To ask how you get all the household jobs done in the school holidays?

[Supportingeachother1983]

How on earth do people get everything done in the school holidays? Just the basics like preparing meals, washing up, laundry, hoovering, cleaning loos, emptying rubbish etc? I have been taking DC (2 and 6) out in the mornings to soft play etc but then feel like I need to lie in a dark room for the rest of the afternoon lol. I try and get the jobs done but I feel done in and the kids want my attention (constantly). So today I tried doing all the jobs in the morning but the kids watched TV all morning and then trashed the place while I was cleaning up from lunch and making a slow cooker meal so I have only just finished everything and now it's too late to take them anywhere! I've thought about alternating days in and days out, would that work? Or lower my expectations of what the kids do in the holiday. I could nip them to the park for a bit now. But that's 4 hours of TV, 2 hours of eating and trashing the place another hour of TV and a trip to the park in the freezing cold. It doesn't feel a great day for them? What do others do? I notice on other threads some people say they don't do much household chores but I can't imagine not keeping the loos clean and having no clean clothes for my kids to wear, a sticky floor etc. unless everyone else has cleaners?? I feel shattered this week and my oldest just said she can't wait to go back to school!! I feel a bit sad that she just said that!

I don't care about the house, so that solves my problem. I do what I can when I get s chance. Meh!

Blimey, you lot work hard. I don't work that hard. Instead, I expect/get the DCs to help, & link chores to pocket money.

So this morning, I cleaned kitchen sides & swept and mopped floor, while DS1 cleaned one bathroom and DS2 did the other. Then DS1 hoovered lounge where DS2 polished & dusted. We all finished around the same time - took 45 mins.

Then we all went to the supermarket to get food - they chose to come (as they wanted to buy a toy with pocket money earned doing the chores - £2 each for what they'd done this morning plus what they had in wallets).

Lots of you seem to spend ages clearing up lunch. I've had my DSs load their own plates & glasses in the dishwasher since they were toddlers so now it's just second nature. Then one wipes table, I give floor a quick sweep & the other puts the kettle on for me to have a cup of tea!

Since then I've run the hoover over the rest of the house (10 mins) & done a load of washing (2 mins loading, 10 mins hanging out), and shoved ingredients in the slow cooker for bolognese for tonight (5-10 mins prep). Just did those jobs as & when I felt like it.

So we've had time to chill out with a movie, walk the dog twice, go to a spin class, & the DSs have also spent an hour playing football on the pitch over the road.

DSs are 11 & 9. It was harder when they were younger though & less capable. I frequently tell them that it's my job to enable them to be independent & look after themselves and part of that is that they learn how to cook & clean.

Also I am quite lazy about housework & get really resentful & grumpy when it all falls to me - so over the years I've developed systems & habits that mean the burden gets shared.

Dd is 11 and ds 4. Only hoover upstairs once a week. Iron the minimum I can get away with. Quick run round with hoover and duster before we go out (usually kids are suited and booted and sat waiting on the stairs). wash breakfast pots then dont wash again till after tea. Bleach down loo every other day. Sweep kitchen floor after meals but not mop till bedtime. Wash one load of clothes a day. I probably don't do enough housework but that keeps us straight.

Firstly I don't think kids need vast amounts of activity planned in holidays. That doesn't mean though they have to watch hours of TV either.
Secondly the things you list that you want doing daily are not hugely time consuming.
Cleaning the toilet less than 5 mins. I do ours and give the sinks a wipe before I go to bed each night.
Laundry, get it on as soon as you get up then dry during the day and fold/iron in the evening or put in on in the evening, dry over night and fold/iron first thing.
Kitchen floor, I only do this once a day in the evening. Unless we have a major spillage before then.

Certainly get your children helping too. My small ones do recycling, laundry sorting, window cleaning, loading the dishwasher and sweeping. The big ones Hoover, dust, iron and clean bathrooms.

Yes definitely do less in the holidays! Don't wipe the surfaces, vacuum etc after lunch and dinner, just do it after dinner. Obviously if they spill something or drop something sticky pick it up but otherwise if it's just a few crumbs wait and clean it all up after dinner. Wash plates as you use them, it's exhausting having to look at a sink full of dirty dishes!

Run the vacuum round quickly, don't be too strict about how clean the carpets are though. Clean the toilet and sink when the children are in the bath.

As someone else said, I do a really big clean the week before half term as well as laundry so that I don't have to do too much during the week.

I've been trying to get mine out as much as possible but I cannot stand places like soft play - too noisy, crowded etc! We have gone to the local country park (with friends, they entertain each other then), gone swimming, over to friends for lunch and had friends here, to cinema and out to a restaurant for food.

I clean the toilet and Hoover when it needs it, certainly not every day. That seems really excessive to me. Kids do need a few germs remember!!

Big clean the week before and after the holiday. Then lots of fresh air and exercise outside in the morning then crashing back home. Whilst they're quiet a quick whip round perhaps but that's it. Toilets and kitchen and floors get done once. Anything else can wait, honestly

Thank you for the tips everyone. I don't mind if we don't do lots of activities but I don't want the kids watching hours of TV everyday either so maybe getting them to help me is the answer! I have tried before and everything took so long with them helping but maybe I should think of it as a long term investment! We have three bathrooms and everyone seems to use all of them throughout the day and no one seems to clean them as they go along - yuk. It drives me mad. Obviously the 2 year old can't and the 6 year old seems to forgot to tell me she has left poo in the toilet. I don't let them eat upstairs but they seem to tear up little pieces of paper, God knows what they get up too! They just seem to wake up and trash the house while I clean up. That photo made me laugh further up the thread, that's exactly what happens, I clean the kitchen while they trash the lounge! I have had them sit and do colouring while I clean before but they drop all the crayons, peel the paper off of them etc.......

Its a never ending battle, keeping the house clean with kids. I know all to well how you are feeling OP.

School holidays are nothing to me, I've got 3 at home full time

I try to do everything by about 10am - we get up at 8. That includes washing, dishwasher and cleaning. Its downhill from there. Toddler groups some mornings and then lunch and naps/quiet time. And I do just collapse at that point. Then busy again from 4ish until bed - folding laundry, dishwasher etc. But I don't start new jobs at that time, just do what must be done.

You have to carve out relaxation time.

But kids don't v watch telly they just play around me/with me scream in my ear

Can you start teaching them to tidy up as they go along?

We do an activity every day and they help cook/tidy. I get up an hour before the kids and do various jobs.

No TV unless the bedrooms today.

Call your DD back (calmly/nicely) every time you find a poo in the loo. Ask her to flush, get rid of skid marks.

Also chuck or sell lots of toys. Do you need them all? What don't they play with?

I've managed a tidy round tonight after they went to bed but now I've sat down I can see all the bits of toys under the sofa from various Lego and bead sets. I'm too tired to move now it will have to stay there. Every time I think I'm on top of something I find something else!

Chuck half your toys!

Like the advert says, 'take it from us you're doing great!'

I don't really find it much different tbh - I do about the same amount that i'd do on a weekend when the dc aren't in school not much

On a weekend or half term I tend to have an hours cleaning/washing/pottering in the morning and the dc are expected to help out for at least half an hour. They're not very pro-active about things and will stand amongst a heap of devastation and ask what they should do...but they're 5 and 8 and happy enough to follow instructions. They tend to act as runners for me, taking something upstairs, fetch me the hoover out of the cupboard, go and get me the polish, put these shoes on the rack, put this glass in the sink. We turn it into a game and they race to do each job as quickly as possible...and it makes cleaning a lot easier when I have a couple of runners doing all the racing back and forth

You need to get them to be more responsible for their mess.
6 year old leaves poo in the toilet then you call her to come and sort it.
They drop crayons and bits of paper when colouring, then you ask them to clean up when they are done.
Encourage trays etc for little things like Lego and beads to keep them contained.
Just keep repeating things you want doing over and over again. It does go in.
My 5 and 3 year old now make their beds, put dirty laundry in the basket and put their PJ's under their pillows when they get dressed.

4 toilets in our house. They get cleaned every...........month. Ish. Very ish. Kitchen floor even less. Not killed anyone yet.

I'm like a pp. My house is generally cleaner in the school holidays and I get some jobs done too if I can, like painting or decorating.

My DDs are a bit older now, so it is easier, but when they were younger I'd just break things into smaller chunks and try and get stuff done around looking after them.

In the school weeks, I keep on top of the washing and the laundry and get the hoover round most days. Bathroom is cleaned when I'm in there. When they were smaller I'd clean it when they were in the bath right by me. Then clean just the bath when they were in bed. Other, fussier jobs or bigger jobs just build up until I've got the time and inclination to deal with them.

Today I wiped down all the woodwork upstairs. And scrubbed the kitchen floor. Not much, but something everyday that I wouldn't normally get done is good enough for me.

No way do you need to clean three toilets every day. You wouldn't clean one toilet three times a day, would you? So surely three toilets don't need doing every day, you can't be using them that much, just with three of you using them. And if they are that dirty you need to be having words with who ever makes them that dirty.

Relax a bit about mess, in the grand scheme of things, a few bits of lego on the floor over night won't hurt anyone. I have never cleaned the toilets every day. I used to hoover daily when we had long haired cats and a crawling baby, but now, maybe twice a week. get the children involved, your six year old is more than capable of doing a few jobs around the house independently and even the two year old can help in her own way.

Laundry, hoovering and bathrooms weekly here. Unless you have seven kids in not sure that you'd need to do any of those daily.

erm cleaning toilets once a month sounds pretty grim, just saying.

Why? They have rim blocks in them and we're all well trained - even the 5 year old. If they need cleaning they get done, but as we're not sticking hands or faces in them.......