Real Life Advice for Real Life Writer-Mamas

Don't get me wrong. I love being a mother and I love being a writer. I love the way the two vocations intertwine, and I'm constantly tweaking schedules and making sacrifices so they can work together.

But...there are those days. My compatriots on this wild ride know what I mean. The days where there's a knock at the door and you yell to “throw everything into the basement!” (Inconveniently, I have no basement.) Or the times when you're perfectly aware that your one-year-old is turning the hallway into a fresco, but you're on such a roll writing and after all: she's safe and happy, isn't she?

So here are some real life hints to keep our more sane friends and neighbors and family deluded into thinking we are normal:

1. Baking soda is the best thing ever. You need to have at least three boxes: one for the kitchen, one for the bathroom and one for the laundry room.
   You know that pan you didn't scrub last night because the baby was actually asleep early so you wanted to work on your outline? Coat the bottom with baking soda and spritz with water; let sit until your scene is finished; scrub; ta-da! Clean pan.
   It also deodorizes everything, eliminating the stench from that onion you were going to finish up but which somehow got pushed to the back of the fridge when you had a great idea for your climax.
   In the bathroom, it can remove odors, scrub out stains in your bathtub, AND—when you didn't have time to run to the grocery store before bedtime—makes a great substitute for toothpaste.
   Then there's laundry... baking soda it can be mixed with detergent to remove stains. Or do you ever put a load of laundry into the washer with optimistic goals one morning and then discover it's still there—reeking--two mornings later (although you do now have an awesome synopsis that you didn't before)? Throw about ¼ cup of baking soda into the dryer with the clothes and they come out perfectly fresh.
2. Peroxide is...well, the other best thing ever. Mix some with a little detergent for a stain remover even better than baking soda. Of particular interest to writers, it also works on old stains that were missed when you were daydreaming and put the stained jeans into the dryer the last four times.
3. Another not-so-secret secret: those things called magic erasers really are magic. Seriously, some sort of good wizard brewed wonderful things in a cauldron and out bubbled these little white sponges that are the only things that can turn a fresco painting/crayon mural/sketch-board-where you-just-had-to-jot-down-an-idea-before-you-forgot-it back into a hallway. They're great for about a million other things, too...try searching on Pinterest if you're interested.
4. Sometimes hairspray will get ink out of your clothes. But if you're like me and ruin every pair of jeans by accidentally writing off the side of your notebook, the best thing to do is stop buying expensive jeans. Get a couple pairs for $3 at Goodwill and recycle them into fun things (see Pinterest again) after you ruin them. It's either that or switch out those gorgeous Micron pens for mechanical pencils, but that's one sacrifice I'm personally not willing to make.

So, share with me, Writer-Mamas (or any other balancing geniuses out there)!  What are your secret life-saving tips?