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!

Oh wow I missed the 10pm snack! You are being taken for a mug

4 children does mean more cleaning though, for those of you saying it’s too much cleaning.
They make double the mess of 2.

Sorry? Just saw that DC1 is poorly. Unable to walk to the kitchen level of poorly?

Sometimes not all rooms get cleaned every week, and I tumble dry everything that can be. I don't hang stuff up to partially dry, to then tumble dry it and then fold it. Too much repeat work.

It's not good for the planet and is presumably doing sweet f a for my energy bills but I just, don't. Have, the. Time

I only have one child (DC2 on the way though), DH does a good share of it, we have stuff like a robot hoover, and we follow TOMM, which has genuinely changed our lives for the better. But with four kids and doing it all solo, I think you just don't have enough hours in the day, really! Something has to give and probably best it's the housework!

Only 2 kids here.
No dusting.
Big jobs like changing beds are done at the weekend.
Bathrooms cleaned weekly
Whole house hoovered weekly, kitchen and hallway daily
I batch make sandwiches and freeze so not making daily.
DC responsible for their own laundry.
Make double portions where possible so second portion goes in the freezer for another day.
Buy healthyish snacks like malt loaf and teacakes for dc to help themselves.

DH does a lot is the main difference. I would never make DPs packed lunch either.

@Regularsizedrudy

Oh wow I missed the 10pm snack! You are being taken for a mug

In normal circumstances I’d agree but dc 1 currently has to have the snacks for medical reasons. Poor dc2 has to fend for themselves though

All of you who have commented on the snacks though have made me realise that the time spent preparing food for dc1 isn’t insignificant and is probably one reason I’m struggling. Especially as they were a lot more self sufficient for a few years before they got ill. It won’t be forever but isn’t something I can choose to drop/ change at the moment.

The feck are you 'making' for dc1 at late night snack time??? And what's with all the cleaning on week days.

I do about 20% of the housework you do - much of what you described would be weekly / monthly jobs - and I don’t have 4 kids, and I have a husband who would do 50% of the 20% you described.

Don’t be so hard on yourself, you’re doing amazing.

Also no one will reach their death bed and wish they’d done more housework and I will repeat that mantra until the day I die (where I will not wish I’d cleaned my oven more often)

Hi OP, I also have 4 kids and part time job from home (a very demanding role though). I have let loads slide housework wise and am not so fussy as I was. Any spare time, the kids take precedence. However, I have recently got a cleaner for a few hours every 2 weeks and it is such a relief and load off my ins that I highly recommend it if you can. Just knowing someone is going to the jobs I just don’t have time for like cleaning windows and moving furniture to hoover under is so great. Good luck!

2dc, tbh dusting/cleaning happens only when they’re at school/preschool! DH does dishwasher before he leaves for work. I don’t clean the oven, tend to tidy kitchen once kids in bed. One wash on every morning, into tumble dryer during day at some point, put away eve when kids are in bath. Sounds like you do more daily housework than we do. Hoovering tends to be a shared weekend job.

You’ve asked how people do it then made a list of reasons why you simply MUST clean up others peoples pissy drips etc. You’re the only person who can stop spreading yourself so thin.

With regards to snacks for DC1 - is there anything you can do to make life easier on yourself or does it have to be certain types of food?

Just wondering if you could batch cook flapjacks/ savoury muffins or something to freeze and then defrost when needed?

I didn't have four kids.

I have 4 kids, only been back to work a few months and our whole Saturday is spent cleaning. Dh works from home and does as much as he can in terms of washing and tidying. Our house is filthy, messy, the works. Sometimes it's not so bad but I think if anyone we knew saw it theyd say it's obviously not working for us

Your dc need to do more. Possibly dc1 is unable to? But school age children can help. I have four dc, youngest is 7 and can now do dishwasher, recycling, hoovering and pretty much any job I ask her to. All four do one job a day on school days, so dishwasher / clear table / empty bins / put washing on etc
Do that’s four major jobs a day done.

Also we’re doing well if bedding is changed fortnightly and I think I have cleaned the oven once since we moved in here.

I work full-time and have done throughout having 2 kids. Sometimes I am away from home for up to 3 nights so dc1 though only 12 is quite self sufficient and can make packed lunches etc. We have a cleaner 4 hours a week including ironing. We have multiple pets. I don't do any dusting. I do the odd Hoover, lots of tidying, laundry etc.
It sounds like OP is quite fussy and the children don't do anything to help .

I think you probably do need to cut back on some stuff and find ways to simplify.

eg: Snacks - clearly your DC needs these and it's a big issue, but can you find ways to limit the effort? I assume the snacks are more substantial than a rice cake but if you're preparing, can you do snacks for the day while doing lunches so you just grab one and give it to them at snack/medicine time? Or can you buy more pre-prepared snacks? Or do bulk cooking of some sort - eg a huge batch of muffins kept in the freezer?

Obviously, a cleaner would be good. You don't seem to see this as an option but I'd consider it. even if it was just for say 2 hours a week to do the bathrooms, mopping etc. I'd also get a robot vacuum. They are incredibly useful. Spend 5 minutes making sure you've picked up anything off the floor (or get kids to do it), turn on robot and go get on with something else.

Do you have a tumble dryer? We don't tumble dry everything, but tumble drying bedding, towels, underwear and socks massively reduces the constant effort of hanging those up and also makes the house significantly less messy.

Organised mum method takes about 1hr a day
Cleaner (I know it’s cheating)
Less children
Send children to childcare while I am not at work to tackle big jobs like spring clean
Tiny house

I have a cleaner. 3 hrs once a week. I wouldn't manage without her. And I only have 2 kids.

@Regularsizedrudy

You’ve asked how people do it then made a list of reasons why you simply MUST clean up others peoples pissy drips etc. You’re the only person who can stop spreading yourself so thin.

Sorry I didn’t mean to do this or dismiss people’s suggestions. Sorry if I have offended anyone by seeming to do this.I was just trying to explain that it’s not actually a case of lazy dp and dc which it may have seemed from my rather rushed and garbled op. Obviously dp and teenagers are capable of keeping the loo clean after they use it but younger ones not so much. I spend a lot of time telling dc4 NOT to touch the loo seat everywhere we go so it may confuse things if I suddenly start expecting them to clean it at home (plus would take a lot longer and be far more effort to supervise them doing it than to quickly do it myself!). Dc4 is only 2, anything they do to ‘help’ (aside from putting their own toys in the box) is often more of a hindrance than an actual help. Like yes they can put the clothes in the washing machine or sweep the floor but then what takes me 30 seconds takes 5 minutes or more.

I guess with the cleaning in my head it makes sense to allocate 10/15/20 minutes or whatever to it daily to keep on top of it so it’s already built into your day rather than leaving the dusting etc until it’s really bad and then having to try to find a couple of hours from somewhere to clean properly. Maybe that doesn’t make much sense to others but it’s how my mind works!

I don’t find the cleaning itself too much trouble (although there is a lot of house to clean), it’s more the incidental stuff on top of that like when dc empties the shoe cupboard or their nappy leaks and bed needs changing or dc3 spills juice everywhere. They only take a few minutes to sort but all the few minutes add up!

Thanks for all the suggestions and it’s good to know that the people on this thread at least are not actually doing it all in quite the way I was imagining!

@Icanflyhigh, I hope you’re ok. It’s horrible feeling like you’re not on top of things

The thing that jumped out at me was the snack making for DC late at night-if they’re old enough to still be up, can’t they get their own snack?

Mickeymackey

@Icanflyhigh, I hope you’re ok. It’s horrible feeling like you’re not on top of things

Seconding this