Working full time and fitting in all the stuff.

[Dweeble]

How?

I used to work 39 hours over 3 days or 3 nights. Which gave me 4 days to chill, sleep, exercise, shop, cook, clean, see friends, take mother out etc.

Now I’ve changed to full time over 4/5 days. Which gives me evenings only and weekends.

How the chuff to normal people fit it all in? I haven’t even got Smalls to deal with. My house is a tip, the beds need changing and I haven’t seen mother for weeks.

You just have to ride with it!! I’ve 4 kids, massive bags under my eyes and a crap hole of a house!

Sorry I can’t be of any help. If you find the magic way of coping please share 😊

It's tough,
Cleaning: vaguely follow the organised mum method (not a mum either!)
Food shop: online shop with click and collect when I get my fuel
Cook: meal plan, simple stuff, try hello fresh or similar once in a while. Cook extra for lunch the next day
Friends, family etc: just don't overbook yourself or youll be shattered. I need a couple of nights to do nothing at all
Exercise: run before work or book a class to force me to go
Life admin: send emails while on the park and ride or at lunch, work from home a day a week to shove some washing on, go to the post office etc during lunch

Do you have a big commute?

Commute isn’t far but 2 out of the 5 days I’m travelling around a bit

Need to get up earlier. Chuck washing in. Exercise.

Are you the only adult size person in the household?
I'm lucky DH works PT & he is a home-body so does most the routine stuff (laundry, cooking, shops, errands for kids, DIY).
He socialises a bit but I don't bother; my commute is my exercise plus a few swimming sessions; I get by on 6 hrs/night sleep; cleaning is minimal.

I do not know. I have a teeny commute- leave at 7,45 to be in by 8. Leave at 5.15 to be home by 5.35. yet i am exhausted by it all.

I get up at 5 am and try and do housework for 2 hours before leaving. Yet I play catch up at the weekend.

I have it pretty good yet still can't quite cope.

(Dh is useless at domestic stuff. I and he are feminists yet still it falls to me. i am still struggling to work that out...)

DD2 is off to uni in September (DD1 no longer at home). H is useful and does far more house stuff than me but also works very long hours, including nights.

I used to curse my long shifts and nights but it gave me so much more time to do stuff around the edges. I have no idea how people with children work full time days.

I think we are all very messy. At least there’ll be less stuff to tidy up and washing once D2 goes. But still dog hair to hoover daily.

I have no idea how anyone manages to do it all. There's only me, DH & student DS at home now & both of them pull their weight, but we still struggle to keep the house presentable & get everything done. I had the afternoon off the other day & I got such a lot done, working part time would be ideal - but my job is full time & that's that. I've just had to massively lower my standards.

We live in barely contained chaos...I work full time with a 3 hour round trip commute though I work at home once or twice a week. I have a cleaner. We have someone who drops and picks up children two days a week and we somehow manage the rest between us. I do a load of laundry most days, have plenty of school uniform and tend to wear the same five or so outfits all the time so don't shave to think too much.

When not injured I get up at 5:15 and exercise, out the door by 7:10.

We somehow get through but it is all pretty stressful and I am a university lecturer so not highly paid.

Prep as much as possible at the weekends and sleep less 😁

I have 1 DD and a husband who does his fair share. We both work full time, DD goes to breakfast and after school club term time.

A couple of time a week I have to work in London (from east mids) so 2 hr commute each way when you include travel to train station and tube to Vauxhall. But I also get to work from home a couple of times a week.

During the week we keep on top of essentials, if we re lucky a wash gets done and on the line before leaving for work.

Saturday morning, out before 8am to get the food shop done super quick, then fun stuff for the rest of the day.

Sunday is catch up day for housework and batch cooking

All shopping except food is done online.

It's just me and 3 pre-teen/teens. What works is:

• everything is done online as far as possible, with shopping and milk delivered
• I have lists, so many lists, but there is a system and it works (largely). 15 mins each evening is for admin and list maintenance.
• everyone changes and washes their own sheets
• DC have tasks. Not many, but one does the washing (I iron), one cleans up after dinner and puts out rubbish, one does garden watering and indoor plant watering plus recycling. Everyone helps when asks (in theory)
• I do bathrooms as I go, twice a week. Kitchen is cleaned before bed.
• washing goes on on the timer so it's done in the morning and can be hung up
• as far as possible, I do things as soon as they arise (eg birthday party coming up - buy present when invite arrives)
• we eat easy and quick meals for the most part. Lots of salads, omelettes, stir fries. Getting an Instant Pot was a game changer.

I am really lucky. The DC are quite tidy. I have a good support network and a flexible job. Occasionally I work at home and use the time on conference calls to sort a drawer or something similar. We don't have much clutter. All of this helps immeasurably. And having money to occasionally throw at a problem. To be honest I think all of this makes more of a difference than all my "tips" above.

Oh, and I am stressed and grumpy all the time and often barely holding things together despite appearances.

Clean little and often. Tidy as you go etc. Sometimes it gets on top of me then I'll just do a big weekend clean. Only me and dh so save all the clothes washing for weekends. Keep weekday evenings free for us 2 and chilling. See friends and family and arrange other appointments (opticians, vets etc.) at weekends use a diary app on my phone to book everything in and keep me feeling organised throughout each month. If it's a busy weekend order food shop online for collection/delivery - massive time and money saver! Do life admin at work during lunch. Used to do a gym class one lunchtime a week but gave up on that now