Working mums what's the secret

Mumonthego

Partner has sat and paired a mountain of socks and put washing away.
Son has washed the pots
I dished up dinner and put pudding in the oven. Taken a gas meter reading because the smart meter has had problems sending the reading.
Will get tomorrow sandwiches out of the freezer and into the fridge.
Moped kitchen floor and I'm enjoying a chilled evening.

haras_nosirrah

cleaner - comes for 3 hours every fortnight and has been my life saver. Costs me £45 a fortnight but worth every penny. I have to tidy up before she comes and stay on top of bits during the week but to know the place gets properly cleaned every fortnight is just brilliant

online shopping

slow cooker on days I am at work and batch cook at weekends so have 'ready meals' I can take out of the freezer.

Put the washing machine on when I go to work and put the drier on when I get home

iron? Nope!

Get stuff out of drier and sort into piles. When I go upstairs I take one pile and put it away

Tigsteroonie

A stay-at-home husband

Savvy_Sue

Mumonthego wrote: »

Partner has sat and paired a mountain of socks and put washing away.

As time goes by, make the socks as easy as possible. Buy multipacks, in a different colour or style for each person.

So DS1 liked plain black; DS2 like sports socks; DS3 had grey. DH and I had a variety, but no plain black, grey or sports socks. Over time I could also do it by size, because DS3 has much bigger feet.

(My mother used to stitch coloured cross-stitches into the sole of each sock to distinguish three sets of white ankle socks, but life's too short ...)

you might be able to do the same for pants as well: DS1 had one colour of the slip style, DS2 different colours, and DS3 liked boxers.

It means even quite young children can pull out their own pants and socks ...

Artytarty

I used to play a game where I would stand at on the landing with the clean laundry stalls and three little children would jostle in a line up about five feet away to catch their own items as I flung them in the air one at a time!
Not exactly time saving but it was fun and they still remember it.
I think we called it the flinging game.
Happy days.

SameOldRoundabout

I am fortunate enough to work school hours, but with 4 kids and 3 animals at home it’s a real struggle. I do all the housework, I do a load in the morning when I get up (dishwasher, sweep, clean the kitchen, packed lunches, sweep the living room and if I have time mop or dust) then anything else after work or on a weekend. Bathrooms are cleaned every other day, mostly with bleach wipes which takes 5 minutes, and I use a shower spray that prevents soap scum so the shower doesn’t need more than wiping down mostly. 

I meal plan once a week and do an online shop straight after for delivery later in the week. 

I do find however that I feel like it’s so hard to keep up now. 3 of my boys are ADHD diagnosed and the regular check ups, prescription run to the hospital and dietician etc, plus dentists and vet trips and remembering school trips and who doesn’t eat what this week is driving me slowly round the bend. Once we move I’m going to see if we can afford for me to drop to 4 days at work, I need that one day while they’re at school to regroup and clean! 

Former_MSE_Molly

Savvy_Sue said:

I don't know if this will help you, but at that stage my shopping list was pre-printed and organised by category: fruit and veg, carbs, cereal, drinks, treats, cold, freezer. The order also corresponded roughly to the layout of my regular supermarket.

I also had a target stock level, and a blank column for how many I needed. So apples might have a target of 10, I'd glance at the fruit bowl and see 2, so I'd write 8 in the blank column.

As the boys got older, they could also prep the list for me.

Love this idea!

Savvy_Sue

MSE_Molly said:

Savvy_Sue said:

I don't know if this will help you, but at that stage my shopping list was pre-printed and organised by category: fruit and veg, carbs, cereal, drinks, treats, cold, freezer. The order also corresponded roughly to the layout of my regular supermarket.

I also had a target stock level, and a blank column for how many I needed. So apples might have a target of 10, I'd glance at the fruit bowl and see 2, so I'd write 8 in the blank column.

As the boys got older, they could also prep the list for me.

Love this idea!

It worked particularly well when I using the same supermarket week after week, because it was arranged to follow the supermarket's layout! 

Another thought: what DH and I do now is keep a list on Google Keep (we share an account). Either of us can update it, and we just consult it when either of us is shopping, because now there's just the two of us we don't need a Big Shop very often. It takes a little bit of discipline, because I remember what we need better than he does so I don't always Keep things ... but even after all these years he can't read my mind! :rotfl:

CapricornLass

I did a lot of batch cooking, and also made up dishes such as Shepherds Pie and Spaghetti sauce, and froze them.  I used to line the dishes with foil, assemble the meal in it, freeze it and then took the whole lot, foil and all, out and wrapped it.  It kept the dishes in circulation!  I also invested in a dishwasher, meant I could sling most things in and set it going. (Sons at time were 2 and 0, so there was no way they were going to do the dishes for me!)

I didn't do packed lunches for the kids, but I did for myself, and used to freeze the sandwiches.  I found it useful asI made all the sandwiches at once, and then took them out of the freezer when I left the house in the morning.  They had defrosted by the time it was lunch time, and of course, hadn't really had time to go off.

Golightly72

I would also recommend following The Organised Mum method - it breaks down daily routine jobs, and then focuses on a room a day, with very little work at the weekend.

If you get the app then you can both log in, and it gives you the daily job list, which you and your partner can tick off as you've done them.  It does cost a fiver initially, but I honestly think it's worth it - it does save you having to be the manager of the house, which I agree you shouldn't have to be.