Parent Hacks

I am always on the lookout for ways to save money and be more efficient, and have recently found a site I really like called Parent Hacks, that has oodles of parenting tips and tricks.  I’m a newbie parent, but my personal “parent hacks” are:

• Have two boxes of wipes – one labeled #1 and the other labeled #2.  For the #1 box, cut a bunch of full size wipes in half.  Who needs a whole wipe for pee pee?
• Don’t buy the diaper genie refills.  (Despite what this woman says about the dangers of not using the diaper genie the way it was designed. You’ve got to read her story. I was laughing so hard I cried.)  Take out the part of the genie where you put the bags in, and use your own trash bags.  Just push the bottom of the bag with the diapers in it through the “claw” thing and hang the bag out the side of the genie and shut the lid.  It has, for the most part, completely contained the diaper odor for a lot less money.
• Use cloth diapers as lovey/security blanket.  This is not my idea, but comes from a wise and experienced mother of 4. This means that the lovey will never get torn up, lost, etc. because there’s always a new clean one waiting to be used.