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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to never wash up, vacuum or iron ever again?

147 replies

MalibuStacy · 04/06/2014 15:38

OK, so this will shortly be my day:

Commuting & school run: 4 hours
Work: 6 hours
Park & helping with homework: 1 hour
Cooking, preparing lunches & general tidying up: 1 hour
Running my small business: up to 3 hours.

That doesn't actually leave any time at all for anything else, does it? DH can't really help as he works more hours than I do. But I can't do it all. Money is a bit tight for us right now, but I am hoping things will improve.

I can't afford to get a cleaner in every day, so… I am thinking of employing a range of different household gadgets to take the pressure off. This is my list:

Roomba
Dishwasher
Tumble dryer (so I don't have to iron)
Slow cooker.

Is there anything else? I would love to hear from other stressed working mums about ways that they have reduced the workload also.

OP posts:
MrsKoala · 04/06/2014 19:15

I wouldn't live somewhere I couldn't have a tumble dryer in. That would not be the home for me.

I've only lasted 7 months. i thought i could cope...i can't.

missingwordsround · 04/06/2014 19:32

malibu - you're not the only one who thinks that 5 mins to hoover a whole house is a total myth! unless you live in a small box It takes me longer than that to vacuum the porch and entrance hall.

Am currently looking at Roomba websites! Grin Anyone got any good codes/ persuade them to offer MN'ers a discount?!

trappedinsuburbia · 04/06/2014 19:51

I love my dishwasher and its just me and ds 10 and a baby.
I just hang our clothes over an airer and they're dry the next day, I think with a tumble dryer you'd be constantly checking it, reloading it etc.
I brush floors every other night, but with ants I can see why a roomba would be useful.
I may dig out my slow cooker now and maybe ditch the ironing, I hate it !

parentalunit · 04/06/2014 20:02

Nothing in our home has been ironed since we had children. If DH wants pressed shirts, he does them himself.

Yes to the tumble dryer, we love ours but it is quite hard on shirts so we air dry them. Shake them out and hang to dry. Tumble dried clothes get wrinkled if you don't remove them promptly from the dryer, but otherwise they look unwrinkled enough.

parentalunit · 04/06/2014 20:05

I suggest making everyone leave their outdoor shoes at the door, and allowing food only in the kitchen and dining rooms. It keeps the floors much cleaner overall. We hoover and wash the kitchen floors once per week, and brush the kitchen floors nightly.

fairyfuckwings · 04/06/2014 20:25

I've just timed how long it takes to vac my house. 45 minutes for a half arsed job. And I'm knackered.

Off to Google roombas...

PixieofCatan · 04/06/2014 20:32

missing I live in a box. It still takes longer than five minutes to hoover it! Hmm Grin

missingwordsround · 04/06/2014 20:57
Grin
Ponkypink · 04/06/2014 20:58

OP, I would get all those if I could afford them so think you should go ahead if you can. I prioritised tumble dryer due to damp in house over winter and it makes a huge difference. Dish washer will be my next priority. I think people who are not working full time or stressed massively underestimate the time housework really takes, as upthread. A part-time counsellor I saw once insisted that washing up could only possibly take 5 minutes a day- I take that long to wash one dirty pan, if it has stuff stuck to it, so was wtf at this (also assuming she had a house with instant hot water rather than an old immersion type boiler, so did not have to faff with making sure there was hot water first). If it makes you less stressed and more able to get on with the other things you do, then just go for it and ignore all the compulsive martyrs who think housework is a moral good.

ItsDinah · 04/06/2014 21:03

Roomba - don't know but G Tech is great. Can't do whole house in 5 minutes but can do a lot more in 5 minutes than you can with normal vacuum cleaners and with a lot less effort. Dead easy to whisk round the grotty bits and around and under things - and Oh, the stairs. Like old fashioned manual carpet sweepers children like using them too. Festoon house with dustpans and brushes too.

Dishwasher- yes,yes,yes. Can use it to wash placemats,cooker burners,oven racks too. Cut up veg, or bread on plates that can go in the machine. Don't use anything that doesn't go in the machine. Has anyone tried cooking in them? I'm told you put say chicken breast in tin foil in the cycle. 2 machines is brilliant.

Tumble dryer - yes.But if it is mainly with a view to faking ironing and you can dry things easily on an airer, I found a steamer saves me more time. I cried with joy when I discovered that one.

Slow-cooker - yes. Lots of quick and easy ideas online.

Other - not gadgets but machine washable mats at dirt magnet floor areas. Good for the in front of cooker and sinks . CHild labour for shaking them out outside,same with table cloths which can then get slung in washing machine,saves cleaning table. Lots of matting outside to limit the amount being tramped in.

  • Vileda supermop quickest way to clean bath,shower and tiles in bathroom,
MalibuStacy · 05/06/2014 03:22

Ooh, some good ideas here, thank you Smile

Are there any other labour saving devices that would help?

OP posts:
GarlicJuneBlooms · 05/06/2014 03:47

I live alone and have a dishwasher - it's way better than washing up by hand, in every respect. And was £60, second hand. I'm also puzzled by all these people who never use a tumble dryer - don't you have sheets & towels in your houses?

Not much advice for you, OP, just support. I'm an absolute slattern but, much as I adore a gadget - and Aldi had a robot vacuum last week for £130, I think it was - I'd never use one of those because they need emptying so often! I never iron. I make one-pot meals. Slow cooker & freezer are invaluable. I'd never heard of G-Tech before Dinah's post, but now I WANT can't have !! Highly efficient equipment makes a massive difference.

I liked all of your post, Dinah! Yes, you can cook in the dishwasher - it does fish to perfection :)

dexter73 · 05/06/2014 07:48

The worst thing on your list looks like the 4 hours a day commuting but I guess you can't do anything about that (except move!).

FraidyCat · 05/06/2014 08:09

Dishwasher - love, love, love mine. To those who say it's quicker to do by hand, that's bollocks. Do you hand wash your clothes or get a machine to do it?

It take's ten seconds with a scourer under a running tap to clean a plate of coffee cup. Maybe 30 seconds to wash a pot. So, if being timed, washing up after dinner for three in our house could be done by hand in under two minutes, allowing for some faffing along the way.

I suppose most of the people who find dishwashers essential must be telling the truth, so I wonder what makes their life different from ours. I suspect more complex meals - we seldom dirty more than two pots. Our kitchen is tiny, there is nowhere to leave dirty plates/cups, whoever carries one into the kitchen spends ten seconds washing it under the tap and puts in the drying rack. We almost never use/wash glasses.

FraidyCat · 05/06/2014 08:11

take's? don't know what happened there

Coughle · 05/06/2014 08:13

The Roomba saves me loads of time! Do a lightning quick pick up in the evening before falling into bed exhausted, then switch it on just before leaving in the morning. Come back to a clean house.

All those saying you can vacuum in 5 minutes - even if that were true, that's 5 minutes saved.

Just ordered a steam cleaner, perhaps you could see how things go and think about getting one of those to do deep cleans in bathrooms etc.

OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat · 05/06/2014 09:19

It is likely that those who say they can live without a dishwasher live on ready meals or eat out a lot and must never have a pile of plates, chopping boards, pans, knives, colanders, roasting trays etc etc, plus all the inevitable plastic tubs for leftovers.

I fill my dishwasher at least 5-7 times a week, even when its just me (DP works away a lot) and there is no way I could wash a dishwasher's full of pots each day in 'seconds or minutes'. It would take at least an hour, with several bowls of water.

Much more efficient time and cleanliness wise to use the DW IMHO.

drinkingtea · 05/06/2014 10:34

I think only 1 person said they can hoover in 5 mins. I found the Roomba practically useless, and we sold it on ebay - I like the idea, but it was so limited in where it could get to it was no better than nothing - must depens on the shape and layout of the room I guess, but it didn't even get to the edges by the bookcase, let alone between furniture, and it missed sections it would have fitted into.

Dishwashers are excellent- we are a household of 5, kids all home for all 3 meals every day, cook from scratch - its on more than once a day, and kids (even 3 year old) can put their own stuff in.

MintCar · 05/06/2014 11:02

Totally agree with FuckyNell - My dyson digital slim is AMAZING! 3 storey, 3 bed house. I can hoover it all on one charge - including both sets of stairs. I love it. My old upright dyson was just too heavy and I never did the 3rd storey!

I have a washer dryer as no room for separates. Second hand bargains are great.
Good luck with it all.

butteriesplease · 05/06/2014 11:04

hey, dishwasher and tumble drier are great - I think they are almost essential.

If you have tiled floors, you need a steam cleaner. If you get a fancy-schmancy one, I believe you can also steam your clothes (with the right attachment) instead of ironing...

With tumble drying, I reckon (ie my mum says) that if you give things a good shake and fold as soon as you take them out, you won't need to iron them. Fact.

Batch cooking may be your friend too I think - always cook extra, and freeze enough for a second/third meal. Or just eat the same meal two/three days in a row!

PunkHedgehog · 05/06/2014 11:09

My order of priority, from your list would be:

Dishwasher - YYYY.

I wouldn't ever be without one now if I could possibly avoid it. All the people mentioning rinsing, pre-soaking or the time taken to load and unload are nuts. Scrape if there's food left on the plates, but otherwise they go straight in and it takes barely any more time than stacking them by the sink (time added well under 1 second per item). Unloading takes exactly the same time as putting them away from the dish rack after you've washed by hand (time change 0 unless you dry manually when hand washing, in which case all the drying time is saved; if you get the kids to unload that's an even bigger saving), and the whole washing bit happens by itself (time saved - massive). I do have to rewash an item very occasionally, but it's no more than 1 item per half dozen loads- and even then it usually only needs a rinse under the tap to get one fleck off, not a full wash.

Roomba - YY

For the floors you describe it's ideal. It's not great if you have deep dark carpet, lots of rugs, or lots of close-together furniture; for open plan ceramic tiles it's a marvel. You'll need to clear toys etc. off the floor before it runs round (and by 'you' I mean 'your children'). It doesn't do stairs, and doesn't get right into corners (only misses the final centimetre or so). Those bits are perfect once-a-week jobs for a small child with a handheld vacuum or a dustpan and brush. I'm baffled by the person who was put off by the emptying. Keep a bin by the charger and you just clip the back off, tip into bin and re-clip. Takes 5 seconds, and a child can empty the bin once a week. Once money is a little less tight you could also consider a scooba or braava to wash the floors as well as sweep them.

Tumble dryer (so I don't have to iron) - Maybe.

It's handy, but doesn't help that much with ironing unless you empty it and hang things up immediately it finishes. Personally I find just not ironing to be a simpler solution. Shirts go onto hangers to dry and everything else gets a good shake before pegging up.

Slow cooker - personally I wouldn't

I know lots of people who love them, but it doesn't really suit the sort of food we eat, so I don't have a lot of experience of them. My impression is that although they allow you to do other things while they are cooking, they tend to be used for recipes that need more prep time than my usual dishes, so for me it would be a time adding rather than a time saving measure. Depends very much on the sort of meals you eat though.

Other time saving things

Not a gadget, but get a big pack of cheap microfibre cloths (the ones they sell for cleaning cars are ideal). Keep one beside every sink/shower/bath and get everyone into the habit of a quick wipe round after every use. It doesn't matter how half-heartedly they swipe the cloth over, it's only cleaning one person's mess and the next wipe will get the bits they missed. If it's done regularly you'll never need to consciously clean a sink again, and the shower/bath will only need a very quick wipe a couple of times a month on the bit round the shampoo bottles that nobody bothers to move.

D0oinMeCleanin · 05/06/2014 11:15

I can hoover in 5 minutes. 10 if you add upstairs. I have a tiny house though and only move furniture once a week, the rest of the week it just gets hoovered around and my hoover has a really long cable so I can do the whole downstairs without ever having to stop to plug it in somewhere else.

I cannot live without a tumble dyer but they do make the clothes more crumpled if you leave them in too long after the cycle has finished. Make sure you take them out when they're warm, shake, fold/hang and you're done.

I've never had a dishwasher nor do I have hot water atm. I don't live on ready meals either. Fill the sink with hot water, soapy (from the kettle, I leave mine boiling while I do other stuff) as soon as you've finished using something, put it in the sink. Once you've finished you dinner, it'll only take 10 mins to rinse the pots, refill the sink and give them a quick wipe over because the soak and rinse will have done most of the work.

melissa83 · 05/06/2014 13:53

I hoover my whole place in 5 minutes, my children are only allowed to eat at home at weekends, dh and I sort our own food out and wash our own plates as we never eat at same time, clothes bang them in wash, dry, put away and wear. Never iron my own stuff, do the childrens it takes 2 secs to do an outfit before wearing.

We both work full time but neither ofvus have to do much housework. I couldnt imagine it taking hours a week

melissa83 · 05/06/2014 13:55

Do all the ones who cant hoover in 5 minutes live in big places. I can walk from work, eat dinner, hoover whole place, stick a wash on and back to work in my lunch break and I only have 30 mins. Im just quick.

KristinaM · 05/06/2014 15:54

Melissa -where do you children eat the rest of the week ? Or do they just starve Monday to Thursday ?

And how do you get your iron to heat up, iron the clothes and cool down in 2 seconds ?

Are you a man BTW?