Housework

Brighton_belle

Dunroamin wrote: »

That's the basics? It's my idea of a thorough clean!:o

LOL, me too dunroamin. I've just stripped the bedding and put it in the WM and that alone feel like a domestic goddess:D.

OP, I find doing small routine stuff every day has really helped me. I clean the bathroom sink and mirror with a microfibercloth every night after I have brush my teeth and it takes 3 mins max. Max 5 mins to clean the toilet every Friday just before going to bed.I keep a long handled dustpan and brush in the bathroom and have a quick sweep every few days. Rinse bath after shower etc. So I rarely 'have to do the bathroom'.
I try and do little jobs in the kitchen as I am cooking or waiting for the kettle to boil.

The garden I keep as low maintenance as possible.

I also have worked hard over the last 2 years to get rid of a lot of clutter and for everything to have a place: this makes quick cleaning very easy.

January20

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Mine too...although I am getting a little more house proud as I get older.

I have to admit I've got into the habit of putting things away properly and not think lets build up a pile and then sometime in the future put them away which seems to help.

I tend to put things away to. Everything has a place. It keeps things tidy and saves time when I want to use something because I know where it will be. I just refuse to be a slave to housework.

I agree with the posters saying that the children would help. I should have been much stricter with my dd when she was younger regarding housework, keeping her bedroom tidy, etc. She's had some time off this week and she did some jobs around our home. Twice I had to correct her when she said to me "I did the washing up for you" and I said "no, you didn't do it for me, you did it for US". There are three of us living here. When did it become MY responsibility, MY chore? Probably the day I started doing it without asking others to help! So OP be very careful as you are setting a pattern for the future and it's much easier to train puppies than older dogs.

Spendless

Dunroamin wrote: »

Nothing is worth eating your evening meal in the middle of the afternoon!:)

6pm is the middle of the afternoon? I don't get in till 5.30pm. How many pots are you washing if you're eating mid-afternoon and not getting cleared until 6pm?

Dunroamin

Spendless wrote: »

6pm is the middle of the afternoon? I don't get in till 5.30pm. How many pots are you washing if you're eating mid-afternoon and not getting cleared until 6pm?

As far as I'm concerned, 5.30's the middle of the afternoon - we've only just had tea (break) before that!

madison-nyc

ciderwithrosie wrote: »

Multi-tasking. While the kettle's boiling, stick a load of washing on or wipe down the worktops. While you're getting ready in the bathroom, spray the sink/bath/tiles, stick some bleach down the loo and wipe over with antibac wipes.

While the kids are having breakfast, hang the washing out or empty the bins. I get up at 5.30-5.45 weekdays so I can get a few things done before work and don't go to bed much before midnight. I get showered/make-up on before anyone else gets up so the bathroom's free but don't get work clothes on until just before I leave in case I get mucky!

It's amazing what you can blitz in 10 min bursts - get the kids helping too though - 'if we quickly put everything away in the lounge and run the hoover round then we can snuggle up for a film/read a book'.

I didn't really have the problem of having to take them here and there for afterschool activities though. We don't have a car so if they were playing football/doing athletics then another parent usually offered to drop them off and beavers/cubs was just across the road.

I'm teh same as you , my housework is done in 5-10min goes! and every couple of weeks i'll have a deeper clean that takes no more than a couple of hours , whilst the kids are watching a dvd or in the garden , mine are 3 and 5 so limited with what they can help me with although they do have their little jobs too.

op - don't panic about it , you just do what you can when you can and your kids are old enough to wash up , sort washing , hoover etc. so make sure they pull their weight!

Loanranger

When I started at secondary school I got home from school before my Mum who worked full time. I cleaned out the fire grate of ashes, laid the fire, dusted the mantelpiece, set the table for evening meal, peeled the spuds and if time I vacuumed the living room, too.
Every weekend I was responsible for the family's ironing: four of us wore a clean white shirt every day so that was 20 shirts minimum per week. I helped with the shopping too, no car so shopped for family of five by bus.
Seems to me you have to stop mollycoddling your kids and involve them in the running of the household.

rita-rabbit

children should be given set chores to do whether parents are working full time or not so when they are adult they are adept at managing things well themselves. These should be increased as they get older. I certainly appreciate that my Mum insisted I cooked meals in stages as I can turn my hand to anything - it started with small tasks like peeling potatoes or boiling rice or chopping veggies. By secondary school I was doing all my own ironing & earned some pocket money ironing my Dad work shirts.

JCP

Loanranger wrote: »

Seems to me you have to stop mollycoddling your kids and involve them in the running of the household.

This!
My mother was disabled from when I was seven. Each of the 3 kids in the house had to pitch in to keep it running. My siblings and I did the laundry, shopping (no car so walk/bus), gardening, diy, cooking, cleaning and decorating. If we wanted ironing done we did it ourselves.
My dad worked long hours and was away a lot but obviously also pitched in when he was at home.

There is absolutely no excuse for (I think it was) 11 and 13 yr olds not undertaking any of these activities. It is their household as much as yours and they should be actively contributing.

Loanranger

I'm afraid I drew the line at cooking as a teenager and then had to learn how to cook from scratch when I left home:(
But everything else in the house I had a go at including wiring plugs, a redundant skill thank goodness these days.
I believe that children should be treated fairly and kindly and I did feel as if I was the skivvy in the house but on the other hand my mum went out to work full time so I had few grounds to complain but of course I did, that's the job of a teenager, isn't it, to complain?:D
Eventually I got myself a saturday job so I had less time to help on a saturday but every weekday I had lots to do after school cleaning and stuff and on sundays the ironing and still I had home work to do.
I have little patience with parents who treat their kids as little emperors and princesses, it really does them no favours at all when they reach adulthood.
My present DH tried to persuade me to do his ironing on the grounds that I was highly skilled at shirts etc but I had to inform him that I wasn't born with an innate ability to iron, it was a skill I'd learnt and he could too. I just love non iron clothes now.

londonsurrey

Children that age should be doing some housework anyhow, even if they have a SAHM.

It's actually in the interests of the child, to develop these capabilities under supervision, not to suddenly be expected them to learn them at age 18 or even never, as seems to be the case from what some outraged partners come here to complain about!