WFH people, how do you juggle household chores with working?

[imaginethemdragons]

Because my house is a shit hole and I’m sick to death of it.
How do you keep on top of it?

Doesn't wfh make it easier?

I get up the same as if I was going to work and have a good 40 mins in between when I would have left and when I need to start work. Routine is everything.

It’s so much easier!
What hours do you work?
I do couple jobs before hand, some on dinner.
I do washing whilst working, takes two mins to hang out!

Dishwasher I think is the main thing, I seem to produce so many more dishes at home compared to when I was in the office.
I also use the delay start setting on the washing machine so I can either hang it out before work or on my lunch break.
Can quickly run the hoover round on a lunch break too or do those little things like go to the bottle bank - it’s easy to just pick a job each day and do it in the break. Yesterday I changed the bedding, today I went to the post office.
It also helps that I have a desk rather than working on my dining table so all my work stuff (monitor, paperwork etc) can be kept there where it’s not interfering with anything else.

It’s my dh who wfh.
I work up to 60 hours a week 6 days a week out of the house.
My one day off is spent cleaning up.
He does the laundry and the dishwasher but never wipes the surfaces, never cleans the bathroom, never hoovers, will step over crap on the floor, opens a parcel then leaves it in that same spot half opened for weeks.
Kids socks, dirty clothes strewn over the floor...all week sometimes.
I come in and start dinner most days, the cooker top is fucking disgusting so I’ve got to clean that before I can cook.
Pissed off with it today. Last straw.

Can’t have any form of conversation about it because he gets stroppy and argumentative and then becomes as awkward as he possibly can with other stuff.

Childish and lazy then.
It can’t all be down to you, so a conversation does need to happen with jobs split

I've worked from home for YEARS now, and I'm self-employed so the amount of work I do directly impacts on my pay, which might make a difference...

But generally I don't do chores during working hours. I wash up after breakfast and before I start to work; and I clean up after work too - putting my desk and work stuff away, washing up cups/lunch stuff/cutlery etc. I'll run the hoover round once or twice a week, usually after work but if we're going out, sometimes at lunch time.

Dammit, posted too soon. The bathroom gets done either at the weekend or after work one day like it did when I went into the office, as does changing the beds.

The rest hasn't been a major issue because we don't tend to do that stuff anyway... I know I'd be the person hunting for things/tidying up down the line, so I'm pretty tidy!

He needs to pull his weight.

@Moonshine11

It’s so much easier! What hours do you work? I do couple jobs before hand, some on dinner. I do washing whilst working, takes two mins to hang out!

How can hanging out washing take two minutes? A full load takes 10-15 minutes for me to hang out and I'm pretty quick!

Your H is the problem.

Your H is lazy and inconsiderate and thinks cleaning (including cleaning up after him) is your job.

It's so easy to take 5 minutes to hoover the place, pick up the socks when re-filling coffee and clean up after breakfast. He just can't be bothered.

He has sat, sun and Monday off every week.
Does school run, food shop, at weekend he’s busy with kids activities, I work, only have Sunday off.
I spend the whole day cleaning, I do some through the week too so it’s not as grim.
Today I’ve got home and it’s bloody chaos and dirty, actually dirty.
He’s inflated the big paddling pool and set up the garden furniture which is great but it’s going to take me all day on Sunday despite spending the last hour cleaning, hoovering, cleaning the kitchen and bathroom.

How old are your kids? Unless they’re babies their socks shouldn’t be strewn everywhere. If your ‘D’H is a useless slob start training the kids now not to follow in his footsteps!

He’s not a useless slob though with every other aspect of life.
Just with the house stuff.

I don’t find WFH makes it much easier though. I am either working (in which case sat at my desk actually working or on Teams calls), doing school runs or making lunch/ dinner. There’s just very very little time for a quick load of washing. My parents find this very strange as they assume WFH means sitting on your backside doing nothing.

I tend to multi task, if I know one of the calls I'm on is more about listening than talking then I'll dial in from my iPad or use my wireless headphones, then I can do washing up or general tidying at the same time.

Otherwise use lunch break and time saved from the commute to blitz a few small jobs and the rest waits till after DD is in bed.

I left a list for my 8 year old today to pick his shit up and put his washing away.
Left him instructions to sort out the cardboard ready for the tip run tomorrow which he has done.

@CandyLeBonBon does it?! It doesn’t take me long, I’m neat at it I don’t just hoy it on. But I’ve never took 10mins to hang it out

When both of us worked full time (and pre-Covid) we had a cleaner once a week. Saved a lot of arguments and meant the house never got too out of control. Money well spent.

Kids all do some chores at weekends - even the smaller ones. It really doesn’t help much but at least it’s teaching them that work needs to be done.

Same way as usual. It's easier without the 3 hour per day commute

I agree that it's your H that is the problem.

I empty the dishwasher and washing machine as I get up. I do the kitchen surfaces and brush the floor every morning while dd is eating breakfast. And then every day after the school run but before I start work in the morning I have a tidy around (loosely following the Organised Mum method) - a couple of times a week hoovering and mopping. I start work at 10am on those days. Clean the bathroom in the morning as I use it. then we all do a big clean together on a Saturday.

Everyone clears up the kitchen and loads the dishwasher after dinner each day (ready to be emptied the next morning when the whole boring cycle starts again...)

I think there might be two issues here. Maybe your DH doesn’t get time during the work day to do anything once he’s had his lunch. That would be fair enough. But what does he do on Mondays when he isn’t working?

It's one thing for him to be lazy and dirty, quite another for him to kick off whenever you try to discuss his unacceptable behaviour.

I'm not sure what other people's WFH/cleaning schedules has to do with it. The problem is your husband.

Get a cleaner for Monday morning for 4 hours to blitz the entire house.

Make everyone spend an hour on Sunday afternoon tidying up their shit so the cleaner can clean on Monday. Split the communal areas with your DH. Everyone tidies their own bedroom. Hound everyone until it's done.

Do no cleaning apart from that. You're not a slave and your life shouldn't be work/clean and repeat.

Your DH has much more non-working time than you and should be keeping on top of the chores during the week (dishwasher/laundry). He should also be sharing the cooking with you. Then the cleaner can do a weekly clean and change beds.

If your DH won't pull his weight, stop doing his laundry and stop cooking for a bit. Order takeaway for you and DC or get some picnic food. You're a team and he needs to pull his weight as well.

I do the daily chores before I start work at nine, so I normally get up at about eight, managed to squeeze in breakfast, put a load of washing on, wipe down the surfaces and put any dishes away. Make beds. Sometimes put bath mat back as well if partner has been in a hurry!

Then while I'm boiling the kettle I will always wash up anything I use as I go, wipe down surfaces, take wash out, hang washing out. Often find time to do a quick bathroom clean, or a hoover as well. But I don't really take proper breaks, nor do I take an hour for lunch. It works really well for me, I love work from home