GoodMorningMama.com

Organization was fundamental in my house. Here are a few tips that worked for me so I didn't start my day like Mama Bear:

Set everything out the night before. I hate running around the next morning getting things together while my kids where practically beating down the front door. Get their bag ready the night before!! Put bottles, juice cups in the frig the night before, check to make sure you have enough diapers, wipes (guess what happened to me once!) and plastic bag full of food (packaged food works best for me) and then books or toys. Saved me time and frustration for the next day.
Clean up at night after the kids go down. I HATE trying to clean my house when the kids are up. They get into everything and I don't blame them, they're curious. But, I found out, if I would just spend an extra 15 minutes when the kids went down to sleep, picking up the kitchen, playroom or wherever, my following morning was better. I SOOO dislike waking up to a mess! My husband was good about this. Tommy would help me out a lot and do it for me!
Make a list and stick it someplace that is visible. I have one of those erasable boards next to the frig. I write things I have to do with the kids or places I have to go the next day or what have you. As long as I could make reference to that list, I wouldn't forget to do anything.
Have the kids on a schedule. I should have put this first, b/c it has SAVED my life so much. Mama's, figure out a schedule and stick to it. My kids were so much better on a fixed schedule than just winging it the next day. They ate, slept (both at the same time), played and went out everyday at the same time. You can ask my friends about this also. If I went to a play date or activity and noticed they were to sleep in an hour after eating lunch, I left. BYE BYE folks. I did NOT get them off that schedule during the week. When they napped, I had a couple of hours to myself. I was able to get them to nap at the exact same time after a while of finding out what time worked best. I would lay down with them both, even if they didn't want to, and we would rest. They would fall asleep and I would go be ALONE! Still today, Maddie is 15 months and Nicholas is almost 3 years old, they sleep at the same time. I have NO problem packing up and leaving where ever I am. It works moms, just have to be consistent!!
I bought bins to put all of the toys in. Life saver!! I have a bin in just about every room of the house, including the bathroom. My kids can go and explore in every room of the house, what needs to be locked up or put away is. You can buy bins anywhere, www.target.com, www.walmart.com, Costco, Sams Club, K-mart or where ever. I bought great whicker ones with cloth inserts at pottery barn kids. They even label the front of the cloth with what the bin holds. Love it.
When thinking of cleaning the house, try cleaning a room a day. So, each day one or two rooms of the house are deep cleaned. Could take you 15-30 or more, but it was easier for me to do it this way than using my Saturday cleaning an entire house!! The same applies to laundry, which I hate. Do a load a day and you won't have an entire day devoted to laundry!
Plan ahead! IF you know you are going to the grocery store, doctors, or on a plane, do a little planning. To go the doctors and wait, I would take on the go little play doh bottles with a small plastic bag of 3 or 4 shapes so they could play, books, flash cards, food or what have you. For the airplane I took a portable CD player with favorite CDs, LIFE SAVER! They are not that expensive and worth the money.
Invest in a good travel bag that hold bottles, juice cups and the stuff listed above. I got a great one from www.onestepahead.com. It has different compartments and I still use it, even now the kids are older.

If you have a helpful tip you think will help other moms, write it in the comment section!!