Question for FTWMs

I am having a really hard time trying to balance work (I come home around 7:00 pm) and household chores. Just leaving it for the weekend is too much for me. I feel like I should be spending time with my DD instead of cleaning. I am just so overwhelmed (plus I am preg which is not helping). So please for those that work full time, could you please post your cleaning schedule. Thanks!!

Re: Question for FTWMs

I know how you feel!

I made arrangements at work to be able to leave a 1/2 hour early each day. DH picks the baby up from his Mom's. In that 30 minutes I have from when I get home and before he gets home, I do the following:

-Start a load of laundry
-Start dinner
-Make lunches for the two of for the next day
-Make the bottles for DD
-Go thru the mail and toss what isn't important

On the weekends, we do cleaning, but in tag teams. I will watch and play with the baby while DH vaccums/cleans the bathrooms. Then he will relax and play with the baby while I do some organizing.

When it's just one of us, we have come to terms that not everything will be done and it's more important to pay attention to the baby than be constantly cleaning.

Re: Question for FTWMs

Either split it up so you are not doing it every day or wait until the kids go to bed and then start on it.. if you can swing it, get someone to do a big cleaning every few weeks..

Be realistic and don't stress yourself out.. If you cannot get to it, then don't. but be sure you have your SO/DH helping you out..

Re: Question for FTWMs

I usually do laundry twice during the week and I will throw it in as soon as we get home. Then after they go to sleep I will fold it.

I do dishes quickly after they are asleep and tidy up also.

I also get everything ready for the next day after they are sleeping. They usually are in bed by 8:45pm and I'm usually done with chores around 9:30pm and then I exercise for a half hour and jump in the shower.

Big cleaning waits until the weekends.

Re: Question for FTWMs

I used to get home at 7:30pm and work in the city 5 days a week with Ds#1. I'm not going to lie it was really tough. I eventually came to the conclusion not everything was going to get done or not as perfectly as I'd like if I wanteed to spend any time with my DH and DS on the weekends. I'd start laundry early Sat. morning and finish it as I could. DH cooks dinner every night so I would either load the dishwasher or wash dishes before going to bed and clean the kitchen and counters. I'd also get DS#1's daycare bag ready at night. I also get up at 5am and take my shower first, then as DH is showering anything I didn't get done the night before I'd do then. As for vaccumming and dusting I did weekly mostly on Sunday's but again it wasn't perfect.


Now I work from home twice a week and it makes getting house chores a lot better but still challenging at times since I'm expected to behave as if I'm ion the office. That being said laundry and vaccumming now get done during the week. I still keep the routine of getting a lot done at night.

Not sure how everything is going to work out once DS#2 comes.

Re: Question for FTWMs

I just look at as - it is what it is.
If the house doens't get cleaned one week- so be it.
Nobody died from a dirty house.
My time with DD is more important than wiping crumbs off the floor or scrubbing a toilet.

Re: Question for FTWMs

I run around like a crazy person when DD naps on Saturday!

If she sleeps 3 hours, I can clean the whole apartment, shower and eat some lunch before she wakes up! If she sleeps less, I may put her in the swing for a bit to watch TV, but I try to finish up if she is awake.

Message edited 8/25/2011 10:31:08 AM.

Re: Question for FTWMs

Cleaning? What's that? I have a toddler, I think that's excuse enough.

Weekdays/Weekends
We basically clean as we go. Nothing’s ever 100% cleaned up (to my standards) but its not piling up (if you don’t count my closet). No scrubbing the floors but we clean our stove and counters, dishes, etc. Clothes are done Sunday morning and afternoon only. I live in a small home with a large living room/dining room area up front. The kitchen is in the back and is open to the front area. You can see the whole house and activity, no matter where you are (as long as you aren’t in the bedrooms) so we pick up and watch her all at the same time. She also loves to ‘help’. I admit he does most of the cooking and cleaning.

Major cleaning is done monthly. I’m talking bleaching the bathrooms, moving all the furniture and doing all the floors, vacuum and change out our AC filter. I won’t lie. We send AJ away for a day. We do all the floors in the morning, semi-mop (laminate) then wash the cars, come back in and finish up the bathrooms. Take a shower and crash. Then go pick up AJ and bring her home. Grocery shopping is only on Saturdays.

I guess you could say this is why I’m so happy with One and Done. Its become pretty easy to go with the flow. She tries to help and sure sometimes its worse that if she left me alone but hey she’s trying! Nothing in the house HAS to be done that can’t wait. If it NEEDS to be done, well we’ll do it. If not, we get to it when we can. AJ comes first. There’s always time for that stuff. Just less time for me to sit in front of facebook or him in front of his laptop. So he stays up to midnight or more and I stay up as long as I can. We both get around 6hrs of sleep (7 MAX) and have learned to live on that. There are night (like last night) when I crash as soon as she does. That’s fine. I’ve had a fun and fun life. I can afford a few boring nights of just sleep if it means I can spend hours of fun time with her. JMHO

Kudos to my hubby tho. I owe it all to him. He makes it possible for us all to spend quality time together while house doesn’t fall apart.

Re: Question for FTWMs

Basically, I don't clean during the week. Sure, we put DS's toys away 10 times a day, but I don't do realy cleaning until the weekends.

DH gets home first and cooks dinner.
I get home about 6:30pm with DS.
I gobble down dinner, then play with DS while DH cleans up kitchen.

During bath time (which I do), DH straightens up DS toys and gets his lunch ready.

As soon as DS is in his crib for the night, I iron our clothes for the next day.

Saturday mornings I start laundry by 7am. I do a minimum of 5 loads of laundry on Sat, clean the bathroom, and dust/vacuum LR.

I have to say that my DH does a LOT, so it lessens the burden on me. I'm not superwoman, and he knows that he if he wants to spend any time with me at night, he has to help out. I didn't put my foot down, or give him an ultimatum. It just worked out that way.

Re: Question for FTWMs

DH works most weekends, so I'm home alone with lots of chores to do.

Before he leaves for work, I take advantage of him being there to watch DS or feed him breakfast and then I go clean the bathroom right before I take a shower. It's quite a scene: me naked scrubbing the tub, toilet, and sink. I might not mop the floor until later when DS is napping, but the whole process is easier to do right before I jump in the shower.

Then I might throw in some laundry and throughout the day switch loads to dryer and baskets when done. Folding gets done later after DS goes to bed.

As far as dusting, vacumming, mopping, and general kitchen cleaning, I do that either during the week as I find time after DS is in bed OR I might do it before picking DS up from daycare. I run home, vacuum, then go back out to pick up DS . It takes 15 minutes, but well worth the pitstop before picking him up.

I admit, I didn't cook as much as I used to before DS was born, but now I'm finding time to do that too while DS plays for a little bit.

I basically find myself running between DS and the chores all day. HTH!

Re: Question for FTWMs

My Schedule:

M-F - throw a load or two of laundry in at night after DS is in bed.

Weekends - whatever room is in the kind of shape that I can't stand it anymore gets some attention.

My house is never as clean as I would like it. I found I had more time to clean when he napped regularly. Once he turned 3, forget it. The house is not so gross that it is unliveable, but there are definitely rooms I don't let people into.

Re: Question for FTWMs

Re: Question for FTWMs

I made arrangements at work to leave early (between 5 and 5:30) and work from home as needed after the kids go to bed.

My number 1 priority is spending time with my kids. If the house is messy, if dinner isn't as elaborate, if laundry takes longer to get done/be put away, so be it.

Here's what I generally do-

dinner is either set up in the crock pot before I leave in the morning, we have leftovers, order in (rarely), i make something very quick like pasta with veggies, or (esp if DH isn't home) some type of quick but healthy frozen food-like chicken nuggets (white meat, whole grain), boca burgers, etc.

DH is responsible for kitchen cleap up. That's huge because it gives me time to play with the girls, give them a bath, get them in pajamas. If he is working late, I do a very quick clean up, and wait for him to do the bigger clean.

I don't do any major cleaning. we have someone come every other week. I try to get my girls to help me pick up their toys to keep the place neat.

My kids go to bed on the later side (8:30/9), and I spend a good chunk of time with them getting them to bed.

Sometimes I'll do some laundry at night, or otherwise on the weekends. It doesn't always get put away and sometimes we live out of laundry baskets for a bit.

grocery shopping is pea pod after the kids are in bed or when I'm slow at work. fill ins are done at the grocery store on sundays. we take a walk there.

their lunches/snacks are packed in the morning.

Re: Question for FTWMs

It's REALLY hard!

I vacuum as soon as we get home, this way I know the floors are clean. I have a crawler,so It's a must.

I get up @ 5am, so doing it after they are asleep doesnt really work for me. I am exhausted by that time.

I've found getting up 1/2 hour earlier works best for me. I can fold a load of laundry, wash bottles, empty dishwasher, etc. I can get a lot more done in that 1/2 hour by myself than I can after work with both of them.

Most days I just walk around my house and sigh. Or I pack up and go to the playground to get away from it. The only answer that would really work is a cleaning lady, but we dont have the extra $ for it.

I kept a spreadsheet for a while of what needed to be done weekly & when. I may have to go back to it.

Re: Question for FTWMs

Thank you for all your responses!!

It really helped a lot!

Re: Question for FTWMs

Re: Question for FTWMs

I do laundry and dishes after work but vacuuming, dusting, bills, etc waits till the weekend

Re: Question for FTWMs

We have a very simple schedule, which works because DH helps out:

Monday - kids' laundry
Tuesday - my laundry (DH does his own on his days off)
Wednesday - clean kitchen and dining room
Thursday - vacuum house and clean bathrooms

This leaves the entire weekend free.

I also wipe down the dining room table and kitchen counters every night, use my stick vacuum at night to clean up crumbs, and I wipe the bathroom sink etc. down with Lysol wipes as needed.

ETA: both of our kids sleep with sound machines on full blast so our cleaning doesn't wake them up

Message edited 8/25/2011 12:57:58 PM.

Re: Question for FTWMs

The cleaning ladies come every other week. Without them I would go crazy!

Re: Question for FTWMs

It is so hard and I still haven't learned to "let things go."
I basically run around like a crazy lady during nap times, late at night (after he has gone to bed) and early in the morning (before I leave for work). I never rest. I ALSO have a cleaning lady and I still feel like things are always a disaster

Re: Question for FTWMs

I don't have a schedule. I do tidy up every day either in the morning or at night. I make the beds every morning before I go to work.

I dust/sweep on an as need basis. my MIL lives with us and she mops.

I have two homes to clean so it can get rough. this weekend I plan to be in the city all weekend and give my apt a very good once over.

don't stress yourself. and you need help. whether it's your husband (mine is the laundry/vacuum king) or a hired service, you need HELP.

Re: Question for FTWMs

i don't have a schedule. i just get things done when i can.

i do have a cleaning lady--i don't know what i would do without her. spending time cleaning is not what i want to do after working all day.

it s ucks and there's just no way to get it done and still be sane AND spend time with the kids.

Re: Question for FTWMs

I make sure things like my counter tops, kitchen table and bathrooms are clean. Everything else I try to accept them for what they become.

I have someone come and clean 1x a month and that's the best thing I have ever done. It's stinks to spend the money on that, but I found myself constantly stressing out about cleaning the house and scrubbing everything all the time. It wasn't healthy honestly.

DD isn't a crawler yet so I get away without vacuuming for longer period......longer than I should really. Once she's on the go I will vacuum daily......or almost daily