Your top tips of making home life easier

[snowydrops]

I am currently on Mat leave with DD2 (4 months), DC1 is 3.5yrs. Normally I work 3 days a week outside of the home and DH is full time 5 days a week.

I am very lucky in that we have a cleaner (every other week) who changes the bed, hovers and cleans. She doesn't tidy, organise, iron or do laundry, bins etc (and I wouldn't expect her to!)

Despite this we still seem to find it hard to keep on top of things. Obviously I have a young baby but what tips can people give for organising their home routine?? DH puts DC1 to bed and normally does the dinner dishes and bins and I do everything else, all laundry, all cooking (maybe not at weekend), all shopping, all tidying, packed lunch for DC1 and all general life admin. DH does all DIY and jobs to do with the cellar, when I'm back at work he will have to do more laundry but tbh it will still be mainly me as I have more time at home.

I wondered if anyone has come up with any useful ways of organising your week e.g all laundry on Monday, all admin on Tuesday or whatever?? I constantly feel like I'm doing everything and not a very thorough job of it.

Also I mentioned ironing...I don't actually iron anything unless absolutely essential!

Also have a tumble dryer, I LOVE it, dishwasher broke three months ago and I've just told DH we are buying another. I added up today and I washed it 4 times and we were out for lunch!! There are bottles at present but still it's very annoying

My mum had a book called 'sidetracked home executives'. I wouldn't recommend reading it unless you're desperate - you'll want to punch the (female) authors for being such subservient idiots, but in amongst the misogyny there are a few decent tips.

The one tip that really helped me is timing how long it take you to do those 'little' chores, e.g. wiping round sink, emptying bins, hoovering a room. You may be surprised how quick some of them are. Now, whenever I ever have, say, eight mins till I need to leave to pick up the kids from school, I know exactly what chore(s) I can squeeze in. So I do them (whereas previously I'd have faffed around on Mumsnet and probably been late for pick-up...)

I order all groceries online, including cleaning products, saves loads of time, I've found tesco and waitrose best.

I clean bathroom whilst dc in the bath.

I've discovered finish quantum dishwasher tablets that seem to leave every crusty pan spotless - I love my dishwasher and never wash up.

Don't iron unless critical.

Try to tidy as you go along - put things on stairs to go upstairs when you're passing etc.

I've trained dc to put their clothes in laundry basket, shoes on rack etc.

I get up at 7.40, school run 8.35. IN that time I shower, get kids breakfast, do their hair , pack lunches, load or un load dishwasher, load unload washer/dryer, make beds. Have a cup of tea , check Facebook :)
I'm a sham and have a cleaner 3x a week. I do the clearing she does the cleaning and ironing.
What really helps is that everything has a place, clothes, school stuff etc. I'm not searching for everything. I have an admin day on a Tuesday. Also prepping stuff the night before.
Life is still hectic even though I don't have a job.

Hifi how?! Alica that is a great tip!

My tip is the flylady 'home blessing hour'. Pick an hour, and have roughly 6 key 'maintenance' jobs that you can just about squeeze into 10 mins each, if you really rush. It is not about thorough cleaning but getting the minimum done. I forget her things but I had things like vacuum downstairs, wipe (v small) kitchen floor with disposable wipes, empty bins. With your cleaner doing the basics your list would look different.

Also keep supplies where you will use them. it's rubbish environmentally but those disposable wipes are great for a quick wipe over. I keep a set upstairs and another downstairs.

We used to have tidy up toys time, with special music (!!) after tea. It really helped but mainly because of the routine - in reality the adults did 90% of it.

My kids are older and i am really struggling with the clutter at the moment. So much paper and gubbins comes home from school, games stay out for days, DD sheds leotards, socks, recorders and hair bobbles all over the house, drawings, spellings and writing are started but never finished. I feel I need a new system too.