Don't worry Pretty Butterfly: I can't do the "one room at a time" thing either. I don't know how you can do that with small children in the house??? I find that I have to keep an eye on my kids which means that it works best to kind of work mainly near where they are and every so often branch out and venture into another part of the house... say the laundry/bathroom/main bedroom but I can only stay there for a few minutes before risking finding that while I was away my 3yo has snuck into the pantry and made yet another mess for me to clear up It's the 1st Law of Physics as it applies to caring for children:

1. Every action has an equal and opposite re-action. Eg: You clean the floor in the bathroom and during that time your child will be making an equally large mess in the kitchen.

UNLESS you keep a fairly constant eye on them... so I just can't imagine being able to stay in a room until it was totally clean and tidy. That's just way too long.

So, what I tend to do is this:

I start and end my day in the kitchen. From the kitchen i can see my kids play in the open living area. I usually start with cleaning my sink. That is also the last job on the day. After the school run (I usually return to a clean kitchen) I don't hesitate to pop my 3yo infront of the TV to watch PlaySchool. I can see the lounge room from my main bedroom so I make my bed and put away some clothes in there... and make short dashes into the ensuite all while PlaySchool is on.

Then we go outside together while I hang the clothes (forgot to say that yes, after DD and DH have their morning showers I put on the first load of the day). I don't leave my 3yo inside... that's asking for trouble.

Back inside I set up my 3yo with his trains or a puzzle etc and I pop on BB for my morning tea break.

I have very low standards when it comes to the bedrooms. They rarely are totally tidy. It's just too hard, for example, to go into my teenage DD's room because 3yoDS follows me in and wreaks havoc. Oh and my 3yo stopped having a day nap when he was about 1 and a half

If I stay in any area for too long 3yoDS will come in too and get under my feet. I don't have the patience to scrub tiles etc while my child is going through all the bathroom cupboards. It's a personality weakness of mine. Can't do mundane work and stop and start every 30 seconds to stop a child from breaking/messing up something. It drives me nuts.

My house is fairly homey in that it's not a show-case magazine perfect house. I can't maintain that and it's unrealistic for me to try. Just personally my reserves of energy are very limited with my over-active thyroid so I basically only do the essentials. I know that when all 3 of my children are in school i might be able to be more organised... my time will come.

Maybe just make a list of the "essentials" and forget about everything else if you are really struggling.... it's not a competition. There is probably an underlying reason... always happy to talk, you know that