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!

Everyone on MN has a cleaner if they work FT don’t you know!!

In our house
Everyone makes their beds and tidies up after breakfast, dishes in dishwasher etc. I cannot stand coming home to an untidy house.

Same in the evenings - dishwasher loaded, kitchen wiped down and floors cleaned.

Laundry - on a timer at night to hang out in the morning or in bad weather to put on the airer after work. Quick lot of ironing done one evening while watching tv.

Shopping- online always.

Cleaning - bathroom cleaned Sat am, kids dust and hoover. All takes about an hour.

I work FT & no cleaner. We could afford it & I like idea of giving someone the work, but DH would rather not.

I'm surprised about no cleaner, really, b/c DH was raised by house-proud person & would quite like a sparkling home. He won't make it happen & I could not care less about having a pristine home. So his choice, I suppose miserliness > housepride genes!? Or maybe houseproud only feels good if you made it so clean yourself.

I think I dust somewhere about once every 2 years.

Argh. I work full time. We have young kids. Dh is sahp. Our house is constantly a tip and I am sure he could do more to take the load off me and let me have fun with the kids when I am off. We have no money for cleaner etc. I don't do much in the house but neither does he!

That said - he does almost entirely all the cooking. I am being unfair?

All my clothes dry clean except underwear and pyjamas

Have deep clean company in at least annually but often twice

Clean as we go and I don't have little children.

About a year ago I made a rule: no housework on Sundays. Whatever isn't done by bedtime on Saturday doesn't get done until Monday (or possibly next Saturday). It's made life SO much better.

We clean (ie mop floors) every 2/3 weeks or so, or when friends are due, so definitely lower standards! do washing a few times a week and clean things as necessary - toilet for example takes less than a minute. But we only iron if we have something we really can't wear unless it's done. Last person out of the bed makes it. One cooks, other washes up. DH does shopping during lunch break of wfh day.

I got a cleaner and it was life changing. If you can afford it it will be the best money you ever spend.

Get a cleaner if you can afford it!

I don't have a cleaner and do the bare minimum during the week - I may push the hoover around midweek or sort some laundry piles, but that's it. I just house-work my socks off on a Saturday and then make sure I have Sunday off - and I actually quite enjoy my Saturday blitzes.

When I get up for the day I ensure that I unlock the doors.
Any mail is collected periodically during the day. My partner does all the cooking and we divide up the childcare and food shopping between us both. Any cleaning is done by the children mainly. I live in a small apartment so not much cleaning to do really.
Either me or my partner unloads the dishes. Regarding laundry we have a washing machine so all I have to do is throw it in there. A cleaner comes twice a month and I politely ask her to change the sheets and mop the floors.
Most of my food shopping I do myself.

We have a cleaner, gardener and only iron for interviews and weddings.

Oh and a dishwasher

I do the cleaning on a Wednesday evening and the hoovering on a Thursday. I do this religiously, even if I am knackered or get in late due to a social activity and then it is done. I find once I get going it's not too bad.

In between I do two clothes washes a week. I get up at 5 to run before work so put the wash on then. By the time I am home and showered the cycle is done and I put it in the dryer so everything's laundered by the time I am home in the evening and I just need to put it away.

I used to pay my teens to do things - amazing how quickly they could do them if they were paid.

I spend 2 hours blitzing the house on Saturday morning. Do 3 loads of washing a week and iron while DH cooks on a Sunday.

I watch TV shows whilst doing chores too to try to distract myself from how boring it is.

I love having a Netflix binge while folding clothes or cleaning the kitchen, it feels like "virtuous" on-screen time.

I have it easier than you as I only work part-time, DH full-time, But, the children have a lot of activities so we're often out for part of the evening. Also the homework's got more intense now they're older.

We have a cleaner every two weeks so I do a fair amount of cleaning, but get a day or two off when she's here.

Children have a chore rota that they sort of stick to - they get paid for chores instead of pocket money.

I have a three-bag laundry basket to presort whites, colours and towels. I keep an eye on it and bung a load in every few days. I did get a dryer as it really speeds things up.

Otherwise, I've definitely lowered my standards and declutter frequently. I find it really satisfying and daydream about living in a minimalist flat when I'm older, with just a few nice things and no Legos/teenage mess to trip over.

I spend hardly any of the weekend on housework but there’s only the two of us (plus dog) and we have a small house. We will spend maximum 2 hours Sat morning in which he will blitz the kitchen and I do the bathroom, and between us we dust and hoover throughout and change the beds, fluff sofa cushions etc, maybe slightly longer if we need to clean fridge out, do windows or clean oven etc but that’s not that often.

As for the rest:

Probably have lower standards than many!
Washing done throughout the week - 2 washing baskets for lights/darks so sort as we go
Only iron what really needs it, do it in front of the tv/Netflix - I tend to do this (when I bother) through the week also as I hate it so no way am I spending the weekends doing it
Dishwasher

I do the bare minimum

Keep the washing up done and the loo clean and sweep/Hoover once a week or so.

Other than laundry that's about it!

Everyone on MN has a cleaner if they work FT don’t you know!!

Yes, most people I know who work FT as well as their partner prioritise the 20 quid it takes to pay a cleaner. So what?

I felt bad about getting a cleaner years ago because it felt a bit snobby, until my mum reminded me that when I was growing up most women didn't work full time, and that these days something has to give. We can't do it all - kids, full-time working long hours, housework, cooking healthy food etc etc...

Thebluedog, £20 to clean a whole house? What are you paying per hour? tuppence?

Lower your standards. (This was massive for me to do, but has helped massively. I used to iron nearly everything-I am so ruthless about the ironing pile, this week there were 5 items in it, from a family of 5 all week).
Shop online, I have deliveries twice a week if I do 5 days, Monday ready for the week, Friday for the weekend. It takes 10 minutes to order online and I rarely get substitutes.
Accept that you have to do some housework at the weekend (if I do 4 days, I get it all done on my day off, but if it’s a 5 day week, I know I have to spend an hour mopping/hoovering/cleaning the bathroom on the Saturday morning.
Make sure everyone over age 5 in your house is pulling their weight. Especially your dp. I did everything when I was 2 days a week. Not a chance now. He knows which jobs he has to do and I feel no qualms in adding to them if need be (he wouldn’t see that the bin needs emptying for example). It’s fair, but if one of us is still going, the other one will try to help.

Keep on top of the washing. You know you can’t physically do 10 loads of washing on a Saturday, so don’t try. Do a load each day (put on in the evening and hang on airer/line before bed works for me). Once the basket is over flowing I get stressed, a child will announce their pe kit is at the bottom /they have no tights for school etc. Keep on top and you won’t run out of clothes.

The organised mum method, split between me and DH.