To wonder how the hell people keep their homes clean?

[NoGoodAtCleaning]

DP and I both work full time and have an 8mo. When I'm off work I want to spend the time with my baby, and my DP.

So the cleaning is getting behind and I'm really down about it. I'm sick of being embarressed of our home. And I'm sick of having to allocate days where I gut the whole house because the mess has built up.

Everyone else's houses are clean! My friend just had a baby and hers is spotless.

I just want to cry about it.

How do people do it?

Blimey, I missed that bit. As clam says, it's not your job.

And lol at UQD! When I was a child I had a friend whose parents didn't own a single book but were fastidious about cleaning, redocorating etc. I was never really sure why I felt uncomfortable in their house.; I think I was in my mid-teens before I worked it out.

Flippin'eck NoGood, your dh can do tons of that stuff. If he won't you can present him with a bill for your cleaning services and then tell him you're getting a cleaner.

I have a cleaner who I've just increased from once/week to twice/week but only doing downstairs on the Friday as I was fed up with planning to have friends/family around at the weekend and fel like I needed to clean the house when I knew that the cleaner would be coming on Monday!

I sometimes do other bits, tend to do tidying either as I go, by moving stuff from room to room or in one big blast. Sometimes I hoover if I feel like I really need to. Bedding gets done once/week ish.

Washing and drying I try to do one load/day but it reall depends upon my shifts at work and some weekends I can end up doing it constantly.

Dd (2.6) likes to clean the table after meals and will try to mop the floor though the mopping attmpts don't really help.

My mother sometimes volunteers to do things that I wouldn't really think needed doing, like cleaning skirting boards. I let her do it on the understanding that she's doing it for herself, not me, as it would be so low on my priority list that it wouldn't ever be considered necessary.

See my problem is not time per se but an unwillingness to spend my free time when not at work and when DD's in bed cleaning. I am very surprised at NomDePlume spending her whole day off cleaning. Fair play to you if you don't mind doing it, but I loathe housework.

What I need is a way to do it quickly and efficiently and get it out of the way. I will check out those 15 minute links. What I need is motivation. A list might help, it might make it feel more manageable and also feel like I'm achieving something.

I am childminding full time just now and DH works as well.

Our house is mostly ok. It has to be, if I got inspected and the house was disgusting, then I would get in trouble for it. This is my motivation. Otherwise, the house would be really quite a mess I think because I really don't like tidying and cleaning.

We start our evening tidy up as soon as we have finished eating. One of us gets ds ready for bed while the other one loads the dishwasher and tidies up the kitchen.

We then tidy away all the toys/books and hoover round. I then look out towels for the next days mindees, clean the toilet/sink if it needs it and hang up the washing that was shoved in the machine in the morning.

Although I am home all day, I don't get a chance to do any housework other than tidying up dishes etc as I go along. So by the end of the day, the house is like a bomb hit it!!

We are usually done by 8pm so DH and I still have a couple of hours together before bedtime.

I think basically the answer is that you just have to be constantly at it, a little bit every day.

it makes the day easier to face if you start with a tidy house.

I am childminding full time just now and DH works as well.

Our house is mostly ok. It has to be, if I got inspected and the house was disgusting, then I would get in trouble for it. This is my motivation. Otherwise, the house would be really quite a mess I think because I really don't like tidying and cleaning.

We start our evening tidy up as soon as we have finished eating. One of us gets ds ready for bed while the other one loads the dishwasher and tidies up the kitchen.

We then tidy away all the toys/books and hoover round. I then look out towels for the next days mindees, clean the toilet/sink if it needs it and hang up the washing that was shoved in the machine in the morning.

Although I am home all day, I don't get a chance to do any housework other than tidying up dishes etc as I go along. So by the end of the day, the house is like a bomb hit it!!

We are usually done by 8pm so DH and I still have a couple of hours together before bedtime.

I think basically the answer is that you just have to be constantly at it, a little bit every day.

it makes the day easier to face if you start with a tidy house.

Oh pish. First I post this on the wrong thread and then I do a double post.

I'll get me coat....

Oh join the gang, I'm would love to read the rest of this but must get some boring housework done. I do love the 'Fly threads' on a day off. It really works for me and setting the timer. Going now, honest, really I am See you all soon

Am crap at getting oprganised too. Sick of going into tidy, clean and organised houses with babies (am a HV) and wondering how they manage it so much better than I do. Ex-DH just says "well they know you are coming so they tidy up" and am sure that's true occasionally but not always.

BTW - have also been into some real hell-holes too (think "How Clean is your House"?)which always puts the housework needed in my own home well into proportion.

revjustaboutdrinksmulledwine - I couldn;t give a toss frankly. The OP asked how other people do it. I told her how I do it and did actually offer a bit of advice re doing things as you go along and whatnot, thank you very much.

Get a Roomba and/or a Robomop depending upon what sort of floors you have. Although having said that I'm in the same situation - we both work full time, dh is abroad for work a lot and I've got a 7 year old and a 20 month old, so my house isn't often tidy enough for the Roomba to make much impact. Now if they made a robot tidier I might have a chance.

Admittendly my house is pretty clean but it isn't immaculate. I prefer living in a home than a showhome. My Mum used to keep a spotless house but she was uptight and I hated bringing friends home. I want my kids to be relaxed in their home and want to spend time at home.

Also, when you are dead, it isn't going to say "You could eat your dinner off her kitchen floor, she was a wonderful cleaner"!

It isn't going to say the above on your grave stone!

Saggyhairyarse, exactly my thoughts.
Why be a slave to your house, there are so many other enjoyable or even worthwhile things to do rather than spend all day cleaning.
We have a nice home, not a show house/minimalist dream. It suits us, would probably give other people on this thread itchy palms!

My house is emphatically not tidy, there are piles of stuff (glances round)- eg laundry drying, Christmas cards to post, craft stuff half-done etc - all over.

But it is fairly clean ie floors hoovered today, bathroom cleaned yesterday, our sheets changed on Weds, cooker top cleaned tonight etc etc.

That works for me tho I know full well it wouldn't for others.

i tidy stuff up because i am neurotic.

not having a clean house drives me spare and increases the anxiety that goes along with my PND.

it's possible if you have pretty much NO clutter, you constantly de-clutter and you are ruthless about it.

also if you and your DP both do chores as they arise.

a little here adn there. it's like exercise, it all adds up.

after tea, i get up and get the dishes done.

takes 10 minutes tops including pans.

then it's just done.

we use a slow cooker a lot and it cuts down on the washing up.

every night, i do a load of wash or two and leave it till the next day to peg out by whoever gets up first or bung it in the dryer then and there if it's wet out. then put it away asap.

the trick if you don't have the money to hire a cleaner is to stay on top of it all and do everything asap as it arises.

I think you just see the dirt more closely in your own home. If other people's houses are passable, you see them as clean - try running a finger along a shelf next time you're visiting.

Actually, don't!!!

As others have said, I really don't think that most other people DO keep their houses spotless all the time. I can't think of a time in the last few years when I've had a spur of the moment invite to someone's house. It's usually been "do you and DS want to come round for a coffee after school tomorrow"? I go round the next day and it's spotless, and at first I am that it is so neat and tidy when they've got kids. Then I have to remind myself that in those 24 hours since they've invited me round, they've PROBABLY spent a good portion of those cleaning and tidying, just as I do when I do the inviting to my house.

People who have to keep their house clean and tidy for their own sanity - I just don't get you, I'm afraid! Each to their own and all that, and I can understad the need to keep on top of things if you have a huge family or very demanding life........but I just can't imagine that on my death bed I'll be thinking "Oh, I really wish I'd have done more cleaning." There are sometimes just other ways I'd rather spend my (precious little) free time.

I do wonder this myself, my house is a tip atm. when I just had dd and she got to about 2.5 it wasn't so bad. Then until ds became mobile I could kind of keep it under control, now no chance. Ds has decided not to nap anymore and follows me round creating chaos when I try to tidy, theres scribbling on my walls and we don't have a drier so the laundry pile is a mile high.

Another problem is that we live in a 1 bed flat and need to declutter, we have so much crap. But we have a small bin and it costs £25 for the council to pick up 5 bits of refuse , we don't drive so the tip is out. We really need a skip, well what we really need is more money to get rid of broken crappy stuff and decorate and buy new furniture (wanders off in a happy daydream).

All in all I empathise, my plan next week is to take a load of washing to the laundrette to dry each day and boot dp and the kids out on friday so I can have a good clean and sort out

I don't. Not much. Except the washing - DH does the washing up and kitchen stuff - everything else is left until it really needs doing.

Blackletterday, can you freecycle the stuff you don't want?

Dannat I'm going to put your link onto my Fav's. Here I am sitting in my dressing gown typing this with a basket of washing that need to go in the wash at my feet. Breakfast things to be cleaned up and shopping to be done. Soooo boring. But I'm going to have 15mins on this and they get cracking. We should start a Cinderella thread for those that work and still done the frigging housework. I have a cleaner and work part-time so i shouldn't moan but as I said before it's sooo boring.