[smeep]

I'm a tornado. I also have a 5-year-old tornado. I look at the house at the end of the day and it's SOOOOO messy! The bedroom is also trashed. I have a semi-excuse in that I live with my family currently so it's DS, DD and myself in one room, but it's still ridiculous. My ADD is just driving me insane. And DD is 4 months and going through the "I want only mommy!" phase and has always nursed very frequently (every 1-2 hrs). I know I could wear her in the wrap or sling but it's getting harder to do that while cleaning (no problem otherwise) and, to be honest, I still sucked at keeping things clean when I was wearing her while cleaning. Between the kids and my ADD and the fact that I have 100 other things to do every day, I'm going insane! HELP!!!

 

[accountclosed3]

you need a consistent rhythm of how you do things. the same thing every day, day in, day out. everyone will mellow.

first, minimize as much as you can -- pair down to the bare minimum that you and your children need in your room.

then, start your morning by doing whatever cleaning is necessary -- make the bed, put away dirty clothes, get everyone dressed, and then you set out on your day. Throughout the day, take specific times to tidy away. I tidy away on a regular basis -- before leaving the house, before meals, and before bedtime routine. This helps keep the place tidy most of the time.

It's 8 am in the morning on a saturday. I have already: made the bed, done the dishes (DH cooked breakfast!), wiped the condensation of the windows (don't ask, it's a NZ thing), and practiced ukulele.

DS has already started playing with his toys, but there's not a huge mess yet. it's quite nice.

We have skype a few times today, and I'd like to do our grocery shopping. Then, I plan on doing some work for my business. So, after skype, we'll do a tidy away before leaving the house to do our shopping, and then while i'm doing work, the place can get messy, and then we'll pick it up before dinner (which starts DS's bedtime routine).

most of these individual activities -- tidying stuff -- takes about 10 minutes or less. we did a lot in the wrap when DS was younger.

Good luck!