Well, I don't know about it getting easy but more routine helps. I think that some days it really is easy now, but some times I get up when the older ones have been up late like today and find cans from soda and dishes from snacks left in the theater chairs and I get frustrated. Other days I am okay. ( theater chairs is our couch in the TV room btw lol) Some days I get up have all the energy and joy I can handle sing my way through the house literally and it works out nice! Those are the 'better' moments that you have to glean from. I know my motto of attitude is everything works for me too though.
Well, my husband is sort of OCD. And he's obsessively clean. I figure...let him have at it! Plus we never keep anything. The moment we don't need it, it's gone. I have no boxes of stuff, except our Holiday boxes. Clothes, toys etc...all get donated. My basement is one big empty room. The less stuff there is, the easier it is to keep it clean. I also don't have a bucnh of collectibles. I keep everything simple. Old papers etc get thrown out. We have two cats and a dog. The litter is scooped every morning and our big cleaning day is Saturday. We keep bathroom cleaners in the bathrooms and whenever there's a mess in the sink, it's cleaned right away etc... We just clean it as it comes. We have to do 3 loads of laundry each morning. If we don't, we fall behind. We try to live as simply as possible. My mom has TONS of sheets and bedding in the linen closet. But here in our home, we have one set for each bed. We wash them and put them back on the beds, same day. When they wear out, they're gone. It cuts back on piles of laundry. I didn't use to live this way, but my husband has always been like this. So is his mother. The woman has white carpet and furniture and no dirt! Drives me nuts. I allow more than my husband does in the realm of messes. However, it works because we're polar opposites. They get to make messes with mom, but thanks to dad, they're gone right away. There are days when it REALLY gets on my NERVES! My house always smells like bleach and once when DS7 was lil, the peds doc even told my husband...STOP CLEANING, it wasn't allowing my sons body to learn to fight off germs. Sometimes dirt is a good thing! He has lightened up a little over the past 15 years, but he's still a work in progress.
Ohio mom you do 3 loads a day and you only have one set of sheets? you must go through a lot of clothes? I try to do at least one load a day to keep up but to make it all clean its two loads to three I guess with a family of 5.
I find I am not as stressed about it unless my hubby is stressed about it. So figure out what is most important to both of you and concentrate on what hubby focuses on first-that gets rid of the comments that will just make you feel worse about the state of your house. Ideally, hubby and I both want a fairly spotless house, it's just our nature. Most of the time, my house is 30 minutes from being company ready. I focus on the main the living areas. People must walk through our laundry room and kitchen to get to our living/dining room. I feel those rooms should be top priority. Your kids are very young, so it's understandable your house isn't spotless! But make sure you're making them help clean!!! Make it fun but make it required! My boys have had chores since they could walk! LOL Even a very young child can help by stirring something as you prepare dinner, give them a baby wipe or a soft cloth with vinegar on it and let them clean the bathroom surfaces, Let them rinse dishes, bring their plates over after meal, sweep, mop, pick up their toys, pick up trash, deliver laundry to rooms they go in, etc. Take 5 minutes every hour and pick up! Set a timer, turn on some music, make it fun, give it a cute name, everyone has to pitch in! It's just 5 minutes, but with EVERYONE helping it can make a HUGE difference in your home! When my oldest was younger and I babysat, we had "Good old fashioned laundry parties" and "good old fashioned cleaning parties" LOL We'd crack up some Third Day & dance and clean then afterwards they got a fun snack. (music, guided activity, dancing, snack food-it's a party!! LOL)
SimplySonita thanks for your encouragement. I needed to read this post today! I'm on spring break and trying to use the extra time to get caught up. I'll take your post as a reminder of how good it feels to be "30 min from company ready", and to get the kids doing more! We used to have them on a very good chore system, and it did really help, but mommy fell of the wagon! Time to get back up! Oh, and about husbands, well mine is ADD and has trouble with clutter, but if I am not keeping the house super neat and clutter free, then he starts leaving stuff everywhere too! Ugh! We're a good pair that way Oh, and attitude... *sigh* still working on that one! Time to put on some music and get cleaning!
Living in a small house makes a house look messy even if you just have a few things laying out. Our bedrooms are what gets left out of the cleaning route... still trying to figure out how to remember to get to my room or the girls room during the day!
I'm so with you! My room hasn't been properly done in ages. The boys have to do they're room to earn video game time. But my DD's room is pretty bad too!
I've started using flylady (adapted to my needs) and it's helping so far. The piles are disappearing one by one. Yesterday the property manager walked into the house while I was in the backyard and I didn't have to cringe about the mess. She needed to photo the bath and I was so glad the bathroom was shiny clean and fresh smelling
Glad I'm not the only one with this problem.. My husband is real good and not griping about it, but I do know He would like a cleaner room.
I can't remember the last time the master bedroom was spotless! LOL But no one goes in there and all we do is sleep there so it gets neglected. This would drive some people CRAZY. But it works for us because the main living areas are close to spotless... You just have to find what works for you. And that will change with each season of your life. I used to have an alarm set for an hour before hubby got home and we'd do 'daddy clean' but now that he's on night shift things are different. I try to have the main living areas cleaned by 8pm. Then after the kids go to bed I focus on special projects, like last night I had hubby get the small 2 drawer file cabinet out of the classroom closet and bring it in our new office space-I set up a filing system for our household papers and bills. It keeps me busy so I'm not so lonely int eh evenings (for 9 years that has been 'our time' almost every night-that 1st week he was on night shift I was sooooo lonely and depressed after the kids went to bed!) Once you fid your groove, you'll be fine, it's just finding your own groove that is the problem-I'm still working out the kinks in our new nightshift life routine! LOL
You know, if some of these husbands would like the house cleaner, they are welcome to jump in and help!!!
LOL Well hubby does help, but he also works long hard hours. I know many SAHMs who view hubby working outside the home and bringing home the bacon as his duty and cleaning the house as their duty. And I agree. My job is house and kids. His job is painting tractors. His job is to earn the money, mine is to spend it :lol: Seriously, my hubby does help, and helped a LOT when he was unemployed. But as a general rule, now that he's working many 12 hours days doing fast-paced physical labor on a line in a factory, I don't think it would be fair to ask him to help with the dishes on a daily basis.
I do agree with what your saying to a degree. My husband drops in off and on during the day... expects me to stop what I am doing and do what he wants, than when he leaves continue on with what I am doing. Nothing gets done that way! But If he is going to expect that of me... than I will expect him to help me get stuff done. As it is, I have to wait MONTHS, AND MONTHS.. for something to get put in the shed. My Christmas Tree stayed in its box in my living room until a few weeks ago... because he did not want to put it in there. I started to do it, but he got upset and said something.... Men are funny when it comes to stuff like this. I love my man, but ... they sure are funny about things. He did help when the girls were younger, which was greatly appreciated, but now that they are older, he doesn't help all that much.
Yes, I agree that the men who work outside the home shouldn't be expected to spend their "off" times doing housework each night. But my sil works full-time, comes home and cleans house, helps kids with homework, gives them baths, etc. And all she ever does on the weekends is clean the house! I don't think her dh helps at all. Compare that to my OTHER sil. She's a sahm, three in school and a preschooler at home. So she's not busy hs'ing like us, lol! Her husband does most of the house cleaning at her place (but he's also ADHD and has LOTS of energy, lol!) I'm mostly refering to men who come home, leave stuff lying all over the place, and then complain because it hasn't been picked up.
What works for me is spending 1 hour every morning and a 1/2 hour every night cleaning. I have a set morning routine (20 minutes): Put on laundry, put away the dishes, wipe down the bathroom, make the beds. Then I do a weekly chore (20 minutes), like mop a certain room, scrub the tub, clean out the fridge, dust, etc. - I made a list of weekly things and assigned 1 or 2 of them to each day of the week. Then I pick one less frequent chore to do (20 minutes) - again, from a big list I made, such as: clean baseboards and moldings, windows and windowsills, ceiling fans, launder curtains, change shower curtain liner, etc. My evening routine (30 minutes) is: wipe table, stove, & counters, wash dishes, sweep & swiffer kitchen floor, sweep dining room & living room. I also try to keep order throughout the day. Doing it this way means no big spring cleaning, everything gets cleaned fairly often, and I'm not burned out. The trick is to set a timer and speed through it.
