to never wash up, vacuum or iron ever again?

[MalibuStacy]

OK, so this will shortly be my day:

Commuting & school run: 4 hours
Work: 6 hours
Park & helping with homework: 1 hour
Cooking, preparing lunches & general tidying up: 1 hour
Running my small business: up to 3 hours.

That doesn't actually leave any time at all for anything else, does it? DH can't really help as he works more hours than I do. But I can't do it all. Money is a bit tight for us right now, but I am hoping things will improve.

I can't afford to get a cleaner in every day, so… I am thinking of employing a range of different household gadgets to take the pressure off. This is my list:

Roomba
Dishwasher
Tumble dryer (so I don't have to iron)
Slow cooker.

Is there anything else? I would love to hear from other stressed working mums about ways that they have reduced the workload also.

[BabyMonkeyBrains]

"Money is a bit tight for us right now"

but i want to buy :
Roomba
Dishwasher
Tumble dryer (so I don't have to iron)
Slow cooker.


if money is tight why do you plan to spend what will easily be over £1000 on dishwasher and dryer alone? now lets add a good £600 for vacuum robot...

tumble dryers do not effectively iron your clothes. in fact quite the opposite,. your clothes will be less creased on a clothes horse.

you often have to clea/rinse your dishes either befor or after using the dishwasher. ive long gave up using mine after having to wash every singleplate before putting them away.

slow cooker is a good idea. stews and casseroles are cooked beautifully in those.

a roomba? really? it takes 5 minutes to vaccum. i'm assuming you live in a house not a mansion?

you obviously dont know what money being tight actually is if you are genuiny thinking about buying these things.

[MalibuStacy]

Gosh, that told me, didn't it? And 5 mins to vacuum? Really? Do you have kids? Or pets? I am exhausted.

[ballinacup]

Our tumble dryer was 200, ditto our slimline dishwasher, both are very efficient and cheap to run. I'm also pretty certain roombas cost less than 600. Slow cookers are less than 20 in supermarkets.

I mean, they're not cheap items but all but the roomba certainly aren't luxurious and unaffordable, are they?

[MalibuStacy]

And I would buy second hand anyway. Apart from probably the Roomba, as I haven't seen any second hand.

[BabyMonkeyBrains]

yes 5 minutes, perhaps 15 if you have a large house and a lot of hooverable mess.

and yes i do have kids, and pets. i also have a dh that works in a quarry so brings in all kinds of dirt, limestone dust etc from his clothes and shoes everyday.

i understand that you are exhausted but i just don't get how you can complain money is tight but then go on to suggest you buy thousands and thousands of pounds worth of LUXURY household gadgets.

if you had said you are well off with cash to spare i would say go for it. but considering you dont i wouldn't advise you to.

but do get a slow cooker they are amazing.

[jeanmiguelfangio]

My mum wouldnt be without her roomba, she adores it. They live in France and actually have 2! One upstairs one down!!! Although hers were secondhand and came from essentially the French equivalent of cash converters so werent that expensive.
The tumble dryer makes ironing worse. We only iron shirts in our house, everything else is hung up in an airer or hangers, and doesn't need ironing.
Get a slow cooker though, they are super cheap in the supermarket and easy to use

[stopbeingsilly]

5 minutes to hoover is utter bollocks, unless your hoover is constantly out, plugged in, ready to go and you've only got one rectangular hallway carpet to cover. If you've got actual rooms (with furniture to move) and stairs, 5 minutes will get you nowhere. Nice smuggery though, monkeybrains

[RaisingSteam]

I read your title and thought "Like most blokes then?"

Does your DH really work more than (adds up) 15 hours a day? If not he can chip in.

You can cope with the washing up if you have a dishwasher, you/your DH can load it last thing at night. (We rarely have "fails" - not sure what BabyMonkeyBrains is doing).

Tumble drier is a good idea if you haven't got time to peg out washing.

I pile up the ironing all week and do it on a Sunday night watching Downton Abbey or whatever. A lot of ironing can be avoided by folding/ignoring/judicious choice of clothes.

Really do look at getting a cleaner though. Ask for 2 hours a week and say "essential jobs only please" - should be about £25 . The burden will lift. Then you don't have to worry about the Roomba.

If you are tight for cash you can normally get decent appliances from ebay - go for Bosch.

My slow cooker is a dust collector in itself - I just menu plan for pasta, oven chips, stir-fry type quick meals during the week. Can't figure the thing out! Have a boring menu that repeats every 2 weeks so shopping is easy from a standard list - obviously have it delivered.

[BabyMonkeyBrains]

stopbeingsilly i spend 5 someties 10 minutes per day hoovering my house thats every room besides kitchen and bathroom as they have tiled flooring. i move furniture and hoover behind them once a month. twice if i notice dust.

How long does it take you to hoover? i really cannot see how it can take much longer than that. the only time i have ever spent more than 15 minutes hoovering was when my hubby thoght it was a brilliant idea to luse his lathe on my carpet resulting in a shit ton of sawdust everywhere.

[calculatorsatdawn]

your money OP, you spend it how you like whether you're swimming in the stuff or scrabbling down the sofa for pennies.

Slow cookers are the mutts nuts. I am really struggling financially at the moment and all my leftovers get chucked in the slow cooker and voila! what was cabbage and the bones of a chicken is now stew for the next few days and with no effort on my part whatsoever. (before anyone starts on me for suggesting you can feed a family of 30 on half a chicken for a year, I only cook for me so a couple of days out of a chicken carcass is not me showing off )

[calculatorsatdawn]

5 mins to hoover a whole house is BS btw

[bouncinbean]

Rromba - have you checked the threads on here about them - you have to do quite a bit of prep to make sure your rooms are suitable for them and clear obstacles. As this is the bit that takes most time for me I couldn't work out how it would really save me time other than the theory.

Dishwasher - yes, love it! But you just end up complaining about the time spent loading and unloading it. But would recommend - and can do more than dishes - every so often I give my daughers toys a good clean in it

Tumble dryer - not here and I don't iron either and also it costs a lot in electricity to run. If you shake your clothes out and hang well theres very little that really has to be ironed - very smart tops and shirts are all but we don't wear that kind of thing much.

Slow cooker - oh yes! Love this as well. Chop everything up, chuck it in and leave it...

Not sure if I have any other ideas though - I do think time well spent in organising your house/admin and paperwork is worth it so that its then easier to keep on top of. Eg a basket of cleaning products in kitchen, downstairs loo, bathroom. Good storage so things get put away. Deal with bills/paperwork straightaway and have an easy way of filing and finding them...

[RaisingSteam]

The main thing is to not have unrealistic standards. You are not looking for your home to be pristine/spotless/operating-theatre hygienic. It just needs to have bathrooms and kitchen that aren't scary, reasonably clean floors and surfaces wiped over every so often and the family to be fed and clothed. Go for what's achievable.

[littlemslazybones]

Never seen a roomba so I had a look on the johnlewis website and it looks fab, while I was there I saw a scooba...I think you should add it to your list, hth

[AllAboveBroad]

First thing is maybe to lower your standards a little bit. :) In our house one room a day gets 15 minutes attention, so it all keeps on top of it.
Dishwasher, tumble dryer and slow cooker definitely. Not sure the Roomba is really worth it at the moment if you are on a budget.
A couple of things we do to save a few minutes here and there:-

• Hang out shirts on coat hangers straight from the washing machine. Halves the ironing time.
• Give the bathroom a quick once over when you go in in the morning (YY to previous poster who suggested cleaning products in baskets in more than one room)
• Put things back where you got them from as soon as you are finished and train your family to do the same (easier said than done I know!)
• Try doing something for five minutes here and there. It's better than thinking "I don't have time to complete that all at once"
• Don't try and maintain a showhome. You don't get any medals for it :)

Also, if you are helping with homework are your DC old enough to be taking up some responsibility too? Is there a reason why they can't take over the hour's worth of tidying up, or even do the dishes or learn to use a dustpan and brush, or make their own lunches maybe? Don't be afraid to delegate!

Check out the Housekeeping threads too - they have loads of ideas. And Flylady is great, especially when you really can't see the wood for the trees.

[wowfudge]

Woah there - you got jumped on OP. Yes to a dishwasher, tumble dryer and slow cooker.

Dishwasher: better washing up than by hand, cupboard to put the dirty pots in and two minutes emptying it - fill it as you go. Don't waste time washing up.

Tumble dryer: frankly, because it rains so frequently it's worth having one. No time spent hanging stuff out, no damp washing hanging around the house, very minimal ironing. Not true ime that things will be more crumpled if td'd. The running costs are worth it to me.

Slow cooker: bung it all in and leave it.

You do not need to spend vast amounts of money on these things: we've got a mid range full size dishwasher which cost 250. Large capacity washing machine similar price. Slow cooker 14 from Aldi when they do them.

Oh and a Roomba is 330 at Lakeland. But, if you are prepared to spend on that, you could employ a cleaner for an hour a week for a year to do the cleaning and then you just do the tidying.

I seriously think that anything that saves you time and effort when you are busy with other stuff is worth the money. If you can afford it. Definitely train the family to pitch in with tidying, putting away and cleaning.

BabyMonkeyBrains - if you think you can hoover my house in 5 mins, then come on over and I'll set the stop watch! 3 bed semi.

[wowfudge]

To save time on cooking, do batches of stuff you can freeze and things like bolognese can be versatile - stick some chili and cumin in and a tin of kidney beans and it's chilli con carne and stretches further. Then all you need to do is heat it up - from frozen in the microwave if you haven't been organised enough to get it out to defrost. Frozen veg is great too for speed of prep and no prep!

[Mrsjayy]

I never have to rewash after dishwashing and it takes more than 5 minutes to hoover op do what ypu need to do you could get a cleaner once a fortnight or just not iron I dont iron much school clothes although dd is doing her own and the odd top here and there, dh irons his own stuff

[Mrsjayy]

I want one of those roombas but I think my dog would have a heart attack

[Mrsjayy]

I love my drier more than my children

[StackALee]

Personally I find a dishwasher just as annoying as washing by hand. It still needs stacking and emptying and all my saucepans have to be done by hand.

I feel your pain though.

[LadyIsabellaWrotham]

Dishwasher is worth every penny (well, maybe not if you buy a £900 Miele, but definitely worth the 400 quid I spent on my Bosch) it gets things hygienically clean with the minimum of effort and saves water and energy.

The answer to ironing is to boycott all clothing that needs it. Loads of people on MN never iron anything except Hama beads and are none the worse for it. I'm not sure a tumble dryer would help with this.

I think the money for a Roomba would be better spent on a cleaner for 2 hours a week.

[KoalaDownUnder]

YANBU

Definitely fuck off the ironing. I have half the responsibilities you do, and I never iron. Anything. On principle. (That I hate it and it is pointless.)

[meeps]

one of my bosses has 2 dishwashers - take items to use out the clean, use it, put it in the dirty. Can't decide if its genius..

[erin99]

I own all of the above. They help (bar the roomba, arguably) but they don't reduce housework to mere seconds a day.

I think you need to either get a cleaner, or one of you needs to carve out time in the week somehow. Could DH take over a couple of well defined jobs, or do a school run or 2? Could you use after school club a day or 2 a week or forego the park? Could you do a family housework blitz for an hour before lunch every Sat (or insert time of your choice)? I think there is a balance between little and often and leaving it too long so it gets to be a big job. 5 mins a day hoovering would prob be enough if done every day but that would be over an hour a week, whereas if you do it weekly or fortnightly it's fewer minutes in total. Mopping our kitchen floor takes ages no matter how often it's done, so that doesn't happen nearly as often as it should.