How tidy is your house when you go to work?

[TooOldForThisShit1]

I'm 45 years old with 6 year old twins. I work 4 days a week.

I get up at 6am - 6.30am - make the kids lunch boxes, sort their breakfast out. Get myself dressed and ready for work. Kids teeth cleaned and dressed.

I'm always a bit frustrated when I leave the house - things are never as tidy as I would like them - for instance before we left - lego was being played with in the kitchen - it's still there and will be there when I get home. Play room is just awful. Living room - blanket still on the sofa from night before (I always need a blanket on me when watching tv). Cushions needs straightening out, random toys on the floor etc.

Island worktop probably needs wiping down and a few things put away

It won't take long to tidy it all but I never ever get time to do it before rushing out of the door to school. I won't get home until after 5pm after picking the kids up from wrap around care.

AIBU or is this just reality of a busy family? I'd love to hear how other people leave the house in a morning with it looking immaculate.

That was nice of your DH, and honestly something has to give when kids are that age and you're both working. Just survive!!! Just survive!!

I work from home but that is exactly what happens here too. If we finish breakfast early enough, which depends entirely on whether DC wakes up on time, I have time to sweep/wipe/load the dishwasher/make the bed.

Otherwise it all gets left until DC gets home, including the crumbs on the floor, as I make a point of doing no housework when at work.
It used to annoy me as I am definitely a "clean as you go along" person, but now I'm so focused on my computer I don't notice the unmade bed (in the room I work in) or the crumbs on the floor (when I'm making a cuppa).
If someone popped in during my working day it would be embarrassing though!

Cleaning as I go along was creating too much tension in the morning, or I was juggling work with cleaning which was creating internal tension.

I hope he didn’t call you to tell just that.

lol no, more the fact that I went mad at him earlier this week, it was a particularly stressful morning, dishwasher needed emptying plus there was pots mounting up. DH was working from home, I got home with the kids at 5pm to find it exactly how I left it. He was working until gone 6pm so I had to deal with it all.

so when he finished early from a day in the office he knew he better not sit around on his arse when there was clearly things to do

No he didn’t - I would have been miffed if he had 😂

Good. 😂

I used to tidy the night before and unload the dishwasher first thing, ready for breakfast things. The family room was never very tidy.

Tidy, but my dc are a bit older so it’s easier.

We tidy everything before bed so it’s all clear for the morning then it’s just a case of restacking dishwasher in the morning with breakfast stuff.

Clear up in the lounge before you go to bed. In morning empty and fill dishwasher, quick wipe and that’s about it until the evening. If there’s no one where all day then it doesn’t really matter.

I used to make the next days lunches when I was cooking dinner. Was in the kitchen anyway and made a big difference the following morning.

My kids are older - it does get easier! My suggestions for you:

Kitchen and living room tidy before bed each night.

Breakfast things into sink/dishwasher before leaving

Let the playroom be carnage and just don’t look!

Generally the house resembles the local tip.

hardly ever tidy except when people come over there is a 10 minute whirlwind.

when I leave for work I shut the door on it all and worry about it later.

Wonderfully tidy as we tidy up before going to bed and I am get up and go to work before anyone else gets up. 🤣

Our house is always pretty tidy, but we do have to remind the DCs to put away their things and nag DD a bit as otherwise there would be clothes on the floor.

Relatively tidy. Not as tidy as I’d like but all the kitchen, living room and bedrooms tidied and worktops clean.
We have more than an average amount of children and dogs so it takes a conscious (and constant) effort on my behalf but I don’t like the whole ‘that’s just what having children is like’ narrative of accepting living in a mess. I find mess really genuinely stressful so I find relaxing almost impossible & I’m always always tidying something.

Mine's usually tidy before bed and not at other times. It gets progressively worse throughout the day so a bit messy when we leave for daycare, absolute chaos while making dinner.

It’s a bomb site all week, mildly better at the weekend. I wfh and try to tidy at lunchtime but it goes straight to shit as soon as the kids get home.

I tidy each room when I leave it. So it's very rare I come home to chaos

Not tidy. Breakfast things all over the house and some things from the evening before sitting on the kitchen worktop still. Beds not made, clothes strewn around.

House is always tidy, but we have no kids and both naturally tidy people. It would pain me to leave clothes on the floor, books open, or things out of place etc
Same as my desk at work - I always leave it tidy, and everything in identical positions, so if someone else has used it and there's just one pen out of place, I can tell.

Do the cushions, the blanket and make lunches the night before?!

I've larned to embrace the difference between clean and tidy. I go for clean (eg food cleaned up after breakfast) and to ignore the tidy during the week.
Agree with PP about surviving! (Esp with twins)

I leave the house when everyone else is having breakfast, so it is not tidy when I get home. Dirty dishes are transported back into kitchen but left on top of, rather than inside the dishwasher. It is worse if DP works from home.

The good thing is that it is just superficially untidy and can be quickly cleared up. But this is me when I get home each day (minus the baby) - https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtSG9ERroGH/?igsh=MXV6bDVhc2IxdHd2OA==

I once got a lift home with colleagues after a week-long work trip. One needed the loo by the time they got to my house. I was so embarrassed when they trooped in - the downstairs was like DP’s shared student house. I am still not sure that they believe that I don’t live like that.

Oh how I’d like a busy life with just two 🙈😂 haha only joking. But reason I say that is I’ve 7 children; 17(m), 15(f), 14(f), twins 12(m&f), 2(f) and 1(m). And honestly it’s hectic and feel like I’m always chasing my tail with house and laundry 🤦🏻‍♀️. But for me it’s about having my own routine. I make sure it’s tidy every night before going to bed. I’m like you I like a blanket watching tv. I always put that away on the night before going to bed. I Hoover and mop after tea. Toys etc are all put away just before the younger ones go to bed. House is all put straight before I go to bed. I never use to do this and it caused me so much grieve because I never felt on top of the house and life. It was a game changer. I also do pack ups the night before. I try and make my life easier for mornings. Then before leaving for work I should only have beds to make, give the kitchen sides a wipe etc and quick hoover and I often put slow cooker on for tea, often I’ll get it all ready to switch on night before and store the inside pot and lid in fridge just to get it out and switch it on. I also wipe down the shower/ bath and bathroom every morning when I’m just about to get in shower so that’s all done. The days I don’t are my most stressful days.

i found it took a long time to get in my routine for it to work but without it I’d be insane xx

Fairly tidy, we tidy up before bed, so cushions/blanket etc all put right, toys are tidied before ds goes to bed and he's not an early bird so there's not much time for getting things out in the morning. Dishwasher is set off after dinner and emptied before bed so breakfast stuff goes straight in, and it gets set off before we leave and will need emptying when we get home.
The Lego is ubiquitous, I've currently got a Lego police station on my coffee table

Get a robot hoover, game changing. Ours goes off after dinner when we're doing bedtime and the other is tidying away after dinner and again after we leave for work in the mornings. I've only got one DC so I salute you for keeping up with 7!