Mom Life Must-Haves: 8 Things That Actually Make My Life Easier
The everyday things I actually use as a stay-at-home mom of two little girls.
Affiliate Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through my links at no additional cost to you. I only share products I personally use or genuinely recommend.
There are a lot of things I thought would make my life easier before becoming a mom.
And then there are the things that actually make my life easier now that I have two little girls, a house to take care of, errands to run, work to get done and approximately 700 things happening in my brain at any given moment. 😂
As a stay-at-home mom of a 3- and 5-year-old, I’ve learned that the best mom life must-haves aren’t necessarily the newest or trendiest things.
They’re the things that solve those tiny, annoying problems you deal with over and over again.
A water bottle that doesn’t dump water all over the couch.
A vacuum I can grab when someone has somehow covered the kitchen floor in crumbs five minutes after I cleaned it.
A family calendar that finally gets ALL of our schedules, lists and plans into one place.
And apparently…slippers that have become acceptable footwear for half of my life. 😂
Over time, these have become some of my favorite mom life must-haves because each one solves a real problem in our everyday routine.
Looking for something I mentioned? I’ve linked all of my mom life must-haves in one easy-to-find list at the bottom of this post, so you can keep reading without having to click around. 💗
1. BRONAX Pillow Slippers: Basically My Mom-Life All-Terrain Shoes
Let’s start with possibly the least glamorous—and one of the most accurate—representations of my life as a stay-at-home mom:
My slippers. 😂
I am CONSTANTLY on my feet.
Getting my little one on the bus? On my feet.
Doing chores around the house? On my feet.
Running outside for something really quick? Still on my feet.
Running a last-minute errand?
Sometimes…also still on my feet because I completely forgot I was wearing slippers. 😂
My BRONAX cushioned pillow slippers have basically become my all-terrain mom-life footwear.
I used to wear traditional house slippers, but my feet would get way too hot and sweaty in them. They also didn’t give me the cushioning or support I wanted when I was walking around the house all day.
These are open, cushioned and ridiculously easy to slip on—which apparently also makes them ridiculously easy to forget to take OFF.
And yes, I already know what some of you are thinking:
Wait…you wear them outside and then wear them back inside?!
Listen. I have two young children. They make messes everywhere they go and are essentially adorable little petri dishes. 😂 A little dirt doesn’t scare me.
We’re not eating dinner off the floors over here.
They may not be the most sophisticated item on this list, but they’re probably one of the things I wear the most.
2. The ZULU Water Bottle I Can Actually Throw in My Bag
Apparently I have strong feelings about water bottles because this is the second one on the list. 😂
But this one is mine.
What I LOVE about the ZULU Powerfill Pro is that I don’t have to choose between a straw bottle and a chug bottle.
It does both.
Sometimes I want the straw.
Sometimes I just want to open it and drink normally.
The top also opens wide enough that it’s easy to add ice, and because it’s insulated, it keeps my drink cold.
But the feature that makes it especially useful for mom life?
I can lock it.
If I’m throwing a water bottle into a bag with everything else I own, “probably won’t leak” isn’t good enough.
I want to know I’m not going to reach into my bag later and discover everything floating around in water.
I lock the lid, toss it in and go.
3. Ninja Fit Personal Blender: Fewer Dishes = Immediate Mom Win
I’ve had my Ninja Fit personal blender for a few years now, and this little thing is STILL one of my favorites.
Protein shake?
Heck yes.
Smoothie?
Oh yeah.
A whole bunch of dishes to wash afterward?
HELL NO. 😂
That’s probably my favorite thing about it.
You blend everything in the same cup you’re going to drink from.
I’m usually making a protein shake with some combination of:
milk, spinach, ice, yogurt, protein powder, collagen powder, greens powder and sometimes extra fruit.
And despite being a small personal blender, this thing is powerful.
Once I’m done blending, I don’t need to pour my shake into another cup and create another dish to clean.
I just drink it from the blending cup.
It sounds like such a tiny thing, but motherhood has made me deeply appreciative of anything that eliminates unnecessary dishes. 😂
4. The Wireless Charging Station That Got Rid of My Cord Disaster
Phone charger.
Watch charger.
Earbuds charger.
Three devices somehow become approximately 73 cords tangled together on my nightstand.
I don’t understand the science behind it, but that’s what happens. 😂
That’s why I love having a wireless charging station on my bedside table.
I can charge my Samsung phone, watch and earbuds all in one place instead of having multiple charging cords running everywhere and getting tangled together.
Mine also has a digital clock/alarm, which makes even more sense for a bedside setup.
Is this something I couldn’t possibly survive motherhood without?
Of course not.
Does eliminating one little pile of clutter from my bedroom make me happy every single night?
Absolutely.
And sometimes that’s enough to earn a spot on the mom life must-haves list.
5. The Cordless Vacuum I’ve Been Using for More Than a Year
When we moved into our new home in 2025, one thing changed dramatically:
the floors.
Our previous home was mostly carpet, and my corded Dyson worked perfectly for that space.
Our new home?
Almost entirely hard flooring.
Suddenly, dragging a corded vacuum around every time I needed to clean up crumbs didn’t sound particularly appealing.
And with two young kids, there are a lot of crumbs.
At the time, we also had our chocolate Lab, so dog hair was definitely part of the equation too.
I wanted something cordless, lightweight and easy to grab—but still powerful enough to pick up food, crumbs and pet hair.
I came across the SMOTURE cordless vacuum, read through the reviews and decided to give it a shot because it was within the budget I wanted to spend.
I’ve been using it ever since.
It’s now been well over a year, and it’s still working great.
That’s important to me because I’m much more interested in telling you how something has held up after actually living with it than telling you how amazing it seemed the first week I owned it.
I can grab it, clean up whatever disaster has appeared on the floor and put it away without dealing with a cord.
With little kids, that’s exactly the kind of convenience I want.
6. The Digital Family Calendar That Replaced About 47 Different Lists
For the LONGEST time, my attempt at staying organized looked something like this:
A home planner.
A menu planner.
A family task list.
A grocery list.
A chore list.
My phone calendar.
ALL. IN. SEPARATE. PLACES.
HOW FRUSTRATING.
I wasn’t necessarily disorganized—I had plenty of organizational systems.
That was actually the problem. 😂
I wanted something that could bring everything together in one place AND connect to both my phone and my husband’s phone.
Then I found our 15.6-inch digital family calendar.
And THIS is what I had been looking for.
If I put an event into the calendar on my phone, it can show up on our digital calendar and sync across our connected calendars.
AMAZING.
But the calendar itself is only part of why I love it.
We use it for so much more than appointments
You can create task lists for your kids and assign stars to completed tasks. You can even create rewards they can earn once they’ve collected a certain number of stars.
You can organize different lists under individual members of the household.
There’s meal planning.
Notes.
Photos.
Anniversary reminders.
And—one of my favorites—a shared grocery list.
If one of us remembers we need something, we can add it through the companion app instead of trying to remember to tell the other person later.
And here’s something I REALLY appreciate:
The app I use with mine is free.
No monthly subscription.
No yearly fee.
FREE.
Obviously, features and app terms can change, so I’d always double-check the current listing before purchasing. But that was a huge selling point for me.
When I think about my mom life must haves, anything that helps keep our entire family organized automatically earns bonus points. 😂
Out of everything on this list, this might be the product that has made the biggest difference in actually organizing our family life instead of just organizing my collection of planners. 😂
7. Contigo Kids Water Bottles That Survived the Couch-Cushion Test
If you’ve ever purchased a toddler water bottle labeled “leakproof” only to discover a miniature swimming pool on your couch later…you understand my frustration.
I would buy new water bottles.
Wash them.
Give them to my kids.
And then eventually discover one upside down between the couch cushions.
Couch: soaked.
Thankfully, we only put water in them. 😂
Then I found the Contigo Aubrey kids water bottles.
These things have been put through the ultimate testing facility:
my house.
My daughters sleep with them in their beds.
No leaks.
I find them upside down between couch cushions.
No leaks.
They get carried around and inevitably left in places no water bottle should ever be.
Still no leaks.
But there’s another feature that makes these a mom-life favorite:
They go in the dishwasher.
They consist of three main pieces that come apart easily, and I can put everything right into the dishwasher.
I don’t want a kids’ water bottle that requires a tiny specialty brush, 14 minutes of disassembly and an engineering degree to clean.
I have enough dishes. 😂
Simple + leakproof + dishwasher safe?
Sold.
8. Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro Tablets: Our Long-Car-Ride MVP
Okay, these have been AMAZING for us.
My kids have had their Fire tablets for years, and they’re still working perfectly.
One of the biggest reasons I originally liked the Amazon Kids setup was the parental controls. There are a lot of settings I can control as a parent, which gives me more confidence about what my kids can access while they’re using their tablets.
And no—my kids aren’t sitting on their tablets all day, every day.
They use them periodically throughout a normal week.
But do you know when these things REALLY earn their keep?
Long car rides.
If we’re going to be in the car for an extended amount of time, the tablets come with us.
There are only so many times little kids can ask “Are we there yet?” before everyone in the vehicle starts losing it. 😂
Having movies, games and other kid-friendly content available makes the time go by much more easily for them—and consequently, for us.
I also really appreciate having parental settings available so I can decide what I’m comfortable allowing rather than handing them an unrestricted device and hoping for the best.
We’ve gotten years of use out of ours, which is probably the biggest endorsement I can give them.
What Makes Something a “Mom Life Must-Have” for Me?
Here’s what I’ve realized:
None of these products are changing the world.
They’re changing little annoyances in my world.
And when you’re already juggling kids, a household, schedules, errands, work and everything else that comes with motherhood, removing even one tiny source of frustration can feel surprisingly significant.
That’s really what all eight of these products have in common.
My slippers make being on my feet all day more comfortable.
Our digital calendar puts our family’s information in one place.
The kids’ bottles don’t soak my furniture.
The cordless vacuum makes everyday messes easier to tackle.
My blender saves me dishes.
My water bottle doesn’t leak in my bag.
My charging station eliminates cord clutter.
And the kids’ tablets make long car rides much more manageable.
They’re little problems I’ve gotten tired of dealing with—and products that have actually helped solve them.
That’s my definition of a mom life must-have.
Shop My Mom Life Must-Haves
If something I mentioned caught your eye, I’ve put all eight products right here so they’re easy to find.
For Mom
- BRONAX Cushioned Thick Sole Pillow Slippers
- ZULU Powerfill Pro 24 oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle
- Ninja Fit Compact Personal Blender
- Wireless Samsung Charging Station with Digital Clock
- SMOTURE Cordless Vacuum Cleaner
For Home & Family
For the Kids
Some links above may be affiliate links. If you purchase through one of my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Lindsey, Lately! 💗
The Bottom Line
I don’t think being a mom means you need to buy every gadget that promises to make motherhood easier.
Actually, I’ve learned the opposite.
I’d rather find a handful of things that solve real problems in our everyday life, use the heck out of them and share the ones that genuinely earn their place in our home.
These eight have.
My mom life must-haves aren’t about buying more stuff—they’re about finding the things that genuinely make our everyday routines a little easier.
And as my girls grow and our routines change, I’m sure this list will change too—which is exactly why I want Lindsey, Lately to be a place where I can continue sharing the things we’re actually using lately, rather than another list of products somebody told me I’m supposed to love.
If you’ve found something that makes your life as a mom ridiculously easier, tell me about it. I’m always looking for the next “Where has this been all my life?” find. 😂
