Timesaving tips for busy parents

mountainofdebt

fluffnutter wrote: »

Just lower your expectations. Most of the stuff that keeps people busy is totally unimportant.

You took the words right out of my mouth, lol!

victory

fluffnutter wrote: »

Just lower your expectations. Most of the stuff that keeps people busy is totally unimportant.

Very true:D delegation is always good, why should you be the one running ragged when everyone can lessen the load by having their delegated jobs;)

gibson123

kingfisherblue wrote: »

My older son loves wearing odd socks at the moment - it drives me mad :rotfl:. Red and black stripes with Ben 10 anyone?

I nearly always wear odd socks, i have never seen the point of having matching ones. it's not like anyone sees them! Lifes to short to match socks. My DD has also inherited this this trait. Your son is not alone.;)

meer53

Lifes too short to worry about stuff that doesn't get done. In my house, things get done - eventually.

mountainofdebt

gibson123 wrote: »

I nearly always wear odd socks, i have never seen the point of having matching ones. it's not like anyone sees them! Lifes to short to match socks. My DD has also inherited this this trait. Your son is not alone.;)

My mum asked me why I was wearing odd socks today.

I replied because I had better things to do than try and track down a matching pair.

kingfisherblue

gibson123 wrote: »

I nearly always wear odd socks, i have never seen the point of having matching ones. it's not like anyone sees them! Lifes to short to match socks. My DD has also inherited this this trait. Your son is not alone.;)

That's why I pass a giant carrier bag to my mum every couple of weeks :rotfl:. She's retired and likes to help me, so this is one of the jobs she does for me . She also looks after my boys when I'm at Brownies and Rainbows, and has us round for a meal once a week. I take her shopping, deal with her paperwork and anything official, take her (and often her friend) to any medical appointments, and various other bits and bobs.

My youngest is 13, and he helps her with things she struggles with around the house, like changing lightbulbs (she's a bit wobbly on the stepladder, but she is 79!), moving furniture (she cleans behind the sofa :eek:), any lifting, moving stuff into the garage, etc. He also takes her into the house if we have been out for the evening, and checks everywhere to make sure everything is ok, as she doesn't like going into the house on her own in the dark, even when she has left lights on.

BTW, the fridge is shiny and clean

mysk_girl

Get the kids trained young. Mine are 5, 3 and 5 months, the older 2 can already set and clear the table, dress and undress themselves, put their dirty clothes in the basket and make a stab at tidying their rooms.

My mum used to make 15 rounds of cheese sandwiches on a Sunday night and freeze them. Then we (me + 2 sisters) would get one per day in our lunchbox, they'd be thawed by lunchtime and kept everything else cool. Mine have school dinners, so I don't have to do this, but I do make OH's packup the night before or he wouldn't bother in the morning and then spend money at the supermarket.

skintchick

OK, I said I'd come back. My tips are mostly cleaning-related as that has been my most recent bugbear so I've been spending time working out a good routine for it all.

Do an honest breakdown of your days and what time you have available. Don't just put school hours down for example, work out (or note) what time you actually get home and what what time you leave for school pickup. My DD is at preschool 9-3 two days but the time I have available is actually 9.30-2.50, as an example.

When doing this, allow yourself time for lunch and for teabreaks. There is no point in pretending you work non-stop while the kid/s is/are at school.

Then you know how much time you really have, and be honest about whether you want some time for yourself/hobbies/haircuts in that and allow for it.

Then write down all your jobs, or at least all the ones you would like to get done regularly (weekly or fortnightly) and either work out or note down next time you do it how long it takes. It is best to actually note it down as I found I vastly underestimated how long jobs would take me. (I can share mine if anyone thinks it would help.)

Then you can see how you can fit it into the time you have available.

I know this sounds really anal but the problems of underestimating how much time things take, and overestimating how much time you have in which to do things, are the main problems to do with being disorganised - if you don't allow enough time for things then they won't get done.

If you find you have more jobs than time, you can choose to make some fortnightly (I only do my windows and dusting fortnightly for example) or to do them differently (shop online instead of in school hours) or even to outsource them (cleaner anyone?).

I think this, coupled with having allocated places for literally everything in the house, keeps me on track.

I also have sets of cleaning products in three places in the house: bathroom, downstairs cloakroom and kitchen, so I never have to go looking for stuff and can instead just get on with the job. What is in each place depends on what i need for each room.

I do a load of washing every day if possible, and more if I can, but I dry on the line or on airers so it's not always possible if things aren't dry.

I don;t change all beds on the same day so there is not suddenly loads of washing to do! I change them two days apart, and the same for changing the towels in the bathroom.

My aim has been to have a house that is always visitor-ready. Not pristine, but clean, tidy and welcoming, and I'm managing it by using these tips.

I also have a list of hotspots - places I need to really sort out like the linen cupboard, my fabric-packed ottoman, the spare room - and when I have some extra time/the energy I do one and tick it off.

Keeping rooms tidy is a big thing that has helped me keep the house clean. If it's untidy/cluttered, I have to tidy before I can clean by which time I've lost interest in cleaning!

So I've been decluttering and reorganising, using boxes and baskets to get things sorted out so that you can open any drawer or cupboard in my house and it is tidy and organised! This also helps with knowing what you need to buy so you don;t end up with 60 toilet rolls (unless you have space to store 60 toilet rolls of course).

I also do the thing someone has mentioned of having a pocket next to my calendar and the paperwork and stuff goes in there.I actually have a ca,endar that has a pocket for each month, but it would be easy to just have a pocket on the noticeboard. Talking of which, I have envelopes pinned to the noticeboard labelled things like "vouchers", "business cards", etc., so I can always find those bits of paper that would otherwise become a hotspot on the kitchen side.

Oh, and my kind of OCD thing I do is that I clean room by room rather than chore by chore (ie bathroom, living room rather than all hoovering throughout or all dusting throughout) and I TOTALLY clean each room, top to bottom including skirtings EVERY time. After the first time (which takes for ever) it takes not much extra time but you always know your house is completely clean and you never have to spring clean again.

Hope some of those help

chanie

Great tips everyone, here are mine:

Normally at the beginning of the year, I write a list of all birthdays etc and get them from Card Factory (or similar). It works out cheaper and avoids the last minute panic. I also get a pile of generic birthday cards.

I also buy Christmas presents throughout the year and write down what I buy and for whom. I normally hunt out bargains.

I have a stash of wrapping paper on hand.

Bulk buy washing powder, loo roll etc from Costco, as it lasts for months and months

Notepad on the fridge so we write down things as we run out of them.

I buy the childrens clothes a season in advance, in the sales. For example, DS has a winter coat for this winter 2013, which I got in the January sales. I have a list of what they have/need and pick up things as I see them.

valk_scot

valk_scot wrote: »

Don't iron. At all. This one tip has saved me years of my life.

I don't think I've ever been thanked so many times for one post before! As of today, fourty-seven thank yous! Wow!:beer:


I'll give you my other top tips for a slobby but stress-free life then, seeing as the last one was so popular.

I don't care about the state of kids' bedrooms as long as plates, dirty clothes and the rubbish bin come out of there on a daily basis and get deposited in the relevant place for me to deal with. Ditto stripping your bed every week. Both my kids could do all the above reliably by the time they were six or seven, so can yours. By the time they're eight or so they can make up beds too, before that their arms are too short for duvet covers I find.

Dusting is an over-rated pastime. You get used to dust, trust me. Ditto smears on the windows.

If you spray the sink and put some cleaner down the loo before you get into the shower they only need a ten second wipe down after.

The men in this house wash the bathroom floor, I'm physically incapable of making that sort of mess on it so I'm certainly not washing it for them. If they mump, point out that if they aimed better they wouldn't have to wash it as often.

If you put it down, pick it up again and put it away. Otherwise it will end up under your duvet, yup.

If it's a sunny day sod the housework, lets go out. Remember you'll get rickets if you stay indoors too much, we all need to synthesise vitamin D after all.

If you have guests, remember you're doing your part to make them feel happy about their visit by making them feel your house is just as bad as their's. If their house is always much tidier and cleaner they'll also feel happy from their visit, but for different reasons. Good karma for you though. Give them some nice cake, they'll be back anyway.

If you don't know what you're making for dinner by the time you've eaten your breakfast your day will be stressful. Trust me on this.

Only the kitchen worksurfaces and your hands need to be washed every day.

Lay school uniforms out at night, ditto everything else except the cold stuff for the lunchboxes which should be left ready in the fridge.

Clean the fridge out just before you write your menu plan and shopping list for the week.

Buy shampoo, conditioner, soap and other toiletries in multiples from the ££ shop, enough for at least a month at a time.

Put your (unironed) clean duvet cover, sheets and spare pillowslips into one of the pillowslips, then it's easy to drop this package onto each person's bed so they can make it up themselves.

Relax, most things can be done tomorrow, if not the day after. In fact if you avoid doing them long enough you'll cease to notice they need doing at all, and think of the time you'll have saved!

Your kids will not tell your grandchildren about the day they came back from nursery and the bathroom was sparkling clean. They will remember the day you spent all day painting sheets of cardboard to fit round their bed to turn it into a castle or rocket ship though, or the day you got so sick of hoovering the cream lounge carpet you tore it up in strips and threw it out the window into the garden. Ditto they will only remember the cats and how much they loved them, not the layer of fluff on the carpet or the claw marks on the sofa. Anyway it's better for their immune systems to be exposed to a bit of grime rather than the vapours of cleaning chemicals.