A housekeeper isn’t an option for us either. DH stays home and he dusts and cleans the bathrooms once a week, and run the vacuum a bit more often. Although it is nice to have someone do this it isn’t a huge chunk of housework- only about an hour’s worth spread out through the week. We share all the other house work, yard work, cooking and laundry, etc. The thing that helps me is to make lists and to start routines. We make a list of the bigger chores and cross them off as we do them. There is no pressure to complete the list- but it is helpful to have a reminder of what needs to be done so I can weigh what job I can do to have the most impact, and what can wait until next week- we can drive the car one more week before getting the oil changed, but if we don’t mow the lawn we won’t be able to see our toddler if he goes in the backyard. Stuff that we do every week is more routine. For example, I wash all the delicate clothes every Thursday, so they can hang to dry and be ironed (my work clothes) or otherwise dealt with on Sunday. Other laundry gets collected and sorted each evening and a load of some sort started after dinner and then hung to dry or put in the drier before we get the kids in bed. I also plan a weeks worth of meals, so when we are cleaning up from dinner we can start on the next day’s dinner by soaking beans, preparing the crock pot, taking stuff out of the freezer, etc. We also try to make a game or playtime out of the household chores whenever possible- to involve the kids a bit. It’s all a delicate balance but we cope the best we can.
