The busy mom’s survival guide.

#1: Schedule a massage.

You work hard. Every day. All year long. Putting a quarterly (or monthly or weekly) massage on the calendar is not a guilty pleasure — it’s a parenting priority. Because when you’re relaxed and ready to take on all the ups and downs that come with being a working or stay-at-home mom, the whole family benefits. All you need is the right massage therapist.

>>Get free estimates. Find a top-rated massage therapist near you.

#2: Let someone else cook.

Even the quickest and easiest of meals can be draining to pull off when you’re overworked and overtired. So give yourself a night (or two) off from the planning, prepping and preparing. Open a bottle of wine, put your feet up and turn your kitchen over to a personal chef who specializes in making family-friendly fare. 

>>Search local pros. Here are the best personal chefs near you.

#3 Bring in a house cleaner. 

Unless you really, really love to clean as some kind of stress-reliever, hiring a house cleaner is a no-brainer. Imagine, you leave for work or to run errands or volunteer at school and the house is a mess. But you come home and everything’s clean — floors, windows, mirrors, tubs — with no scrubbing, vacuuming, mopping or dusting required by you. It’s almost magic.

>>Compare pros. Contact highly rated house cleaners in your neighborhood.

#4 Hire a Jack (or Jane) of all trades.

There are so many reasons to hire a handyman — maybe you need a room painted or a lighting fixture changed or to put your kid’s new dresser together. Yes, you could probably do all the things on your list yourself if you put your mind to it, but do you want to? Passing the tasks onto a pro frees up time to do other things — like get a massage (see above). 

>>Get help from the best. Search for handymen near you. 

#5 Put together your IT department.

Family music sharing, parental controls, cross-device viewing, website blocking, social media monitoring — if just reading the words gives you anxiety, then it’s time to bring in a tech-savvy pro. From troubleshooting to training, a computer pro sets things up and streamlines your family’s digital world. 

>>Hire a pro today. Get free estimates from computer pros near you. 

#6 Sweat it out on the regular.

True: it’s hard to work in time for working out.

Also true: if you don’t work out then your stress level goes up and all you want is chocolate and everything else becomes that much harder.

If the time it takes to get a gym is the reason you don’t exercise, then find a personal trainer or yoga instructor who can come to you and work with your schedule.

>>See local pros. Here are the top-rated personal trainers near you. 

#7 Consider a re-org. 

The clutter takes over before you know it — piles of shoes by the door, piles of toys everywhere, piles of paperwork in your home office, piles of clothes in the closets, piles of who knows what in the garage. A professional home organizer can help bring order to chaos by clearing out the stuff you don’t need and creating a system that will work for your family IRL.

>>Get organized. Find the best home organizer for your household.