Whats your routine?

[Charlotte91]

I'm hopeless at housework (although I'm getting heaps better). I was doing heaps before I moved in with DP and then I got pregnant and slept for ages. I started to do stuff again and then was put on bedrest, due to many pregnancy complications.

So, basically, my routine is after DD goes back to bed for her morning sleep I do the dishes and general tidying.
But I need help.

What your routine??
Daily??

I'm making a 'chore chart' for myself and I need to know what daily and weekly jobs to do.

How often do you vacuum?
Clean the shower?
Do washing?

Its just DP, myself, and DD who is 5 months.

Thanks in advance.

[Yeddi]

I have a chore chart too, it's the only way I get things done, plus having a timer. If I don't give myself a time limit I can take all day.

How often do you vacuum? Once a week, sometimes twice if there is a disaster (dropped glitter for instance)
Clean the shower? One a week, just a quick wipe down while I'm in there so it stays a small job.
Do washing? Everyday, mainly because we used cloth nappies, otherwise it would only be every 2nd day.

[~Kim~]

Every morning I get up and make the bed straight away and get dressed, then nothing else seems so bad. Empty the dishwasher while the kettle's boiling. Do any little jobs (wipe marks of cupboards etc) I put a load of washing on every morning too.
I tidy after brekky before I do the school/gym thing. Then a quick tidy in the middle and at night. That way nothing builds up. The kids toys are sorted simply so they can put away after use.
I wipe the bathroom over every night when the kids are in there.
After dinner I make sure the kitchen is tidy and done properly every night and take out the rubbish. There's nothing more demotivating than getting up to a mess in the morning.
Every couple of days I clean the toilet.
Sundays I dust and vacuum and then mop (after the kids are asleep). I also do the shower/bath on Sunday nights when I hop in.

Sounds like a lot, but I have done it this way for a looong time, so it's all quite quick now.

[Miss.B]

Oh gosh! I used to be sooooo good before DS arrived! lol

Generally I do a load of washing every second day (we use sposies)
Vacuuming is once a week but I do skim over with the small vac in between as DS puts every little bit he finds on the floor in the mouth
Dusting once a week (DF loves it, I haaaaate it)
Mopping used to be every second week now it's very rare (I am sooooooo naughty)
Toilet/bathroom/kitchen once a week with a good once over, mostly I wipe the kitchen bench at least 10 times a day (don't know why I don't apply the same rule to the mopping )

Before DS arrived I cleaned ALL the time. Now I have no motivation WHATSOEVER.

[charliebear]

Honey, you have a little baby! When she sleeps you're supposed to rest. Seriously. Mothering is a marathon, not a sprint, rest when you can. I have a messy house most days, and I hate it being messy but I am doing what I can do and the most important stuff first (caring for and playing with/teaching my little boy). If my hubby ever complained he would be told where he could stick that and/or to do it himself. Oh I wish he would just do it himself! Or that we could afford a cleaner! Ha ha, just dreaming.

ps nice name

[helle]

Making it to the end of the day alive is my routine.

[Meercat]

Making it to the end of the day alive is my routine.

Same here!!!

I try and do a whirlwind tidy of the kitchen and lounge when DD first goes down for her sleep .... But any more than that is just beyond me!

I have a cleaner come in once a fortnight and she cleans all the bathrooms, toilets and mops and dusts..... Before she started DP went on and on about the state if the house so it was the only thing i could think of to save the fighting... Because if I have the choice to clean something, or play pretend tea parties or chasey... Cleaning is going to lose every time!!! Lol

The house looks wonderful for about an hour after she comes, then tornado Tiah hits it and it looks like a bomb site again




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[helle]

Same here!!!

I try and do a whirlwind tidy of the kitchen and lounge when DD first goes down for her sleep .... But any more than that is just beyond me!

I have a cleaner come in once a fortnight and she cleans all the bathrooms, toilets and mops and dusts..... Before she started DP went on and on about the state if the house so it was the only thing i could think of to save the fighting... Because if I have the choice to clean something, or play pretend tea parties or chasey... Cleaning is going to lose every time!!! Lol

The house looks wonderful for about an hour after she comes, then tornado Tiah hits it and it looks like a bomb site again




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I've seriously been considering getting a cleaner in fortnightly to do the loo and bathroom. I'm ashamed to admit but sometimes neither get done for a month or so at a time.

[~Stoked~]

My house is tidy most of the time... But... I only really *clean* it (showers, bathrooms, mop, toilets etc) when someone is coming to visit! Haha!
Kitchen is cleaned after every meal, vacuuming done twice a week or more if needed, washing done every second day. I do get slack with folding and putting away washing though.. Quite often it will sit in the basket for a week!

[peanutter]

hi there, charlotte!

I don't know how to link things, but I asked a similar Q a while ago, with heaps of specific chores, and lots of ladies were generous enough to reply in a lot of deails ... if you look through my threads you'll be able to find it - it was called :Calling all SAHMs" or something ...

of it another poster knows how to link it, maybe they'll do it here?

our routine at the moment is that each day has a theme, and we concentrate on that thing ...

ie: Mondays - washing
Tuesdays - floors & general pick up
Wednesdays - garden
Thursdays - Bathroom and Kitchen
Fridays - Shopping and dusting
Saturdays - Cooking
Sundays - rest!

and then washing and dishes as needed.

HTH

[Sopdet]

I air the bed when I get out in the morning, pull the sheets over the end of the bed, once I've put the coffee on & had a shower the bed is made.

I vacuum twice a week & do the mopping at the same time.

I spray cleaner on the shower when I get out of it every day, it gets a proper clean once a week when I do the bathroom.

I try to do a load a day of washing, if I don't have a full load then that particular colour doesn't get done that day & is held over until I have a full load of that particular colour (I do black, dark colours, light colours & whites all separately). Clothes are put away (most of the time) once they come either out of the dryer or off the clotheshorse. My shoes are put back into their boxes once they get taken off except for my uggies which stay next to the bed.

Beds are changed once a week, sheets put straight into machine, same as towels.

Kitchen is done either after I've cooked dinner at night or first thing in the morning while I'm waiting for the porridge to cook. I do wipe the stove once it has cooled down from cooking.

Lounge & dining usually get a quick tidy up before bed.

I try to open up doors & windows for an hour or so on a Saturday morning to give the place an air since it is getting cold and the heating is on at night.

Except you don't want to look in my dining room at the moment, I have a wedding dress hanging up on a hook on the wall as I'm trying to get the creases out of the train & the hook on the wall is the right height for the train to not touch the floor. Also my coffee table has a pile of text books on it because I've been curled up on the couch studying tonight & I've got to do more in the morning so they're staying there.

[Charlotte91]

Thanks guys, this has helped heaps. I just really need to get on top of the housework. The house isn't messy, its just un tidy. And with DP struggling with PND its the least I can do to clean the house...

DP and I have talked and we're enforcing the "Ronald Mac House rule". Which, when we lived in Ronald McDonald House Parkville, the rule was to wash dry and put away dishes immediatly after use. We have a mate living with us atm (He's been with us for 5 weeks and is moving out in 3 weeks thank God) and if we keep our stuff tidy then its obvious that its not our stuff and we're trying.

Also, thanks Peanutter. I've found your thread and saved it to favourites as it was waaaay to long to read while feeding DD lol.

[peanutter]

it is very long! but so enlightening - especially when I started putting all the data into a table to work out what "average" was ... because households are all so different!

eg: lots of people vacuumed once or twice a week. but others did it only before guests come (how do you put that into a table??) and others did it more than once per day (perhaps because their bubs are crawling and everything goes into the mouth, perhaps because they have pets and they malt a lot, perhaps just because that's how they like things done ...) so it's impossible to determine what is "average" - and there's absolutely no such thing as "normal"... so you just work out what works for you.

also, some people seemed to look at it as a "what can we live with?" while for some it was "what will make me feel good about how my home looks" whereas others were more like "what is hygenic, but not taking away time I can spend with my kids?"

all of these are comlpetely valid, understandable and fair enough.

but where do you sit? and your DP? as long as you and he are happy, it's all good.

DH and I have found what works for us, and keeps us happy and is a compromise between his and my standards - but the main point is it works for us and DS is clean, safe, happy and healthy.

My favourite thing at the moment with house cleaning is a game (well, Mary Poppins would call it a game!) I call "10 Things I Hate About You". Basically, you go into each room of your house one at a time, and select 10 things which don't live there, and you put them away. Not just moving them somewhere else, but actually dealing with them (eg: if it's there's 3 paid bills sitting on the kitchen bench which needs to be filed, you don't put it them in your filing tray or on the study desk, you put it in the file where they need to go eventually). And you do that for every room. Not all at once, but over the course of the day, whenever you get a chance. So even though it's not the case that the house is spick and span at the end of the day, there's a substantial improvement in every room of the house

there's also a website called the fly woman or lady or something (one of the fabulous girls here mentions it on my other thread) and she has some interesting suggestions on her website. some of them aren't for everyone, but it's great to read different ideas to work out what suits you - what is manageable, and is helpful, not another rule and rod for your back IYKWIM.

good luck!

[beckoes]

i have a thing on the fridge. it goes like this....

Daily:
dishwasher, clean sink and kitchen benches, sweep under dinning table, general tidy up in all rooms-just picking up crap, making bed etc. clean cat tray.

(i try to make sure kitchen is done after dinner unless the dishwasher got put on before dinner then the dishes get left till the morning, and il do it all before i do anything else so its out of the way.also put the laundry on first thing too. i normally run around when dd watches playschool at 3pm and do the tidy up and now dd is a bit older she is getting better and putting her toys away after herself)

Every other day:
clean stove and tiles behind stove, do laundry (wash/hang/bring in/fold/put away), clean toilets.sweep house

weekly:
wipe down kitchen cupboards,dust,clean highchair,vacume and mop (i never get round to mopping!) tidy dds play room,clean bathrooms,

Monthly:
clean windows,move sofas and chairs and clean under,vacume matresses,tidy garden,dust around lights/in corners etc

Now, im not saying i stick to it, but i do try. it really helps to have a list. and i probably end up doing laundry every day that there is four of us.

[beckoes]

I try to do a load a day of washing, if I don't have a full load then that particular colour doesn't get done that day & is held over until I have a full load of that particular colour (I do black, dark colours, light colours & whites all separately). .

i always think i sould do this, but i seperate my washing in to fluffy and non fluffy. so towels (the fluff) and light stuff/undies and the non fluffy is anything dark which shows the fluff from the towels (and no towels obviously. )

[helle]

I didn't know you were meant to do that I just do towels, normal clothes and DHs work clothes. Oh. And nappies. Between us we have one white short each, if we do end up wearing one they sit in the bottom of the laundry basket for yonks because I never have a full load to wash them in. I hate whites!!

[Charlotte91]

Well, I've spent 2 massive hours writing up a chore chart.
It took forever, but I know that if I have this, I'll stick to it and I'll get it all done.
I sat on the floor on my knees using the coffee table to write up all the chores. My knees are killing me!! Never sit on your knees for so long!

lol, my whites sit in the basket for ages. DP does his uniform for work usually. I try not to touch his uniform because they have to be washed by themselves on delicate (apparently. I've washed them with other clothes on a normal load and they come out OK. hehe) and ironed in a certain way so that the creases are in the right spot.
After being with him for nearly 18 months I don't even bother with them anymore.