To ask how full time workers how they hell they can stop spending all their weekends doing bloody housework?

[therewillbetime]

Boring but serious question- work all week, leaving house at 7.30 and getting home 6.30 ish. DP, who also works all day gets home slightly earlier and always cooks, feeds cats etc. He does his own ironing.

I do little housework during the week apart from those everyday things you have to do or course as a) I’m knackered and b) I frequently have work related paperwork to do or study (I’m studying for an MA part time as well). I also go to the gym most nights so I admit that I cram a bit in.

This weekend I thought I was pretty much on top of things at home. Dp and I did all the food shopping yesterday but still I realise that this weekend I’ve done tons of washing (I have a teenage son), ironing, tidying, hoovering, dusting and cooking. I’ve been to the gym but combined this with my college work (reading on the treadmill) and we did relax and watch a movie last night. Dp did a load of stuff in the garden.

I am just really interested in how full time workers manage it all with the result of saying they had a weekend, or most of a weekend to do stuff not related to the home. Or maybe, everyone lives like this and I’m a whinging git!

Introduce teenager to the washing machine/ also don't leave all laundry til weekend.
Online food shopping: why waste an hour in store when online takes way less time
And pick one single weekend morning to do chores that everyone pitches in with too
And unless you have visitors just do the basics.
One good tip is never go upstairs/ to bedroom if in a single storey without bringing something with you eg: laundry

Cleaner here too - two hours a week.

Also keeping on top of things through the week, even if it means sorting out washing at 11pm at night.

I put a wash on every day to keep it down and get up early Sunday am to do all the ironing in one blast.

Some weeks I just accept that standards have to drop, I’ve just been on call for 7 nights and therefore In no position to be as tidy as I’d like.

Much much lower standards.
Online shopping.
One day set for everything.
Do something while something else is happening, like i clean the bathroom while DD is in the bath,and she does the bath when she's done.

But in all honesty, much lower standards.

I lowered my standards. Multiple shedding dogs=hoovering is needed every couple of days. I refuse until there’s a visible cover! I do bits as and when, so before going in the bath, I changed the bedding. Then I noticed it was dusty in the living room so dusted. I’ve just wiped down kitchen surfaces because it was noticeably crumb covered but i was really making packed lunches. Sunday night seems to be the busy time, three lots of washing done, DH was on night shift so I don’t like to do it during the day as the hot water tank is in our bedroom.

The organised mum method is good, it’s a structured away of keeping on top of housework without it taking over your life.

Cleaner here. Worth her weight in gold, makes such a difference to our family time together. It's £20 per week but I reckon saves a full day per week of me slogging away at the house.

I have a weekly cleaner. She changes the beds which is such a time saver - used to hate doing it in Saturday mornings!
Weekends I do all the washing.
I stack/empty the dishwasher every morning while I make a cup of tea. Wipe surfaces/Hoover most evenings.

I do bit as I go. A wash goes in first thing, and hung out (in summer) or hung up in the utility room.

I always do the morning pots before I leave for the school run. I do bits while dc are getting ready, while i do their packed lunches. I hoover, one room per evening and always make sure I do a quick tidy before bed.

On Saturday morning, I dust everywhere and hoover again, give the kitchen a big clean down (rather than the tidy and quick wipe round mid week).

I do the bathroom in bits as well. Wipe round sink, shower and toilet when I get out of the shower. And do the big clean Saturday morning after the kitchen.

Bedrooms get done, as and when I have a spare 15 mins.

I am always doing something. But it leaves most of my weekends free.

I have 2 kids and am a single parent. I am not super woman, far from it.

All 4 of us (me,DH 2 x kids 16 & 22) have certain jobs every day after work.
I do the washing and drying/sweeping, I also clean the rooms that are not in use daily. I work longest hours.
The other 3 work in the family business.
DH garden/cooking/ his own ironing.
Kids vacuum/cooking/clean kitchen after meals.
We do it every day and at max takes an hour each. So our weekends are free really.

I work ft but I don't bring any home, hurrah. I used to as I was a teacher, it was hell so you have my sympathies op.

I have a cleaning schedule and I try to do the cleaning work before I go to work. I work quite locally so can leave 7.45 and be at my desk for 8am; get home about 5pm.

So if it is bathroom day, I get up at 6.30 and clean the bathrooms, then get myself ready and go to work. My kids are teens so no need for any tasks there which makes it easier. I swim before work or run in the evening. Iron the evening in front of the tv. Cook in the eve obv.

At the weekend I do jobs too, but they only take an hour or so each day.

If you are always tired in the week why is that op? Do you get enough sleep? is your iron ok?

Buy a robot hoover and have it programmed to clean when you’re out!

Oh we have 3 bathrooms so 1 each for me and DH and the kids clean theirs.

Oh, and I try to do one thing each morning. That might be empty the dishwasher (but not refill it!) or put a load of washing on or a load away. But that one thing is enough.

Cleaner. 2 hours a fortnight. She does the 'cleaning' and I then find it easy to do the 'tidying up' as I go rather than leaving everything until it's a huge effort to do everything at the weekend. It's the price of 4 drinks down the pub or one pot of mid range face cream (ie things I can do without. Lol).

Has also greatly reduced the bickering with dh!

Life is too short to clean

Laundry is done through the week, wash on at night, out to dry in the morning, fold in the evening in front of the tv.
Saturday morning we all have tasks (DH and I, plus DDs, 8 And 5), which we race through. If we're done by lunch, we all get a treat.
House isn't perfect, there's a bunch of diy I need to get done, but we all get a day and a half properly off, and actually do some fun stuff for our treats.

Washing done as we go during the week.
Same with tidying up.
Or cleaning (eg the loo or the bath/shower)
Lower standards as H refuses to have a cleaner in.

Basically we prioritises doing things we enjoy at the weekend and cleaning happens around it. Not the other way around.

You have to just do it.

I did my housework on a weekday schedule (Monday toilets, Tuesday and Sunday laundry, Wednesday dust and vacuum) leaving Friday evening and Saturdays totally free. Sunday as mentioned I did laundry but also batch cooked for the week.

Blitz house on Saturday morning. Takes about 4 hours but then it's done. Washing try to do during the week. Food shop online

I have a cleaner.

I do 5 mins here and there during the week.

Cleaner

In addition to general cleaning, she changes the beds and washes and hangs up tithe bed linen, does the ironing, puts away the clothes that have dried on the airier, unloads the dishwasher and pus the rubbish out.

I do very little myself.

I love her.

Have less stuff. Have a place for everything and have all the family on board with where things live. Either do a room a day, or if you prefer to blitz it all on a weekend day, give yourself no more than two hours and just start with what you didn't get finished the next time. Wipe down kitchens and bathrooms as you go, laundry every couple of days.

Outsource cleaning and ironing if you can.

Get a cleaner seems to be quite popular, but if you're like my family, where we have very little after paying for everything, that's not an option.

Definitely have lower standards
I tend to batch cook
I don't buy clothes that need ironing. Also, if you shake them before you hang them, and then fold them very carefully when dry, they are less likely to wrinke
DP likes doing the hoovering, bins, changing beds and DIY, so those are his jobs
I am the one who cooks the most so I look after the kitchen. I try to tidy away each night.
We tidy up the living room each night
The laundry gets done every 2-3 days and we take turns hanging it up.
We try to leave one chill day. We do a massive clean once every 2 weeks.

Work full time. Single parent. Now work from but used to be out 12 hours a day with teens in the house.

Can’t afford cleaner.

Shut door on kids rooms.

Hoover on sat am. Clean kitchen tops in the week. Bathroom before get in bath.

Lower standards.

Beds done in rotation. Kids one weekend mine the next.

Windows inside done once in a blue moon, outside once a month when window cleaner comes.