If you work outside your home, how have you simplified your life?

[Anonymous]

What I've done is cluster all "personal care" items near my office. Dentist is a block away from my office. Hair stylist is two blocks away from my office. Internist is 10 minute walk from my office. Eye doctor is 10 minute walk from my office. All of these appointments are made towards lunchtime so I have no issues with child care and less of a rush.

[Anonymous]

I'm still struggling but what's helped me are:

-Getting up early during the week for time to myself whether it's to excercise or to get DD's food for daycare ready.
-Using lunch hour to do errands or personal things like getting brows done
-Waking up super early on Saturday mornings to do grocery shopping.
-Having the option to work from home.
-Cleaning service
-My husband has one free night during the week and I in turn have my night.
-Taking showers at night to save time in the morning.
-We each have our own responsibilities. He handles the bills, I cook, he does the laundry, I take care of doctors appts, etc.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, I did not start feeling like I could really handle things until my kid was about 4. Everything might work perfectly for a week and then someone gets sick and the whole train derails. Mine is now 6 and I am just starting to get my life back. Potty training and no naps help a lot. I have a cleaning service. For a time I had a PT nanny who came early and did errands for me -- that alone was the single best idea I have ever had in my life. She did grocery shopping, post office, p/u and drop off drycleaning, all sorts of stuff. She also did chores every afternoon with my daughter. She ended up needing FT so she moved on. I will be looking to replace that position in the fall.

I don't iron anything. I am a ruthless declutterer and am constantly freecycling and purging so we don't get overwhelmed with crap. I cook a big meal and freeze leftovers in individual portions so I only have to cook once or twice per week. I also don't jump on my husband's bandwagon of "we should really..." Whenever I hear that I just smile and say, "what a good idea, let me know when you have that planned, scheduled, arranged so I know exactly what to do/where to be." I never ever agree to plan or do more than I want to and I think that is critical. To that end, I stopped spending time with people that I thought I "should" spend time with and only spend free time with people I want to see. Hugely liberating and very life simplifying oddly enough.

Starting this year I am leaving the office early 2 days per week and going to the gym for a long workout. I informed my husband that he would have to be home by a certain time to relieve the nanny and that he was responsible for dealing with everything that I do in the evening -- cook our dinner, feed our daughter, pack her lunch, deal with the dog, bath and bedtime routine. He readily agreed but it has been slow going. He is eager and my daughter loves it so it will eventually work. He is definitely trying.

[Anonymous]

I am actually really happy with the balance we've been able to achieve but - I'll fully admit we're fortunate enough to be able to outsource a lot.

For starters, we do Let's Dish once a month and we don't assemble the meals ourselves (we do dish'n'dash). I then cook a meal one night, we eat leftovers two nights in a row afterward. Daughter is 2.5 and eats separate from us (something easy and microwavable every night) and she's in bed by 7:30, then we eat.

Also, cleaning lady was easily convinced to take on more work for us, so we now pay her to clean our house once every two weeks. On the weeks she doesn't clean the house, she comes to tidy it up and do all laundry. Also, she runs to the grocery store or Target or Costco or whatever we need once a week. By the time we come home, she has done all this and put everything away for us (she rocks). We pay her for all work and reimburse for groceries (or whatever was bought).

Neighbor's teenage son does all our yard work - he's awesome at mowing and weeding.

Finally on the rest of it, as a couple, we really split stuff up and it's an equal load in terms of doctor's appointments, class parties, parent teacher conferences, etc.