How do you keep on top of housework?

[Barbiez]

How is everyone keeping on top of their housework during summer hols? My kiddies are 5 and 2, really struggling at the moment to keep on top of everything. My house has never looked so neglected
Any tips or tricks, let me know!

Ooh. Now then. I was tempted to write a similar post. I am one of those who can't clean as you go and end up in an absolute pickle then it takes many hours to tackle one room!! I have been off for the summer. DS is older (18) so I don't have to look after him. But he is a horror at leaving his crap about. So. This summer I havr done the WHOLE house (bar his room!) This is the first time house has been straight since we moved in over a year ago. When I start work (and teacher training) in Sept there will be little time for mammoth blitzes. However. I am loving having a tidy straight house. I do feel calmer!! So. What I have decided is. 15 minutes a day to keep on top of it. So I'll do the normal daily stuff. Washing up, laundry etc. But for 14 minutes I will do 1 little job. To keep on top of it. I've written a list. Eg
change my bed and dust bedroom
clean all upstairs glass and cills
clean bathroom ie shower, toilet etc
hoover upstairs
hoover downstairs
mop upstairs and down (yes same mop and water)
hoover hall and stairs
wipe all doors
wipe all radiators
Etc

Hopefully, seeing as it's only 15 minutes I can do it!! I even looked forward to today's task!!! I only managed to do the bed today as I spent forever searching for matching pillowcases!! May I should add sort airing cupboard to list!! So tomorrow I will dust room. And start on next task if time.

But, of course, if house is a bit of a pickle, giving it a good bottoming first is a necessary investment!!

I will say though, when mine is really bad, I'll do the 15 min thing there too. It's better than nothing. And limiting it to 15 mins feels less overwhelming than tackling the whole thing. PS I do have a robot vacuum (cheap Vileda one from Lidl) that I'm planning to set going every time I take the dog out. It's pretty thorough. If it doesn't get stranded on a rug!!

We invite people round (now it’s allowed) roughly once a week. This forces us to have a mad, all hand on deck tidy up and clean atleast once a week.

We’re really crap on keep in top of house work unless we know people will see the house 🙈

I can only keep on top of housework if everyone else either helps out or stays out.

If everyone does something every day then it's easier to keep things ticking over. Unfortunately that's not happened in the last week and my house looks terrible. Especially after a wet weekend where we've all been cooped up together.

Little and often is working for me at the moment. I also get it done first thing as I find that the kids are at their most calm in the mornings!

I lower my standards for the holidays. Everything is easier once the dc go back to school and we’re all in a solid routine that doesn’t rely solely on my will power.

Over the last few years I have decluttered ruthlessly. And we zoned the house - every room has a clearly defined function and that makes it easier to decide where things belong (and to be aware when we’ve run out of space and we need to purge that category of belongings). It doesn’t take long to return things to their home, now that I know where that is, and I can actually fit them back in.

Right now that house needs a good clean but I’m not overly bothered because it won’t take much to pull it back into shape. Once the kitchen is clean, the bathroom is respectable and there are clean clothes to wear, the rest can wait.

The way I approached this was to sack off the housework and enjoy the holidays with the kids .

Of course you have to cook, do washing and clean the bathroom, but everything else can be left to go to wrack and ruin IMO.

Ask yourself honestly - what would happen if you just didn't do housework? You would then have time to go for an icecream, which is actually a civic duty, helping to keep the economy afloat.

My robot vacuum has been amazing. I set it loose a couple of times a day and it does make the place feel cleaner. Other than that, I try to do various jobs during the week but the main cleaning is at the weekend.

Combination of Flylady routines and The Organised Mum Method (TOMM) saved our house!!
It's quite a lot per day (to me, anyway) 45 minutes - one hour. I don't manage that every day but as PP said, if you do 15 mjns a day, that helps so much.

There's a great TOMM website/app/ FB group for more detail but very briefly, idea is you split tasks into levels one, two and three:

L1 = 15 mins daily tasks - make beds, load of laundry, hoover high traffic areas, one thing in bathroom each day and rotate.

L2 = 30 minutes on each space- Mon - living room, Tues - bedrooms, Wed - hall, stairs and landing, Thursday - kitchen

L3 - Fridays - 30 minute deep clean in one of eight areas. This changes each week.

Been doing it about two years and it gets easier over time. Setting a timer is very important. You are meant to stop once timer goes off and pick up on it next time.

Things like washing up are not included in the time.

Love the ticklist on the app. Takes away a lot of mental load.

Jusy realised you were asking specifically about holidays, sorry got carried away!

Maybe just do level one (15 mins) and 10 minutes of level two. That will give enough time to enjoy the summer but keep things ticking over. Memories are more important than a spotless home for sure.

I love that the Friday treat on TOMM is an extra thirty minutes of cleaning!

If you can see dust don't write your name in it

I don’t!

I don't. Tbh. I try my absolute best but I am overwhelmed. I have a dd and a dog. If I'm at work I find there's much less mess to deal with!! But it's a never ending cycle of one room being clean and the next not. Dd follows me and messes it all up again and I am just so tired and overwhelmed I end up giving up and saying sod it I'll do it tomorrow.

It's all gone to shit over the summer. We are decorating, which hinders greatly. There are piles of stuff everywhere.

Generally I do a very lackadaisical version of TOMM, and on a good day I summon the troops to all do 10 mins of tidying together after dinner. Smallest trooper's first job is always to put some suitable music on. I really should get back on the wagon with that one.

Basically I think housework is like dieting. Any system can work, the difficult bit is sticking to it. But @dontfuckingsaycheese I do like the sound of your list. Apartment Therapy has a similar list of how to clean your house in 20 mins a day.

I've started doing TOMM as well and I'm loving it. I tweaked her routines to suit our house and now I just do whatever's on the list, then stop, knowing that whatever isn't done will turn up on the list another day. It's very freeing to not have to think about it any more.

You know the way a lot of men seem to do the 'I'll do whatever you want, as long as you tell me what to do' thing? It's like that, but Gemma tells you what to do

Color coded system works wonders. You can color code each room etc on a chart.

Do you have a partner?

During holidays DH takes the kids out on a Saturday or Sunday morning and I do the cleaning then.

We also keep on top of things during the week. Tidy up after tea, wipe surfaces, put things away etc.

Decluttering as much as possible. Be ruthless.
Then write a list to tackle one job a day (defrosting and sorting freezer. Wardrobes. Kids toys)
I literally have every job I wanted to do done but I don't stop. So tomorrow I will give my car a sort out. Go back to jobs I've done and sort again and throw out more. It's enjoyable for me as I batch cook and then can have the odd week off.

I don't think there are any shortcuts tbh. Even using TOMM...I think Gemma hugely underestimates how long it takes the average person to do things.

The only thing that works for me is to spend a lot of time doing it. I think if you want a nice house you have to put the time into it. Or you could get a cleaner or give your family jobs. Either way there is no quick fix IMO.

I guess the trick is to spread out the jobs. Put things away. Clean as you go. Do the kitchen every night before bed. Clean the bathroom when you use it. De clutter...But it all comes down the same thing...elbow grease and time.

I do it every day so it doesn't build up into a mammoth task. When ds was little I had lots of wicker baskets and scooped all the toys into them so it looked tidy quickly. Term starts again soon then you'll find it easier. I remember the last week of the holidays feeling desperate