Working mums, How do you do it?

coco1980

I have seen lots of advice on these forums for stay at home mums etc and was just wondering for all other mums that work, what are your ways of coping/managing with everything that needs done:D
I always find that I spend my weekends doing everything that I couldnt manage during the week, and would love to be more organised so was really looking for hints and advice on how yous do it:)

Half_pint_4

I don't follow Flylady to the letter but 15-30 minutes each day for a different room gets it sorted and there is not a lot left to do of a weekend.

Monday 1 bedroom - change beds, vacuum, polish (10-15 minutes) before doing this spray the bathroom with bathroom cleaner (home made of course) and that is working whilst I am doing the bedroom. Then spend the other 5 minutes cleaning the bathroom.

Tuesday Vacuum and polish living room, hall, stairs and landing, clean downstairs toilet, porch

Wednesday 1 bedroom and kitchen including mopping floors, moving everything off worktops to wipe behind

Thursday other bedroom, do a shopping list after meal planning

Friday may take a bit longer as you do the weekly shop.

Do the washing as it comes along rather than leaving it until the weekend.

When cooking do extras and freeze them then when you are too tired to cook or on a Friday, after shopping, grab something from the freezer and you are sorted.

Saturday morning get the kids to tidy their bedrooms while you do the ironing.

There will be other jobs that pop up and you will be tired but you get used to it and you get a full "day off" during the weekend.

There is always the option of asking OH and kids to help but sometimes it is quicker to do it yourself (possibly a controversial comment!) or as DH says "even if I do it you will do it again as I have not done it properly" I tell him to have a go and he will eventually have enough practice to be able to do it properly:rotfl:

maysmummy

Try the flylady thread. It's full of advice on organising the home, keeping up with jobs and it's really supportive, too.

affordmylife

Basically i go to work and feed the kids in the week. Thats it.

I do everything at the weekends. I dont have a weekend its all chores.

I hate it. I want to retire. I cant. I need the money.

My kids and my hubby do loads but this is our life and we get on with it.

teacherandmum

i posted on the thread from the sahm who lacked motivation - did you see that post?
basically i do certain things on certain nights, dd (2yo) goes to bath and bed ast 7 so i'm back downstairs by 7.30pm. then i do the same things every night i.e. sort her dinner money and snacks for preschool, make my packed lunch for next day, do toy tidying up, wash tea dishes .......
then each night i do a certain thing - tonight is gathering up all the dried washing from the radiators and clothes horse from the weekend and take it upstairs to sort for putting away
i did indulge in a cleaner for a few weeks b4 xmas but shes moved out of the area. it was great to come home to a clean house on a thurs!
my mum says it would be easier with a dishwasher and tumble drier but i'm not sure and also not sure money wise and electricity wise and kitchen is on the small side too
my mum insists on doing my ironing as i never got aaround to it! but i don't put underwear, pyjams and the like to be ironed.
Best thing i do is tidy the upstairs on a sat morn as soon as i get out of bed. Dh has dd downstairs for 'quality time' as he's away all week and i hoover, clean bathroom, sort washing, change beds etc

coco1980

affordmylife wrote: »

Basically i go to work and feed the kids in the week. Thats it.

I do everything at the weekends. I dont have a weekend its all chores.

I hate it. I want to retire. I cant. I need the money.

My kids and my hubby do loads but this is our life and we get on with it.

I spent years doing shift work and moaning that i wanted a 9-5 Mon -Fri job so that I could spend wkends with my family but now because I dont have a day during the week to myself to get everything done I struggle. But we are the same we need the money. I dont think I could not work though, I just need to be more organised:D

frostyspice

teacherandmum wrote: »

i posted on the thread from the sahm who lacked motivation - did you see that post?
basically i do certain things on certain nights, dd (2yo) goes to bath and bed ast 7 so i'm back downstairs by 7.30pm. then i do the same things every night i.e. sort her dinner money and snacks for preschool, make my packed lunch for next day, do toy tidying up, wash tea dishes .......
then each night i do a certain thing - tonight is gathering up all the dried washing from the radiators and clothes horse from the weekend and take it upstairs to sort for putting away
i did indulge in a cleaner for a few weeks b4 xmas but shes moved out of the area. it was great to come home to a clean house on a thurs!
my mum says it would be easier with a dishwasher and tumble drier but i'm not sure and also not sure money wise and electricity wise and kitchen is on the small side too
my mum insists on doing my ironing as i never got aaround to it! but i don't put underwear, pyjams and the like to be ironed.
Best thing i do is tidy the upstairs on a sat morn as soon as i get out of bed. Dh has dd downstairs for 'quality time' as he's away all week and i hoover, clean bathroom, sort washing, change beds etc

I see you're a teacher - out of interest, how much teaching-related work do you do out of school? (I'm a new-ish one struggling with the workload and home stuff)

MrsTinks

My cunning plan? Getting a cleaner for an hour or two I'll be working long hours and the time I get I want to spend with my daughter

whitewing

I love my dishwasher. Can't recommend it enough.

As a working parent you don't manage! But you can get 'good enough'. Declutter and then keep it tidy ongoing.

teacherandmum

frostyspice - it's hard work. i work full time. I take my dd with me to our preschool at get to school around 8.30am. leave house at 8am. our lunch is for an hour and i work for half hour and give myself half hour for lunch. We have a staff meeting til 5 (well later but i insist on leaving at 5 ) one night a week when mum has dd. On other nights, i leave with dd around 4pm as she's tired. i tend to do prob an hour a night (in front of the tv!!) either planning, assessing, prep for following day, making resources, but usually marking books and work. I teach foundation phase so it's more practical thesedays but that means more planning!!
i don't do any work on a fri night (dh first night at home as he's away at work all week). I dont do any on sat and about an hour on syunday just getting ready.
obviously there are busy busy times. we have an inspection in march, and parents eve the following week (my mum has dd every eve til i pick her up on those occasions) also report writing time is a lot of extra time.
do you get your NQT time as welll as PPa time?

as for home stuff, my house is clean but not particularly tidy!

btw, i've got another one on the way and not sure how i'll cope when i return to work then!!!!!!!

beckseven

When I had my second baby I got a cleaner for two hours a week because I knew it would depress me if i couldn't keep up with everything! I try and keep on top of my ironing and washing by doing some every night and I find setting up my ironing board in front of the TV makes it not seem so bad. Every once in a while because I work shifts and get days off in the week I put the kids into nursery and spring clean the house from top to bottom-my kids are 1 and 3 so I'd never get it done when they are with me.