Housework - how long would this take you?

[EllieQ]

I’ve been struggling with keeping on top
of housework and laundry recently, despite only having one child, a husband who does his share of day to day stuff, and a fairly small house.

Yesterday DH took DD out for the afternoon, and I got the following done:

• Went to corner shop to get milk (the only time I left the house yesterday).
• Sorted a load of laundry and put it on.
• Ironed DD’s Brownies uniform (a quick iron only).
• Hand washed DD’s dance uniform (all hand wash only!)
• Sorted through a pile of paper on the dining room (ten minutes?)
• Hoovered the bathroom (small) and one bedroom (medium sized)
• Various bits of tidying as I went around.

They were out for 2.5 hours. If that was you, would you have got more/ less/ the same amount done in that time?

I had 5-10 minutes break between each job, which didn’t feel like much,and I feel that I should have got more done.

Weekends are really the only time I have to get on with housework. I work part time but over five days, so I don’t have a day ‘off’ to myself. DH WFH most days, and as he works in the dining room (no spare room), I can’t do much housework when we get home after school as it would disturb him (plus I often don’t feel like doing anything after a day at work!). I also WFH half the week, and try to get a load of laundry done at least on those days, but DH has an amazing talent of getting in the way when I’m trying to get stuff done during my tea break or lunch break 🙄

It’s really stressing me out, and I can’t tell if I should be doing more in the time I have, so I wanted a reality check from MN!

Well, I can’t work out why you’re having 5-10 minute breaks between each job? You probably lost an hour there….

Hmmmm. Aside from the hand washing, I probably would do that in about an hour at most.

I am however very much a tornado of cleaning when it suits. I tend to have a mad half hour where I don't stop and do a lot of jobs. Then will not move for the next 2 hours.

Daft but I find getting Alexa to play the cheesiest pop I can listen to makes me move around much quicker and stops me from sitting down. Then I have a good break at the end with a cuppa.

Sounds like about an hours' worth to me. Why do you need so many breaks?

An hour tops.

I don't think you used the time well. If the idea was for you to get as much housework done as possible then I'd have left the papers /handwashing and probably vacced the whole house, put a wash on, cleaned the bathroom /toilets changed the beds?

I could do more than that in 2.5 hours if I put my mind to it and the dcs were out but I would probably take advantage of a bit of time to myself and sit down with a cup of tea for some of it!
Dh is better at getting on with things than me. Yesterday I did the supermarket shop which took about an hour including travel. By the time I got home he had cleaned both the kitchen and bathroom properly and was onto vacuuming.
Could you do things quicker in a different order? I think I would have tidied all the bedrooms, cleaned the bathroom and then vacuumed the whole lot in one go. I sort out a load of washing every evening so it's ready to switch the machine on when we get up, out on the line by 8am.
We don't do a lot of ironing but if we do it is done in the evening whilst watching TV - multitasking!

Also, I understand not being able to hoover while he is working, but couldn't jobs like ironing the uniform or hand washing be done without disturbing him?

If you're struggling to get enough done during the week, could you invest in a robot vacuum? I couldn't be without ours,

I don’t think that’s an efficient way to work.

Get up and while DH is doing breakfast and getting kids together I would put a wash on. The sort out paper work.

When they are out I would
Fill a bucket with detergent and stick hand wash stuff in
Hoover top to bottom
Come back to hand wash stuff and rinse put to dry
Iron

But it sounds like you could do a lot more in the week as well as being faster. Have you got any medical conditions that prevents you?

I would have asked DH to pick up the milk and the rest would have taken about an hour. I would not take any break at all for an hour's work. Most of those jobs would take less than
5 - 10 minutes each so it sounds like you're having more break than work time.

On a good day that would take around 30-45 minutes for me.
On a bad day that would take all day. I do suffer from depression though.

I'm afraid you just need to crack on OP! Get all your supplies to hand, make yourself a drink in a travel mug, give yourself a time goal and a target, switch on music/podcast (if it helps) and roll your sleeves up. I don't get the 5-10 minute breaks either. the sooner it's done, the sooner you can relax.

For context, it takes me about 6 hours to thoroughly clean ( vac/mop floors, clean bathrooms/loos, clean kitchen, wipe down/polish surfaces as needed- and I toss in a load or two of laundry as I go) my DSis's much-bigger -than -mine 5 bed house top to bottom. She's not well atm so I'm helping out once a week, DH works away a lot & long hours (was changing jobs pre-covid but that's another story). House is as normally messy as you'd expect with young teens & pets. And yes, they could get a cleaner (like hen's teeth around here as it is) but having a stranger in the house would cause DSis unnecessary stress. The bonus is that I can tell the teens to clean up after themselves without fear or favour, tho tbf, they do muck in and Arte getting increasingly house-trained. I think that they now appreciate how much DSis does for them and they're definitely more responsible.

I would have done it all quickly and then sat on my arse for ages.

Why is ‘sorting a load of washing’ a job. That’s a ten second thing surely?

I don’t really understand not being able to do housework while your DH is working. You could do everything apart from hoovering?

@EllieQ

I’ve been struggling with keeping on top of housework and laundry recently, despite only having one child, a husband who does his share of day to day stuff, and a fairly small house.

Yesterday DH took DD out for the afternoon, and I got the following done:

• Went to corner shop to get milk (the only time I left the house yesterday).
• Sorted a load of laundry and put it on.
• Ironed DD’s Brownies uniform (a quick iron only).
• Hand washed DD’s dance uniform (all hand wash only!)
• Sorted through a pile of paper on the dining room (ten minutes?)
• Hoovered the bathroom (small) and one bedroom (medium sized)
• Various bits of tidying as I went around.

They were out for 2.5 hours. If that was you, would you have got more/ less/ the same amount done in that time?

I had 5-10 minutes break between each job, which didn’t feel like much,and I feel that I should have got more done.

Weekends are really the only time I have to get on with housework. I work part time but over five days, so I don’t have a day ‘off’ to myself. DH WFH most days, and as he works in the dining room (no spare room), I can’t do much housework when we get home after school as it would disturb him (plus I often don’t feel like doing anything after a day at work!). I also WFH half the week, and try to get a load of laundry done at least on those days, but DH has an amazing talent of getting in the way when I’m trying to get stuff done during my tea break or lunch break 🙄

It’s really stressing me out, and I can’t tell if I should be doing more in the time I have, so I wanted a reality check from MN!

All sounds.fine to me OP

It's not a competition

Different people are, well, different!

There's no 'should' here, just do what suits you !

It depends a bit on your standards.
Other than hoovering and handwashing, that's basically the same sort of thing I do in the morning around getting ready before I go out to work.
So unless your hoovering involves moving all the furniture and dusting down all skirting/lights and going into all crevices, it wouldn't take anything like 2.5 hours.

Why were you taking breaks between jobs? Why not focus on things by theme - all laundry related stuff, then hoovering, paperwork at the very end?

@Bunce1 has great advice. I do an entire house clean in two hours (small house!). I’d have asked DH to get milk as he was out. Or I’d have popped out once he was back to get myself a bit off peace and quiet!

Join the Organised Mum Thread!

I totted up your list and with your breaks it would take me 2.5 hours too. Like others have said you need to crack on, I'd maybe have one 10 minute break and work full on the rest of the time. Although I get how you might be tired with a child 🙂

2.5 hours would be a massive blitz here! I think the breaks are the problem, really. Breaks are fine but I think you'd be better off doing 45 mins of solid cleaning, take a 15-min break and then same again. You'd achieve far more.

I'd put a wash on before starting another job and I'd put the hand wash only stuff on a machine handwash programme depending on what it's made off. Life is too short to handwash most things! I make a list and cross things off. My reward of a cup of tea, etc comes after several things are ticked off.

My mum is like this. I can probably get a load of washing washed and dried quicker than she can ‘sort the washing’.

Everyone is different though, I spend an hour a day tidying and a quick wipe down of surfaces/bathrooms and hoover downstairs. This means weekly clean takes about 4 hours to do properly. On my working days it’s probably 30 mins quick housework.

I’d rather spend my time relaxing in a clean and tidy house rather than a break between each job but whatever works for you.

I could probably do it a bit quicker but I think it depends how often you do it if that makes any sense?

So if you clean the bathroom regularly and keep on top of it it won’t take as long to clean as if it’s been left for ages and needs scrubbing because it’s dirty or lots of tidying before you can clean because it’s messy.

Also I would try not to make jobs bigger than they are. Sorting papers and putting a washing on are two minute jobs really and wouldn’t (for me) require a 10 minute break afterwards. Ditto with ironing a brownies uniform, that to me isn’t really a big job, it’s a two minute thing.

My corner shop is a 30 minute walk each way so I would have asked DP to get it on his way back. The hand washing I would have put in a net laundry bag and stuck it on the 30° delicate wash and cancelled the spin! The rest 30 minutes. Your breaks between everything were a waste of time!

@Skyeheather

My corner shop is a 30 minute walk each way so I would have asked DP to get it on his way back. The hand washing I would have put in a net laundry bag and stuck it on the 30° delicate wash and cancelled the spin! The rest 30 minutes. Your breaks between everything were a waste of time!

Same as you.

Lol at the housework fairies saying they'd have got that done in an hour (and probably had time to read the Sunday Times and make their Christmas cake as well).

That would have taken me around the same time as you OP - possibly longer as I loathe housework and would have had longer gaps in between.