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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Original poster

Who DOES NOT have a cleaner but 4+ Kids??????

49 replies

NotAnOtter · 02/07/2006 20:47

ME!!!! and 5!!!!

OP posts:
biglips · 02/07/2006 20:48

Not me and never will be me but my god youre brave!!

tortoise · 02/07/2006 20:48

I have 4 and no cleaner.
House is messy though

Original poster
NotAnOtter · 02/07/2006 20:53

mines bloody tidy and it gets me down if things are not clean and tidy ...too much for one person - i have started enforced help with my big kids.....

OP posts:
lilianna · 02/07/2006 21:09

This is going to be me soon. Just waiting for no 4 to pop out.
How old are your children?
How do you cope with 4 kids and a tidy house, is it really hard work?

Original poster
NotAnOtter · 02/07/2006 21:17

I do think things just HAVE to stay under control. Bits of toys live in their home. Washing is washed and put away etc etc etc....No one walks upstairs or dwon without me loading them up with things that need to go in that direction! Dp is good - he has to be!
I am also VERY good at throwing away!when is number 4 due Liliana and what do you have already?

OP posts:
spidermama · 02/07/2006 21:25

Me. 4 kids, 3 of them boys with very poor aim or none at all. I couldn't get a cleaner. The poor woman wouldn't know where to start, I'd never find anything again.

I just never move from one room to the next empty handed. There's always something which can be taken upstairs, put away or moved closer to its correct destination.

Gotta keep moving. Can't stop.

Original poster
NotAnOtter · 02/07/2006 21:28

lol spider!!
I make the boys clean the loo!!

OP posts:
spidermama · 02/07/2006 21:31

I've just started trying that notanotter. The 4 year old is hopeless though and makes far more mess than he cleans up. (he's the main offender too.)
I reckon the six year old should be managing it by now.

Original poster
NotAnOtter · 02/07/2006 21:33

I tell them to lift lid - spray dettox spray all over all surfaces - wipe off with loo roll- flush and wash hands well!

OP posts:
spidermama · 02/07/2006 21:34

Ah! That's clever. I'm a bit old school so I have them wringing out cloths dipped in dettolly water. They flood the room every time, of course. I may try your method.

lilianna · 02/07/2006 21:37

no 4 is due either 11th or 12th of this month, so not long really.
DS1 is 3yrs old, he is unable to walk as he has cerebral palsy. DD is 2yrs old and DS2 is going to be 1 at the end of this month.

spidermama · 02/07/2006 21:39

Wow! Lilianna. All the best with the birth.

cazboldy · 02/07/2006 21:43

I have 4 kids (9, 6 , 5 and 6 months ) and i would LOVE a cleaner. I hate housework and its a thankless never ending task! shame I cant afford 1!

SecurMummy · 02/07/2006 21:44

I have 4 and no cleaner - and no H/P so does that qualify me?

cazboldy · 02/07/2006 21:44

p.s wow lilianna! you have been busy!

cazboldy · 02/07/2006 21:46

You qualify securmummy, but reckon you have an unfair advantage!
My dh is more messy than the kiddies!

rickman · 02/07/2006 21:47

Message withdrawn

TooTicky · 02/07/2006 21:47

Cleaner? That's me. 4 kids who don't know how. Although ds1 did very sweetly and quite uncharacteristically do the washing up yesterday evening. (Dd2's 1st birthday, and he loves her so much that he was in a saintly mood for most of the day!)

SecurMummy · 02/07/2006 21:57

Yeah - my exH was supposed to be in charge of cleaning downstairs and I would be in charge of upstairs - thing is - I would do the whole of the upstairs and he would have done the kitchen.....err.. and...well...erm..that's it!

He insisted that was all he could manage cause he worked fulltime, but then, so did I...and I did most of the childcare.

Anyway, in the last year I have found out, that it is possible to look after 4 children and keep the house tidy upstairs and down

Original poster
NotAnOtter · 02/07/2006 22:00

omg liliana - get off this thread !!! You NEED to be on the thread 'who HAS a cleaner'
You must be a saint and a very tired one at that!!!!

OP posts:
magnolia1 · 02/07/2006 22:02

I have 4 and nearly 5. My house is either tidy upstairs or downstairs but never both

Original poster
NotAnOtter · 02/07/2006 22:02

spider just read yours...hmmm your method is probably more eviromentally sound its just that with my boys wringing out a cloth means dip in water and drag sopping across floor - return to bucket and repeat! maybe mine are just weak!!!

OP posts:
SecurMummy · 02/07/2006 22:19

Lilanna - sorry I have just read your post properly - Hats off! You are one hec of a woman

QueenEagle · 02/07/2006 22:34

I don't have a cleaner (anymore - had one once when I was earning laodsamoney) and I have % kids.

dd aged 14.5
ds's aged 12.5, 10, 3.5 and 18 months.

Older kids clean their own rooms and change their own linen.

dd does her own ironing. ds1 will be doing his very soon - I am working on him making him think he will be thought of as very grown-up if he does it!

The older 3 have a chore each every day. I do a general tidy up every evening and morning and every week or so I have a mad cleaning blitz.

dh does bugger all but has been feeling my wrath in the last few weeks since I started working 3 nights a week and has now cleaned the toilet for the first time ever in 5 years!

If I could afford it, I would most definitely pay for one. And a gardener (used to have one of those too). Not enough hours in the day to do it all myself.

QueenEagle · 02/07/2006 22:34

That should read I have 5 kids