How do you fit it all in...?

[Justkeeepsmiling]

How do you full time workers who live alone fit it all in? How do you manage house work, gardening, food shop, laundry, clean the car, walk the dog, cook dinner, and see friends and family? I work 5 days a week, out the house from 7am - 5.30pm. In my 2 days off, one of them is usually spent cleaning, tidying, maybe gardening (well, I say gardening, it's just mowing the lawns really). The other day is doing a food shop, laundry, ironing for the week. And that's if I don't need to go to town for anything, like clothes for the kids, school uniforms etc. It's never ending. In the evening after work, I'm cooking dinner, then cleaning up after dinner, walking the dog. Its now 3.50pm and I really need to clean my car out but I just can not be bothered! How do you all do it? Any tips will be gratefully received - Or failing that...a maid, cook and a gardener if anyone has one spare?

Anyone responding who has a DP or H has no idea what it's like to be the sole adult in the house. Just saying.

Dc have decent hot school dinners so I don't cook a proper dinner.

Cleaner 2hrs a week who also changes the beds. Puts the dcs bedding in the washing machine and is hung out by the time she leaves.

Gardener/any job sort of man comes round in the summer to keep on top of garden.

Car gets cleaned by the car wash people in tesco carpark.

Don't iron uniform, even shirts, if dc want them ironed they can do it themselves. I have previously gone through Sunday evening ironing stages that I did enjoy, but I cant be bothered to do that anymore.

Outsource is my advice, but I don't have a monthly car payment and drive a 10yr old one. We haven't been abroad for a few years ect. I would rather have my cleaner, gardener and car washer then a new car!

Shop online. Laundry late at night. I don’t garden. Garden a total shit pit. Ditto the car. Clean toilets + clean kitchen = clean house. Everything else gets cleaned maybe once a month.

You could try the organised mum method for housework. It means you don't need to do housework at the weekend. If you can fit in 15min in the morning and then 30min in the evening you can follow it. It covers laundry too - one load a day. Then do an online food shop and stop ironing. That only leaves gardening and cleaning the car at the weekend.

Not long ago I was a single mum who worked full time and was doing a full time degree. I have no idea how I did it!

I have a husband now who pretty much does everything as I’m pregnant and sick and I barely get fuck all done

@TowelStripes

Anyone responding who has a DP or H has no idea what it's like to be the sole adult in the house. Just saying.

Agreed But I’m a single parent and I would argue in some ways it’s easier. In quite a few actually

I am a single parent to three teens and I don’t manage at all. My house is messy and not clean enough, and lots of house admin I should be doing doesn’t get done.

I've been both and yes agree it is easier sometimes

Not too difficult here. I have similar work hours.

I tend to wake up 30min before my kids to get ready. They prep their own food and get themselves dressed (infant school and secondary school age), I sort out admin (signing planners, prepping lunches etc.) in the meantime.

After work it's usually food and bed for youngest; oldest bathes them while I wash up, then I do teeth/ story/ bedtime. "Tomorrow clothes" are sorted before kids go to bed.

Laundry gets done on 1-2 days a week on eco setting, which takes around 30min per cycle, and I hang them outside to dry every week from around Feb-November and get 1-5 loads completely dry that way, depending on the season.

Car gets washed once a half term, if it's lucky, and car service etc. fits in whenever.

I have a traditional kitchen calendar, which gets populated at the beginning of the year with birthdays and stuff like appointments get added as and when, so I always have at least a monthly overview.

Pet gets attention daily by either one of us, but I clean weekly for 30min while prepping dinner and deep clean on my days off about once every few months (it's not like the wild is sterile).

Hoovering gets done every 2-3 days, usually in the morning just before we leave or in the afternoon when I get in.

Gardening gets done weekly while kids get thrown outside into the garden to amuse themselves around me. Occasionally the oldest gets bribed to mow the grass instead of me (up to £5 for front and back), which they do purely for the money, but therefore with gusto.

Surfaces get cleaned as I go, I have loo balls to keep the toilet smelling/ looking nice and clean after every flush.

Food is a quick 30-45min dish I can prepare and then ignore for a while (like I am cooking pasta now). I have many tried-and-tested recipes and add the occasional one on my days off after a trial and error session or two.

I learned to cook fast food. I don't normally make anything that takes longer than 45 mins.
Work lunchtimes are for shopping, the internet is essential. I do one room's house work every evening while the supper is in the oven. Washing goes on first thing and in the airing cupboard in the evening.
That leaves weekends for seeing friends and family. parkrun, mowing the lawn, bit of gardening maybe.
I don't worry if things aren't perfect. My garden has rustic charm 😁 And no pets.

First three days of my holidays are always sleeping to catch up.

I’m not single but I am absolutely not coping.

I honestly don't think that people who live with a partner realise how much that other person does, even those that claim they don't let a finger! When I'm in the office 5 days I usually don't sit down to relax until 9pm at the earliest apart from eating dinner. A weekend away or doing more leisure stuff and the place is filthy or the laundry mounts up. At the moment I'm working from home so can put a wash on during the day, or put bins out etc which helps but I still find it hard to keep on top if everything and I don't have a dog or garden! I'd love both but I acknowledge I don't know when I'd deal with them! Oh, and I clean my car on the outside 2-3 times a year and the inside even less! Given how long it took last time I did the inside I concluded it's definitely worth paying for a valet.

@Justkeeepsmiling I use sainsbury for shopping. Meal plan, order what I need once a week. Same slot, 7 -8 . Shopping arrives7am on the dot,put away by 7.10.

Have you looked at TOMM ( the organised mum method)? Really helped me sort the housework out. I need to get back into it.

Get DS to clean the car. Also involve him with the housework. Even 10 minutes a day would make a difference

I think to make things easier if you aren't doing it already, food delivered, car valet or wash maybe every two months ish. Pay your kids to do some of the jobs and if you can get a cleaner for hoovering/dusting and a bit of deep cleaning.
Also, give yourself a break. I work part time, live with a partner, have one child and am in a flat and I still struggle to keep on top of things.

I have got robot vacuums upstairs and downstairs that are set to do their thing once a day which is a massive help as it stops the place getting too messy. Some mop as well if you have hard floors
Online shopping
Take car to a car wash
Dog walker or cleaner perhaps? Even once a week for either might help.
Forget the ironing or can one of ds do it if old enough?
Could you bribe do to mow the lawn (if they're old enough)
Batch cook a few things

Completely. Even if it's just being able to pop out for 5 mins to do something without the kids. Mine are 1 and 3 and they have to come everywhere with me all the time. Argh!

If you have a dryer and take clothes out immediately, you don’t need to iron them. Is that an option?

Weekly online shop saves a couple of hours a week. You can always send the subs back if they’re awful but mine are honestly always ok (ASDA).

I have a partner who does a lot, but we have 2 kids under 5 and 2 intense full time jobs, and every hour is spent working (on work or home or kids or life admin).

I hear you. I work full time, have 4DC, am doing a degree so study all weekend and getting ready for my exams in two months.

I did have a cleaner but she went away in February and hasn't come back?

When I started studying DP we're going to come and help out but covid happened so DH has been picking up where I can't, and we don't quite have the same standards.

I am gritting my teeth and getting through it for the moment. It won't be like this forever. The kids do more as they get older. I will have my weekends back soon. DH (who creates most of the mess) will start studying for his masters so be out of the apartment more...

T'is just a phase... (or so I tell myself)

I’ve never bought into the you don’t iron club, most of my clothes need ironing. I don’t wear much synthetic stuff.

Not single but 2x full time workers with a disabled child.

I click and collect grocery shopping. I time it to collect it one day in the week on my way home from work. That negates the need to wait in for a delivery.

Clothes shopping etc for DC - online

Ironing? I don't. It gets chucked in the tumble dryer if creased.

I make sure we clean as we go. Dishwasher emptied first thing in the morning, filled as the day goes on (easier now we aren't working from home any more!), then put on after dinner regardless of how full it is, so that it can be emptied again the following morning.

Meals - slow cooker, batch cooking, frozen prepared veg - all big time savers for me.

Big clean - bedding changes etc. Saturday morning so it can be chucked in the wash and dried etc as I go rather than it hanging around because I'm at work

I kick husband and DC out so I can do a thorough clean, hoover on a Saturday morning too, doing it weekly means it's never too bad an only takes a couple of hours for everything (including a coffee break!)

@emmathedilemma I disagree! Before my dh moved in I was single from when my youngest was 4 months old to him being 12 (and my dd was only 17 months older). I honestly found it easier being single in terms of head space and a tidy house. My dh isn't an awful husband, he cooks, cleans ect but my house has more stuff in it now and I have a lot less headspace.

I worked full-time and did a full-time degree for 3 years. I got a distinction grade. Its harder being married tbh.

Start by beating yourself up less. I don't think you're doing anything wrong, you just have loads to get through every day. Single parent and working FT is a shit lot of "busyness" in itself, even before you add the dog on top.

I have less on my plate than you do and stuff like gardening and cleaning the car are virtually annual events. I would be looking at things like going a bit longer between lawn mowings, laundry washes, changing the beds, mopping floors. Still do them but space them out just a little more. And simplify meals to assembly jobs - some protein, some carbs, some veg, job done. Nando's sauces and bake in the bag things, fajita kits. Aim to cook a double portion every other day, and reheat food or do fishfinger sandwiches or the odd readymeal in between. If DC have a hot lunch, consider sandwiches or beans on toast for tea. We used to have manic Tuesday nights when DC would have sandwiches for tea and I'd have a readymeal. It really help to give myself a mental break from the catering.

Here, DC empty DW first thing and wash their own bottles and lunch boxes after school. We also each hand wash our own breakfast stuff. This means plenty of space in the DW, which makes clean up easy after all other meals. DW goes on religiously every night. But mainly I think there's no magic trick, it's just hard.

I'm not single but so most of it (only thing my husband does is the ironing) and I just don't ever stop basically 😴

Online food shopping helps. If you have problems with short best before dates on meat, try either planning some freezer meals for the week, or freezing some of the items.

Plan easy meals too, saves lots of time.