When is it time to sort yourself out before you become Waynetta Slob

[happyspider]

I have a 3 months old baby and we are now kind of settled in a nice routine, but, surprise surprise, he's still hard work and needs full attention.
The problem is my home, it's really untidy and I am behind with cleaning big time! Not to mention half finished jobs and paperworks lying around the house for which not even a cleaner would do (cannot afford one any way )

So this is something we never discussed at antenatal classes and would like to hear from all you with older kids:
When do you start being Waynetta Slob and stop being a poor new mum who's got too much on her hands to think about tiding up?

\I remember at one time I managed to put make up nd earrings on. Yes 3 weeks I think

I am Waynetta Slob some days and smart worky girl/party girl others. Depends if I am home and how I'm feeling. Love feeling smart, hate feeling waynetta. Always bump into my immaculate (childess I hasten to add) neighbour when am waynetta too, grrrr.

Strangely I never minded looking like a slob before I was a mum. Now I think that people will think I've let myself go etc so make more effort. How odd is that?

I think it helps to look for little things you can achieve by the end of the day. A couple of bills paid, some washing folded and put away. Rather than getting put off by looking at the mound of stuff to do. Just do one thing then put your feet up and eat chocolate.
I always vowed that I would put on a bit of mascara, lippy and brush my hair by lunchtime and I did - became a point of honour and stopped me going la-la. Felt better for it anyway......

I got a cleaner! Just £15 a week and the house got under control. For myself, lipstick and mascara made such a difference to how I felt about myself.

I can do the mascara and lipstick bit very easily, I even managed a trip to the hairdresser the other week and felt fantastic afterwards.

The only problem is the house...there is another person to look after and he comes with a lot of baggage, and I don't feel I can still use the sentence "sorry, but you know with the baby to look after..." when visitors come around unaspected!

countessdrac - that always happens to me - the neighbour thing I mean. 3 door away is mum to 10 month old and she always looks immaculate and whenever I see her I look like worzel gummidge and DS is throwing a tantrum whilst simulanteously sucking on 3 dummies, eating chocolate and drinking ribena.

lol Katierocket that really made me laugh! Our neighbours over the road are like that, they are so nice but their clothes are always immaculately ironed with no milk or food on them and whenever I see them I have baby screaming, dog misbehaving and me hot and bothered with frizzy hair, no makeup and some scabby old pair of combats on...

I seem to have taken up my ds eating habits too. It doesn't matter how nice my hair,clothes or make-up looks when I get comments such as "Is that a M&S prawn-sandwich you've got on your blouse Mrs. Fairy?" from my co-workers......

I've got a 14 month old and I still don't have time to do the housework (or at least not to my 'pre child' standards). Its a little better than when she was 3 months old, because she now goes to bed consistently at 19.45 and doesn't wake until the morning - so I do some housework at night after her bed time.

The garden is also a mess - lots of weeds, my hanging baskets died because there wasn't time to water them, etc

I'm getting a cleaner and a gardener because I've had enough. If you can't afford a cleaner like you say, I'm afraid as tough as it is you'll just have to drop your standards for a couple of years and reconcile yourself to living in mess. Otherwise you'll torture yourself and blame yourself for not achieving the impossible (a house that is shiny as a new pin).

A suggestion - perhaps at the weekend, your partner / dh could take your child out in her pushchair for a couple of hours so that you don't have to worry about her and can crack on with what you need to do?

Or perhaps he could do some cleaning while you go out for a nice stroll

Oh god, I don't think that EVER goes away!! Especially when your baby becomes a toddler and develops the ability to turn any room upside down in 5 mns flat!

I have just started moving paperwork into neat piles around the house. Toys..... well they are now a permanent feature on the floor.... and as long as the floor is covered in toys, you don't have to hoover!

Boxes to put stuff in, that's what we do in the Inferiority Complex. Nice boxes if you can afford them, plastic boxes when you can't.

And a cleaner.

I have a neighbour who IRONS MUSLIN CLOTHS. True.

LOL @ inferiority complex!!!

Irons muslin? Bloody weirdos.

i rarely iron a thing. just take them out of the dryer warm and smooth down and fold, works most of the time. and i have lived here for 6months and still havent bought an ironing board. i spend most evenings doing housework, catching up on things not able to do during the day whilst the kids are about. i leave the hoovering till the morning tho so the kids dont wake up. but i still have bad weeks where my place is a tip. everyone does. my kitchen was spotless yesterday, today i'm doing laundry so there is piles upon piles of dirty clothes in there plus boxes of clean ones to be put away.
and today i have to sort out my bedroom as well as i have a new bed and bedroom furniture arriving tomorrow am.

I have a big plastic laundry basket and I rush round, chuck EVERYTHING in it (except children) and hide it in my bedroom. If you can manage to hoover and plump cushions too that immediately makes your house look much tidier and if you only do the rooms you are going into it doesnt take 5 minutes.

Then you just have to hope no-one goes into your bedroom!

Also agree with lippy and mascara - or in my case lippy, blusher and clean hair. I get up early to have a shower most mornings and get dressed, then I can forget about me for the rest of the day.

I never iron.
I tidy up a room at a time. I start downstairs and then work myself up. One of my biggest gripes is that when I finish upstairs I come downstairs to a mess and that pisses me off.

Agree the make up and hair, need to do it everyday for my own self esteem, feel much better with slap on my face.

Actually I have to get the cement mixer out and apply with a trowel

And I need clean, newish shoes to feel properly 'neat'.

I don't wear make up on a day to day basis as my skin doesn't like it, but I do try to make an effort if I'm going out of an evening or something like that. I'm definitely not one of those women who can't get the milk in off the doorstep with out a full face on ! I do admit to only just attempting to pull myself out of my post-pregnancy fashion rut (not sure if it can be called 'fashion' but hey-ho) and my DD is nearly 14 months. Am slowly phasing out (though not getting rid) my comfy trackie bottoms and big, comfy M&S knickers.

With regards to housewrok I have always been fairly fastidious as we used to live in a tiny 3 bed house (2 adults and 3 kids) with no garage so we HAD to be tidy. I do admit to slipping a little since we moved into a house twice as large, luckily DH is a whizz with a duster and the Dyson . I have vowed to make myself a little 5 day rota (Mon-Fri, obv) which will work as a housework planner. I'll only allow myself onto MN once I have finished my daily chores. I do feel a bit guilty when DH comes home from work, having been out of the house for almost 12 hours, and all I've done housework-wise is load the dishwasher and surface tidy the kitchen (aside from looking after DD and MN, of course).

What's wrong with ironing muslins? I also iron his babygros and everything else. Head down quickly

I have to say, I like to think I have a tidy house, that is up until the two seconds before my neighbour from across the road rings the bell. Then I see the newspaper lying, my lunch tray onthe settee (cause just started or finished it), pile of ironing waiting to be put away. I think I need to live in the middle of nowhere so that no onecan sneak up on me.

I guess my standards are too high.. or are still the same I had pre pregnancy and they will have to change, Lilysmum I'll take your advice... maybe we will be able to afford a cleaner some day.

I used to iron sheets and pillowcases and clean under the bed at least every other day...

Welshmum thank you for the sound advice, it does sound like something that can be done.

PS we could afford a cleaner really but dh thinks that since I am "not working" and he is, I am supposed to transform myself into the domestic goddess he always longed to have!

i sound really soppy but there are loads of poems about "spending time with you child" and letting the house work go......there's one i especially love called "Today i was a good mummy", (i think) Basically the moral of the story is,what will your child remember in years to come...a clean house or a mummy who had time to play........... Always cheers me up when i get stuck in the carpet..

that WAS a joke by the way.

I'm sure it was Libby Purves that said, if the house was a real tip and someone came round, just whip aout the hoover, polish and a duster to make it LOOK as if you were about to tackle the mess!! Best advice I've ever read!!

Thought I was doing really well, until my 'friend' came down to visit on Thursday (left last night). Remarks ranged from
'so what cupboard are you goign to tackle tonight' to
'how can you sit and watch the telly knowing that your cupboard are in such a state?' (she wasn't joking!!Her tins are in alphabetical order),
and one of the bettter ones ....
'I don't like smells' (nor does anyone but she was referring to the vanilla scented candle which was not lit, but had been to make her room feel welcoming.

If that's what is like to be 'perfect', pass me my joggers and just call me Wynetta!

Don't think I will ask her to stay again!