|
Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 31, 2015 3:08:00 GMT
Growing up, we would spend most Saturdays cleaning the house or doing yard work (both my parents helped until my dad died, mom still did after that), but all of us kids had a lot of chores. As the older ones grew up and moved out, more and more got dumped onto us younger ones especially once our dad was gone, so a good chunk of every weekend was eaten up this way. Personally, I *hated* doing things like that!
DH and I have one young child (5) and we prefer to spend our weekends as a family if we can, so we try to do as much of that stuff during the week as we can to get it out of the way. I work from home for myself and DH, so I have the ability to do some things as I'm passing through during the day doing other things. For example, I can throw a load of laundry in first thing, do some of DH's paperwork, then change it out later when I'm switching tasks or stopping for lunch. I'm sure if I didn't work from home I would have to spend more time at night and on the weekends keeping things picked up.
|
|
|
Post by myshelly on Aug 31, 2015 3:28:56 GMT
Part of the reason it takes so long is that I am taking care of four kids--feeding them, stopping fights, helping them with what they need, etc. They are also like little tornados going through the house. They are horrible at picking up after themselves. DH does a lot of the laundry and mows the lawn. He takes the garbage out and picks up some, but he doesn't do any major cleaning, organizing, de cluttering, etc. I am working on going through the house to declutter and I am hoping that helps. We are also getting back on a school schedule this week. We are going to have a family pick-up at a certain time each night and hopefully that will be helpful as well. I'm going to respectfully suggest that the only way to spend less of *your* time doing all this work is to get everyone else to do their share. My kids (8 and under) get their own breakfast and lunch every day. Then they clean up after themselves (rinse dishes and put them in the dishwasher/put food away/wipe down counters and table). There is no option to not clean up after themselves. And there is no tornado behavior in the house. We treat our house a certain way, expect it to look a certain way, and we treat our possessions a certain way. We play with one thing and then put it away before we move onto the next thing. We pick up the house every night. There is a place for everything and everything goes in its place. It's just automatic once you set and enforce the expectations. Kids can be clean and nice and neat if that's what's expected of them.
|
|
grinningcat
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,663
Jun 26, 2014 13:06:35 GMT
|
Post by grinningcat on Aug 31, 2015 12:02:44 GMT
It disgusts me how much time we waste cleaning the house. There are so many more interesting, more engaging, more useful things that could happen if we didn't have to waste our time cleaning the f***ing house. We try to do stuff during the week, but when you're working crazy long hours, the last thing you want to do when you come home is icky housework. So it's a vicious cycle.
A housekeeper is at the top of my list.
|
|
|
Post by myboysnme on Aug 31, 2015 12:09:32 GMT
When my kids were young my entire weekend was work. Now it is pretty much just laundry and maybe a trip to the grocery store. I dont keep up with housework anymore. I just don't want to spend my time that way. I enjoy a tidy home as much as anyone, but I just don't have the desire to keep it that way.
|
|
SweetieBsMom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,612
Jun 25, 2014 19:55:12 GMT
|
Post by SweetieBsMom on Aug 31, 2015 12:16:45 GMT
I work full time. Most of my week end is spend doing various household chores (indoors and out) grocery shopping, vehicle maintenance and anything else that needs done. My house is never as clean as I'd like it to be. Pretty much this. I was just thinking of trying to see if I can get stuff done during the week after work so I can actually do something fun on the weekend.
|
|
craftykitten
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,304
Jun 26, 2014 7:39:32 GMT
|
Post by craftykitten on Aug 31, 2015 12:45:38 GMT
Well, we don't have kids so my experience is a bit different. But as a child I was encoraged to pick up after myself and I think if you have kids I would expect that from them. You all live in the house together so you are all responsible for it. When I started living away from home, the weekend cleaning/shopping routine was one I got into but I didn't like it, like you i felt like i was losing days to housework. Gradually, and especially now that I live with my OH, we try and do 'little and often' so that we don't have to spend a whole day doing it. Laundry gets done as and when. The kitchen is cleaned as we go. Stuff gets picked up and out away periodically. And, I think my standards have relaxed. Life is too short to worry about things that are in the wrong place. Finally, I get our grocery shopping ordered online and delivered. Even for two of us, it is totally worth it not to have to write a list and trawl round the shop. We can pick up small items locally but having the main stuff delivered really helps.
|
|
|
Post by maryland on Aug 31, 2015 13:13:41 GMT
That must be so hard! I am a sahm and my day is free to pretty much clean all day (with 3 girls, that is all I do all day). Then the evening is spent running them to all of their activities. It must be so hard to work full time (and part time), then run the kids around in the evening.
|
|
likescarrots
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,879
Aug 16, 2014 17:52:53 GMT
|
Post by likescarrots on Aug 31, 2015 14:23:12 GMT
I feel like my whole weekend is spent preparing for the week; laundry, grocery shipping, other cleaning, etc. My house is never completely clean because by the time i get 2 rooms clean it's back to work. It is very frustrating. Also both me and my husband have a very hard time dusting and vacuuming due to allergies, so if we do that we basically spend the rest of the weekend sick. Weekdays i prioritize exercising and i cook dinner every night (my husband does the dishes) so there is little time for cleaning and chores during the week.
|
|
|
Post by originalvanillabean on Aug 31, 2015 14:32:28 GMT
I work full time and Saturday is my chore day. If we are going to be out of town or headed somewhere, I try to at least get the laundry done Thursday and Friday nights.
I really try to get it all done by noon Saturday. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.
|
|
|
Post by gmcwife1 on Aug 31, 2015 14:42:29 GMT
Not too much as it was one of the reasons we bought a smaller home 8 years ago. I didn't want to spend every weekend cleaning.
Dh has Thursdays and Fridays off so he does the laundry and floors while dd and I are at work. Dd is 16 so she does her own room and we only have one bathroom.
We do our grocery shopping on the weekend and I try to do menus or at least weekly dinner thinking on the weekend. But our weekends are usually too busy with 4-H, dogs and family to spend doing housework.
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 31, 2015 15:07:50 GMT
Part of the reason it takes so long is that I am taking care of four kids--feeding them, stopping fights, helping them with what they need, etc. They are also like little tornados going through the house. They are horrible at picking up after themselves. DH does a lot of the laundry and mows the lawn. He takes the garbage out and picks up some, but he doesn't do any major cleaning, organizing, de cluttering, etc. I am working on going through the house to declutter and I am hoping that helps. We are also getting back on a school schedule this week. We are going to have a family pick-up at a certain time each night and hopefully that will be helpful as well. I'm going to respectfully suggest that the only way to spend less of *your* time doing all this work is to get everyone else to do their share. My kids (8 and under) get their own breakfast and lunch every day. Then they clean up after themselves (rinse dishes and put them in the dishwasher/put food away/wipe down counters and table). There is no option to not clean up after themselves. And there is no tornado behavior in the house. We treat our house a certain way, expect it to look a certain way, and we treat our possessions a certain way. We play with one thing and then put it away before we move onto the next thing. We pick up the house every night. There is a place for everything and everything goes in its place. It's just automatic once you set and enforce the expectations. Kids can be clean and nice and neat if that's what's expected of them. This is the ideal. We're about halfway there in our house. DD has the stuff she plays with all the time kind of out but it's all contained to where she plays and not scattered everywhere, so I'm cool with that. Most of her stuff is picked up and she does that herself for the most part. We don't allow "tornado behavior" here either. I like to keep things together and organized so I know where it is and so that nothing gets lost and I'm trying to instill that in DD as well, with her dolls/doll clothes, Lego sets, art supplies, clothes, etc. I'll admit that it IS more work initially to tell them 15 times to pick up after themselves than to just do it myself (and by they, I mean DH too, LOL, he's worse than DD is). But now that DD is five she's getting a lot better at just doing it on her own or only having to be asked once. It's the nagging part that drives me insane. Thankfully she hates it too, so when I do have to tell her more than once and she gets her undies in a twist over it, I remind her, "If you just do it right away the FIRST time I ask you, I won't have to tell you again." It's gradually sinking in. Thankfully, DH is much better now about things that used to send me straight over the edge, like leaving an empty food wrapper sitting on the counter instead of putting it directly in the wastebasket literally not more than 2' away. Once DD came along, he realized that he has to be an example for her so he's a lot better than he ever was about picking up after himself as he goes along. When everyone is doing their part, it helps a lot. I forgot to add when I posted before that having the right size house makes a big difference too in how much time it takes to keep the house clean. Now that we live in a house that has enough storage for the things we do, everything has a place to go to when we're done with it. When we lived in our tiny 100 year old house with virtually NO closets or adequate storage, it was so much harder to keep things looking neat. There wasn't anywhere to put anything away so it was all just kind of "out" and that makes a house look cluttered and messy all the time. Now we have spare closets and cabinets and garage space for winter wear, sports gear, cooking, baking and canning stuff we only use seasonally, extra paper products, that kind of thing. Having a functional home is a huge component.
|
|
|
Post by ktdoesntscrap on Aug 31, 2015 15:15:25 GMT
The kitchen and bathroom gets cleaned, I also do laundry on the weekend. I do have someone who cleans for me two times a month.
I work from home so I do bits and bobs when I take a break and try to keep on top of it.
|
|
raindancer
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,095
Jun 26, 2014 20:10:29 GMT
|
Post by raindancer on Aug 31, 2015 15:27:09 GMT
Sounds like I'm not the only one. I have four kids--two in sports so far--currently football and fall baseball. We have practices several nights a week and will soon have a football game on Saturday mornings and then both boys will have double headers on Sunday's (not on same team). So, I have a feeling things will get worse not better. I used to shop on Friday nights and might need to go back to that. I would get home Really late but at least it didn't feel like I was wasting a whole day. Then I could clean and prep Saturday's. Do they have chores to do? I would have some basic daily stuff like keeping their bathroom wiped down and the toilet swished out and then on Saturday they can do some work around the house. If it's broken up between 6 people it shouldn't take too long. We also manage laundry with a laundry day. Whoever has it that day does all of their laundry. Even my 11 year old is responsible for his own stuff.
|
|
|
Post by Lindarina on Aug 31, 2015 15:56:12 GMT
When I was on top of things, Flylady style, I got everything done during the week and made a point to relax during the weekend. I loved that and I'm trying to get back into that routine.
|
|
|
Post by iamkristinl16 on Aug 31, 2015 16:12:57 GMT
When I was on top of things, Flylady style, I got everything done during the week and made a point to relax during the weekend. I loved that and I'm trying to get back into that routine. When you were doing fly lady, did you work? I've looked into it but it seems geared towards people who don't work.
|
|
|
Post by marysue63 on Aug 31, 2015 16:20:56 GMT
Your situation is the exact reason why I hired a housekeeper. I didn't like that I spend my little free time on cleaning. It's the best money I've ever spent!
I also try and do my other chores during the week so I don't have them waiting for me on the weekend.
|
|
|
Post by ilikepink on Aug 31, 2015 17:24:53 GMT
When I was married and the kids were growing up, I worked p/t, so Thursdays were laundry and housecleaning days. Food shopping Friday mornings, and I tried to have everything done so by the time the kids got out of school on Friday, it was weekend time- for games, practice and fun stuff. Having relaxed standards helped, although that was an ongoing negotiation the husband. I did the rest of the laundry on Sunday (sheets/towels) so we were all set and fresh for the week. The boys had chores--bathroom cleaning, vacuuming, laundry (until that got used as a get-even tool), and helping with dinner. It was important to me that I had time to myself-to scrap, read, whatever, so I arranged things toward that end. It may have been selfish, but I was a better mom by having a few hours for me.
Now that I'm alone, it's so much easier to clean--when I clean it/put it away, it stays that way! And if I don't vacuum, well, I have only myself to blame.
|
|
|
Post by Lindarina on Aug 31, 2015 17:29:15 GMT
When I was on top of things, Flylady style, I got everything done during the week and made a point to relax during the weekend. I loved that and I'm trying to get back into that routine. When you were doing fly lady, did you work? I've looked into it but it seems geared towards people who don't work. Yes, I worked full time. Flylady was what saved me from becoming overwhelmed. But I toned it down a bit. I did the before bedtime routine and the swish and swipe in the morning. I did the weekly schedule with home blessing on monday, watering plants on tuesday, cleening out the fridge and meal planning on wednesday (no deep cleaning), shopping and errands on thursday and filling up the tank on the car on Fridays. I also did the weekly missions, and those really made a difference to my home. They usually only take 5-10 minutes to complete. Two minute hot spot was also a life saver. I'm trying to get back into the groove, and today I did a quick home blessing and today's mission which was spending 15 minutes decluttering my living room.
|
|