Is your home clean?

[bri276]

If so......HOW???????

Seriously, though. How can you work, take care of at least one child at least part of the time while you're working AND have time to do housework? Do you have a schedule?

If I WOH, we wouldn't be home to create all this mess during the day- and DD really does trash at least two rooms every day- DH works crazy hours and though he contributes a lot on the weekend, I can't even depend on him for something as simple as emptying the dishwasher 4 days out of the week. It ALL falls to me. And I'm six months pregnant, and I really don't want to know how bad it's going to get after the baby comes. I'm scared. Hold me!

[ms.shell]

mama
it's hard. i just started WAHM and am having trouble w this, as well.
my house wouldn't be clean if it weren't for dp's help in those matters.
there are too many laundry piles atm; i am going to have to take a day off tommorrow to get on top of some stuff.

[MittensKittens]

No, but I am thinking about hiring a cleaning lady.

Seriously, all things considered, my home is doing pretty well. But only "all things considered".

[DaughterOfKali]

Sometimes it's neat, sometimes not so much. It just depends on the day.

[lilyka]

Honestly I thought when I went back to working outside the home my house would be cleaner because hey, there was no one there messing it up during the day. But nope. We blow in and drop everything and move right on to the next thing and then we are out again. Its actually worse but I care more now so I clean more.

So um yeah...I don't know how people do it. either way. its a mystery to me. I say get a cleaning lady.

[mum4vr]

OK-- mine's not so hot att either. I've defined a new standard for reasonably tidy all things considered which is way different than clean, haha.

Check out flylady dot com. She has a few tricks and helpful routines that actually work. On that site I feel you have to "eat the ice cream and spit out the bones" meaning, some of it won't apply to or work for everyone (so ignore it and use what does help), but there are some real gems, and it helps as a support network, too-- very encouraging.

HTH

blessings!

[bcblondie]

Ha! I don't even work and I have trouble keeping things clean. Its hard to clean while DS is awake. He destroys things faster than I can clean lol. If I open the dishwasher he's all up in there, grabbing knives.
And at nap time I'm scared to wake him. And at bed time I'm beat.
It's tough!

I HAVE found though that finding products that work for you really helps. I've started using norwex and I love it. So much faster when you don't have to pour chemicals and water into a bowl first, etc. KWIM? And the quicker I'm done cleaning the faster I can get back to my son who's begging for attention constantly. (he REALLY needs a sibling lol)

[StacieM]

nope not clean, but better than it was when I was pg with baby. I would much rather "outsource" my housekeeping than outsource my work so that I could get more housekeeping done.

[Kristine233]

Depends on the day/week, lol. Actually I only PT WAHM, then PT WOHM and then FT school. DH is a nearly FT at home parent, and PT student, but does put in PT away from the house too. DH isn't so great with the cleaning, lmao. I can get him to do a load of laundry couple times a week but the majority does fall on me. He does do lawn and outside care though.

My kids are a bit older and that does help a lot. My youngest is 7years. So my kids all have chores to help me and they started with those very early on with super simple stuff. We also have a chore white board in our kitchen with chores on it for EVERYONE based on age, ability and such. An example is: the youngest has to help with her room and bring dirty laundry to the laundry room and carry clean laundry up. Something as simple as that helps a bunch.

When my kids were much smaller I worked at home too and it was harder then. To help I did enforce "play zones". I've always had playrooms when the kids were little and all toys had to stay in there. They didn't have much for toys in their rooms either, rooms were for personal quiet time and sleeping. This way the mess was contained to one room and I could shut the door if company showed up, lol.

As the kids got older things changed, they no longer needed a play room because they were more responsible. Instead I set up a play corner with shelves in our dining room and in the kitchen (has an eat in area we dont use for eating, lol) I set up a system of "cubbies" and each person in the family has a fabric tote that slides into theirs. Any items they "aren't done with yet" or are constantly being used can be stored there. BUT, if the cubby contents breach the tote top mom makes them prioritize, lol. DH and I have cubby totes there as well and when we get home from work or school that's where we can dump our stuff and have it be out of the way too.

We never had a free-for-all in the house. I don't think my nerves and need to always be organized would tolerate that. I'm just as bad at work and drive my staff crazy! hahaha