Midyear Summer Reset!
It’s hard to believe, but we’ve reached the midyear point! And whether you’ve fallen off your goals or are ready for a refresh, I have you covered with some perfect, summertime hacks for families to lead you into fall, as seen on NBC’s TODAY show!
Amy E. Goodman, pictured between co-hosts Kaylee Hartung and Craig Melvin.
Hack for busy families: “Save your sanity” station carts
Lexington 3-Tier Rolling Cart by Simply Tidy ($29.99 on sale) Michaels
How many times do we race out the door and get in our car only to remember, “Oh! I forgot ‘FILL IN THE BLANK’” the sunscreen, the wipes, the bug spray! This is an Amy Goodman specialty. I’m known to leave the house 3-4 times at least.
To save you time and energy, create a “Save Your Sanity Station” or “Command Exit Station” for your entryway! You can use any rolling cart that you have…I like this 3-Tiered Rolling Cart I got at Michael’s (it’s on sale for 40% off!) and filled it with all of the essentials you and your kids need to get out the door. It comes in 13 fun colors, and the kids will love this go-to, reminder station!
For summer:
bug spray
hats
goggles
sunglasses
reusable water bottles
portable fans
cooling towels
The best part is you can repurpose this for any season, so the cart can be switched up and stocked as needed.
For fall and back-to-school, we have a Fall Save Your Sanity Cart:
antibacterial wipes
bandaids
snacks
beanies & hats
scarves
gloves/mittens
mini umbrellas
vitamins - my kids always forget to take them at breakfast!
A winter-wise cart can include:
Small tissue packs
coughdrops
warm hats
scarves
gloves/mittens
hand warmers
umbrellas
lip balms
And on the weekends or every couple of days, you can assess: restock, refill, reorganize…the point is to check often and stay on top of it so the cart doesn’t become yet another thing to add to your chore list.
Hacks to beat the heat: Solarbuddies easy applicator sunscreen + Freezing aloe vera cubes
Kid-friendly sunscreen applicator ($11.98) Solar Buddies
When you tell kids it’s time to apply sunscreen, they usually run away from you! Here’s a hack for staying on top of sunscreen application in a snap WHILE empowering kids to tackle it themselves!
This clever device is called a Solar Buddies and it’s the world’s first child-friendly, refillable sunscreen applicator. You simply unscrew the top and fill it with sunscreen, place the top back on, shake the sunscreen towards the roller ball and allow kids to apply by rolling it on their skin.
Of course, after their first pass, you can help to assure even coverage! The key is to use a medium to thick consistency sunscreen lotion for best results.
It’s a mess-free solution that’s really smart because many kids like my son are sensitive to textures – like having sticky things on their hands – and this bypasses that while enabling kids to have fun rolling it on!
Made of 94% recycled plastics, and available in 10 colors.
But let’s say you accidentally miss a spot and skin gets burned accidentally, or you are simply really hot! Here’s a quick way to rehydrate and soothe sun-kissed skin.
Freeze aloe vera gel in ice cube trays and use your aloe-cubes for summer burns, cooling down, or simply rehydrating skin beach and/or poolside. Aloe vera is naturally hydrating, soothing and anti-inflamatory. Just throw them in your cooler in a ziplock bag alongside the ice packs and hand them out when people are feeling hot!
You can have some fun with this. Here I used my pineapple silicone mold to create a pineapple impression!
SWIMWEAR ORGANIZING HACK.
Waterproof Mesh Zipper Bags 9” x 7” ($16.99 for 32 bags, Amazon)
Swimwear is often a jumbled mess in my house: an often forgotten area of wardrobe organization during summer. My daughter will ask me where the bottom to her bikini is…to be found under someone else’s laundry, the top in another drawer!
I love these waterproof mesh bags to organize your suits and bikinis to keep your one-piece suits neatly folded and your separates like bikinis stowed together. It’s just a great way to be able to open a drawer and see them all lined up for easier grab and go of each person’s swimwear with less digging around and less, overall frustration. A much better grab & go solution for heading to the beach or pool.
HACK TO RID OF SUMMER SMELLS
Doesn’t it feel like the summer laundry simply makes things smell worse? Maybe it’s because the swim towels are bunched up and don’t completely dry out? Or my son’s tennis socks after five hours of playing…just saying it aloud makes me feel a little sick, they are a special stink onto their own–and I KNOW I’m not the only sport parent who thinks this! Summer laundry left in the hamper simply smells EXTRA: musty, moldy, gross. Time to give them a refresh!
You can use this technique with towels and most clothes: just follow clothing tag instructions for given fabrics.
Wash 1: Set to wash in warm or hot water. Along with your regular detergent add
½ - 1 cup of vinegar to serve as a natural softener in the rinse cycle.
Wash 2: then set to wash again in warm or hot water and add ½ cup of baking soda ONLY to the washer. This works as a final deodorizer
Dryer: in the dryer use wool balls with a few drops of your favorite essential oil (many like eucalyptus, lavender or lemon) for an all-natural, refreshing scent!
Tip: I DO NOT suggest using tennis balls instead of wool dryer balls…first of all, do people know how dirty used tennis balls are? Secondly, new tennis balls STINK. They stink of artificial chemicals. Stick with the wool ballies!
HACK TO HELP WITH THE SLEEP ROUTINE
Sleeping Glasses ($60) , Izipizi
60% of Americans don’t get enough sleep. And though we should all hop off of our devices for our nighttime routine and decrease the amount of blue light that is keeping us awake, most of us ignore this bit of advice. Especially now when it can be hard to sleep early with the sun setting later and summer sleep schedules being widely unstructured.
Try these Sleeping Glasses for better quality sleep! These GoodNight lenses, developed with an optometry researcher, filter 75% of blue-violet light to jumpstart our natural melatonin production. Wear them about two hours before bed over the course of 15 days and the brand says you should expect to see a difference from the fifth day: dozing off faster and enjoying better quality sleep.
8 styles, multiple colors.
This segment is editorial. Prices reflect the airdate of July 28, 2025.