SAHMs with no help and kids 0-5 — how much time do you spend on chores?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you do not need to vacuum, mop, and wipe down your household surfaces on a daily basis.... Don’t know where people are coming up with this stuff.

Different strokes... I have a 6 and a 3 year old. On the nights they "forget" to clean up their playroom(usualy every other day-sometimes they run out of time because of some unforeseen circumstances), it takes me at least 30 minutes to clean it up.
I have to at least sweep under the counter and wipe the counter down after every meal. There is usually food all over the place. I vacuum the kitchen every night and vacuum the entire first level of the house every other night. I mob the entire house on the weekend but usuall have to mop the kitchen every third night(when I cook- I cook in bulk and heat up for a couple of days)

I have to wipe down faucet handles and bathroom sinks, toilet handles and seats almost every day. Otherwise we adults can't use them: there will be soap and other even less desired residue on them. soap,

the kids and I pick up the kids rooms every morning-make up their beds, pick up toys from the floor, sometimes sort art to keep and to throw away-they wake up around 7:00 am and play until about 7:45 while I get showered and dressed,

My husband usually does all the laundry on the weekend, folds and puts the kids clothes away. I put mine away and he puts his away. We can go for weeks without doing laundry sometimes, and it is usually no big deal. Sometimes, if we have something going on, I do all the laundry.

Overall, it's not too bad if you do several little things every day.

I think the only thing that we could use help with would be scrubbing bathrooms. The bathrooms sometimes go without being scrubbed for a month and a half. They actually still look decent because I wipe down very often and "spot" scrub areas that look bad and the sinks when I notice that they are getting brown.

Agree... PP’s post sounds like it was written by someone with zero kids or much older kids.

No actually - I have a 2-yr-old (girl) and 2 cats. I really don’t know what you guys are talking about. She eats all her meals at the table on a placemat, so there is not food everywhere to clean up. In the afternoon, she eats some fruit in her playroom - doesn’t leave a mess. She takes out one bin of toys at a time and puts it back bf getting another one. Sometimes there are some legos, books, etc on the floor after bedtime, but they take like 5 mins to put away. She is potty trained but I guess that’s not messy for us bc we still help her? She doesn’t make a mess all over the bathroom yet. I cook breakfast every morning and dinner 4 times a week. After cooking, I have to take like 5 mins to sweep up some crumbs and run a sponge over the counter, but I don’t really need to do that everyday - it’s not like it really looks that messy.

Maybe you have furniture and counters that don’t show smudges and good? Not being snarky. My toddler uses a placemat and a bib sometimes and also has a snack somewhere other than the table. He is often at the counter “helping” me. I do find after every meal I have to wipe the his placemat, the dining table and sometimes the floor. My dining table and counters are black and show smudges and sticky finger marks. If you have a matte patterned counter or a rustic dining table, you may not have these issues.

And to some extent you seem like you are wiping and doing the little spot clean ups everyone is alluding to. I wipe down the counters frequently and vacuum the kitchen daily. It’s not like this takes an hour, like you said it’s 5 min here and there.

That's probably true. Mostly, I was responding to the lady who cleans for 3 hrs everyday - I don't see how that's even possible. I think cleaning up a playroom for 30 mins sounds pretty ridiculous too, but I can maybe see how that is possible. I just don't want OP to think that staying home means cleaning all day while a child pulls on your leg, or that you have to stay up for hours after bedtime to clean up a tornado of mess. That is not my life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you do not need to vacuum, mop, and wipe down your household surfaces on a daily basis.... Don’t know where people are coming up with this stuff.

Different strokes... I have a 6 and a 3 year old. On the nights they "forget" to clean up their playroom(usualy every other day-sometimes they run out of time because of some unforeseen circumstances), it takes me at least 30 minutes to clean it up.
I have to at least sweep under the counter and wipe the counter down after every meal. There is usually food all over the place. I vacuum the kitchen every night and vacuum the entire first level of the house every other night. I mob the entire house on the weekend but usuall have to mop the kitchen every third night(when I cook- I cook in bulk and heat up for a couple of days)

I have to wipe down faucet handles and bathroom sinks, toilet handles and seats almost every day. Otherwise we adults can't use them: there will be soap and other even less desired residue on them. soap,

the kids and I pick up the kids rooms every morning-make up their beds, pick up toys from the floor, sometimes sort art to keep and to throw away-they wake up around 7:00 am and play until about 7:45 while I get showered and dressed,

My husband usually does all the laundry on the weekend, folds and puts the kids clothes away. I put mine away and he puts his away. We can go for weeks without doing laundry sometimes, and it is usually no big deal. Sometimes, if we have something going on, I do all the laundry.

Overall, it's not too bad if you do several little things every day.

I think the only thing that we could use help with would be scrubbing bathrooms. The bathrooms sometimes go without being scrubbed for a month and a half. They actually still look decent because I wipe down very often and "spot" scrub areas that look bad and the sinks when I notice that they are getting brown.

Agree... PP’s post sounds like it was written by someone with zero kids or much older kids.

No actually - I have a 2-yr-old (girl) and 2 cats. I really don’t know what you guys are talking about. She eats all her meals at the table on a placemat, so there is not food everywhere to clean up. In the afternoon, she eats some fruit in her playroom - doesn’t leave a mess. She takes out one bin of toys at a time and puts it back bf getting another one. Sometimes there are some legos, books, etc on the floor after bedtime, but they take like 5 mins to put away. She is potty trained but I guess that’s not messy for us bc we still help her? She doesn’t make a mess all over the bathroom yet. I cook breakfast every morning and dinner 4 times a week. After cooking, I have to take like 5 mins to sweep up some crumbs and run a sponge over the counter, but I don’t really need to do that everyday - it’s not like it really looks that messy.

Maybe you have furniture and counters that don’t show smudges and good? Not being snarky. My toddler uses a placemat and a bib sometimes and also has a snack somewhere other than the table. He is often at the counter “helping” me. I do find after every meal I have to wipe the his placemat, the dining table and sometimes the floor. My dining table and counters are black and show smudges and sticky finger marks. If you have a matte patterned counter or a rustic dining table, you may not have these issues.

And to some extent you seem like you are wiping and doing the little spot clean ups everyone is alluding to. I wipe down the counters frequently and vacuum the kitchen daily. It’s not like this takes an hour, like you said it’s 5 min here and there.

That's probably true. Mostly, I was responding to the lady who cleans for 3 hrs everyday - I don't see how that's even possible. I think cleaning up a playroom for 30 mins sounds pretty ridiculous too, but I can maybe see how that is possible. I just don't want OP to think that staying home means cleaning all day while a child pulls on your leg, or that you have to stay up for hours after bedtime to clean up a tornado of mess. That is not my life.

OP here. I’ve been in your position with one mild-mannered two year old. Life was very different then! Now have 5 and 2 year olds who are much more all over the place. Enjoy your peace and tidiness while it lasts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you do not need to vacuum, mop, and wipe down your household surfaces on a daily basis.... Don’t know where people are coming up with this stuff.

Different strokes... I have a 6 and a 3 year old. On the nights they "forget" to clean up their playroom(usualy every other day-sometimes they run out of time because of some unforeseen circumstances), it takes me at least 30 minutes to clean it up.
I have to at least sweep under the counter and wipe the counter down after every meal. There is usually food all over the place. I vacuum the kitchen every night and vacuum the entire first level of the house every other night. I mob the entire house on the weekend but usuall have to mop the kitchen every third night(when I cook- I cook in bulk and heat up for a couple of days)

I have to wipe down faucet handles and bathroom sinks, toilet handles and seats almost every day. Otherwise we adults can't use them: there will be soap and other even less desired residue on them. soap,

the kids and I pick up the kids rooms every morning-make up their beds, pick up toys from the floor, sometimes sort art to keep and to throw away-they wake up around 7:00 am and play until about 7:45 while I get showered and dressed,

My husband usually does all the laundry on the weekend, folds and puts the kids clothes away. I put mine away and he puts his away. We can go for weeks without doing laundry sometimes, and it is usually no big deal. Sometimes, if we have something going on, I do all the laundry.

Overall, it's not too bad if you do several little things every day.

I think the only thing that we could use help with would be scrubbing bathrooms. The bathrooms sometimes go without being scrubbed for a month and a half. They actually still look decent because I wipe down very often and "spot" scrub areas that look bad and the sinks when I notice that they are getting brown.

Agree... PP’s post sounds like it was written by someone with zero kids or much older kids.

No actually - I have a 2-yr-old (girl) and 2 cats. I really don’t know what you guys are talking about. She eats all her meals at the table on a placemat, so there is not food everywhere to clean up. In the afternoon, she eats some fruit in her playroom - doesn’t leave a mess. She takes out one bin of toys at a time and puts it back bf getting another one. Sometimes there are some legos, books, etc on the floor after bedtime, but they take like 5 mins to put away. She is potty trained but I guess that’s not messy for us bc we still help her? She doesn’t make a mess all over the bathroom yet. I cook breakfast every morning and dinner 4 times a week. After cooking, I have to take like 5 mins to sweep up some crumbs and run a sponge over the counter, but I don’t really need to do that everyday - it’s not like it really looks that messy.

Maybe you have furniture and counters that don’t show smudges and good? Not being snarky. My toddler uses a placemat and a bib sometimes and also has a snack somewhere other than the table. He is often at the counter “helping” me. I do find after every meal I have to wipe the his placemat, the dining table and sometimes the floor. My dining table and counters are black and show smudges and sticky finger marks. If you have a matte patterned counter or a rustic dining table, you may not have these issues.

And to some extent you seem like you are wiping and doing the little spot clean ups everyone is alluding to. I wipe down the counters frequently and vacuum the kitchen daily. It’s not like this takes an hour, like you said it’s 5 min here and there.

That's probably true. Mostly, I was responding to the lady who cleans for 3 hrs everyday - I don't see how that's even possible. I think cleaning up a playroom for 30 mins sounds pretty ridiculous too, but I can maybe see how that is possible. I just don't want OP to think that staying home means cleaning all day while a child pulls on your leg, or that you have to stay up for hours after bedtime to clean up a tornado of mess. That is not my life.

OP here. I’ve been in your position with one mild-mannered two year old. Life was very different then! Now have 5 and 2 year olds who are much more all over the place. Enjoy your peace and tidiness while it lasts.

Okay I get it, but come on... 3 hrs of cleaning every night? Even 30 mins in a playroom: Okay let's say it takes 10 seconds to put away a toy. 6 toys a minute. You child would have to have out 180 toys. Or 20 mins of putting away 120 toys and then 10 minutes of vacuuming. What? And I can see how a kitchen could be vacuumed everyday, but really, a living room has to be vacuumed everyday....? Just thinking about all this cleaning you guys are doing is stressing me out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you do not need to vacuum, mop, and wipe down your household surfaces on a daily basis.... Don’t know where people are coming up with this stuff.

Different strokes... I have a 6 and a 3 year old. On the nights they "forget" to clean up their playroom(usualy every other day-sometimes they run out of time because of some unforeseen circumstances), it takes me at least 30 minutes to clean it up.
I have to at least sweep under the counter and wipe the counter down after every meal. There is usually food all over the place. I vacuum the kitchen every night and vacuum the entire first level of the house every other night. I mob the entire house on the weekend but usuall have to mop the kitchen every third night(when I cook- I cook in bulk and heat up for a couple of days)

I have to wipe down faucet handles and bathroom sinks, toilet handles and seats almost every day. Otherwise we adults can't use them: there will be soap and other even less desired residue on them. soap,

the kids and I pick up the kids rooms every morning-make up their beds, pick up toys from the floor, sometimes sort art to keep and to throw away-they wake up around 7:00 am and play until about 7:45 while I get showered and dressed,

My husband usually does all the laundry on the weekend, folds and puts the kids clothes away. I put mine away and he puts his away. We can go for weeks without doing laundry sometimes, and it is usually no big deal. Sometimes, if we have something going on, I do all the laundry.

Overall, it's not too bad if you do several little things every day.

I think the only thing that we could use help with would be scrubbing bathrooms. The bathrooms sometimes go without being scrubbed for a month and a half. They actually still look decent because I wipe down very often and "spot" scrub areas that look bad and the sinks when I notice that they are getting brown.

Agree... PP’s post sounds like it was written by someone with zero kids or much older kids.

No actually - I have a 2-yr-old (girl) and 2 cats. I really don’t know what you guys are talking about. She eats all her meals at the table on a placemat, so there is not food everywhere to clean up. In the afternoon, she eats some fruit in her playroom - doesn’t leave a mess. She takes out one bin of toys at a time and puts it back bf getting another one. Sometimes there are some legos, books, etc on the floor after bedtime, but they take like 5 mins to put away. She is potty trained but I guess that’s not messy for us bc we still help her? She doesn’t make a mess all over the bathroom yet. I cook breakfast every morning and dinner 4 times a week. After cooking, I have to take like 5 mins to sweep up some crumbs and run a sponge over the counter, but I don’t really need to do that everyday - it’s not like it really looks that messy.

Maybe you have furniture and counters that don’t show smudges and good? Not being snarky. My toddler uses a placemat and a bib sometimes and also has a snack somewhere other than the table. He is often at the counter “helping” me. I do find after every meal I have to wipe the his placemat, the dining table and sometimes the floor. My dining table and counters are black and show smudges and sticky finger marks. If you have a matte patterned counter or a rustic dining table, you may not have these issues.

And to some extent you seem like you are wiping and doing the little spot clean ups everyone is alluding to. I wipe down the counters frequently and vacuum the kitchen daily. It’s not like this takes an hour, like you said it’s 5 min here and there.

That's probably true. Mostly, I was responding to the lady who cleans for 3 hrs everyday - I don't see how that's even possible. I think cleaning up a playroom for 30 mins sounds pretty ridiculous too, but I can maybe see how that is possible. I just don't want OP to think that staying home means cleaning all day while a child pulls on your leg, or that you have to stay up for hours after bedtime to clean up a tornado of mess. That is not my life.

OP here. I’ve been in your position with one mild-mannered two year old. Life was very different then! Now have 5 and 2 year olds who are much more all over the place. Enjoy your peace and tidiness while it lasts.

Okay I get it, but come on... 3 hrs of cleaning every night? Even 30 mins in a playroom: Okay let's say it takes 10 seconds to put away a toy. 6 toys a minute. You child would have to have out 180 toys. Or 20 mins of putting away 120 toys and then 10 minutes of vacuuming. What? And I can see how a kitchen could be vacuumed everyday, but really, a living room has to be vacuumed everyday....? Just thinking about all this cleaning you guys are doing is stressing me out.

Each toy taking x number of second? Cleaning doesn’t work that way. You see a mess. Put toys in correct bins, put puzzle back together or search for missing toy pieces. Need to go upstairs to get the vacuum. Fetch rag and cleaning spray or a duster. Meanwhile 2 and 4 year old are either “helping” or messing something else up. Vacuum rug, roll rug back and vacuum floor, under couch. Then put rag in wash pile, put vacuum back. It adds up!

I do vacuum the living room every day or every other day because we have a dog and DH and I often eat snacks on the sofa.

[Anonymous]

I am the poster that had a housekeeper 20 hours/wk.
3 kids under 5.
Here was the breakdown:
Laundry- 3 hours/wk
Grocery shopping, putting food away, cleaning out fridge- 3 hours/wk
Making dinner and cleaning kitchen - 4 hours/wk
Miscellaneous project: switching out kids clothes, organizing the linen closet, taking big rugs to laundromat - 3 hours/wk

That’s 13 hours, but then there were a lot of little things that take 5-15 minutes/day, but the time adds up:
Tidying up shoes and sweeping leaves/mud in entryway
Hand washing/filling baby bottles
Spot cleaning bathrooms
Vacuuming under dining room table, cleaning high chairs
Watering plants/weeding
Making kids beds
Vacuuming the playroom
Taking out trash

My kids are older now, and they do a lot of this stuff themselves, but when they were really little it was a ton of work.