Balancing my time!

pmontgomery87

Does anyone have any advice on how to balance time to be able to keep a clean house??? I work M-F from 8 until 5 or 6, after that I go to the gym and usually don't get home until around 8, sometimes a little bit before. I find myself running out of steam and not wanting to do things around the house that I need to get done! My BF helps a lot, but I like to do things myself.  Right now I am just doing small things throughout the week and then really cleaning on the weekends. I would like to be able to have the weekends free to spend with BF and dogs. My future MIL lives with us also, and so that adds to the mess. . . but that topic is for a future rant. . .any advice?

Mama-Bear

Wow, sounds like you're not home enough to make much of a mess other than some laundry.  Could your MIL do some cleaning as a thank you for letter her stay with you guys?  We're a family of 5 so we have enough laundry to do it daily, but you might be able to get away with 2 or 3 loads on the weekends.  If everyone pitched in you could probably get all of your cleaning done in an hour or two on a Saturday morning, have the laundry going while you're cleaning. 

pmontgomery87

ha! I definitely do not see as much of my house as I would like to, that is for sure! Sometimes my MIL pitches in, sometimes the house is worse than when I left it...I will start trying to do laundry while I clean on Saturday mornings to see if that helps at all!...Thank you so much for your reply!

Sillygirl45

I guess I would do one room a day, or one task a day. Either dust one day, vacuum the next, or bathrooms one day, living room the next. It really sounds like you need to enlist BF and/or mom too. The only other option is to cut into gym time, and that's not really fair to you!

lindsayandjamie

I can relate. By the time i come home from work,feed DS, put him to bed, workout (at home) and make dinner it is 8:30. The only thing that gets cleaned is the kitchen and tidying the living room. DH works evenings.

I save my cleaning for the weekend and accept that the whole house will not be clean at once. I rotate between cleaning the upstairs and the downstairs each weekend. I do lightly sweep the main floor at least once a week, more often usually, but the rest is fine every 2 weeks. Sometimes compromises need to be made and to me working out is more important than a spotless floor.

gator26

My schedule is similar (minus the mother in law). It can be really hard to keep the house looking decent. I have no idea how we will do it if we have kids someday!

 Lately, I have been focusing on just keeping the main living areas- living room, kitchen, dining room- clutter free during the week. It makes a huge difference in how the house feels. Usually, I can straighten up to a point where it looks respectable in about 15 minutes. Set a timer and see how much you can do in 15 minutes- I was surprised! 

I do most of the cooking, and my husband loads the dishwasher every night. On Saturday mornings, I sort and start washing the laundry while he sweeps/vacuums. We swap the loads through the weekend, as we are in and out of the house, and we fold everything Sunday night. Sometimes we don't get to it, and we live out of a clean laundry hamper that week. Oh well.

 At some point each week, I give the bathrooms a quick cleaning. I am talking swishing the toilet with a disposable Clorox wand, and quickly spraying down the shower and countertops. Not a hands and knees scrubbing!5 minutes total. In exchange, my husband keeps the garbage taken out all week. 

 I'm not a role model by any means, but this has worked ok for us without sacrificing a lot of precious personal time!