I have a 4 year old and a 3 month old. I was just about keeping on top of things before the baby came along, now it's a whole different ball game. My husband does nothing around the house Mon-Fri but he is helpful on the weekend in terms of cooking meals and will do the dishwasher, clean the kitchen, pick up the lounge and vacuum downstairs. The issue I have is that I fall asleep when my baby does around 8pm as thats the only decent stretch of sleep I get (until 1am) then I'm lucky to get a couple more hours between 1am and 7am. If I had my evenings free I'd be able to keep on top but as it stands I am utterly sinking underneath all the housework. It seems relentless - bins, cleaning, washing, ironing, pre-school admin then tasks like sorting out old clothes, selling things off, repleninshing kids clothes due to season change and growth spurts. There aren't enough hours in the day! As it stands I'm lucky if I get a shower, hair is scraped up in a bun as no time to blow dry, makeup takes 2 mins max, I've got no clothes as have dropped pretty much all baby weight but still ever so slightly big for any clothes and I have no time to shop! I'm really feeling down with it all :(
I'm heading to IKEA tomorrow with my parents whilst my eldest is at preschool and they are going to help me pick up a few things to help. Here are my ideas but I'm hoping you will all have suggestions of your own that help you?!
- Kallax for lounge so all toys can be hidden away
- Desk of my own so I can leave my laptop and paperwork laid out to do tasks like online shopping, meal planning, food shop whenever baby is napping.
- 4 boxes, different colours, so we each have one - laundry will be folded into each and each person responsible for putting away (I will do babies, obviously)
- Hooks for hallway so childrens coats & bags can be reached to encourage them to hang themselves rather than throwing on floor. Similarly, a box for childrens shoes for hallway so they can put them away themselves.
Does anyone have any other suggestions of ways I can streamline things? We do have a cleaner come 2 hours fortnightly and she mainly tackles the 2 bathrooms and all floors. Writing this down, it seems like I should be coping, but I'm really not.
Any ideas gratefully received. How did you cope with these early years? I know a lot more mess and work is created because we are home much more than if I was working and children at nursery all day, but this is how it will be for quite some time.