To be sick to the back teeth of housework?

[Washingeveryday]

I'm just sick of the monotony.

Since March I've been working at home with my two children. I feel like all I've done is work, entertain kids, vacuum, make beds, load and unload a dishwasher, prep meals, clear up, do washing, clean the bathroom. I always seem to be the one to change the toothpaste or throw the empty toilet rolls away or hang up the wet bathmat. Sounds pathetic I know.

I'm no martyr, I only do what needs to be done, So long as the house is clean and tidy I'm not fussed about it being spotless, but I'm so bloody sick and tired of it.

Dh has worked all throughout the lockdown, he works long hours and lots of weekends, often unsociable hours, he barely gets any holiday. He does his bit when he's here but he's hardly ever here. Often when he does get home at a reasonable time he ends up getting work phone calls and catching up on paperwork. He's stressed, knackered.

I'm not hard done by, really, my dc are good kids and no trouble really and they will do jobs I give them.

I just feel so trapped sometimes.

Can you do a declutter that always helps.

YANBU. The fucking MONOTONY.

I’ve delegated cooking on a Friday to my 16 year old daughter. Today she said she didn’t realise cooking was so time consuming and tedious. Yes, welcome to my life. I’ve planned, bought and cooked every sodding meal for everyone in this household day in day out for the last 5 months.

Agree wholeheartedly.

What irritates me most is what I call the invisible housework. DH will quite happily make a big show of cleaning the kitchen in the evening and expect a bloody Medal for it but I do all the laundry and general tidying and picking up that noone ever notices or acknowledges.

I don't even want to get a cleaner because the kids would just mess the place up again approx 5 seconds after he or she had left and it would irritate me that I had wasted my money.

Thanks for letting me have a moan.

I don't even know what to say about it. I don't tick along too badly. The house isn't perfect but it's not a total shit tip or anything. I've cut way back on unnecessary jobs. I've got quite good at whizzing round with the dc, the vacuum and a bin bag and making it look presentable. If I do a proper big clean I either do it with dh one weekend morning or I break it into small daily chunks. Other than that it's just the essentials.

Think I'm just so bored of it and probably quite lonely.

As a pp said it's the little things that drive you mad. No matter how much I wash the towels they seem to all end up on my big ds bedroom floor. The blobs of toothpaste in the sink, going to brush my teeth at night and finding my eldest ds boxers and socks on the bathroom floor grrrr. Even though he does pick them up when I call him and apologises but he still does it again the next day.

It's always been boring but at least before I went out to work, the dc were at school, which in itself made work, but broke the monotony. But now we are just here all the time.

I hear you ! It’s relentless

Yanbu. The damp bath mat thing resonates with me so much.

We were very appreciative of our various cleaners over the years. Now we can't afford one and are having to adapt to life without. I know how spoilt that sounds but even without pets and entirely dependent children who can't do a bit of dishwasher emptying or cooking or laundry - the amount of housework is grim and frustrating.

DH and I tried to clean our oven today with Oven Pride. It is a half finished job whereas for years we've paid a very nice guy with an oven cleaning business to come and do it.

I'm fed up with it all.

Doesn't help that we've not earned so much money, so we can't have many takeaways or meals out as a relief from the shop/cook/wash up/put away drudgery!

Solidarity OP

Lockdown has meant so many more people at home all day every day.

That results in a huge increase in domestic work.

And guess who usually gets to pick that up?

Ugh me too. It's been impossible to do thoroughly in this heatwave the past week too so the laundry and lists of things to get done have piled up.

Going to try and tackle it over the next two days.

Same here. Single mum with a 5.5 year old. And I'm finding the summer holidays hard, for no other reason than the house is never clean for more that 5 minutes! At least when she was at school I had a few hours to enjoy my nice tidy house... or at least clean it and then get to bask in the calm cleanliness for a couple of hours
It doesn't help that I'm overly house proud but can't find a way to change that as I've always been this way.
I hover downstairs at least 3 times a day.
All the fucking laundry, bedding, sofa cushions, throws, mopping the floors, dishes, cleaning windows, cutting the grass, weeding the garden, Washing the car. Picking up toys and ripped up pieces of paper she seems to love throwing all over the floor.
It never ends and most of the time I don't mind as I find it calming in a way, it's just right now you clean one room, go clean another then come back in to the only JUST cleaned room and it's a mess again! I just want to enjoy my nice house.
Today has been a bad day if you can't tell..

It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring

OMG this is just what I was thinking this morning. WFH too. Loved it when first started, getting house work done in travel time, putting washing on etc throughout the day. Wiped doors down when quiet etc. Just finding it all a bit boring now. I do make sure surface tidy and clean etc, washing etc done but standards are slipping since I first started wfh. When i worked full time at office I never understood how people that were at home all day had messy houses but you can see it in some ways they get bored of it. I can see lots of things that need doing too ie decorating etc. Saying that though I do like my Saturday mornings now, as I am not playing catch-up.

It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring It’s so boring

^ this

At the start of lockdown my DH was ill with covid-19, I had to go and collect my dd and all of her stuff from Uni (300 mile round trip), organise for all shopping for 4 adults in the house to be delivered by friends when I couldn't get a supermarket delivery, make sure we paid them back, then look after DS who also went down with covid. This included begging people for paracetamol and other essentials because they weren't available in the shops and none of us could go out anyway. I did everything to keep 4 people alive (with a bit of support from my teen dd) for more or less 3 weeks whilst also working a part-time job of 16 hours.

And shortly after that my son's school wanted to know why we weren't fully engaged with what he was supposed to be doing homework-wise!

I could happily have blasted the people who were furloughed and saying "well this is all jolly nice, I'm learning to bake bread and really connect with my family in lockdown" out of the atmosphere.

Yep - it feels relentless. Can't wait for the kids to be back at school but I'll be working (part WFH and part office based) so I still won't have much opportunity to tackle the shit tip we live in.

Snap, it's bloody awful - you're not alone.

I'm sick of the monotony. Make breakfast, clear away breakfast, empty dishwasher, fill washing machine, work, make lunch, clear away lunch, hang out washing, make dinner, clear away dinner, fill dishwasher, bring washing in. And repeat. I felt as though 40 years of progression and equality have evaporated and I'm now a glorified housekeeper.

DH will sometimes unload dishwasher but seems unable to wipe down the table, or worktop, or clear away his child's dishes. If I leave them having any meal together so i can do some work in peace I can guarantee that when I turn up to start making the next meal DS dirty dishes are still sitting and the table covered in drips. Who puts their own crockery in the dish washer but doesn't clear after their child FFS?

Emmapaella the tostie bags (I usually find them in the pound shops) are reusable. So quick and clean. Stick your ham or cheese and tomato sandwich in and voila... perfect lunch option.of course after i have picked fresh herbs from the garden to serve with it

Try doing it and working FT at home 12 hours a day.

Since we're home all the time the floors are constantly dirty. I do the floors, but it annoys me. I saw my OH walk in to the house in his shoes and I literally pointed at him and screamed "a HA!". We have dogs, the doors have been open and they come and go from the garden at will - this is not his fault!

I am a SAHM too with older DC and seem to spend nearly half my life cleaning ,shopping, and bloody washing! 3 beds ,4 towels, all our clothes in this boiling weather! Loo rolls disappear so fast ,I swear someone must eat them! Never seems to stop .Had a massive blitz today as too bloody not and tired during this week with 30 c temps here!

It is after 8pm. I have been picking things up all fucking week. I’ve just had to ask DH to empty the dishwasher because I’ve had enough, and he’s moaned that he was having a sit down and play of his computer game after being at work all day. I’ve tidied the kitchen today already, but he’s made dinner and a cocktail and left everything out all over the kitchen. We go away tomorrow at 4am and he says he will finish the tidying up in the morning. I can’t leave the house messy as we have house sitters to look after pets, but he isn’t bothered about leaving dirty plates on the side. And don’t talk to me about cleaning sodding toilets. Everyone in the house shots in them and leaves skid marks but no one seems able to clean them except me.

I hear you OP- I was in this situation when my kids were small - working away, no family help, couldnt afford a cleaner.

I would suggest looking at ways of minimising your domestic work.

• Nothings needs ironed
• Kids don't always need a bath every day.
• Reduce the frequency of changing sheets
• Don't hoover so much, or dust .
• Keep eating simple.

@sitckmansladylove ooh fantastic thank you! Ordering some right now I love a toastie

Some of you have lazy arse DH's / DP's !

I'm single with 2 teens. They do all their own washing including towels and bedding. They cook 2 times a week each and do the washing up daily and clean the kitchen.

If someone has left skidmarks in the loo/leave toothpaste in the sink - I make them clean it.

'I'm your mother not your slave'.

Tbh, my standards are pretty low these days. Work full time.

I never was a domestic goddess anyway...
I'm a SAHM because DS1's autism means he struggles with wraparound care and normally a school day is plenty for him.

I'm used to having time on my own and busying about with things like supporting in school.

I haven't even attempted to keep up with the tides of mess generated by the DCs being home constantly for nearly 5 months. DS1 has dyspraxia so despite being 9, it still looks like the devestation caused by a toddler. Then the ASD resistance to looking after himself...

One of the depressing things about the home schooling was needing to do the dishwasher to shift the plates to clean the fucking table. I quickly gave up on the afternoon shift as it was hell doing it after breakfast and after lunch, and spending half the day dealing with the bloody table. In September, I am ditching the table cloth which is now falling apart and getting a fresh wipe clean table cloth.

I have been trying to get the DCs a bit more self sufficient and working as a team, but gosh they are resistant.

DH is working from home and has been for 5 months now. He's not bad on general mess, but the fucking, bastarding yoghurt pots...

I hate housework, but fucking hell it's the sole bloody purpose in life that this fucking year has left me with. Thanks.

It's like being a hamster continuously running on a wheel. But with a broken leg. It's driving me bananas (but throw in a disabled child and pets.)