People who “do all that AND work full time”. HOW??

[Mickeymackey]

Please share your secrets!

I’ve seen people say stuff like this a few times on threads and I’m baffled. I only work 20 hours a week and I’m pretty much flat out 6am-9pm as it is and my house isn’t anywhere near as clean as I’d like.
For example yesterday
Up at 5.45 with dc 4, stripped bed, emptied washing machine and put another load on, made breakfast for dc 3 and 4, emptied dishwasher, cleared draining board, wiped over sink, cleaned oven (just a wipe over). Hung out 1st load of washing, got dc 3 and 4 ready, got myself ready, wiped round bathroom, made dc1 breakfast. School run for dc3, home, hung out 2nd load of washing, remade bed, dusted one and a half bedrooms, made dc1snack, took dc4 to toddler group, came home made lunch for dc 1and 4, took dc1 to medical appointment, straight on to school run, got home, made dc1 and 3 snack, finished dusting remaining bedrooms, hoovered bedrooms, fed plants, listened to dc3 read, transferred not quite dry washing to tumble dryer, folded the rest, cooked dinner and made packed lunches for dp and dc2, tidied up from dinner, folded washing from dryer and put it all away, got dc3 and 4 into bath, read stories, put them to bed. Finished tidying downstairs, had a shower, made a drink, sat down at 9.15 and watched one episode of something. 10pm made dc1 bedtime snack, straightened up lounge, went to bed.
Today basically the same just different housework/appointments/activities. Tomorrow toddler group in the morning straight from school then a bit of housework, make lunch, get dinner in slow cooker, work for 3 hours (from home) pick up dc3, take them to club and work for another hour in the car while they’re at club. Come home, put away laundry, dish up dinner, go to yoga, come home read stories and put dc3 and 4 to bed, eat my dinner, make lunches for everyone, shower…Thurs and fri usual morning jobs, get dinner in slow cooker do school run and then go straight to work, home at 5.45 straight into dinner, clear up, bath and bed for dc 3and 4…

I must be missing a trick. How on earth do people do it all AND work full time hours. Are you all doing your housework at midnight? Any tips welcome because I’m meant to be upping my hours soon and I can’t see how without letting things slide around the house!

Less mess is created when people aren't at home all day.

I have 2 children not 4. I don’t do that much cleaning or dusting. Dh does half of pick ups and drop offs.

Not having 4 children, a partner who helps, a cleaner and childcare.

Only two children and don't clean so much.

The organised mum method
I have 2 DCs
I make the DCs help

If I had a partner they would be pitching in too.

1. You have 4 children
2. It sounds like your DP does fuck all (you even make his packed lunch?!?)
3. You have insanely high standards

Get the kids involved in some of the chores. Does DC1 really need a snack at 10pm?
Tell your DP to get his fucking act together, make his own damn lunch, and point out that his penis won’t fall off if he picks up a Hoover.
Ease up on the housework - you don’t need to be doing a deep clean every day.

Only 1 child here.
Dh works full time (40 hrs) I work part time (15hrs).
We have a gardener in summer, major decluttered, don’t clean ovens at breakfast time.

I do rarely sit down between 6am-9pm though

As others have said. It's the supportive partner and less dc(although you can't change that now obviously)
But for example
We get up in the morning.dh and I and 2 dc
Dh makes breakfasts and I get the kids sorted...help (cajole) them to get dressed, do DD's hair etc. Then as they eat I sort myself out. I tidy up the kitchen and we all leave.
When we get home, dh will make dinner, I will sort out other household jobs(laundry etc). We will both do homework with them I will tidy the kitchen and dh will start getting the dc sorted for bed (or vice versa)
When dc are in bed. I will make school lunches, dh might sort out something in the garden etc. And then we chill out and I will do some study (as I'm also doing another degree) We both work 39 hours.

Well you've got four kids and at least two of them are at home all day, making a mess if you were working full time kids would be at childcare so making a mess there instead!

.

Not everyone cleans to the same standard IMO. Some people have cleaners.

Only 1 kid and very low standards.

First, I have half the number of kids you do, and they’re out of the house until 5 three days a week.

Second, I make them help out more. If you’re school age you can put away clothes, help stack and unstack the dishwasher and tidy your stuff away (during lockdowns the black bin bag came out once or twice and they’ve been a lot better about not leaving their crap everywhere for me to clean up since then.

Third, I pander less. Everyone gets breakfast at the same time, because it’s more efficient. People of school age and over can either get their own snacks or if it’s something that they can’t make, they can wait until it’s convenient to me. Absent any additional needs, a person who can stay up until 10 can make themselves food. Husbands/partners can also make themselves (and the family) food.

Fourth, I think my standards are very much lower than yours!

not wearing my glasses at home makes dust magically dissapear

but honestly not doing everything is the honest answer. that and chores for dc and dh pitching in as well.

You need a cleaner and washing lady

I do it by:
-not having 4 kids (too many people to fit in a standard car = it’s never going to work out
-having a husband who does his fair share
-not really giving a shit if my oven is dirty

We both work full time. I work different shifts every week but always work at least one day on the weekend, sometimes both. Dh normally gives the house a good clean on the weekend and I will do some stuff on my day off in the week. It doesn't take long to become a pit though and that's with 2 children so I doubt to think how hard it would be with 4.

Children are in child care/school when I am working full time, of course. I don't mean that I am doing full time childcare at the same time as my full time job.
(Well not normally, but the times we tried that during the pandemic were not a massive success.)

On the other hand, just talked to a SAHM friend who claimed that she could not possibly ever get a job, because when would she do her grocery shopping then?? I don't know, evenings/weekends/online like the rest of us?

I don't do any housework during the week except laundry, emptying the dishwasher, quick very basic wipe of worktops and maaaaaybe sweeping the floor or rinsing the basins etc.
At the weekend DH and I share some housework like hoovering and mopping and cleaning bathrooms. Bedrooms are mostly pretty dusty but life is too short imo.

We have 2 children. I work 40-50 hours, DH does about 15 BUT with a lot of travel time for those 15 hours. He does a lot and we have a cleaner for 4 hours every second week ....

.... and we barely manage to keep on top of it.

So I'd say you need to lower your standards and/or get more help. For a start, neither of our children need full time care as they're both at school and when younger, we always had at least one day of childcare.

But right now, I'm sitting on the bed having just finished a work call and spending 5 minutes decompressing on MN before I leap into the next piece of work before I then make supper/bath DD and get her to bed (Dh is at work).

The bed I'm sitting on needs the bedding changed but neither of us have had time. One bathroom will be cleaned tomorrow by the cleaners and the other one Dh did before guests came over on Sunday. I used the robot vacuum in our room yesterday and downstairs on Sunday but today didn't even find time to clear out the kids' rooms sufficiently to put it on so that will be on tomorrow's list. Tomorrow I also need to make sure that DH and I have done all the washing because, on the plus side, my ironing lady is collecting the ironing on Thursday.

DD vacuumed the stairs on Sunday and will do them again tomorrow. DS unloads the dishwasher before school. I did the online shop yesterday and meal planning and DH unloaded it this afternoon.

And, like I said, with all this, we're still barely on top of things.

I don't strip the beds until the weekend. Also how old is DC1? If he's having a bedtime snack at 10pm I'd guess he's probably old enough to be making it him/herself. Along with his/her own other snack and lunch. Delegate!

We do a huge clean on friday night / saturday morning so all the bathrooms and kitchen cleaned down and upstairs dusted vacced and bedding changed, we then do the absolute basics in the week like washing/drying/vaccing the common areas and cooking. There are 5 of us and as soon as we have saved enough to move house I will be getting a cleaner!

I’m guessing don’t have ADHD is one top tip. I do and it's impossible. Following for advice:D

You've got too much dusting and preparing snacks in there. Quite possibly a bit too much washing too.
I'm presuming you stripped the bed at some u godly hour in the morning because it was wet.

Just for reference, I can't remember the last time I dusted. It's a totally unnecessary chore.