Making time for chores when in FT work

kboss2010

Batch cook your meals on a Sunday night for the whole week. Pick 3 dishes and make enough for the whole week so you can rotate and not get bored. Try quick things like macaroni cheese, spag bol, pasta & sauce with chicken/chorizo/veg etc.

Cleaning - clean as-you-go. My MIL doesn't do big cleans, she'll wipe down the bath/shower while she's showering, wipe work surfaces as you cook, put washing on as you make breakfast/coffee etc.

Make your life as easy as possible. Have separate washing baskets for darks, whites & colours, rinse & recycle as you go, set yourself 5-10 minutes on your phone & you & your OH try to to as much as you can housework-wise in that time. Little and often is better than long chores.

kboss2010

miffy257 wrote: »

Sorry cannot offer any advice apart from getting a cleaner if you could afford one. Just wanted to say though, if you are thinking of getting a new vacuum cleaner get a Miele cat and dog one . The best vacuum I have ever had and I have had a lot in 41 years of marriage. We have 2 cats and a dog and it's brilliant at picking up their hair.

I second that rec! My bf's landlord had one and it's amazing! I have ridiculously long hair, I've broken numerous Dysons trying to hoover my carpets and that is the only one that has ever worked!

charlies-aunt

My first piece of advice would be - lower your standards!


Life is for living, not for creating House Beautiful . . . . you'll remember the great time spent with your horses when you are old...you'll not cherish the memory of time spent cleaning!


Simplify everything that it is possible to simplify - for example - a large slow cooker+a pack of mince + a bag of frozen casserole veg + 2 tins of new potatoes = 2-3 evening meals for minimal effort.


Be strong and get up when the alarm goes off!! I know its tough as I have horses and when we rented a field and stables -our alarm used to go off at 5.30am as we had to go to, feed, turn out and muck out three horses and be back home before 7.30 to shower and breakfast before work. After I became ill with Rheumatoid Arthritis, I couldn't physically cope with the regime so, we moved to be part livery on a yard which has made life a lot easier ... more expensive but you can't win 'em all ....


Prep breakfast the night before so all you have to do in the morning is boil the kettle.


Prepare packed lunches the night before so you can grab and run in the morning


Maybe think about paying a responsible teenager to poo pick your fields a couple of times a week


Wear and buy easy care clothes that don't need an elaborate washing/ironing regime.

Teddi

Chalk up another vote for a cleaner. If your house is an average size and you are fine doing your own washing (and ironing if you do it) then 2 hours a week will keep things in check (maybe an extra hour once every 4 weeks for inside of windows\cupboards\cooker as needed). I wouldn't pay over £10ph for a cleaner so, essentially, is it worth £20 a week to be able to relax? I'd say yes!


Spend one morning each weekend doing some batch meal prepping for the week, so it will be, come home to a professionally cleaned house, pull out pre made tray from the freezer of dinner, in the oven for half an hour and boom, homemade healthy meal after a tough day.


Then because you aren't struggling against the day to day stuff you can get the one off things done.

Rose_Crow

Oh wow, thank you for all your replies! I will try to comment on each one

MallyGirl & dingdongsaving - thanks, it's nice to know I'm not alone in my rushed life haha!

ali-t - that is something I've been considering for a while, what's the best way to find a cleaner? Do you just go to MollyMaid or something?

Susan - thanks, I try to get bits and pieces done whilst I'm half asleep, diswasher etc. I'd rather that as there's no chance it'll be done in the evening. Just need to motivate! What's this Flylady and KonMari I keep hearing about?

Yorkshirelass - thanks for all those tips, really interesting. I definitely need to de-clutter, it's mostly fine, just the rooms we don't use (i.e spare room) is disorganised and I'm a horse magazine hoarder, but it pains me to thrown them out I really need to. As there are only two of us we do laundry once a week at weekends, which seems to work ok unless it's raining!

missbiggles - don't I know it haha!

theoretica - haha I see what you mean, but not too romantic!

zippychick - thanks will check those out

Rose_Crow

Ms Chocoholic - I do them in the mornings because they are (mostly) en route to my work, so it's makes sense. Sis lives and works half an hour away, so would be going completely the wrong way. The evenings are as follows, I do Mondays because we both do pilates so it's easier for me to wizz round and feed. Tuesdays I do them on my own and ride, Weds sis meets me there and I ride. Thurs, sis does them (I swim). Friday is same as Weds.

caroc

Ahhhhh, cleaning ladies, what bliss. This takes me back to 1994, I left my local job to go and work in the 'smoke'. I asked our office cleaner 'Di' if she would do my cleaning. She charged me £10 for 3 hours then £12. It was worth every penny. Because she was fast, she did way more than I could do and she kept on top of it so it wasn't too much for her. I kept it tidier so that she could get everywhere. Every Friday morning she did so my home was nice for the weekend. Get one if you can afford it !

ali-t

Hi OP, I would ask around in your local community, at work etc for a recommendation. I have had cleaners when living in different areas and each time they have either worked in hospitals or as care assistants in their day jobs and have been looking for a bit of extra income. I thought the agencies were too expensive and would rather that the person doing the work receives all of the money rather than only receiving the minimum wage while the agency take a large cut.


Like Caroc my house gets done on a Friday and there is nothing like coming home to a clean house for the weekend.

Rose_Crow

miffy - I will definitely look into getting a cleaner, but I've also just seen the Flylady thread so will have a go at that for a bit. Thanks for the thoughts on the vaccum, anything to make things easier. We quite liked those Dyson cordless ones, head good things about the G Tech ones but not sure it would be powerful enough?

kboss - thanks, I'm not sure if we're doing something wrong, but whenever we have anything that we've frozen previously, never tastes as nice as when it was fresh. Will try to start planning meals though at the moment it's just 'what are we having tonight?' Also, as above, I've just seen the Flylady thread which looks good.

Susan1962

grn - I see you've found the Flylady thread. It's probably worth having a look at her site first to help make sense of it - https://www.flylady.net
It's good for doing things a little at a time - very cutesy in places but worth taking what you can from it. KonMari - also a thread on here is based on the book by Marie Kondo. A Japanese lady this time - she's a lot more drastic about decluttering and is completely weird in places, but getting through those bits, the actual working method was great. You'll either love it or hate it but give it a try - it's like nothing else you'll ever have seen.