How much cleaning/tidying could you get done in a day?

[Dilettante]

With a 22 month old in tow?

Got BIL and new SIL whose house is immaculate (if a bit hairdresser chic for my taste) coming for the weekend and I've not started the obligatory pre-relatives clean up yet.

A whole day is fine isn't it, even with a toddler to amuse?

Well it's taken me 5 yrs and my house still looks like a shit-tip.

So 1 day probably won't be enough!

It's doable providing you have a lot of cupboards to lock your toddler in store stuff in so it's away.

Give the toddler a dish of water and a sponge and have them clean doors/skirting boards. They will love it.

DD2 also likes 'tidying' dry pasta off the floor into a container.

Make them feel like they are helping.

What I like to do is do as much frantic cleaning and tidying as possible and then say something like "Oh god sorry about the mess, I've been so busy all week I haven't had time to have a quick whip round...you'll have to take us as you find us I'm afraid" etc and thus (hopefully) give the impression that I am actually pretty neat and tidy, and that the bathrooms are always clean and the carpets always hoovered and that the neat piles of washing and stuff lined up for the charity shop/dump etc is just a temporary thing (instead of it being the best the house has looked in months).

Agree with homicidalmatriach, storage is key to such endeavours.

Give the toddler a cloth/wetwipe to scrub at stuff, my kids have often been quite helpful this way cleaning cupboard doors, windowsills, tv screens etc.