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.

I leave the house before dh and my teen dcs in the morning and often return home after then. Dh frequently works from home. The state if it when I leave is not the state I find it in on my return. My dc seem to have some sort of allergy to opening the dishwasher, opening curtains, making beds, picking up wet towels. Not to mention the sorting out of the school bag on the kitchen table which is regularly covered in random scrunched up bits of homework, bits of smelly PE kit etc. So, mostly a mess.

Its getting better but my eldest is 8.

They don't really get loads of toys out before school because its when we do reading, spellings & music practise, which helps. They know to put breakfast things in the dishwasher etc so the kitchen isn't a mess. There's papers left on table.

It varies massively. I do try to straighten up cushions, blankets etc before I go to bed. All about what I can control v what I can't mine are teens
When we were in our early twenties we came home at lunchtime one working day, to find we had been burgled. They took everything and left drawers open etc downstairs.
When the police came into our room, they said 'well, they've early been in here'
I'm not actually sure that they had 😳

Oh God I loathe it when people say this!
Enjoy what exactly !

I despise mess and it takes 3 seconds to put stuff away
Just to add I've got a Robot vacuum and one of the joys is that it has to be tidy !

I have a 6 year old and 1 year old. My house is literally like a bombs hit it…it’s clean, it’s just messy 😂 fingerprints in windows, Lego all over his bedroom floor, blankets out too (as he was building a fort). It’s hard having the mess but I know they are only little once so trying to just keep on top it with working full time too 🫠

What does your dh do towards getting his kids ready and to school and tidying his home in the mornings op?

Single mum here with kids, dog and full-time job.
I leave the house for work at 7.30 am and the main body of the home is tidy. I can't cope with mess.
However I cannot always say the same for my teenagers' rooms! 😩

And yeah, I'm absolutely exhausted pretty much, especially with being perimenopausal.

Quite clean and tidy to be honest.
We hoover, spray and wipe surfaces, clean the bathroom, sort the dishwasher, and put a wash on before we leave for work at 7.20am.
The kids are older now but this has been the routine for thr last 18 years and it works for us!
The teens get home before me so I usually walk in to bags on the table and shoes where they shouldn't be but it's a 2 minute job to shout the little buggers and get them to tidy their shit away!
I wouldn't like to have to come home and start cleaning, I like knowing that the house is ready for me to relax in when I get home.

You Hoover and clean the bathroom before you go to work?!

Pretty much the same, OP! Only thing is I try and keep the kitchen tidy, or at least wash up as much from breakfast as I hate having to come home and start dinner, to an already heaped sink full of dirty dishes and cups.
But the housework waits, there isn't the time in the mornings!

I don’t work, and no young kids at home, but it’s the same now as when I worked 60-70 hours a week with young kids. I always do the kitchen, make beds, hang out laundry and clean the toilet before leaving. Also set the robot vacuum to work.

I have a laundry load going and the dishwasher running as a minimum and then I try and just choose one more task to do each morning and ignore the rest. E.g. I will put some dry washing away, or hoover one room, or mop the kitchen floor, or empty the kitchen bin. Just one job to make me feel like I've put a little dent in it.

I don't stress about toys being out. They don't bother me and DD more likely to come in and just pick up where she left off with her play if the toys are out when we get back from school.

I don't have a tidy house really but I do try and sort a small area each day in a loose rotation.

A tip. I can't keep on top of it partly because I don't want to be a wife who wears herself thin by tidying up after everyone because they can't be bothered. I hoovered and mopped the downstairs the other day and it lasted 10 minutes before two people walked through with their shoes on and dropped mud everywhere. I did make them sweep up but it just cements to me that there's no point unless it's a all family clean which whatbwe have to most weeks. Even the just 5 year old helps.
One thing I do wonder - those people who have cleaners and tidy up before hand- what exactly do you do because for me - tidying up is the chore but the cleaning part is quite therapeutic. I'm not sure i could tidy and just leave the sides and the floors. It's not an insult - i would love to get a cleaner but my house feels too untidy to get one, but when I tidy, I clean after. What I need is a tidier!

Blanket on the sofa?

You are a disgrace!!!

Sounds just like mine. Always do our dishes night before but there is always ‘stuff’ on the kitchen table. I have the exact same morning routine and never have time to tidy before going to work. Often come home to blankets on the sofa, left over cups of tea and plates with toast crumbs on the coffee table. I think you’re probably being too harsh on yourself, you’ve got a lot happening!

I’ve got a 3&6 year old and I get up at 5.30/6 before the kids to get ready. I make lunchboxes and iron uniform the night before. They get dressed I make the beds takes 5 mins. In the morning they have breakfast at the table and I sort out the throws and sofa cushions and wipe the kitchen. Then dishes in the dishwasher. Really doesn’t take to long.

Tidy your living room before you go to bed, it only takes a few minutes. My rule in the mornings was to fold back the bedding and straighten the pillows and lower sheet so the bed airs, then you just have to pull it up at night and it's made. Also do the washing up or stick it in dishwasher, nothing more depressing than scummy water and crusty dishes in the sink.

But honestly with 6 year old twins just do your best and accept any help offered.