When do you ever get housework done?

[chippytea33]

Two kids. One toddler, one tween. Tween spends time out of the house with friends etc but toddler is always with me, unless she's at nursery but then I'm at work.

My house is drowning in shit. Not just Christmas mess (although that has exacerbated it but it was bad before). I need a massive declutter and a deep clean. I need to pull stuff out of wardrobes and cupboards, sort them into donation/bin piles and then clean out the cupboards and the skirtings and the windows. In every single room of the house.

But I never get chance. I keep on top of basic cleaning by sticking her in front of the iPad for half an hour here or there but it's not long enough to get into any of the big stuff.

We have no help with childcare. The only option i have is to book leave on a day she's at nursery but I barely have any leave as it is and don't want to spend it cleaning.

I can't be the only one who struggles with this. How do other people cope?

I took a few days of annual leave and hired a skip, its so much easier to keep on top of cleaning if there isn't as much stuff. I did donate a lot too, but it's surprising how much is stored but not fit for purpose anymore and can just go; it was so liberating. For clothes I knew I didn't have capacity to list and sell them, so I sorted them and arranged for one of the charities to come and pick up the bags. I know it's gross but the thing that helped me finally get on top of it was reading the hack if someone was sick on said item, would it be worth taking the effort to clean it or would you be happy to chuck it?

This is me. I have moved clutter from wardrobes and cupboards to boxes on my floor that I think, ' I must see if I can sell on Vinted/ ebay' ... They've been there 6 months now...

It's harder to keep anywhere tidy when you have too much clutter. Ie the spaces you'd tidy your occasional/everyday stuff into can't be used because of a backlog of crap ypu just don't need anymore.

I hired a skip a few years ago and it took 7 hours to empty the loft and garage (15 years with of crap had accumulated). I had the skip for around 10 days so I did the rest of the house room by room a bit at a time.

I also abandoned any thoughts of selling stuff for the reaspns others jave saod - juat didnt have the time! Clothes, books etc that we had no need for were donated to charity. I put some things on fb marketplace to give away for nothing and put outgrown toys at the end of the driveway with a sign inviting people to help themselves.

When I taught about it afterwards, I probably could have made a few hundred £ selling stuff but, in reality, I wasn't going to do that. I wasn't going to miss £300 I'd never had and the clear space was worth more to me.

You just become blind to the clutter akd stuff you don't keed/never use over the years.

I know what you mean, OP, that you don't want to use your AL for this but what's the alternative? It's not going to happen unless you actually do it and if that's the only way to get the time...

Besides, once you've done the big declutter (whether by booking a few extra nursery sessions or taking AL) you'll find it easier to keep on top of the day to day stuff going forwards. But you do have to keep.on top of it (all of you - it's not just your job).

My halo is always polished. As a child living in sqallor, friends weren't allowed in. My ex H had his own cleaning company,he had contracts with 2 big American airlines,we employed cleaners and everyone was sacked! These people expected perfection. In the end,it was him,me (after working a full nursing shift) and our kids. I had a window cleaner once,in our last house,used to clean the sitting room window and our bedroom window,he couldn't get round the back, and yet charged us for the whole lot,yup we sacked him as well.