I'm really struggling with my home and kids. I shouldn't be, i've been a lone parent for over twelve years. We live in a two bed house which I converted to a three so we dont have much space upstairs. Ds's bedroom the smallest, would be 7ft by 7ft but has a built in cupboard making it an L shape. It is also unmodernised so I have a very tiny kitchen, actual floor space between worktops 3ft by 5ft, just to give you some kind of idea.
I'm not ocd about it being tidy, although I prefer it tidy I realise this probably isnt realistic with two kids. However, I like it clean and if it's too untidy I cant get around to clean. This is the main problem.
I have four cats and a dog so I obviously knew when I got them they would make more work, this is ok.
In the summer, I was ill. As if it wasn't bad enough that my legs were so painful and weak I couldn't walk further than the end of the street without falling over, my hands were so painful I could barely touch anything (couldn't even peel an orange so cooking was out). I'm much better than I was but am still very weak and get tired easily, seem to have lost a lot of strength. My home really suffered, although my mum did help me she could only do the surface work (washing up, loading washer, bit of mopping etc). I've been trying to get my home back in order since then. The way I prefer to do it is blitz one room at a time, cleaning, polishing, cobwebs, scrub skirtings, doors, wipe walls...everything basically. But it seems an impossible task, while I do this the rest of the house gets trashed.
My dd is a lazy bugger, will throw papers and packets on the floor even if she has to walk past the bin to do it. I am sick and tired of telling her to pick her shit up. Ds is very tidy but he does such daft things which I suspect is mainly due to his Dyspraxia so I can hardly tell him off for it. He will put things in wierd places, put my clothes away in his room thinking they are his own, forget what he's doing on a regular basis.
Here's the bit I namechanged for. I decided to blitz the bathroom as part of my ongoing crusade. I brought the bathroom cupboard downstairs to repair, and repainted it etc. I asked ds to carry it back upstairs for me as he is stronger than me at the moment (he's 14 btw). He asked what to do with the stuff that's usually in it. I said not to worry, just put it in the corner near the cupboard and i'd deal with it in the morning. So this morning I find everything in the bath, mouthwash, sponges, soaps...not only that but in the night dd (seven years old) had peed...in the bath...because she was desperate. This is partly my fault, we only have one toilet which is downstairs and to get to it in the night one would have to go downstairs, switch off the alarm, wake the dog in the lounge, go through the kitchen into the back porch, fight to not allow the cats into the lounge and finally get to the loo, all in the dark. So I did say to her years ago if she really needed to pee and couldn't hold it, pee in the bath, with the taps on and tell mum in the morning so mum could attack it with the bleach spray. But she peed, on the stuff in the bath, which shouldn't have been in the bath to start with...why the hell ds put it there I dont know. Just an example.
So I had that to deal with. Ds did his normal job tonight of washing up (I ask them both to do jobs during the week to "earn" their pocket money). I found him in the kitchen, washing up around a loaf that he had knocked into the bowl. He didn't even notice it was there 
.
All I expect dd to do is keep her room tidy-ish and put her crap in the bin.
Ds has chores, empty bin, walk his dog and stick the recycling by the gate, wash up now and then.
But these stupid things keep happening, nearly every day. How do you all tackle your homes and keep them decent? (sorry for such a long post)