when do you do your housework if you have very young children??

[parentallyinept]

I'm seriously struggling to get my housework done - i've previously slotted it in during the day, which worked well enough when i only had one DC, but i've now got 2, and a 3rd on the way, and there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day to even do the basics, let alone major decluttering projects etc! It seems to come down to either playing with the children properly, or leaving them to their own devices (which only works for very short spells of time anyway) so i can get on. My DC are 5, 15 months, and 25 weeks gestation

I work 2 x 12.5 hour shifts a week too, when DH has the children, and when i'm off, he works 4 x 12.5 hour shifts, so we really are like single parents with regards to child care and running the house. I try and do a bit once they are in bed, but at 6 months pregnant, i'm knackered by 8pm and no good to anyone.

So, how does everyone else manage? Am i just particularly useless?!? Please help!

You are not useless. I work 2/3 days per week as a teacher, DH is full time as a lawyer and we have three kids and a cleaner!! If you can afford it get one. Even just once a week will help. You can then focus on tidying up and doing daily cleaning (washing up, washing etc...) knowing that she/he will give the house a really good going over once a week. We only have carpets upstairs, so I make the children take their shoes off and then it only needs hoovering once a week. Downstairs is wooden floors/tiles, so is much easier to clean; a broom comes in handy and the cleaner washes the floors when she comes.

Hope this helps

Have a good rest.

Thank you for your reply janajos. I'd love a cleaner in theory, but not sure we can afford one, and i've still got a lot of decluttering to do before anyone could actually clean! (that, plus i'm a bit 'Monica from Friends', so not sure i would trust anyone else doing it)

What i need is a Mary Poppins type who could look after the children for several hours a day whilst i crack on with the cleaning etc. Unfortunately, thats never going to happen!

Any other suggestions?

Just don't bother - That's what I do . Sorry, not very helpful

Do the minimum and buy as many labour saving devices as possible, eg we have an electric carpet sweeper up and downstairs, to give the floors and quick going over when we see the need. This saves the need to hoover as much as we used to.
Really, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter for now.

You can clean when you have time, and don't worry about it too much. You can only do so much. This may sound crazy, but you could use paper plates to save on piles of dishes to wash.

Forget about the de-cluttering, you don't have the time. Even though it probably drives you insane it's as much as you can do to do the basics.

Now that I've accepted that we live in a untidy but clean house, with clean clothes and cooked food I'm resigned to it. When school begins for my DC then I'll de-clutter.
Years away yet

If decluttering is the main problem, would you be able to ask your dh to take one or two days off work during the week at some point? Then DC1 will be at school, and he could entertain DC2 for the day(s) while you concentrate on decluttering early in the day, before you feel too tired.

Once this has been done, you may find it easier to keep on top of things on a regular basis. Then try to keep things as simple as you can (easier said than done, I know!). Go for the simplest, easiest meals you can manage. Forget about ironing, unless it's things that really crease badly. Concentrate on keeping floors reasonably clean, and loos/basins. Dust doesn't matter so much.

And if you do have any friends/relatives who offer to help in any way whatsoever - do take them up on it!

Forgot to mention - My MIL came over (from across the globe) and did more in one morning than I'd done in a year.

She's very focussed - I'm not. She could see stuff I'd lived with for ages and become blind to.

Pop 15 month old into nursery/childminder/friendly nannyshare for a few hours a couple of times a week and do some dedicated cleaning then?

Or just leave it until they are all at school. Quentin Crisp said 'after the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse'

Thanks for all the good suggestions. DH has a week off coming up soon so i'm going to get him to take the children out for a few days so i can do a major decluttering/cleaning blitz (and satisfy some of my nesting urges!)

I accept that i'll never have a show home, but i would at least like the basics to be kept on top of, and i'm sure things will get more difficult come early next year when i have 3 DC to contend with. I guess there's no simple answer. I already have easy-clean leather sofas and laminate flooring in the front room, a godsend given my youngest smooshes food everywhere. Seriously tempted to kit it out like an operating theatre so i could just hose everything down at the end of the day

i clean the flat when my eldest is at school and my little one is having a nap. its only small but theres always something to do.

i do most of mine as i am pottering around the house, when i bath ds i clean the sink and toilet as he plays and then when he gets out of the bath it gets a quick clean. my stairs are in the dining room and anything that is to go upstairs goes on the table, if anyone goes up they have take up what they can carry with them and put them away, whilst i am making tea i put a wash load of clothes in/take out, i hoover throughout the house starting from upstairs and working my way down on a saturday morning whilst dh entertains ds, i also give a quick polish right through and "tidy" each room as i go. i always set myself a time limit on each room, about 15 mins.

ironing gets done when ds is in bed and i am watching tv as does a general tidy up of the livingroom each night,

I have a cleaner who does the kitchen and bathrooms every week. DS and I do the hoovering together as he loves watching me do it for some weird reason. Washing and loading/emptying dishwasher during nap time or tv time. Ironing in evening. Anything else has been pretty much abandoned. Am assuming when he goes to preschool I'll be able to get rid of cleaners....

DH cancelled my cleaner and I refuse to do the cleaning on my own - I'll do it with DH... House hasn't had a proper clean for 8 weeks now. I will not be the one to crack and get the hoover out...

I used to put the kids in the bath and do the loo and sink and floor whilst supervising. Then swill bath round after taking them out. Mine are big enough to help out as well now. It does get easier.

What housework? :o

A friend's mother once said to me that she was forced to choose between living in a clean and tidy house, and spending time with her child - so she let the place turn into a tip and if anyone else had a problem with that, well, she found out who her friends were! I have taken her to heart as my role model.

Not nice living in a tip but I'm not going to beat myself up or run myself ragged over it - so if you're a slattern, then you're not alone :)