When do you do your weekly chores?

[Biggerbucket]

DH (53) and I (45) work full time. I mainly WFH but very busy with meetings. I manage laundry on weekdays and vacuume kitchen & hallway maybe twice a week when there are bits. In the evenings we just have time for exercise and cooking something nice, two night per week he visits MIL and occasionally we have work travel / other commitments. So, despite in theory being “free” compared to before being empty-nesters, we seem to have our weekend full of chores - cleaning, food shop, car wash, ironing, gardening, bits of DIY, fixing, sorting something.

If we go out for a day, something doesn’t get done. We didn’t enjoy online food shopping experience and none of these job take long by themselves, but hey stack up to take up the weekend. I have accepted that we need to loosen up with housekeeping maybe. Does anyone else exist in the same routine, feels like we trapped by our own standards?

We're like you. We do some housework every day more or less, but more on the days we aren't working. I imagine this is the same for 99% of people.

• Kitchen cleaned down each night after dinner - takes about 20 minutes. Includes a quick floor sweep every other day.
• 10 minutes tidy every day of other rooms. Otherwise, DH and I tidy as I go though DC need reminding of this!
• Basin and loo clean in one bathroom each day, the sometimes every other day (five minutes)
• Load of laundry every two days, put away dried load.

Weekend - clean upstairs one week, downstairs the next, kitchen deeper clean every week. More tidying and the big uniform/PE kit wash. Takes at least two hours of weekend. I work full time too and often have to do work on the weekend so can only dedicate that time and that has to be enough. I set a timer which helps me be more productive. The Organised Mum Method is fab and I adapted that for us.

If we didn't do some stuff in the week, it would take a whole day probably.

I do about an hour a day during the week, but it's the animals that take up the majority of that. Never do anything at the weekends except the essentials.

I've never ironed in my life though, don't garden except to run the mower round occasionally and don't wash my car either. Food shop is done online or on the way home from work.

We run the vacuum cleaner round daily, dishes are done twice a day, laundry is done most days (we have a washer/drier so just stick everything in a press a button). Floors are swept daily too. It really doesn't take long.