keeping on top of housework

[city1984]

I have 2 early primary dc and a 3 month old. I have a dh who shall we say is not very hands on when home. Also works long hours.
I didn't even have help post csection so I guess I have never caught up.
The baby is obv still keeping me up at night and I am shattered.
Any tips appreciated including how to convince dh that I need help. He seems to think I am behind because I spend all day shopping and going to groups. (A conclusion reached based on him working from home for a few days the last week of term)
Thank you

Watching with interest, have 2 boys aged 5 and 7, DD1 due very soon, and DH with good intentions but a demanding job and little time. Am anticipating my life centring largely around the washing machine for the next few months while my older children live off a diet of baked beans (which they would be quite please about actually.....). Also our house is on the market, so if anyone does ever decide to view it it needs to be presentable.....

I'm also watching! I've being saying I need to get routine in my house since my dd was born, she's now 14 .

I do at least 2 wash loads a day and find if I don't I end up with a pile I just can't get on top of, in the winter. I couldn't manage in the winter without my tumble dryer either.

Children all have their own chores to do.

Try having a housework timetable for a while ie Mon bathroom, Tue Kitchen, Wed living room. Then you only have to clean the toilet and vacuum every day or two, which you could prob do before going out with baby to one of your local groups.

I also cook in bulk at weekends when DH is about to help. Then on week days I just need to get something out the freezer and don't have to juggle cooking and childcare.

Ultimately the housework doesn't matter, as long as the children and you are happy. With such a young baby rest is more important than a clean, tidy house.

I found writing a to do list of housework and giving it to DH when I left for work in the evening, made him realise just how much housework there is to get done each week. He said it was nearly impossible with the youngest to look after. I just pointed out that I still had to do both during the day.

Most of the time DH just doesn't think to offer to help with housework but will do it if I ask. I tend to think of him a bit like another child when it comes to instructing him how to help.

Can you and the baby go away for a weekend & leave him with the other DCs?He'll soon realise what needs to be done!Don't know how much if anything he does at present but my DH does bathtime every night he is home and I use that time ( about an hour) to do washing & put laundry away,otherwise don't know when I'd do it.Also have a cleaner 3 hrs a week.Don't have time to iron.Mine are 3,nearly 2 and another one due in 8 weeks,I work 2 days per week and without the cleaner & DHs bathtime help I'd find it really hard to keep on top of it all too as I can't leave my youngest alone during the day to do stuff in rooms other than the kitchen.

And also,can you get shopping delivered to save time?Asda deliver for £3 where I live and Iceland do it for free over £25.

I have 3 small ones. I am on my own with them a lot. I find that shaving time off jobs when ever I can helps, it might only be five minuets here and there but it all adds up.

I a hospital appointment the other day that 'happened' to coincide with school pick up so the DC's father had to step in, it did him good!

Other things that help are:
No ironing.

At least 1 wash load a day.
Have five sets of clothes lined up for the week for yourself so you can get showered and dressed super fast and if your clothes don't make it through the wash until the Saturday it doesn't matter. Ditto for school uniform (I buy spare school uniform from the second hand rail to cover items that get lost under beds and things).
Baths every other day, less for the baby.
Slow cook and freeze so that you are not cooking every day.
Ocardo, I can do my weekly shop in 10 minuets as it saves all of your favorites (plus you only pay once a month to cover all of your deliveries).
Use a sling, I started with an Ergo baby carrier, youngest sometimes goes on my back while I make tea and do small bits of house work. Also makes going out a lot easier.
Each person in the house has a colour, they get that colour towl, toothbrush, water bottle etc. If somethings is left on the floor you know who it belongs to. Same with laundry, clean washing is sorted into coloured buckets (those plastic trug things that you find at garden centers) and left in their rooms after they have gone to sleep to be put away later (eventually by them when they are older).

Have you got a dishwasher and a dryer? In the winter I tumble everything that I can get away with a if an item won't go in the dishwasher it doesn't get used!

Have a dishwasher but no tumble dryer. Thank you for tips.

The colour thing works until they get older then they all want to wear black lol
I had DC1 in yellow, DC2 in purple and DC3 in pink DC4 blue, worked for yrs now DC2 has announced her favourite colour is blue and despite DC4 being a boy he can't have blue anymore grrrr