How do you manage to do housework/laundry etc?!

[siblingrivalry]

Hi

I have been HEdding dd1 since January. We are loving it, it's going really well. BUT my house seems to be permanently untidy -I just can't find the time to do thorough cleaning and tidying. My ironing pile is taller than me!

I take dd2 to pre-school at 8.30 and use the 'quiet' time without her to do things with dd1. We go to collect dd2 at 11.15. Then it's lunch and we walk the dog. If we don't have any outings planned on the afternoon, I try to spend some time with dd2 while dd1 plays. Or we do craft-type activities and I might get an hour to stick a washload on and do a handful of essential jobs.

But where do people find the time to do proper cleaning and tidying when they HE? I feel as though I just skim the surface- is that usual? Maybe I just need to lower my standards?

Thanks for any advice.

I FLY which is v. annoying and irritating and patronising but works if you can stick to the babysteps. I'm slowing falling off the wagon now, having done it brilliantly for about 4m and fully intend on re-writing my morning and evening routines and getting stuck into it again.

Yes, lower your standards. My house is a tip
but we're happy

Ironing?

No ironing except DH's shirts and cotton sheets. Usually do this on Sat when DH looks after kids in the morning. I'm sure "homely" is better for the kids than "immaculate" LOL!!

My DS does "quiet reading" for an hour after lunch. This is great for him and me. I think kids need to have a bit of time to themselves to chill and think! This has been absolutely fab for both of us!!

Hello Sibs!

I have learned to love my muck over the years. That doesn't mean I live in squalor, but I've developed routines to cover the (very) basics and I only do what is really, really necessary, like cleaning the loo and washing the kitchen surfaces. We live quite minimally, not much clutter so not much dusting required. DH does quite a lot of the bigger jobs like washing floors, hoovering etc (can't remember the last time I hoovered) but it's taken some time to get there.

I NEVER iron, apart from the odd pair of jeans that come out of the dryer with a crease in a strange place. I wash and dry bedding and put it straight back on the beds (no ironing, no folding). Biggest tip I can give is to put things away as soon as you've finished with them so you're not creating more jobs than necessary. Make the bed as soon as you get out of it, wash the bath with the water that's in it, that sort of thing. I think organisation is the key.

Or get a cleaner
xx

Thanks everyone -I see a common thread here
I am desperately trying to declutter (Ebaying madly)but it's a slooooowww process.

We definitely live in a 'homely' house - maybe I need to stop stressing. I just won't invite any house-proud friends over! (not saying you are a slob, streaky!)

I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom this morning, then made cakes with the dc. Not great planning, actually

sometimes when we're in the house and my children have heaps of things going on (settee made into a den, toy farm across the floor, toy and real food picnic with teddies, baking, painting, books, jigsaws...) and i'm thinking there's 'stuff' everywhere and things to do are piling up ? wet washing to hang, washing up to do, worktops to clear, meals to make, fire to tend - i wander outside and look in... it usually makes me smile then and i realise it looks homely and fun!!

I got the iron out the other day to iron Hama bead creation and realised how long it'd been since it'd seen the light of day when my 2 yo said 'What's that?'.
I do get depressed by the stuff everywhere occasionally and seem to spend half my life moving clothes around the flat in different piles. I guess it's worse than when we weren't HE'ding. If a proper person is coming to visit and I need to tidy up then I usually end up sticking the children in front of 2 hours of CBeebies or a film and feeling massively guilty about this. I have wicker baskets in each room and they are great for chucking toys, books, unpaid bills, passports etc in and forgetting about. I'm sure I should get up an hour earlier and do the housework before the children wake up, but not sure that's going to happen.

we do no ironing, my dh is great and does the laundry, hoovering (cant do it because of my back) and evening dishes

Straight after breakfast and luch i wash the dishes, when i am drying after a shower or before a shower i clean the bathroom 5 minutes max, i put bleach and wipe around downstairs loo before breakfast 2 mins, wipe the worksurfaces when i do the dishes so no more than 10 mins.

best idea - when washing is done, take clothes out put straight on hangers on a rail to dry, once dry put in piles for each person and straight in wardrobes! this has been a god send

we have an iron!!! I recently discovered it at the back of a shelf behind all sorts of things which actually get used...

We have tesco delivery crates and veg delivery boxes in every room so that things can get thrown in them for decluttering, although it's not exactly a "deep clean".

Someone very wise once said to me that if there are items you are tidying away every day, or more than once a day, then those items "live" in the wrong place. Maybe there are things which actually do live in a heap on the floor at the moment, and what those things are will shift as your children's interests shift.

Oh, I also try to keep one room in the house tidy - and which room that is gradually shifts around - so that there's always somewhere I can go and not feel the twitch to be rearranging objects.

I clean and tidy as and when I can but don't go too mad. Heing doesn't lend itself to an imaculate home and your kids won't remember you for having a clean house but for all the fun you have together

Not home edding yet ds only 3.5 but I too can recommend flylady. It takes a while to get into the routines, etc, and as Lindenlass says you have to ignore the mad american gushing, but, I have noticed that a lot of the emails from other members are home edders too, so it must work for home edders.

Been doing it for about a year now, and my house has never been tidier or cleaner than it is now, and yet the actual time I spend on it is minimal. I no longer possess even one cupboard that we have to do that 'open, shove, slam,' thing to prevent it all falling on you!!!!! lol, and pretty much all mine were like that. Add to that my dh is the biggest hoarder in the world, (he saves old washing up sponges coz they're good for cleaning his motorbike !!!!!) and it really is an amazing system.

Glad someone else asked this as have same prob of late, but-love the site how on earth did you all find this.Especially may have to buy the childrens cd for dd and niece might make them put things away if a game.