To think there is never time to relax on weekdays ?

Sounds awful. I don’t know anyone whose life is that hectic. You’re going to burn out at some point.

I only work a couple of days a week from home, so can’t really compare, but I just couldn’t live like that.

I also don't have a dryer. I've literally never ironed school uniform. Just reshape clothes when wet and hang them flat or on a hanger and they will dry flat enough. There are zero 'wrinkles' when you do it this way.

Well it's fine to have a moan but this is AIBU so expect us to tell you that you are because most of us will be WTAF at the rod you are making for your own back.

Non iron shirts for school. DH shirts hung straight from washing. Forget about ironing bedding. Brush the dog. Do a clean once a week at most - or if you can, a cleaner in for a few hours blitz fortnightly and you just di maintenance cleaning in between. Get kids to help a bit more. School lunches.

Sorry OP but whatever you say, you don't have to iron and polish every day. As everyone else has said - let it go.

A lot of this is down to you not having to do these things but wanting to.

Shirts can be ironed in bulk and hung on a door, you don’t necessarily need a rail.

Keto meals can easily be prepared, there are thousands of YouTube videos and blogs dedicated to this.

Your husband is home by 6 (which I would not count as late at all!), and sort the children’s bath and bed.

Do you pick the children up from school, can you fit the dog in then? I’m guessing you have a dog walker too if you’re out 0530-1700 everyday?

2100 is very early to go to bed, but surely that and the gym counts as relaxation time? Most would kill for that long a sleep!!

If you did the meal prep at the weekend (include the children, make it a fun activity), and spent an hour ironing all the shirts, then you’d have 4 hours every night to vacuum, and shove something in the oven - plenty of time!!

Exactly, it's all choices.

I sometimes feel like I'm always on the go because I have volunteering commitments in the evenings on top of my full time job, but I recognise that this is a personal choice and I could sit at home in front of the telly if I preferred.

You're choosing to do a lot of this stuff, which is obviously fine, but the trade off is not having as much time. And it sounds like you aren't happy with that trade off. But there's no other option - stop doing some of the things (you've said you can't) or accept it.

To answer your question about whether anyone else feels like this - I do to some extent. But I don't have a dog and I don't iron anything ever. My time is eaten up by studying for a qualification (accountancy) on top of my full time job, which is a lot but it's only for a couple more years. Before I started this qualification I didn't feel the way you describe.

Sorry you don't need to hoover and polish every day even if you have a lab! You choose to but that's not the same as needing to. If you have a lab you have to accept a certain amount of shedding, that's just how it goes.

You don't need to iron every day. Iron once a week if you really have to iron and keep all ironed clothes that don't fit in drawers in the spare room or your bedroom folded ready to be worn.

Can you kids get school dinners?

All the things you describe are choices. I have at least a couple of hours to sit on the sofa at night and I consider myself to be busy a lot of the time.

I have a lab and a golden retriever and a long haired cat and don't hoover every day! I give them all a quick brush (literally 1-2 mins each), which gets rid of most of what they would otherwise put around the house.

It sounds exhausting to be you. I hoover every few days, if that. I don't do a wash every day. Ironing only gets done when I have time/can be bothered. I don't do labour intensive meal prep. I don't do big cleaning or DIY jobs on the weekend. You're heading for burn out carrying on like this.

Get a robot hoover, it will be enough to keep hairs at bay so you only need to do a big hoover twice a week.

Consider deliberately cooking more food than you need so leftovers are chucked in a box for lunch the next day.

Buy a clothes rail, they are really cheap and just hang everything on there. Don’t fold and put away and then get out and iron again, that’s crackers and a massive waste of time. If you hang it when damp and shake stuff lots of it will not need ironing. I have a rail built in to an area of my kitchen that’s retractable and have always done this. If you have clean uniform for your kids every day just stop it, do spot cleaning. I have a clothes steamer if something is very creased they get a quick steam but it’s rare.

Do an online shop occasionally for bulk stuff like pasta, loo rolls, tins and frozen food. You don’t need to inspect each item.

I have a couple of friends who have high standards, we are all coming up to 60 now. I have known one most of my life. If we could only look at a graph and it tell us how much time we had spent on every single activity down to the last second. Theirs would be a lifetime bloody cleaning. You never get those minutes back.

I had to buy an iron when the kids went through a Hama beads stage. It's the only time it has been used. They don't go out in wrinkled clothes.

Get a robot hoover.

You're making it hard for yourself.

I make sure I do housework every day except Sunday, on Sunday I only hoover and do the dishwasher, tidy the kitchen after dinner so I get a bit more rest.
I am like you, I hoover every day and I iron ect, I suppose it just depends on everyone's standards to what they do everyday, it wouldn't do for us all to be the same.
I have OCD so I regularly tidy drawers ect because I need things to be just so, but as I said I do the bare minimum on Sunday.
Also could you ask you husband to walk the dog as soon as he comes in from work. X

Stop ironing. It's school uniform. No one gives a toss but you. Hoover every other day.

Pick one day where they all have school dinner - it's a really nice break to not have to deal with packed lunch prep one night.

Got an online shop for the majority of what you need. You can pick up the rest in the butcher or whatever.

You're busy in the way that people looking for work are busy. None of it is mandatory.

Well, given that you're choosing to do a lot of unnecessary crap, it's hardly surprising that you feel busy. You can choose to stop but you don't want to. Fair enough.

I don't necessarily agree that you're not getting time to relax in the week though. Walking the dog and going to the gym are essentially leisure pursuits, just slightly more active ones. Yes, the dog is a responsibility now that you've got him, but presumably one that you took on because you enjoy it.

You're also getting eight and a half hours in bed which is probably more than a lot of people, so it's just about how you're choosing to use your time.

I honestly don't mean to be rude but you do sound rather like my grandmother from the 1960s with comments like 'I could never let my children out of the house with unironed clothes', reminds me of those black and white documentaries when the women say 'Well that Elsie at number 75 hasn't washed her net curtains for three whole weeks, it's a scandal!'

Pp have given you loads of good ideas but it seems like your need for perfection won't allow you to slacken off enough to let you have a life.

I have 2 dc, one is severely autistic. I work ft and quite often am still on calls at 7pm. I don't iron anything, shopping is delivered twice a week. I have two very furry cats and hooover once a week. I do one load of laundry daily and it goes straight in the tumble dryer and is shaken out. You probably think I'm a total slob to be fair but I do get my evenings to relax! I don't go to the gym either, would rather watch Netflix.

What time are you putting them to bed? Isn't there time between that and your bedtime?

Buy a clothes rail for uniforms and iron everything for the week on Sunday.
Get a roomba
Batch cook
Tidy breakfast stuff before you leave

I iron the kid’s uniforms every day, they would be so creased if I didn’t (but usually do it in the morning). How do everybody’s clothes dry without creases?! Tell me your secrets!
Having a dog I also hoover regularly - maybe 3 times a week - but it’s school dinners all the way for us as making packed lunches kills my soul. Luckily I work irregular hours so my evenings are mainly free after kid’s bedtime, but I imagine I would be like you if I did 9-5 OP!

I was a single parent of two ( 10 and 5 when first single) and worked ft term time 40 miles from home. Once home I made dinner, sort of cleared up and that was it for the evening apart from supervising baths and bed. I've never, once, in my life cleaned in the evening. However I'd get up ultra early before the children and do any jobs I needed to do ( hanging out washing etc) and cleaning was done on Saturday morning before children were up. I've always had hairy dogs too, hairs don't kill you. Oh and school uniforms were ironed on Sunday morning in a few minutes, nothing else.
It sounds like you're making a rod for your own back OP, life is so so short, why make it a chore? The children will remember the nights of snuggling on the sofa with a pizza and TV, I'm pretty sure you don't want their memories to be of their parents hoovering every evening

I'm a lone parent and the weeks are crazy. But ironing? Can you not get a small rail or use a door way (over the door hooks) to hang the shirts you iron at the weekend? I mean ironing every day is a nonsense.

When I worked out of the house it was a crazy eat sleep work repeat cycle, especially when the kids were little.
I don't iron at all, the kids made their own lunches from 8yo, DH vacuums once a week. I buy non iron shirts and hang them on their hanger to dry.

After your update, yes my life was the same, but I stopped doing the needless shit and now it isn't.