To ask you about housework?

[dollywashers]

I'm a teacher so off for 6 weeks. We've been out and about a lot but when we are at home I seem to be constantly tidying/cleaning/doing the washing/drying/ironing/putting away. I thought I'd be able to manage the house better having more time buts it just seems never ending and I never seem to get on top of it all.

How do you all manage it? Any handy hips? Could sit and sob at the state of the house again this afternoon.
Help?

I'm a little and often and multitasking person too.

Though right now I'm enjoying the gymnastics.

Wash up while cooking, hoover upstairs while putting the washing away. Bath the dogs with the hose while hosing down the patio. clean the bathroom just before you run your bath.

and then I have to run around with the hoover every day because of the bloody dogs. DS dusts while watching his cartoons in the morning for me

Are you being unreasonable about what though?

Cull clutter

If it doesn't have a home hidden away here it doesn't belong

I like the room to be able to turn from playroom tip to adult santuary, all toys at the end of day hidden in cupboards.

We do tidy toys before lunch and dinner and that means they help

Proper clean of bathroom/ kitchen once a week. Dh helps.

Hoover when needed

Out much as possible to avoid mess every day and only half the week

I do this:

www.justmommies.com/articles/home-organization-plan.php

I started a month ago and the house was really in chaos. Little by little it's gotten loads better, don't expect instant results but if you follow it for a while everything just gradually gets cleaner!

its the six weeks that does it. all year round you think 'i'll do that in the holidays' then when it comes, you have so much else to do. i've called a gardening firm for a quote because it looks like i won't have time...again...

Clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be happy

I live by it

During the day my house is a tip, as in untidy, the only cleaning I do is the dishes after each meal and work tops, then at the end of every day EVERYONE pitches in, toys go back in there box, everywhere is vacuumed and dusted, bathrooms etc quick run over and clothes folded put away in there respective rooms
This honestly takes 15 minutes tops at the end of everyday, then once a week I do the bigger stuff and one evening a week I iron, it is not a show home by any means but it's passable! When the dd's move out I'll have a show home :)

Firstly make sure allchildren and husbands pick up after themselfs i have been know to call back ds(13) back home from friends house to put shoes away i am not a maid
That sorts out aout 20% of house work

I clean first thing wash clothing then hang it out before i leave the house clean down sides ect.

Also i would choose a one hour time slot once the children are in bed have a lear list of what needs to be done then work trough as mich as you can.

Its just a question of getting orgernized really oh one really good tip if you have say 2 hours to yur self i always spend quater of the time doing house work

Came back and dh had soiled toilet again. Now have to do it all again at home

Don't even know where to start with that post! Why can't he clean it up himself?

Well how long does it actually take?

quick tidy - 20 minutes - check
dishwasher, daily, 5 mintues - check
laundry - in machine (while doing other jobs) check
quick wipeover in kitchen - 5 minutes - check
clear hall of shoes, coats, bags - 5 minutes check
bog brush round bogs and quick check of bathrooms - 10 minutes - check
iron yesterday's laundry and fold rest and put it all away - 30 mins tops - check
hang next lot on line - 5 minutes

That works out at no more than an hour and a half and I do that every day anyway, work or no work. I only get seven weeks (which is very very generous) in a whole year so nothing like the time off a teacher gets for the big jobs. Sorry, but I think you need to get down to it.

I have a cleaner for five hours a week though for hoovering, mopping, bit of extra laundry, dusting, polishing, etc. If I didn't we would be living in filth or I would have to drop some hours.

Low standards and a cleaner a happy combination.

Came back and dh had soiled toilet again. Now have to do it all again at home

By the time I relaised he was loading car so much quicler and simpler to do it.
You are rtight though I shouldn't have to do it. Words have been had!

Really should preview posts.

For some perverse reason, the more tidying up behind people you do, the more quickly they manage to create new chaos. So in the holidays I used to set aside a bit of time later in the day when the dcs were encouraged to help by tidying up what they'd played with and when I'd basically whizz round and remove new dirt. To do much much more was just a recipe for personal grief!

Someone said something to me once about "stop trying to be perfect and realise that 'good enough' is good enough"! I like that. Now I don't stress about the laundry basket being empty, as long as we all have clean clothes! Tend to focus on laundry and hoovering/sweeping downstairs as we have a dog who is not allowed upstairs and we wear shoes downstairs but not upstairs, so it gets muckier, and then just clean other stuff on a rotation - top of cooker, bathroom sink, draining board, etc.

I think it also helps to visit a friend who lives in a pig sty. Gives you some perspective :)