How to do housework with a smile on my face not a scowl!

[WisteriaWoman]

How can I learn to love my housework. I have to do about 2 hours each evening after work and don't generally finish it until 9ish and TBH I get a bit grumpy.

The work needs to be done and its mine to do (DH does cooking) but I really resent the fact I hardly ever sit down to watch telly. AND - would you believe it we even have a weekly cleaner (2 hours) so how come I'm permanently swamped.!

(We have a very open plan house so it's difficult to shut the door on clutter and we;re all naturally a bit messy)

[Stillconfounded]

Declutter ruthlessly. You can't clean clutter. Buy appropriate storage (esp. important in open plan house). Confine "stuff" to amount of storage available ie new pair of shoes in = old pair of shoes out. New book in = old book out etc.

Toy storage should be easily accessible/clearly defined/easy to put things away. Toys are put away EVERY night by dc.

Insist on family chore hour on Saturday mornings: 30 mins for communal bed-changing and 30 mins for one job per family member for them to do on their own (but all at the same time iyswim with loud music). Weekend only starts AFTER chores done.

One load of washing per day. Wash previous night. Hang out early morning. Fold and put away evening.

Use "spare" minutes to do small jobs ie unload dishwasher while kettle boiling. Clean shoes during commercial breaks. Dust while speaking to friend on phone.

Agree with others about sharing cooking and he who cooks washes up.

You don't mention how many dc you have and what age but 12 hrs housework a week (inc cleaner's 2) seems an awful lot. Are you setting yourself impossibly high standards? Or are you dealing with too much clutter (which is time-consuming and demoralising).

Hope you can work out a fairer solution for yourself! Good luck.

[Orissiah]

• Whoever cooks should clean up after him/herself.
  
• Every one in the house should pick up and tidy up after themselves.
  
• Reduce housework to 30 mins a day.
  
• Be ruthless with yourself!

[colditz]

Oh, so at the moment you are not only cleaning everything while he fannies around with coriander, you're cleaning up after his fannying around too!

No.

You take it in turns. Cooking and kitchen, or rest of cleaning. In fact, make the housework for each of you take equally long, then it doesn't matter which he chooses to do, you still aren't spening more time than him doing it.

You should have it down to an hour, I guarantee.

[WisteriaWoman]

Great ideas thank you. I love the idea of "he-who-cooks cleans up" -especially as the resident chef uses every item in the kitchen!

[colditz]

Oh, and swap the cooking to ALTERNATING evenings. Cooking is much more fun than housework - and make the rule that whoever cooks also has to wash up and clean the kitchen sides and floor.

This will reduce the kitchen mess whilst cooking. Nobody is as careful if their partner is cleaning up as they are about controlling the mess THEY will have to clean up themselves!

[LoremIpsum]

Insist that everyone who lives in the house picks up after themselves to the extent that they're capable. That'll help cut it down for a start.

Why should everyone being messy be your burden?

[colditz]

Just don't do so much.

Give the children a carrier bag each, and reward the child with the biggest bag of rubbish with a biscuit (if they are competative, if not, reward them BOTH when the bag is full)

Then, when they have cleared the floor, hooover, then sit down.

Do the bathrroms and bedrooms once a week - the cleaner can do them any other times.

[werewolf]

Well, for a start, I'd cut down to 1 hour a day. Also, alternate with dh so that he gets to do some of the clutter control and cleaning.

[LoremIpsum]

I wouldn't be smiling in your shoes. How does cooking dinner equate to two hours housework? What's going on that it requires so much effort.

I'd be looking for a fairer division of labour and a way to cut the housework down. That would help wipe the scowl.

[earwicga]

What the hell do you do for two hours a day?