The best tips for the family busy years: 2025 Life Hacks TOP 10

I realised something really tangible the other week. I was interviewed about how I manage to do everything: two jobs, small children and hobbies on top of all the housework and other stuff. I've been asked this before, and I haven't been able to articulate my experience very clearly. Maybe I still can't, but I'll share my thoughts and tricks that I think make for an efficient yet calm daily life: I have categorised and automated everything possible. I've made a lot of adjustments and shortcuts, and I plan my time with dedication. Now, as a professional organiser, I want to share with you the best tricks for the busy years of a family with kids: the 2025 Life Hacks TOP 10!

The list is a happy mix of different tricks. The criterion for inclusion is how impressive the trick has been for me. Your list is certainly different, and it would be great if you could share it in the comments, social media #ruuhkatonlifehacks or even by email.

As usual, you can use the table of contents to jump around if you don't have time to go through all the tricks.

The best tricks for the busy years of parenthood: 2025 life hacks top 10

This article looks at ten life hacks that are relevant for professional organiser's point of view during the peak years. I personally like this kind of lists a lot, as they usually give me new shortcuts to try out in my everyday life. I hope this article gives you some new ideas too!

1. Routine food planning

One of the most personally challenging aspects of family life for me has been managing five meals a day. I realised this when I became a mother. Since then, I have been bewildered in front of this household chore, bravely diving into it though.

Food service includes meal planning, cooking and follow-up tasks, as well as the maintenance of the household food stock. I feel that I am lacking in some area of knowledge or application skills, as I cannot improvise cooking, but have to stare closely at recipes.

But I have often outdone myself by providing my family with varied food, which has sometimes even been excellent. Usually it is, thankfully, edible at least.

Towards the end of my firstborn's parental leave, I realised that we are not the kind of family that comes home from kindergarten and thinks "What should we eat today?". Tired and hungry, food should be pretty much ready to be only heated when we get home.

I started applying meal plans, but I didn't immediately find a system that worked for us. I tried a six-week rotating list and a magician's food stock, where, with a few basic ingredients, you can quickly whip up several different meals. But these were too much for me, I needed something simpler.

A few years ago, I received a wipe-clean weekly planner from the Martha Association, which has served us faithfully ever since as a weekly updated meal plan. Together with my family, I use it to plan the menu for the week ahead. I always try to find time for this, as I've found it saves me at least four hours a week!

I really spent so much time on the topic, wondering, moaning and googling recipes. Above all, my mental energy is much higher when I'm not depressing myself every day with this topic that is difficult for me.

The best tips for the family busy years, No. 1: Plan your weekly meal plan in advance and you can save up to four hours of your time on weekdays!

Henna Paakinaho / Ruuhkaton arki

2. Reduce everyday items to a minimum

This is an ongoing discussion always with my customers, especially when it comes to kitchen utensils. Many of them take genuine pleasure in their kitchen utensils and enjoy cooking. I still recommend that you reduce your everyday kitchenware and supplies to a minimum.

I understand that this is probably easier for me than average, as I don't particularly enjoy cooking. So I don't mind cutting back on kitchen utensils. For a long time, though, I held on to our various mugs, which in retrospect caused unnecessary friction in the family on many levels.

First, the children argued about who could use which mug. The adults groaned about the big pile of dishes that couldn't fit one machine at a time. Cleaning up the kitchen was therefore a longer project that never really got finished. That's how often we ate.

I wrote a blog post about this once, because it was such a powerful experience. You can read about it in the article Minimalist experiment.

The two-cup tactic - a minimalist experiment in the kitchen

When we first reduced the kitchen utensils to a minimum, and eventually the dishes to a minimum, the flow of kitchen work got leaner. Now we know that the kitchen can always be cleaned up in 15 minutes, even if there are dirty dishes from the kids' pancake baking and a few other stray purchases or fruit swirling around.

This is a really big deal for me. I can't stress it enough. Experiencing a clean kitchen in the morning is one of the best things about home, it makes me genuinely happy.

I therefore encourage you to experiment, either in the kitchen or elsewhere in the home: could there be only one, two or three dishes per user? Could you manage with just one towel? How many gloves are needed at a time in the hallway? Do you need more than one care product? If in doubt, try it! You can always go back to the way things were.

The best tips for the family busy years, No. 2: Minimum amount of everyday items enable autopilot and good flow

Henna Paakinaho / Ruuhkaton arki

3. Capsule wardrobe collapses the workload

I switched to using a capsule wardrobe myself in 2018. This was another shocking experience, and I couldn't believe how much easier my life became. I no longer had to think or search for my clothes!

Before that, I had spent numerous moments of my life firstly fidgeting (when there's nothing to wear!) and secondly inadvertently procrastinating (where on earth is that shirt?). Then I read about the capsule wardrobe and all my cloth-worries became smaller.

In Finland, the capsule wardrobe follows the four-season cycle. The capsules are designed so that several items of clothing fit together, so inevitably you always have a lot of clear choices.

Everything else is decluttered out of the cabinet, improving the user experience and clarifying the view. Capsules are changed and updated as the season changes. Putting out the next season's clothes is a celebratory reunion, after all, they've been out of use for a while. They feel like new, but at the same time familiar and safe.

So I strongly recommend encapsulation. You'll have to put in some effort at first, but you'll save yourself hours of unnecessary housework and meta-work, and free up a lot of bad energy as your style becomes clearer.

The best tips for the family busy years, No 3: Streamline your wardrobe with capsule wardrobe

Henna Paakinaho / Ruuhkaton arki

4. Declutter all the unnecessary

If I had to choose one trick above all others, it would be this: declutter all the unnecessary. I started decluttering our home when my firstborn was a toddler, and it has been by far the best decision ever.

I still remember all the unnecessary work of moving inappropriate things from one place to another in our small home to get through our daily lives. I just didn't realise then that we simply had too much stuff for our circumstances.

When I finally figured it out AND when I finally got my home decluttered, life got lots easier. It freed up time and energy for many other things, work, relationships and well-being. It was a long road and took a lot of motivation. I'm really glad I saw all the effort to downsize and organise and kept going despite the challenges.

By decluttering your home and everyday life, you always get more than you give up. There's room for creativity and play. Your values will inevitably become clearer.

I was unduly hampered by the fact that I was doing it alone. I did try to seek help, but I didn't have the words and I didn't know what kind of help I would have benefited most from. I needed support and a pair of hands, but all I could find were nannies. However, that wasn't the best solution for us, so time passed and I decluttered at my own slow pace. I wish I had known to look for professional organizers. After all, with the help of a professional, piles of stuff that have been weighing down for years can be cleared out in just a few visits.

The best tips for the family busy years, No 4: Declutter and organize your home so you can live the life of your dreams

Henna Paakinaho / Ruuhkaton arki

For ideas on decluttering, see the previous articles in Ruuhkaton blog, for example Decluttering toys and The Hushing technique.

5. The floor is lava and other rules

Routines and rules help us humans to convert things to autopilot. And autopilot saves energy and thinking capacity, which is reflected in other tasks.

One of the best rules ever in our family is that nothing is left on the floor in the evening. There are many ways of saying this, depending on the age and sense of humour of the residents, but it can also be described as follows: in the evening the floor becomes a lava (as in the game), and it's not a good idea to leave your beloved toys or tennis socks on the lava flow.

If this is too terrifying a horror scenario, you can apply the same rule by saying that nothing lives on the floor. Everyone must return to their homes in the evening, off the floor.

I do understand that this can be an insurmountable task if it takes a long time to clear the floor or if your stuff doesn't have a home. However, this is worth noting: could there be too much stuff if it takes a long time to collect it? Should there be a place for everything if you don't know where to put it?

I challenge you to think about what status quo suits you? Is it really okay to have stuff on the floor or is it an accidental situation? With routines and rules, it is possible to get back on track, to an easier everyday life. For tips on decluttering toys, see my article on Toy decluttering.

Help, are there any rules for decluttering toys?

Routines and rules require repetition and compliance. This is challenging for many, especially when under pressure. So try moderation in such cases, limiting yourself in small steps. If you persevere for a month, a new routine will start to form.

The best tips for the family busy years, No 5: Rules and routines free up energy thanks to autopilot

Henna Paakinaho / Ruuhkaton arki

6. Do chores with your children

This trick is a long-term strategic bet that you can thank yourself for in the decades to come. Just a reminder that not everything has to be perfect, even partial performance and effort count!

Involve your children in household chores, whenever possible. Some people find this a bit boring, as they don't immediately see how this could ever be possible.

I think it's a big puzzle, the pieces of which start to fall into place as another corner starts to emerge. It all comes back to the amount of stuff in our family eventually, at least, because the housework in a small home immediately gets backed up when there's too much stuff. That's also when housework, let alone doing it with children, starts to feel difficult.

When you do chores with your children, you are teaching them how to take care of their home. This has many benefits.

• The child is allowed to participate, making him or her feel needed as a member of the community.
• He gets time together with his parents.
• Parents do their housework during waking hours, giving them more time to recover while their children are sleeping.
• The child learns to recognise the different tasks in the home.
• The child's inner motivation to look after their home and others grows.
• Parents' meta-workload and physical chores are decreasing every year.

Michaeleen Doucleff has written an excellent book on this subject Hunt, Gather, Parent, which is not only entertaining but also concrete in its examples. I highly recommend it when you want to give up the responsibility of coordinating your entire home and get closer to your family.

The best tips for the family busy years, No 6: Do chores together, in a shared home.

Henna Paakinaho / Ruuhkaton arki

7. Stack chores and solutions

Stacking is one of the most ingenious techniques in my opinion. Stacking means bundling similar things together, both physically and at the meta level.

By stacking, we reduce the load on our brains, because our brains love compartmentalisation. They like categories because they allow the brain to process a larger mass of information with less energy.

KonMari uses this technique to clear out goods and create a new, more functional order. By stacking, we finally understand what we own in the same category, what is unnecessary in the category and where do we store it in the future?

Jobs and meta-tasks can also be stacked. If you have several different tasks or roles, stacking similar tasks and plans on a particular day of the week, for example, will once again free up a lot of energy.

The best tips for the family busy years, No. 7: Stack everything you can to free up capacity for other things

Henna Paakinaho / Ruuhkaton arki

8. Conceptualise and design patent solutions for frequently recurring situations

Maybe this is pretty obvious, but for me it was a big thing to realise this too. If a situation is recurring, it's worth conceptualising a solution. For example, a friend's birthday party: could a gift be your family's patent solution that is even waited for year after year?

Well, now that I say that, memories of childhood immediately come to mind. Everyone must have received a silver spoon, a piece of crafts or towels as a present year after year. I think they were these patent solutions. But let's forget about the goods and update the gifts for this millennium: give experiences, money or your time. Draw a card or sing a serenade, something that suits you, but can be conceptualised.

With a concept solution, you free up more lane space and are always ready if the situation arises. Of course, you can deviate from the concept, but you know you'll have the right solution ready.

The best tips for the family busy years, No. 8: Conceptualise frequent situations

Henna Paakinaho / Ruuhkaton arki

9. Prioritise your time

At the risk of sounding really basic, I'll say it anyway: When you prioritise your time, you know what you say yes to and what you say no to. You can't drift from situation to situation, you actively choose.

I take this aspect so seriously that I see the items that come into our home as a bit threatening: they might steal my precious time, so I choose carefully which ones I let into my home.

By being tight and limiting my time, I allow myself to do things that are important to me, like sports and family time, including extra income-earning work.

The best tips for the family busy years, No 9: Prioritise your time

Henna Paakinaho / Ruuhkaton arki

10. Task lists outsource meta-work

I have been using to-do lists for as long as I can remember. A few years ago, I digitised all my to-do lists and a big meta-workload fell off my shoulders. I now use digital to-do lists and scheduling for both work and home management.

For general task management, I use TeuxDeux-application. I can add daily, general and categorised lists there, and I don't have to remember them anymore. The app lets me tick off tasks as done, which adds to the reward. With calendars I use Outlook for maintenance and paper calendar for planning.

A common criticism against this is that you have to schedule and list everything, doesn't that lose the spontaneity? In my opinion, in the hectic pace of the peak years, scheduling and listing is precisely what enables spontaneity and leisure time to be used efficiently, in addition to work. For my part, I recognise two important levels here:

On the one hand, it is about freeing up the lane. The things on the list don't stay in your mind to take up energy, they are found on the list. You can come back to them when it's time. It's up to you to decide when to move things forward. For me, this has been a Get Out of Jail Free card, as I don't carry everything with me, but I know when it's time for what. I can also pivot quickly, i.e. reprioritise tasks easily if the situation calls for it.

On the other hand, it's a matter of calendaring, for example, holidays, vacations and development time. If I didn't make a reservation, but lived in the moment, there would be no time for these things. At least I myself, in a reactive state of mind, would not be able to take and keep a day off. It's easier to keep it when it's on the calendar and things are organised with leisure in mind.

The best tips for the family busy years, No 10: Use to-do lists and apps to outsource remembering.

Henna Paakinaho / Ruuhkaton arki

In this article I listed the best tricks for the busy years of a family with children: the 2025 Life Hacks TOP 10. Is there anything missing from the list that you find very relevant? Share your tricks in the comments, on social media of Ruuhkaton with #ruuhkatonlifehacks or send me an email henna@ruuhkaton.fi. I would love to hear your tips.

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