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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

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Original poster

can't get round to doing the housework, am I alone?

23 replies

olliebird · 26/03/2007 12:51

desperately planning to get out to work so I can pay someone else to do what I just can't get round to. It's just such a bore and never goes away. I reduced cleaner to once a week and I just got really really depressed. I can sit all day and never get round to it and just get more and more down. I also seem to have a threashold of about 45 minutes afterwhich I can't do any more. House is in such a state its embarassing. Am I alone?

OP posts:

Clary · 26/03/2007 12:54

Olliebird have you tried breaking it down into 15-min tasks, eg hoover stairs, clean bathroom, washing on line, sort laundry etc etc?

I now have a cleaning schedule and it's great - I look and think, OK, don't need to clean cooker top/change our bedlinen as doing it tomorrow.

cathcart · 26/03/2007 13:05

I can't get round to doing the housework cos I can't seem to get off mn! Usually set myself 1 chore each day which is enough with new baby.

CadburyCremeSquonk · 26/03/2007 13:07

I want everyone to know that I am not sitting at computer on mn - I am tidying, hoovering, polishing and cleaning. My house is like a showhome.

Honestly

clumsymum · 26/03/2007 13:08

Every day for the last 2 weeks I have promised myself that I will clear the huge backlog of mail (most of it junk) from my desk.

I just never get around to it.

Original poster

olliebird · 26/03/2007 13:09

think it would take me a whole moring to change the sheets - as other jobs would come up on the way. perhaps Im just not quick enough.. I feel I could do it if it was only once a month I had to do all the chores that should be done daily or weekly. I can do it for a couple of days but then run out of steam. Perhaps I should do an hour a day and limit it and then not feel guilty. Just seems like I'd have to be up til three in morning every night if everything was do get done properly and if i did this I would only be going round in circles and not going anywhere or actually achieving anything. Perhaps I just have a bad attitude!

OP posts:

newmummy01 · 26/03/2007 13:09

I'm in the same boat since having dd 11 weeks ago. Only seem to manage the washing/ironing and dishes done while the rest of the house is a tip. DD never gives me a minute and I try desperately to get things done when dh gets home from work

CadburyCremeSquonk · 26/03/2007 13:10

Seriously, I have bought myself a new notebook today, and I am intending to do a kind of cleaning rota for myself. At the moment I have every intention of sticking to it, but the fact that I haven't even unpacked it from the shopping bag so I can mn for a bit does not bode well.

charliecat · 26/03/2007 13:10

I have ventured into my bedroom today for the first time in well over a month to TIDY it, not just sleep in it.
You must do somethings, like dishes, or cooking, or washing?
Its all the OTHER things, that are on top of the day to day grind that I have trouble doing.

CadburyCremeSquonk · 26/03/2007 13:13

I'm on top of the washing. I'm on top of the washing up and the hoovering and generaly tidying up after the children.

It's cleaning out cupboards, and sorting out old clothes, and like you say, the bedroom that I never seem to get round to.

brimfull · 26/03/2007 13:14

olliebird-I so know where you're coming from.It is such a bore.Same thing day after day.
I find it helps if you invite someone round that you care what they think,spurs me on .

brimfull · 26/03/2007 13:14

I've been meaning to clean out drawers for months now.

LilRedWG · 26/03/2007 13:15

Newmummy01 - get your DH to do some of the housework!

Original poster

olliebird · 26/03/2007 13:23

i really admire people who have tidy clean houses and I know I should be able to do this myself - would be good excercise wouldn't it. Think I need someone to reprogramme my brain so I get a buz of self esteem every time I do a chore (instead I just get cross that this seems to be my job -- why??)

Is this partly why women go out to work because it's a way out of some of the drudgery.

On a personal level I am recovering from six years of having 2 babies, doing up several houses, moving house several times, building up a successful business that involves lurching from one crisis to another - all without any real childcare help. So I've achieved so much and do so much .... but can't seem to conquer the housework.

OP posts:

CadburyCremeSquonk · 26/03/2007 13:25

olliebird - that is exactly how I feel.

The first few months at home after being self-employed for years was my "break" and I never seem to get out of that rut.

I want a clean and tidy house, but there's playing with the littlies, mn, telly, newspaper, crossword.... all seem more important at the time. Then it's midnight and I really feel I should do something but I go to bed instead.

Original poster

olliebird · 26/03/2007 13:35

yes ditto, happens every evening.

Also keep thinking maybe my house is badly arranged and if I only organised it better and bought more pieces for furniture to store things in then it wouldn't get so messy, but i suspect this a delusion and anyway have yet to find the energy for this big reorganisation. I find myself planning how I could move the washing machine upstairs or move some furniture round or get the builders and in and things would be easier ... daydreaming about reorganinsing my life instead of tidying up

OP posts:

brimfull · 26/03/2007 13:39

I think at the end of the dya we all do the things we like doing first.I hate tidying and that's always what need doing before I can get to the cleaning ,which funnily enough I don't actually mind doing!
I blame everyone else for messing up the house.Now if I lived on my own ,it would be spotless.I remember before dc's I used to clean the pictures on the wall on a regular basis.

dmo · 26/03/2007 13:45

i have a cleaner 2 days a week to help me
this means all i have to do is wash/dry/iron
and tidy round mopping etc
it really helps

LadyOfTheFlowers · 26/03/2007 13:49

i ahve done alline thismorning. knowing that once it is done, kids permitting, i cant then do what i want, come on here, watch tv eat biscuits etc.
plus the fact that if i dont do it no one else will keeps me spurred. my house is small or 'cosy' so i have to keep it up together, plus when it is in a state it depresses me.

CadburyCremeSquonk · 26/03/2007 13:50

You're right about everyone else messing it up, ggirl. If I was on my own, it would never get messy or dirty in the first place!

And it is soul-destroying to spend hours cleaning a room, to go and have a bath or whatever, then you come down and even you can't tell you cleaned it!

Dan4Han · 26/03/2007 19:41

I haven't really done anything as i was out for most of the day and had to pay a hecking big council tax bill I plan to do alot tommorow!!!

BabiesEverywhere · 28/03/2007 10:45

I am just starting to get to grips with the housework as a SAHM (on maternity leave)and the best things I have learnt to date is from my mum. i.e. Treat it like a job. Giving yourself set times and set breaks to have a good balance of work and life.

I am also learning to FLY Fly lady shows how to break jobs down and to stop the super cleaning for three days and then none all week cycles.

I am doing a regular morning, afternoon and before bed routines around my baby daughter's nap time and it really helps the house looks better.

Though it will take months for the entire house to be finished. Any how only got 5 minutes computer time before I go to hoover the stairs carpet

Original poster

olliebird · 28/03/2007 21:19

thanks BE so much flylady looks really good - just what I need I'm going to give it a try, maybe ill get a timer to help, thanks again

OP posts:

BabiesEverywhere · 28/03/2007 22:26

No problem

I find the timer most useful to limit my computer time, I give myself a 30 minute computer break and when the buzzer goes, I go and do some house work.

I have this timer from lakeland, I love it as it has a neck band to wear it and I store it on the fridge using the magnet on the back.
Timer

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