Can you do OS and work full time too?

Sarahsaver

if you have not looked go to www.organizedhome.com
you can print stuff like price book pages, schedules for cleaning, meal plans etc. Helps if you think of running the household as a 'job' which of course it is really!

i have gone from working to being a sahm with a young baby and i think whatever situation you are in re-evaluating your expectations of yourself and family members is essential.

FiBe_3

I work full-time, single no kids but still find it difficult to find time to do all the cleaning that needs doing - and the house doesn't get as dirty when there's only one person!!!

Usually out from 8 am to 5.30 - 6ish (if not doing overtime) plus spend a couple/3 nights a week at the bf's.

Added to the fact that I hate cleaning and I admit my version of cleaning is usually the quick run/wipe round in every room once a week

I try to attend at least 2 -4 exercise classes a week so what with work and exercising don't feel like I have time to accomplish half of what needs doing BUT I am :A with:

* Keeping up to date with washing - load goes in either last thing at night or first thing in the morning before work

* Putting my clothes on the airer to dry

* Keeping up to date with my ironing (usually while I'm watching my fave tv progs)

* Washing up

* Putting my clothes away

* Regular dejunking of stuff/clothes I don't use/wear anymore

* Recycling

* Freecycle
Oh dear that's a short list :eek:, however, I am going to take onboard some of the tips that have been mentioned to get more on top of things and become a fully fledged OS

I may need some nagging/prompting though

Calephetos

I work ft, but unlike most on here I don't have kids and do have a 20min commute. I do have a partner, though he's unemployed currently (wouldn't think it to see the state of the house...:rolleyes:). He's out a lot, but when he's in does most of the cooking (from scratch), and while we use jar sauces sometimes, I can't recall the last time we had a ready meal type thing - I am either smug'n'virtuous or really forgetful Batch cooking and leftovers help enormously, as well as having a number of basic meals we can fall back on. Our menus feel a bit boring sometimes, but he can rustle up a filling vegetable curry in about half an hour for dinner, for example. Now we have a car to share with friends, we bulk shop about every 6 weeks or so, so we're never out of essentials like tinned tomatoes. Maybe eating vegetarian helps in this respect - we don't have to defrost meat in the mornings, or put together a meat'n'2 veg plate, and if something's on the way out, it'll get chucked in a soup without danger of poisoning!
I don't often meal plan - we tend to pick a vague thing we'd like at 6 and then it happens because we have the recipes in our heads already. Pizza needs planning because the dough takes an hour or so, but otherwise, I can leave it 'til hometime. I am trying to introduce one new recipe a week, though it's mostly a new cake or snack at the moment!

We split the chores fairly evenly; I always feel like I have to do 'everything' but in reality, he does all the Nasty Jobs (cat litter, loo-cleaning, bins, cat sick, oventop) as well as most of the washing up and daily breakfast in bed! The washing up seems to always be there, and the house gets messy as soon as I turn my back. Gah. I never iron anymore. I can't find the ironing board under all the mess It's getting sorted out slowly, but my OS style runs mostly to food and kitchen things. We always have homemade jams, bread, cakes and biscuits around, and there's often something bubbling away in a demijohn, but any Flyladies on this board would faint as soon as they got in the front door (now you mention it, the litter tray does need emptying, yes.)

Lady_Tara

Paulie'sGirl wrote: »

I know it sounds daft, but getting my clothes out the night before really helps me, I'm not a morning person. I have been known to even put the coffee and sugar in the cups...:rotfl:
PGxx

That's the only way I can manage the mornings - I put our cereal in their bowls, coffee in cups and put a plate over them to keep fresh, then its one less job in the morning and does seem to save a few minutes, so not daft at all :T

katylou6180

Hi all,

I was hoping to get some responses from all the "happy" o/s'ers on here!
Do you all have "wobbly moments"? I have just been sat here doing my bills and usuals for the month (I've been six weeks with no pay changing job) and all I can see is debt debt debt, I've been having to use my credit card to do my (kind of o/s) shopping so that my son and I can keep having fresh fruit and veg etc- I have a husband that only eats rubbish, so I kinda have two shopping budgets, one for me and son....who I might add we could eat very very well on £10-20 p/w for all our meals as there's no processed rubbish, I have already informed the husband that his food is helping to cripple our finances by having to spend another £20 on chocolate biscuits/chicken nuggets (and no...for my sanity I won't put him on value ones cos it scares me)/crisps/chocolate. I work full time and would love to be more o/s, but lately I'm not finding the time, the inclination, or motivation as according to my finances it's not doing any good!! I even gave up the weekly bottle of wine (which I don't think is excessive but am now believing I may need for my sanity), we don't have luxuries apart from our tv and broadband, which is our main form of entertainment as we cannot afford to go out, and the rest has been swallowed up in household bills and I am then......still going to be in debt for another month after i finally get paid and clear my credit card!! I have been green with envy over a lot of the posts on here about what people have done and haven't done and what a lovely o/s life they are leading and how nice everything is.....when my day is done, and I've gone home, cooked a dinner (and I do cook or pre prep from scratch for me and son or all of us where poss) made tomorrows sandwiches and sorted laundry, helped with homework, cleaned up, there is not enough time left for making chutney/sewing the hole in sons trousers(easier to pop to asda)/bread and cake baking/doing everything from scratch! I just feel frazzled, worn out, and that o/s is not really helping me......or my finances....I'm 30 going on 65!
I was just hoping to get some inspiration before I get home after a days work tomorrow, ring for a takeaway(which won't help the weightloss) or resort to a ready meal in the hopes that it will free up precious minutes of my day!
Can you really be an oldstyler and work full time/run a home/be a proper parent?? I don't want to give up trying......

Quackers

katylou6180 wrote: »

Can you really be an oldstyler and work full time/run a home/be a proper parent?? I don't want to give up trying......

define 'proper parent'

define 'old styler'

There is no correct answer.

Do what you have time for/can afford to do & don't spend the time worrying if you are matching up to anyone else.

And don't believe everything you read on internet forums - no one is perfect

I like home cooked food. Love it in fact. But I don't beat myself up if I cannot be bothered to cook and get a pizza out of the freezer after a long day at work. Its my life after all and if it makes my life easier/happier then frozen pizza it will be

i'm sure someone else will be along soon to give you some advice on how to retrain your husband :rotfl:mine left me for another woman so my advice may not be the best :D:D:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Now go add that bottle of wine back to your shopping list - sounds like you deserve it to me

Angelfeathers

*Hugs you tight* I am in total awe of any household with kid(s) where both parents work full time. I work part time and am still often horribly stressed out with trying to balance the available time/money and trying to be green etc. I'm afraid I don't really have any advice to give except perhaps trying once again to make your husband see how selfish he's being (I was really amazed when mine realised how tight money was and began to change his ways), and perhaps to try not to give up that bottle of wine. We all need our little luxuries! :-)

MoneyQueen

Hi katylou6180,

Hugs to you...

I am sure other experts will be here soon with good advice but have you looked into batch cooking.

I and DH also work full time(though we don't have kids).. so only thing that we have to do after returning from work is heating food in the microwave or putting it in the oven to finish. I only cook 3-4 times a month

It does take some planning and remembering to take food for that night out from the freezer to defrost but it is really money and time saving

MQ

Quackers

Angelfeathers wrote: »

*Hugs you tight* I am in total awe of any household with kid(s) where both parents work full time.

see, that's a very valid point.

It totally depends on your circumstances.

I imagine not all of the old stylers on here work full time?

Ok, some will. But they will be here in a min to tell you how they sneak a frozen pizza or a take away on stressfull days too

Everyone's individual circumstances are so very different and you have got to focus on doing what is right for you and your family to get the balance right.

There is no point attempting to do too much and then being so stressed by it all that you are not enjoying life.

start small. take it one step at a time. Would doing a meal plan for the week ahead help?

CRANKY40

I am on my own now with my 5 year old ds. We do bake, but mostly at weekends, and I keep it simple. To be honest, he's as happy with a smartprice bourbon biscuit as he is with a Twinks hobnob, we only do the baking when we can fit it in easily.

As for cooking from scratch...how many portions do you make? I make 8-10 portions of most things, then freeze the ones we aren't eating for the evenings when I've been to work, and need food to appear fairly fast and without much effort. I even bulk cook baked potatoes and freeze them (the skin is nicer than microwaved ones). Do you have a slow cooker? If you have everything ready in a bowl in the fridge then you can throw it in the slow cooker as you leave for work and dinner will be ready when you come home (and there's only one pot to wash).

If your husband can have his junk food then you can have wine...and remember nobody is perfect, and often you don't see the whole story on here. I have a fairly os lifestyle, and I don't have any debts, but that is because I was well provided for when my husband died last year. I'd live in rags in the garden shed if I could have him back. Take care, and good luck.