When did you have time to clean house?

[hoomama]

I had a 4 year old and an 20 month old.

My house is an absolute TIP. It has been for the past 4 years! I work 4 days a week as on the other 3 days I am running around after the Girls!

What age were your kids when you were able to tidy the house properly again?

I feel like it might be another 2 years away 🙈. The eldest one always wants me to play and the youngest one is stuck to my hip so it is just not doable!!

Mine are 6 and 3 and I still haven't worked it out, it's a constant battle. Declutter and just try and do what you can when you can

I used a trick on my kids which was i sang some songs and during that time we all cleared up .. well i cleaned as fast as i could, they did what was in their ability. When the songs stopped we all got a treat.
I know it prob sounds odd but they loved it and still remember it fondly. It was often done to.the old benny hill.tune..!
Other than that, every sleep time , tv time, or if dh took them out.

I also rotated downstairs toys. We also had two bookshwlves for toys which were tidied before.meal times daily. Even little ones can do it.
Oh , i also cleaned when they did imaginative play.. eg built a den under the table for a secret world picnic.. they wd get the tea set out and hide with teddies which gave me a bit of time.
Also, you can fold laundry and clean bathroom when they are in the bath. I used to give mine a lavender oil bath( relaxing for.me too) if they had a bad day, this and the water soothed them and i got the folding done.

... when I retired...
Seriously, am sorting through stuff now from about 40 years ago.
Hope this makes you all feel better (don't even have kids!!).
The robot hoovers and mops are a game changer and worth saving up for (if cash spare after that - water softener - amazing how much grot clings to limescale).

I'd love a robot hoover, are they actually any good though?

DP used to take the kids to do the food shopping and to the park at 9am every Satursay morning. I'd have 2 interrupted hours to do a big clean/tidy.

We would also swap sometimes (but I prefer cleaning over shopping).

When the kids are awake there is toys out but when they go to bed I put them away, we have minimal toys downstairs that we rotate with toys from their bedroom otherwise it just becomes hectic.

Also toys are locked in a cupboard, they chose 2 full box's at a time to play with and when they stop I put it away and let them chose another two, when we had a Kallax unit they literally just pulled EVERYTHING out for the sake of it then became overwhelmed and didn't play with anything!

Birth - 6 months. Did the bare minimum, house was a tip!
6 months - 2.5 years - dh took ds out every so often so I could catch up on cleaning.
2.5 years - 3 years. Ds started nursery 4 hours per week so I got bits and pieces done.
Now he's 3 and goes to a new nursery 3 hours every Morning and it's easy to keep on top of things. Heavily pregnant again now though so back to square one for me again soon!

I tidied when they napped as babies. Now they’re all older; 7,4 & 2, I clean and tidy either when they’re in bed or when they’re occupied with an independent activity.

4 and 1 here. Normally at night when they're in bed. Or whilst playing (although I hate the imaginary play stuff). Sometimes if they went to grandparents I'd do a blitz but generally I've lowered my standards. I'm ruthless on toys otherwise it becomes maniac

Yeah. Lock the cupboard and limit what comes out

Baby in a playpen and toddler / young child on an iPad.

And then just whizz round doing as much as you can.

Buy less stuff.

Something in something out.

Choose one room with a bin bag and don’t be sentimental.

Do little and often , I'm always cleaning / tidying . Unfortunately if you wants clean house you have to do it when you want to sleep .

When dd is in bed. There's no point during the day, she's a little tornado so I just pick up any rubbish that accumulates. Then as soon as she's asleep, I get the tidying up done, any cleaning that needs doing (really not much as I tend to do one room an evening so it keeps thing to a minimum). With hoovering and dusting I'm usually done within an hour, and then can just relax.

@LivingDeadGirlUK

I'd love a robot hoover, are they actually any good though?

My Eufy 15C Max has changed my life! And one by one, everyone in the family is getting one

I know that when you have two kids, you have to clean every half hour. I'm tired of doing it, believe me. Suddenly on the Internet I found an article about the pros and cons of robot vacuum cleaners. I liked this funny thing so much that I decided to buy it. I will tell you honestly, it is the best purchase in a long time, since my kids are always crawling on the floor. And the cats love it))))

My mom will come round on a Saturday and some of those days I’ll tackle the cleaning/sorting while she entertains my son.
Other times i’ve book annual leave to do a full house clean.
Bedtime i’ll get day to day cleaning done… other nights i really cba!