How long do you think your housework takes?

[heaven17]

By that I mean everything. Washing ironing ,cooking cleaning etc.
I seem to spend ages.
Obv this depends on lots of variables ie size of house, no of dc etc.

Maybe about 10 hours a week? An hour a day plus a decent extra splurge one day at the weekend. But I'm not exactly houseproud!

ooh now your asking??
erm,well, i chuck a wash in every other dy, stick in on radiators, so 15 mins there abouts.
I hoover every Sat and damp dust, maybe 30 mins.
ironing about 2 hours while watching easteneders on a sunday.
cooking, slow cooker gets stuff chucked in allot, so maybe 2/3 hours.
clean kitchen everyday as i go..
dh & ds have thier jobs too, so that cuts it down somewhat.

House is very clean and i am a neat freak so every single item we own has a place to live.
Once every 3 months or so i take a few days off work and git the place, that takes 2 days.

Just marking my place as I always think it takes forever but in reality I don't do very much at all and the house is always a tip so would be interested to see how long it takes other people, might spur me to spend more time on it.

Ok, this is what I think I do in an average week (2bed flat, 1dc, no garden, I work 21hrs a week and spend 6hrs commuting):

Cooking/cleaning up after cooking: 30mins a night, so c.5hours a week
3-4 loads of washing - collecting it up, chucking it on and hanging it out, 15 mins a time - 1h
Making breakfast for DD and cleaning up afterwards - 7x15mins - 1.5h
Tidying up stuff - 10-15 mins a day - 1h
Bigger sort-outs - 20-30mins a week - 0.5h

So, I think I do about 9hours in total.

We then have a cleaner 4hrs a week.

And DP does his washing and some tidying up - probably about an hour's worth.

Which makes our house in total - 14hours a week.

That doesn't sound as much as it feels!

Cooking dinner 30 mins a night - 3.5 hours
preparing breakfast and lunch - 20 mins a day - 1 hour 20
Hoovering - 1.5 hours
Laundry 15 mins a day - 1.5 hours
Ironing - 1 hour a week max, sometimes 0 hours if I'm lazy and can stick sweaters over the DCs crumpled school shirts.
Tidying - at least 30 mins a day - most untidy family in the world - and the house is always a tip - 3.5 hours
Cleaning - 2 hours a week
Bins and recycling - 30 mins a week
Washing up - 15 mins a day - 1.5 hours

That's a massive 16 hours a week for a house that always looks like no one lifts a finger. Blimey. I must be doing a lot wrong. Also, I work from home mostly and often wonder where the hours go. Now I know. Two full working days a week on housework!

That's excluding cleaning out pet cages and feeding pets, or stuff DH does, such as supermarket run.

I need tips from tidy queens.

I do 2 hours every day, at least. But I have a toddler and an 8 month old so there is a lot of tidying, masses of laundry generated by potty training and puking and weaning.
That is just the day to day stuff, I have a cleaner for 4-5 hours once a fortnight and then I do 2 hours the week she doesn't come just to keep the dust down and the bathroom respectable.
And that is with getting DH's shirts laundered and ironed elsewhere, that would be another hour a week at least.

That is with cooking very simple and quick meals as well, if I was doing anything even slightly complicated then that goes up.

Mackrel, does it really only take you 30 minutes to cook and clean up afterwards? And 15 minutes total to collect, unload, load and hang up?

Either I'm really slow then or you're super fast

I'm averaging - if I cook properly then I reckon anything between 20-40mins of cooking and clearing up as I go and 15-20 clearing up afterwards. BUT, sometimes (quite often) I just open a packet of soup and heat it up and do some toast, which really doesn't take very long.

About the washing though - I don't really know, I've never timed it. I was copying oflip, thinking if I claimed to take longer I looked like a very inefficient laundry-lady!

alibaba - you're scaring me. No2 is due in April and it sounds like I am goign to be a very busy lady with baby and toddler...

It always takes longer than I think it should!!

good point mirai

I thought of some other things I've forgotten from my list as well. Food/household shopping for example, not what you first think of when you think of housework, but takes up a lot of time in my week, and I am always grabbing stuff in my lunchhour or way home as well (partly this is a result of a disorganised approach to shopping...). And I missed off changing the beds.

If I thought I could be bothered to do it accurately would be interested to try and tally up everything I do actually do in a week as I do it...

Wow, some other people are fast.

Shopping: 3 mornings (with toddler in tow) - say 5 hours.

Cooking: dinners 30-60 mins a day - say 5.5 hours
breakfasts 15 mins a day, lunches 15 mins. Organising snacks / clearing them out from pushchair etc, 10 mins a day. So that's 4 hrs 10 mins.

Clearing up after meals / washing up / dishwasher - 30-60 mins a day, so perhaps 5 hours a week.

Laundry: 1 or 2 loads a day, at least half an hour a day, say 5 hours a week

Bathroom cleaning: 5 mins a day - 35 mins a week.

General tidying: 15 mins a day - 1 hr 45 a week.

Tidying toys with DS's 'help': 15 mins a day - 1 hr 45 a week.

Meal planning: 30 mins if I sit down & do it, probably 60 mins if I have to do it on the hoof.

Changing beds: 20 mins a week

Emptying bins / doing recycling: 15 mins once a week

Vacuuming: 20 mins a week max (10 mins in the bedroom and the rest may or may not get done)

I don't iron and don't dust.

That's over 30 hours for 2 adults and a nearly-2-year-old. No wonder I feel like DS spends his whole life hanging around while I struggle with housework.