To ask how you get all the household jobs done in the school holidays?

[Supportingeachother1983]

How on earth do people get everything done in the school holidays? Just the basics like preparing meals, washing up, laundry, hoovering, cleaning loos, emptying rubbish etc? I have been taking DC (2 and 6) out in the mornings to soft play etc but then feel like I need to lie in a dark room for the rest of the afternoon lol. I try and get the jobs done but I feel done in and the kids want my attention (constantly). So today I tried doing all the jobs in the morning but the kids watched TV all morning and then trashed the place while I was cleaning up from lunch and making a slow cooker meal so I have only just finished everything and now it's too late to take them anywhere! I've thought about alternating days in and days out, would that work? Or lower my expectations of what the kids do in the holiday. I could nip them to the park for a bit now. But that's 4 hours of TV, 2 hours of eating and trashing the place another hour of TV and a trip to the park in the freezing cold. It doesn't feel a great day for them? What do others do? I notice on other threads some people say they don't do much household chores but I can't imagine not keeping the loos clean and having no clean clothes for my kids to wear, a sticky floor etc. unless everyone else has cleaners?? I feel shattered this week and my oldest just said she can't wait to go back to school!! I feel a bit sad that she just said that!

[ghostyslovesheep]

I just get on with it - but mine are older - so 11 and 7 year old where on minecraft and teen was in her room I cleaned the bathroom, windows, decking, swept the floors and also have washed and ironed my bedding

Little one was doing painting while I ironed

[Paddypaws3]

I feel your pain! I have an 8 yo and 3yo twins. The house is rapidly descending into chaos!

With mine, I find it works to tire them out in the morning (been for a muddy walk this morning) then tv in the afternoon, interspersed with playing. I've just sat and built a Duplo construction site, played with them for 20 mins and now they're playing happily while I get jobs done and mumsnet of course.

[InMySpareTime]

Any time the DCs ask me what they can do, I suggest housework jobs. Either they go away so I can do them, or they get so bored they crack and do them for me. Win-win!

[BarbaraofSeville]

Lower your expecations, permanently. No reason for bathroom cleaning, vacuumming, floor cleaning to be a daily job.

Clearing up after lunch can wait too, surely? If you put the slow cooker on in the morning, you will then have all afternoon to go out if you want to wait until after lunch but before it is too late to go out, as it is now.

[Stiddleficks]

This just about sums it up for me. I do the basics to get by and worry about proper cleaning next week when oldest is in school.
When oldest is in the bath, I clean the loo and sink. She helps me Hoover and washes the dishes. Dh mops the kitchen floor before we go to bed and takes the bins/rubbishy out then too, that's the extent of it for me.

[Supportingeachother1983]

I really do need to clean toilets daily or they would look a bit gross! Same with floor it would have crumbs and sticky patches. And if I don't clean up after each meal the kitchen would still have spilt food on it crumbs on the floor, on the side etc. and if I didn't do the laundry we wouldn't have enough clothes to wear, the youngest is always spilling things so I need a quick turn around on laundry or we run out of vest and pants etc!

[Supportingeachother1983]

Maybe we are all just messy??

[Happyrouter]

honestly, I just let it get a bit grubby knowing I will crack on and blitz it either when they are back at school or weekend when their dad takes them swimming or something, but then I don't mind house getting a bit grubby temporarily, I'm not particularly precious about house being sparkling tbh.

[OhGodWhatTheHellNow]

Had a big clear up last Friday as I knew it would be the last time the house wouldn't look like a tip for a week... then, soddit, we've made stuff, watched stuff, had fun, no sodding 'outings', trashed the house, eaten crap food and chiiillled. I love half term, and next week I'll clean it all up .

My kitchen floor is sticky, hey ho.

Having a dishwasher is a bonus.

[yomellamoHelly]

I just let it mount up tbh. Would rather we had a nice time. (Dh gets very stressed about it in the summer holidays.)

[FelicityFunknickle]

Housework sucks. Its no different for me in the hols because i have never been in the house on my own (still have a preschooler)
I use about half a day (one of my days off work) to make it look like some cleaning has been done around here.

[George2014]

If you can't do it all (and no one can 'do it all' lol) you need to decide what is most of a priority. Clean toilets or time out with the children. Seriously I would not clean the toilets everyday.....how many people do you have living there to make it so dirty on a daily basis!!

Holiday routine here is slow start, few jobs like washing on, empty dishwasher etc while everyone is getting washed / dressed / having breakfast etc. out for a few hours. Home for lunch, tidy up lunch stuff and watch a film or play with toys etc. I might do a few jobs in the afternoon but I work full time nearly so it's my break too, I'm not that bothered about housework! After dinner when ds is in the bath I whizz round tidying up and brushing up the kitchen etc.

House is never fully clean, my standards are not that high with young children!

[manicinsomniac]

I'm the opposite to you. School holidays are the only time I can keep on top of the housework.

We stumble from holidays to holiday in a sort of half tidy, clean-ish daze. Once the holidays arrive I breathe a sigh of relief that I can finally get things done (It's when I put the washing machine on for the first time in nearly three weeks that I realise we all have WAY too many clothes!)

I don't really get how the holidays make it harder, to be honest.

More time has surely got to equal a good thing?

[Stanky]

It just mounts up. I have depression. We did manage to fold and put away the mountain of clean washing yesterday. I got fed up with struggling on my own, and made dh and the dc help. We put on some tunes and got it done in about 15 minutes.

I struggle with this time of year any way. I loved the Summer holidays last year, when we could just pack a picnic and go to the massive park.

[ohtheholidays]

Today I've cleaned all the kitchen,cleaned the loo bathroom bin and bathroom mirror,cleaned the mirror in the frontroom,hoovered and dusted in the frontroom,done 4 loads of washing,washed up from breakfast and lunch,helped make the lunch,cleaned the 3 dogs bowls out and fed the 3 dogs.

There's me DH and 5DC,oldest DS19 is at work,I haven't been out today but our 2DDs have with they're Dad,DD12 was dropped of at her friends house and DD8 went out with DH to spend her pocket money.DS17 and DS14 have stayed in so far today and played games and watched a movie with me.

We alternate days,one day out one day in.Yesterday we went bowling,out for lunch and the children played in the amusement arcade afterwards.

It's easier now that they're older our youngest is our DD8 but it can still be full on some days because our DD is autistic and has some physical disabilitys and DS14 is also autistic and I've been disabled for 7 years now,but I still find it easier now than it was when we had baby's and toddlers in the house.

If you don't feel like you can leave the cleaning would you maybe be able to do some in the evening(I could get 90 minutes of work done in 40 minutes child free) when your LO's are in bed?I used to when I was a single parent on the days that were really busy I'd clean the bathroom and do the ironing once the children were in bed.That way I found I could get alot more done in alot less time(because I wasn't having to stop every 2 minutes to see to the children)and that way I'd have some spare time in the day to do things that I wanted to do with the family.

[Ellieboolou27]

Sweep rather than Hoover, baby wipes for sticky patches, big plastic tub for toys so u can chuck them all in, washing u just have to turn in machine (mine stays in baskets most of the time once washed and dried as never get bloody time to put it away) bleach down loo, I have 5 month old and 3.5 and it's bloody hard work, jobs half finished etc, I just make sure kitchen bathroom is hygienic and try to muddle through the days! You are not alone

[Artandco]

I get the kids to help and set them up with something to play with.

A typical holiday day Dh or I work from home so need to get some work done also ( the rest done later in evening). Usually Dh and I throw some laundry in or quick tidy like unloading dishwasher during breakfast prep etc. Then outside a few hours to get some air or go somewhere. Back and set them up with story CDs, train set, Lego or similar. Then can get a few hours work done whilst they occupy themselves

For just chores I think you are trying to do too much in large slots. Try and do stuff as you go along. Whilst you are making breakfast and tea, wipe kitchen or put cutlery away. Laundry on as soon as everyone's up, kids bedrooms down before they leave them in morning. Your 6 year old should be capable of helping a fair bit by making sue own bedroom and toys tidy and can help with the other stuff. 2 year old incorporate in with giving cloth, dustpan to play with, or sitting in clean laundry. Get your Dh to help also

[FelicityFunknickle]

Oh I do feel overwhelmed though.
It's a never ending cycle.

[BravingSpring]

If I'm off work, so it's easier to get some jobs done, if I'm at work it's the same as usual and I try to do a few jobs everyday on top of the essentials.

[HermioneJeanGranger]

For me, the key is clean-as-you-go. So when you do bathtime, you can clean the toilet while you watch them, and put all dirty clothes in the hamper. Quick spray with the cleaning stuff afterwards and hose down with the shower. It doesn't need to take hours and if you do little and often, it doesn't really mount up.

Things like dishes don't need doing after every meal. Stack things neatly and do one load of dishes in the evening if you don't have a dishwasher. The same with floor-cleaning. Don't do it after breakfast if it's going to look just as dirty two hours later. Save it for after the last meal of the day.

With toys, set a rule - you don't get a new toy out until you've tidied up the last lot. So if they've played lego, and want to now play trains, the lego needs to get tidied away or put away neatly for later, not thrown aside in a pile. Then before tea/bath/bed, they have to tidy up and put things way so you and DH don't get lumbered with it after bed. If they make a mess, they tidy it up!

[coffeetasteslikeshit]

It's only 5 days that you have them at half term more than normal. How sticky can the kitchen floor get? Seriously, just leave it, it won't kill you.
How long does it take to clean the toilet? Even if you do it every day, which sounds excessive to me, unless you have bowel problems, it only takes a couple of minutes surely? I agree with cleaning the bathroom whilst the kids are in the bath/shower.
Please just spend time with your kids though, they grow up so fast and, as they say, no one ever regrets not doing more cleaning on their deathbed.

[AutumnLeavesArePretty]

I have the same routine as work days. I get up at least an hour before everyone else and spend 30 mins cleaning bathroom, kitchen and dusting. Then when I get home I run the vacuum round whilst the evening meal is cooking. Fri night I throw all the laundry loads as very easy and Monday night I iron whilst I catch up on any TV I've missed or choose a movie. Big jobs like cleaning windows get done once a month on a Saturday. If it's clean and everything has a space, it's very easy to keep on top off.

[arethereanyleftatall]

Every morning the girls (7&5) play by themselves, non negotiable, no TV., whilst I do daily chores. Then we go out from about 10am - 4pm. Then we watch a movie, and I watch with them, or work on my computer, or finish chores.
Playing on their own has been non-negotiable for me since they can stack blocks.

[Supportingeachother1983]

I never thought I had high standards before, my dp doesn't think I have lol. Doesn't everyone who has little ones at home clean the loo and Hoover etc every day? I do miss days if we are out all day but it starts to look a bit grim after a couple of days if I don't do it.