just brilliant.
Trade Chores For Rewards Like Screen Time
A helping hand makes all the difference when it comes to chores around the house. Unfortunately children are usually not keen on getting involved and honestly who could blame them. We were inspired by one couple who made a game out of it and allowed their children to accrue "screen time" by doing jobs around the house. In their case their children are matching all of the odd socks in the house and each matched pair equals a certain amount of screen time. The same principle could work for any chore and reward though. Why did we not think of this?