Working couples and housework

Oldernotwiser

Snuggles wrote: »

I would LOVE to, but I don't think we could afford it.



Yes, we definitely need to be more organised about meals. I keep planning to cook some meals which can be frozen, but then I think that's just one more chore to do at the weekend!



I feel like our house is a tip most of the time, and I really don't like it. It's funny, when I was single, I used to spend almost my entire Sunday doing the housework, and my house was always really tidy. But since my OH moved in, there's obviously more stuff about, more tidying to do, and I'm much less inclined to do it!

Why not spend one weekend giving the house a complete blitz and then keep it ticking over from that point, as has been suggested?

fannyadams

two words

Fly Lady

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlyLady

http://www.flylady.net/

honestly? IT WORKS.
I have two boys (10 yrs and 6 years) at school with after school clubs and extra curricular activities, a full time job (40+hrs/week), my partner also works 60+ hours/week.

House is lived in, but tidy. and I don't spend all day cleaning.

as others say it's just 15 minutes at a time.

there's even a thread on Old Style for the week's activities/blessings

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=33

Now, go shine your sink!

FA

Sambucus_Nigra

Snuggles wrote: »

We have got into this habit of doing a three-shop tour on a Saturday morning - Lidl, Aldi then Tesco - and it takes flippin ages!!

Can't one of you do the shop and the other one blitz the cleaning?

esmy

Please try online food shopping - it'll take a while the first time round, but it gets much faster. I do a family shop in 10 mins, and spend much less than I did. If I could pay them to put it away as well, I would! I reckon it saves me about 2 hours a week of my time. I very occasionally do a shop in the supermarket to try out new stuff.
For several years I paid someone to do the ironing, a job I hated doing. If you view paying someone to do a job as buying time, it seems less of a luxury.

sooty&sweep

Hi

Could you put your washing machine somewhere else to give you space for a dishwasher ? In our previous house we had our washing machine in the bathroom instead.

Jen

gratefulforhelp_2

Know exactly what you mean, except its more extreme with two small children.

online shopping, batch cooking, meal plan, and come on over to the flylady thread on here.

I try to put a load of washing on each weekday.

onlyroz

Realistically, how much housework needs doing? Every day there'll be washing up - and so if you wipe down the worktops after each meal the whole kitchen won't need cleaning every week. Same with the bathroom - if you wipe down the sink and rinse out the shower after every wash then you won't need to clean the whole room each week. Hoovering once a fortnight is enough in my house and as for cleaning the windows I don't think I've *ever* done that.

The only thing that really gets me down (apart from the mass of clutter that builds up when you've got two kids running around) is the laundry. There's always something hanging up somewhere, and I always need to clear a space on the drying rack before I can get the next load hanging up. But as for ironing - what's that???

Nixer

I think not doing shopping at weekends would make a big difference. I either do ours on foot in my lunch break if there's no heavy items needed, or on the way home from work if there are. If I don't need anything frozen I sometimes go on the way to work at about 7.30am as there's hardly anyone in the supermarket then.

We also do double dinners a lot - spag bol, curries, a cheese potato and onion pie that does 4 portions etc. I make my sarnies for work whilst I am eating my breakfast and sometimes will take dinner leftovers instead of sarnies e.g. risotto, leftover toad in the hole, anything really.

Can't help you on the cleaning - I clean our loo every week and the kitchen surfaces are kept clean every day, and bedlinen and towels changed weekly but we like our weekends too much, so the rest tends to get done when one of us can't abide it anymore. Sometimes I clean the shower when I am in it.

Nixer

Also - is your washing machine the type with a timer function? If so you could set it to start sometime in the afternoon so that's finished when you get in from work. I must admit I've never been organised enough to do this but as winter rolls in I might.

pandora205

Lots of useful tips here already, so I won't repeat them. Some I use (with varying success) are:

If you watch commercial TV, do housework while the ads are on. You can dust a room or clean a bathroom in a break.

Do a big shop once a month (I use Costco and really bulk buy) then a quickie weekly. I tend to go for Aldi, and also get fruit and veg at the market after the gym on a Saturday morning.

Bulk cook and freeze.

Also use a slow cooker: you don't have to be mega organised: I throw in a chicken with an onion in the cavity and it makes a lovely meal and enough for sandwiches for a couple of days.

Sandwiches do freeze but not with salad or soggy incredients. Tomatoes could be an accompaniment rather than inside. You don't need to defrost overnight as they will be soft by lunchtime.

Do housework quickly at weekends. It can easily spread out to fill a day but really you can get a lot done with two of you in an hour.

When the car needs cleaning, go through a car wash and take cloths/polish to do the inside at the same time.

Make sure you buy good quality equipment: this especially applies to a vacuum, tumble drier and lawn mower. These seem to vary quite a bit.

Don't let paperwork build up. Put recycling in a bin/bag outside as you go along.

Declutter.... the less you have, the less there is to organise and clean.