I know this has been done on other threads, but often responses are from families with 2 children.
With my eldest, I never really felt out of control - yes, there was often some laundry to put away but the house was usually in a state where if someone took her out to the park for an hour it looked pretty good.
9 years later I've got 4DC (youngest coming up for 3 soon). Really I reckon it wuld take a full day of hard graft to get the house properly decent, and I just don't ever have that much time.
Yes, children do sort of help a bit, but it doesn't make anything faster really! Eldest did everyone's toast this morning, one of the middle ones likes to do sitting room vaccuiming and everyone is expected to help (note: it's not being done independently) with tidying their rooms/the playroom. But tidying always has to be supervised, actual cleaning is all me (it's not like they're tall enough really!), cooking is me and when they "help" with the dishwasher they are basically passing me stuff as they can't reach cupboards.
I've just spent 20 minutes labelling fricking shoes. I haven't started doing uniform and I should probably sew those as the sticky labels don't survive a whole year. While I was doing that 5yo started playing backgammon with 2yo. Unsurprisingly, she doesn't understand the game and keeps getting it wrong. He got fed up and told her off and she turned the board over.....
So.... if you have more than 2 kids, HOW did you get back in control and WHEN did you manage it?
(As someone will definitely ask about DH: yes, he is in the picture, and he isn't much help with housework. Pretty rubbish in fact. Obviously it would be easier if he got on with it more. But he isn't in the totally useless category, he takes a big lead on hobbies and homework help. All big school projects I bow out of, he's coaching two of them for chess (which they love and I can't play for toffee), he does half of school runs, does all the driving round for hobbies and is the one that goes to the majority of concerts/school events. There's definitely an argument that he's getting the more fun end of the deal, but when he's done bedtime for the youngest it has been catastrophic.)