Realistic expectations of keeping a clean home

[JJ1992]

Ladies - i need advice and tricks for keeping a clean home.
I really struggle to keep my small home clean- by clean i mean bathroom, floors mopped , skirting boards etc.

Our weekly tasks like clearing out the fridge , regular hoovering, washing sheets and towels, emptying bins, shopping and never ending loads of washing seem to take up all my time. Im currently on maternity leave and cleaning a lot more than I normally would but even still my floors are grubby, my shower has water collecting and my tiles collect dust. I have a four year old and a 3 month old. What am I going to do when I go back to work??

How often are you mopping floors and cleaning the bathroom?

I think part of our issue is that my partner works hard and we like to spend time at the weekend socialising and visiting family. This means all of the grubby chores fall on me and I dont want to leave my newborn sat in a bouncer for hours on end.

I know that I dont need to stress about the house being immaculate but i would like to keep it to a decent standard.

Any advice on how to do this would be appreciated !

He helps - he either cooks or closes the kitchen every night - helps geting shopping - he does the bins when they need done too and he hoovers. He cuts the grass when he gets a chance.

This is not a me versus him situation. I just dont know how to manage the load of housework. And I think it must be something in doing wrong because I know friends with much bigger homes who mange to keep on top of theirs !

May need to think of a cleaner when I go back to work !

I don’t have any skirting boards so that solves that problem! Bathrooms get cleaned once a week, vacuum every two weeks mop once a month, dust once a week, clean kitchen once a week. And no, my home is not dirty, it’s fine! No wonder everyone on mumsnet wails they have no time left in the day, you’re all spending all your lives cleaning. I bet no one on their death bed has ever said they wished they’d cleaned more.

Honestly? I just clean things when they look dirty!

I clean the bathroom once a week/fortnight properly - give it the odd wipe down between times. I vacuum when I can see dust on the floor and I can't remember the last time I dusted my skirting boards? I think DH did them early this year I can't remember. Dusty tiles is also not something I tend to pay much attention to either. I do the washing when the basket is full and do bedding weekly. I do clean the kitchen when it's been used and we empty bins when they're full. DH and I do housework between us though he usually does the washing, DCs are now adults and have their own homes.

Seriously, I've raised 2 healthy DCs this way and no-one ever died of dust poisoning or anything. Life is too short to clean for the sake of cleaning. If it's dirty, clean it. If it's not, find something else to do.

I have a 4 year old and an almost 2 year old and I struggle too.

It's all very well saying jobs only take 5 minutes but they don't when you are mid way through wiping the hob and the 4 year old has missed the toilet and peed on the floor, whilst you wipe that up the 2 tear old trips and bumps their head so you get a cold compress but as you get it out of the fridge you knock a jar of pickle which smashes on the floor and needs clearing up. So you stick on Bluey to keep them out of the kitchen whilst you clear up the glass, except the 4 year old would rather be colouring so they pull all the toys out to find their pencils, meanwhile the 2 year old has got a leaked poo and you've misplaced the stain remover etc etc.

Just do what you can when you can and revisit when you do actually have some time.

You are on maternity leave with a baby and a 4 year old. Whatever you are doing about anything right now is just great and it’s ok to lower your standards for a while. Yes, keep on top of kitchens and bathrooms, but the world won’t end if your room gets done fortnightly. Likewise, doing skirting boards once a month is more than fine.

I wasn’t in a position to pay for a cleaner when the DC were small so I perfected lazy cleaning. Anti bacterial floor wipes (the big ones) are brilliant for bathrooms and you can clean whilst the 4 yo is in the bath.

If you can, empty the dishwasher in the morning and do the bins. Then washing up goes straight in, the DW is turned on after dinner and the kitchen wiped down. Toys go away at the end of the day, and 4 yo helps. While you’re off, try and keep on top of laundry, but it’s fine to leave to the weekend when you are back at work.

General dusting/hoovering/mopping can be done once a week. One of you wrestles entertains DC and the other runs round with the hoover. the key is to understand you are in the weeds at this stage, and just need to keep on top of what you can.

The only reason my house stayed clean was because my mum (a widow) used to come two or three days per week and help me. Don't beat yourself up about it, the kids soon grow up and it will get easier.

Get a cleaner when you go back to work or you need to have 1 night where you both clean when kids are in bed.

My top tips are:

A quick 5 min tidy of the living room of any toys, mugs, stray clothes etc before bedtime;

All washing up washed and put away + quick wipe over of kitchen worktops.

I find those two make a big difference to the feel of the house when starting the next day.

Floors: as and when needed probably couple times a week for kitchen and bathrooms. Flash do a good direct squirt and mop floor cleaner handy for a quick mop.

Bathrooms: loos and sinks get bleached and anti bac'd every other day. Deep cleaned once a week.

I think the key thing is utter focus and drive - give yourself 15 mins each day for example and charge through as much as possible then - day one bathrooms including the floors can be done in 15 mins ( in a small home anyway)
day 2 - kitchen in 15 mins -
day 3 upstairs - quick tidy dust and vaccum
day 4 downstairs - quick tidy dust and vaccum
day 5 the thing that’s bugging you the most
day 6 garden

the washing / laundry - that’s during the advert break in your favourite telly program

Cut yourself some slack you have a 3-month-old and a 4-year-old! Nobody with a newborn has pristine skirting boards.
A few quick shortcuts:
In-shower scrub: Keep a dish-wand filled with washing-up liquid in the shower and wipe the tiles while your conditioner sets.
Zone mop: Just mop the high-traffic middle areas of the floor weekly; ignore the corners for now.
Squeegee: Spending 30 seconds wiping the glass after a shower stops water marks before they start.
Around MCH, the standard advice for new parents is always to focus purely on basic daily resets and ignore the deep cleaning for now. Enjoy your family time instead!

I used to clean the rest of the bathroom when one of my DC was in the bath. I was there anyway watching them.

We have a robot vacuum but it's pretty temperamental. Gets stuck, misses things. I put it onto hard flooring now much better.

I do the dishwasher filter on a Thursday night . Washing over the weekend unless DH is WFH and he can hang it outside.
Clean the sink with some bleach on a Thursday.
Do the hard floors last thing so they dry overnight.

Shopping delivery on a Thursday. DH ordered them takes delivery during his lunch break

I vacuum everywhere on the Friday and sometimes Sunday if the cats have been moulting.

I need to do the skirting boards but I play a substitute (DS) for this one