To think cleaning the house takes a really long time

[Thisismynewname123]

I'm not a very good or a natural cleaner. We have had cleaners, but DH hates having a stranger in the house (he also doesn't clean, because mess doesn't bother him. Not getting into that discussion now though). I work full time. Currently WFH, but even so, it's a busy job and I don't have time during the day to clean. I'm too tired by the evenings, and I do the cooking as well, which takes my evening. So, how long do you think it should take to clean a 4 bedroom, 2 full bathroom plus downstairs toilet reasonably large house? I also do all the laundry, and changing bedsheets. 2 secondary age children (although one with special needs means she's little help. Older one could, but is lazy). I feel as though this is a full day at the weekend, plus extra with getting through all the laundry. A cleaner does it in 4 hours, but she doesn't change bed sheets or do laundry, and she alternates weeks with the bedrooms.
Does anyone have any tips on how to make it more efficient? If you don't have a cleaner, how long do you think this should take?

It'll take you a full day at the weekend, I'd say whatever the cleaner takes double it.
In your position I'd be having a serious talk with your DH about his aversion to "having a stranger in" and how he plans to keep the house clean without one.

Does anyone have any tips on how to make it more efficient? I

The logical one is to work as a team with your partner but you don't want to hear it

Does anyone have any tips on how to make it more efficient

Marry a man who pulls his weight.

Our house is that size. My cleaner does it all in 3 hours. Takes me a little longer, maybe 4 without changing beds as I do those seperatley.

You sound like a 1950s housewife, PLUS you are working full time. So you have two jobs and your husband has one. He’s got everything wrapped up nicely!

Just get a cleaner in. Cleaning in my house takes two hours once a week, but I share all of these jobs with my husband.

Robohoovers are great. Used to take me about an hour to vacuum the whole house, now I just need to do behind the sofas and corners and the stairs.

If your husband doesn't want to have a stranger in the house then he needs to pull his finger out of his arse and do some cleaning.

I guess it depends how clean you keep it in between. If everyone sluices the shower and bathroom sink after themselves, you wipe kitchen surfaces and cooker down each day and sleep floors then allow 15-20 mins per room. Does everywhere need doing every week? Could you focus on one room each week and just superficially do others, then next week another room. Can teens strip beds, change towels put in wm?

If you save it all for the weekend then yes 1 full day at least to do all that. I do all the laundry during the weekday evenings so I have none to do at the weekend. I do my bedding every second weekend and my son's every weekend (only a 2 bed, 1 bathroom though). The bathroom only takes me half hour though as I've got that down haha. And I've got a robovac 👍.

On another note, if you can afford a cleaner and your DH doesn't want to help then I'd hire a cleaner and tell him if he doesn't like it, he can do what the cleaner does 🤷.

As a general rule I do a little bit of housework 6 days a week so (1) Hoover downstairs, (2) Hoover upstairs (3) clean bathrooms (4) change and wash all bedding (5) general dusting and cleaning of surfaces (6) wash clothes.

This means that I never get that lovely whole clean house feeling, but it's much more manageable for me to split it into smaller chunks.

I also allocate some of the jobs to my teen DS during school holidays. DH does nearly all cooking and does the food shopping and washing up.

4 hours seems reasonable to me... And that would not be alternating the bedrooms.
However seems like your real problem is everyone else... Everyone should tidy up before a clean... This makes bedrooms for example well under 30 minutes total for all 4 (inc landing and stairs) .. As just need to wipe down surfaces and hoover.

Everyone strips their own bed and remakes it.. So all you do is the actual laundry part.. Which again is minutes...
Kitchen and bathrooms take time but ...

Do bathrooms one evening while DH cooks and kitchen after your children cook.

Dont be their slave...

Similar sized house and spent a few years trying different plans to make it more efficient (work for myself so can juggle my work day}, on furlough I realised I need a full day to do a proper clean and beds then an hour and a half to meal plan and shop one afternoon and another 45mins to put shopping away one day. When you do it yourself you do the odd bits a cleaner wouldn't do, stop to make and eat lunch etc. I could never match a cleaners time on ours. Audible makes cleaning more bearable though! Your husband does need to step up too.

If you are both working full time there needs to be a division of labour plus get the kids on board by keeping their rooms clean and tidy. Honestly, I do not know how you’re coping. But in answer to your question most of the day.

I've got a similar sized house, but 3 toilets and only 1 primary aged child. I spend about 2 hours a week on housework (vacuum/mop once a week, dusting, bathrooms get a quick spritz whilst I'm in there every other day).

This excludes small daily task, such as my husband cooks then I wash up. We don't dry the crockery, just leave it to drain and pop it away while making a coffee the next morning. 3 loads of laundry is done ad-hoc through the week with minimal ironing about once a fortnight.

I aim for a generally clutter free house which seems to help.

My standards are lower than my mums but the house is clean and tidy enough.

The obvious solution is to get your lazy DH to pull his weight. I'm struggling to understand why you're not focusing on that

Yes your DH should help.
Otherwise have a look at The Organised Mum Method TOMM on Facebook.
It breaks the work into daily chunks. It works for me.

Get a cleaner in.
Alternate cooking with your husband (he may not "see the point" of cleaning but I bet he fills his face at mealtimes).
That will lighten the burden though if you work similar hours he should also share the bed changing and laundry tasks.

You don't have to do everything household related just because you have a vagina. I would have got rid of my husband looking ago if he was so bloody useless!

I'm following the Organised Mum Method, it helps keep me focused and half an hour each day (plus laundry and general tidying) feels less overwhelming. I try to do the days allocated room in the morning and put a load of washing on before work, then a bit of a tidy round in the evening (put toys away, tidy kitchen, maybe a quick hover if meeded downstairs).

I don't always manage it bit it always feels less hard to catch up than if i miss a big clean day.

We have 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. Our cleaner takes 3 hours to clean, change bedding, and ironing. She is efficient, but our house has minimal clutter, so quite easy to clean

So, your husband doesn’t want a stranger in the house, but isn’t helping cleaning either???!!

I had a cleaner but paused her during lockdown (still pay her) as we are all at home and it would be impossible for her to clean!

As a result we all pitch in together (dh and 2 teens) once a week to clean the house. Takes about 2-3 hours. Not an option for no one to help, you live here you help clean!

We have a 3 bed and it would probably take me about 4 hours to clean the whole house. But that's because there isn't much to do in bedrooms - hoover, dust bedside units and windowsill, return any wandering items.

It wouldn't be a deep clean with windows or bed sheets, but changing the bed is easily done another day.

I would say you need to lower your standards a bit and ask other people to do some jobs. So DH can do the hoovering of the whole house plus the bathroom, each DC can do their own bedroom and then you have a lot less do.

I could do that in 3 hours. I have a 3 bed version of your house, 2 baths 1 downstairs loo. I change the beds every other week (I'm single, my bed is for sleeping only). Towels once a week. Bathrooms and toilet once a week, hoover everywhere once a week, more downstairs if needed. Mop once a week. All the other jobs get done ad hoc when needed. I also keep my house today, this is the biggest factor to reducing time. Dont let anything build up. I spend 20 mins a day max keeping on top, a cloths, wash, make beds, empty/load dishwasher etc. I'm always complimented on my clean & tidy house. I also do it for my own own mental health as clutter stresses me out.

Your problem is the people who live with you. Your husband either excepts a cleaner or pulls his weight. Your able child needs to do this too.

We had a cleaner that did our house in 2 hours, which we spent time beforehand making sure everything was put away so she could clean easily, but then nothing was done properly. (Ie furniture not pulled out and hoovered behind, dusting round things, but not moving and doing behind, bathroom was a superficial wipe over).

It takes me much much longer to do properly.

I’d definitely go on laundry strike if I were you. Just wash your own things. Why the hell should you do everyone else’s if they won’t lift a finger. And yes I’d be petty enough to pick my own things out of the laundry basket and put theirs back.

And maybe cooking strike. Tell them that they are on cooking duty that night. Sort out something for yourself as back up so you can be calm so they realise that it takes effort.

Ours takes 3 hrs for the cleaner to do but all 3 of us spend an hour the night before tidying for her. When we clean ourselves it’s almost impossible to organise that same tidying blitz without an external person as the deadline. Laundry and changing beds is additional.
It’s definitely not fair for one person to do it all just because the other doesn’t want a cleaner!!! With 4beds have you children?