The F*ck It Bucket: 8 Things You're Officially Allowed to Quit

Little L is fully entering her solid food era now, which around here mostly means whatever we're having for dinner, cut into smaller pieces, plus the occasional pouch. Very different from what I did with Big M, who got the full blender-at-10-pm-making-my-own-purees-and-pancakes situation. Was that important to me then? Yea. Does my kid of any memory of the home roasted butternut squash I made her? No. Is my little one still happy and healthy and thriving? So far, so good. Am I still a bit stressed and guilty about it sometimes? Also yea.

There's a real study on this feeling (Masicampo and Baumeister, 2011) that found unresolved tasks take up mental space whether or not you're actively thinking/planning/stressing about them. But here’s the useful part: the relief doesn't come from doing the thing. It comes from deciding. A firm "we're not doing this" closes that loop in the same way finishing the task would. Which is basically a scientist's way of saying the F*ck It Bucket is a valid strategy.

(We've been building toward this — here's where it started last year, if you need the warm-up.)

This week: the unofficial list. Things real parents stopped doing, and then waited for something to go wrong, and nothing did. Probably.

In this issue:

✅ Nightly baths — officially optional, per actual pediatricians
✅ The reading log situation (we know what you're doing)
✅ Mopping, litter boxes, birthday cakes, and 5 more

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1. Nightly baths.

Cleveland Clinic, the American Academy of Dermatology, and pediatric dermatologists across the board say: kids under 6 need 2-3 baths per week (since daily bathing may actually dry out skin.) So that bath you've been fighting every night? It’s medically optional. You’re welcome?

For skip nights or grimy moments:
Mustela No Rinse Cleansing Water — micellar water on a cotton pad, wipe down face and body, air dry. No tub, no running the water, no "just one more minute." $19.50 at Target and Amazon. (The fact that this product exists is confirmation enough for us.)

2. Making all your own snacks.

Look, store bought options have genuinely come a long way. Healthier ingredients, more options, and honestly some formulations that are better than what most of us would make at home. The Trader Joe's snack aisle is handling a lot of the heavy lifting for a lot of us.

For snacks and pouches, we like: Once Upon a Farm (cold-pressed, refrigerated section, real ingredients) and Serenity Kids (higher protein, cleaner label than many grocery store options although we use those too).

3. Scooping the litter box every day.

The Litter-Robot sifts automatically after every use. You empty a drawer once or twice a week — that's it. No daily scoop, no daily face full of poopy dust (iykyk). (This little gem was a godsend when our geriatric, diabetic cat became a super user of his litter box.)

Litter-Robot 4, around $700 is the one people evangelize. We have a much cheaper version (Mintakawa brand for $150) and it’s worked just fine for us.

4. Signing the reading log.

We started a book tracker this year. Got five books in. It has since collected a respectable amount of dust. Teachers have noticed a similar pattern with nightly reading logs: parents signing the first box, then drawing a line directly to the bottom of the page. (We get it.)

5. Mopping.

Your floors don't need to be mopped as often as you think they do (so says us) and if they do, there are now options that don't involve you, a bucket, and 30 minutes you don't have. Three levels of commitment:

6. Organizing toys by category every single day.

Look, the toys do need to live somewhere — just not in a labeled, categorized, specific-place-for-every-piece system. A few things that make "somewhere" actually work:

7. Ironing.

The new criterion for buying clothes: does this need ironing? If yes — back it goes. For what you already own: Downy Wrinkle Releaser, $7.97 per bottle (or this plant-based version). Spray on, tug the fabric taut, smooth with your hand. The ironing board is a flat surface that holds things now, and that's fine.

8. Elaborate birthday cakes.

The Costco half-sheet cake is $25-30, feeds up to 48, and has been popular for years because it's actually good. Two ways to make it feel personalized without the midnight situation:

K that's all. You're the best and we love you. We hope you too feel inspired to chuck a few things into the F*ck it Bucket.

-CK "Pouches Are Life" Fuller (Editor) & the JB Crew 🫡

P.S. Next week: how to actually get your kid to play by themselves. Yes, it's possible. No, it doesn't involve a screen.

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