Too tired to do bedtime chores, how do you motivate yourself?

[NotDarkGothicMama]

Currently on the sofa, very tired but CBA to do all of the following so I can go to bed:

• Load the dishwasher
• Feed the cats
• Scoop litter trays
• Put the bins out for tomorrow
• Lock front and back doors
• Put washing into the dryer
• Bring dry washing currently in the dryer upstairs, fold and put away
• Brush my teeth
• Do shoulder exercises prescribed by the physio

DH just decides he's tired and takes himself off to bed. I'd sleep on the sofa to avoid having to do any of it, but the cats would decide to eat me instead.

Cheesy but I think how pleased future me will be. A small gift from me to me, so to speak.

I’d give yourself a time limit of 10-15 mins
work out what’s most important, what can wait. Def feed the cats, put bin out, teeth and physio , oh and lock up! Rest can wait. Go!!!

Do these things when you get in from work.
Why is dh not doing bins ? Single mum here I do all of this everyday. Plus 8 hours work and a 30 min run. Its not hard...

This exactly. Leave what can wait, whizz through the rest.

Oh bore off. I'm a single mum too, what do you want, a fucking medal?

Reminded me my own bin has to go out, but too late I’m in bed. I’ll be up early thanks to menopause though 😵‍💫

Why out of that entire list is the bins the only appropriate job u seem to allocate for the man?? Sexist much?

Too late for tonight, but i don't sit on the sofa/start watching stuff until all of the chores are done. They're fine while i'm on the go, but once I've sat down, it's all
over!!

I don’t sit until it’s all done. Even my pajamas and teeth as I hate that feeling and wouldn’t want to move 😂

I need a podcast on to do any sort of chore (unfortunately incompatible with vacuuming). As soon as I hit ‘play’, I’m incentivised to get cracking.

oh god I have the shoulder exercises too. How long has yours been bad? Mine's nearly a year now

Can any of those things, particularly laundry, wait until the morning? I am utterly useless past 8pm, but
am a productivity machine between 7-8am. Might you be the same?

Only 2 of those are solely your responsibility. Teeth and physio.
Who cooked? The.other one cleans up.
Feed the cats, sod the litter tray for once (get a cat flap, ours rarely uses her tray)
One does the bins one does the dryer.
Locking the doors isn't really a job.

Bedtime and chores are not 2 words I would ever use in the same sentence.
8pm is my cut off unless I'm feeling particularly energetic which is quite rare 😂

Sorry im all out of medals tonight, but im sure the feeling of superiority will keep you warm tonight.

@NotDarkGothicMama

can you start doing the majority of that much earlier? Only leaving things that actually need doing at bedtime until bedtime?

since I had the stroke I can simply not do a list of things late at night. Everything I need doing before I go to bed needs to get done before I 'sit down' only leaving night time medication & a wee until it's time to go to bed (to not sleep 🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️)

do your shoulder exercises every day whatever time you can. Often they feel pointless at the time but they really do make a big difference to your level of recovery.

Please feed the cats .

Do all the chores then sit down. And get your other half to do his share as well.

I don’t do evening chores, at least not every night. I am most productive in the morning so I just load the dishwasher in the mornings before I cook breakfast, and sort the laundry out after breakfast. Bins out first thing on bin day.

Granted I am lucky, we don’t have to leave for school run until 8.40am and I work from home so can do bits on my lunch break. No commute time. I would struggle to get everything done if I was in the house less.

I could have done at least two of those things in the time it would have taken me to type what you did 🤣. Saying that, I can only type with one finger.

When DH heads to bed call him back and say “let’s just finish off what needs to be done here together then we can both head to bed when we want”. Every single time.

There used to be a bit of a scramble here at bedtime not to be last person standing (two adult DCs here with full time jobs so nobody has a late night during the week). I started assigning any last minute jobs (“can you just do x please before you go to bed”) to everyone so now it has just become habit and nobody feels hard done by.

Just feed the cats and lock up and do everything else tomorrow.

Lock the doors, security is important. Feed the cats and do their trays - if you can’t be buggered with that, then don’t have pets - it’s a basic need for them. Everything else can wait (though maybe chuck the bin bags out first thing!)

Shut up.

Agree with trying to do things earlier before you sit down as I find it hard to dh anything productive after 9pm.
But when you have to, set the oven timer for 10 minutes and see what you can get done in that time. Do the rest in the morning.
Or put on a short guided cleaning session from The Organised Method (formerly The Organised Mum Method).

Not helpful 🙄

But nice that you're so great.