If you ‘cloth bum’, work full time, cook from scratch…

[Thinkingahead8]

…..Please can you enlighten me to your routine?

Due back to work in 2 months when DC2 will be 9 months. DH and I both have moderate commutes so she will be in nursery from 7am. DC1 in breakfast club. We will all get home around 6-6:30pm. Both DC will have had a snack around tea time but will need dinner. DC1 is already falling asleep on the journey home and is asking for bed as soon as he gets home so dinner needs to be quick.

We use cloth nappies and wipes and have no idea how to incorporate that into the routine as well. On top of that, how do you fit in housework? We have a decent 50:50 split on housework currently, despite me being on mat leave as we just stuck to our usual tasks.

Are there any top tips or routines to help us keep on top of it all?

We both work 0.8 FTE which helps but otherwise a lot of what others have said. We batch cook and freeze things in silicone muffin trays before turning them out into freezer bags, which makes putting together child meals super easy. Adult meals - I meal plan ruthlessly and get a supermarket delivery once a week.

Nappies we wash every other day on a hot wash, put the wash on early in the morning then out on the line or onto a heated airer to dry. Basic cleaning gets done by one of us while the other is doing bath and bed, then a deeper clean at the weekend.

A previous poster mentioned slow cookers, and I think they are great. You can have home cooked food ready when you walk through the door. Invaluable.
It takes me about 10 minutes prep the night before or in the morning.

We have a Lakeland heated airer which is amazing. Had 2 in cloth and worked full time, one wash on timer whilst at work then another overnight.

Slow cooked dinners, or used timer function on oven, put food on oven in morning frozen to defrost so would be thawed by the time the oven came on then we'd come home to dinner. Often jackets, and for v quick and easy either fried rice using sachets of rice and chopped bottom of fridge veg or hummous, veg sticks and pittas. Often serving the dip in an egg cup like dippy egg and soldiers.

Discovering how to make slow cooker porridge (recommend the liners though for ease, although I know horrific ecologically) had been a game changer for teens out the house at 7am too

@TiddleyWink not just you but I also get that feeling about the phrase ‘itchy teeth’ 😄

Definitely get a cleaner. Maybe find someone who could have a meal ready for you the day that they're in? Washing in the evening/overnight, meal planning with quick and easy things, make enough for 2 days and freeze. Slow cooker meals are great too. Think about dropping down to 90% hours at work if possible, being out of the house 12 hours a day is brutal on all of you. Half a day extra for both of you would help a lot while not impacting a huge amount financially.

How old is DC1 and what are both children eating at daycare (and when?)? We would pick up DC1 (5 years) at 5:30pm, dinner at 6/6:30pm and bed at 7/7:30pm.

Haha sorry!

I'm back to work full time with the kids in nursery. I'm afraid cloth nappies went out the window on my return to work with my second child. I still use flannels as can't deal with wipes. The flannels I put on a rinse cycle once a week than wash in a full wash. Sack off the kids dinner in the week. They can have a snack if needs be. Batch cook. Get a cleaner. Cook ready meals. You'll be on your knees otherwise.

Meal planning helps us during the week, we do a mix of easy dinners (eggy pasta with peas) and batch cooked meals from the freezer. We also have a multi cooker which does cooks rice and has a slow cooker function- I put it on a timer when I leave in the morning and it’s done by the time we get home.
we batch cook at weekends and bake in the evenings.
nappies go in the machine as soon as we get home from nursery and get hung up before bed time. We also use the washing machine timer over night if we need to get some laundry done during the week.
cleaning isn’t top priority, we tidy every evening and try to do a few hours of hoovering/mop/dusting at the weekend

Me too. Awful. I only opened the thread to see what the heck someone meant by that. Bum is bad enough but cloth bum?

PREP PREP PREP PREP PREP!

Sunday, I make sure all clothes and outfits are together so minimise faff and mean we dont have to do washing in the week unless emergency.

If we do, we put it on a timer to start early in the morning and so its done when we wake up.

Meal plan like a mothertrucker and have it so it can be bunged in the microwave when you get in or even simple tea like beans or eggs on toast.

I cant afford a cleaner so we literally try really hard to stick to the 60 second rule - if it takes less than a minute, dont put it off! Do it there even if its chucking toys in a box or wiping down the sink from all the toothpaste dribble!

I'm way out of that stage but if cloth nappies are essential for you, I would buy more so you can manage the washing and drying. After years of juggling dd's uniform I saw the light and she now has 10 shirts, 3 skirts, 2 blazers, tons of socks etc. It means if she forgets to bring her washing down one week I don't have to panic. Cost a lot more but worth it to me.

DC are older now, but some habits have stuck:

• wash in the machine at night, turned on first thing in the morning. Depending on the day I might still be there to hang it out before leaving, or if not then it will get hung out as soon as I get home
• every 3 days or so (I couldn't be doing it every night!) prep a nice meal for the next night's supper, after dc are in bed. The other days just have something quick like eggs/soup (also batch cooked at weekends)/pasta (sauce batch cooked at weekends)
• No real house cleaning done in the week, just picking up and tidying/dishes/washing/vacuuming. Proper cleaning done at weekends. If you can afford a cleaner, get one!
• Outfits always laid out the night before - for both adults and children - no choosing clothes in the morning. Ditto bags packed etc.
• Having enough clothes and nappies that you've got spares even if the washing hasn't dried or someone forgot to put it on.

You can freeze pre-cooked jacket potato’s (I just stick a load of them on when I’m cooking something else) and it makes for a really, low effort, quick mid week dinner as you just need to defrost it.

I put a normal wash in a timer to be done when one of us gets back at 6pm.

Home from nursery pick up at 6pm, DS has dinner at a table in the kitchen. His is a portion of our dinner from the previous night. This means he can have it straight away but it’s still cooked from scratch.

Whilst he eats one us starts that nights dinner. And puts washing on airer/in tumble dryer.

If it’s a quick dinner we eat ours before DS is in bed whilst he plays with his toys. If it takes longer we eat after DS is in bed.

Cloth nappies we wash every 2/3 days. They go in the machine when we get home and just before we go to bed they go in the tumble dryer so are dry for the morning.

For the dinner issue with kids needing dinner straight away or falling asleep. Cook dinner the night before for next day. So Sunday evening cook a lasagne ready for heating up in microwave Monday evening. Monday cook some mashed potatoes and sausages. Tuesday heat up sausage and mash and just add frozen peas and gravy to serve. It works well for meals that be reheat well eg. Stews, Casseroles, Bolognese, Chilli etc. Also use a slow cooker so prep everything and switch on before you leave house, ready for when you walk in. You have to be organised for it to work.

Slow cooker
Cleaner
Be prepared to do disposables now and again

I have read every response and have noted some really useful ideas. Thank you.

DC1 is 5. I struggle to remember our routine when I went back to work before but he was the most chilled out, happy little thing and slept great. We kind of went with the flow but now everything feels different with nocturnal DC2 thrown into the mix!

A nanny isn’t really an option as DC1’s wraparound care has a decent discount as it is booked through/with his weekend extracurricular activity. We also live in an area with reduced childcare costs, compared to friends in the SE for example. A nanny would be a huge price hike!

Apologies for those hating ‘cloth bum’! Never use it irl but see it written a lot on places like these! I feel like remembering to buy nappies, wipes etc would be just as much work as sticking them on a hot wash but perhaps I am wrong.

WTF is cloth-bum???

I wash nappies Wednesday evening, Sunday morning. Daily prewash in the summer. We had around 50. I agree, buying disposables is a big hassle when you're in the swing of cloth. Normal washing Tuesday night, Fri night, Saturday morning, and hang out first thing if the weather is OK. Pack nursery bags for the week in advance (assuming you have enough nappies, wipes and wetbags).

No meal for the kids in the evening on nursery days, just Yoghurt or a banana if they seem to need it. (Rare)

Get a cleaner if you can afford it and agree a rota for bedtime and the washing up.