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[quote=Anonymous]My DH is also opposed to hiring a housecleaner for various reasons that I think are dumb, but it's not the hill I choose to die on.  It helps that he's also very good and thorough at cleaning, and committing to doing deep cleans (while I'm better at keeping the place tidy on a day to day basis).  And most importantly we live in a very small apartment!  <1000 sq ft, and it works for us and is so much easier to maintain.  Even when we travel and stay in a bigger house the mess just accumulates so much faster over such a large area it gets overwhelming.

We have two kids, 7 and 4.  They share a room and honestly it's a mess most of the time.  We make them clear the floor so we can vacuum once every couple of weeks, and we change their sheets weekly, but other than that it's kind of up to them if they want to sleep in a bed full of toys or whatever.

We vacuum the whole place once per week.  We deep clean the kitchen once per week or thereabouts.  Same with the bathroom, although sometimes I realize it's been weeks since the area behind the toilet or something has been wiped down.  vacuum under the kitchen table most evenings with one of those light cordless vacuums that aren't a beast to pull out and navigate.

My husband tends to put things in piles to clear the table for dinner or whatever, I tend to be the one who puts those piles away (e.g. books go back on the bookshelf).  We don't go to sleep every night to a clean apartment but I like to think one person can make the place look good and decluttered for guests in well under an hour.

We cook a lot but really basic stuff.  We do laundry throughout the week, and because there's no place to store clean laundry in such a small apartment we have to fold and put it away as we go.  That part takes 15 minutes, tops.  One of us usually dumps the clean laundry on the bed and sorts into piles by person/theme, the other usually puts the clothes away.

One big grocery trip on the weekend and lots of filling-in-the-gaps as needed on our way home from work, or sometimes I'll go early in the morning before the rest of the family wakes up (I actually love that).  The store is 5 minutes away on foot.  My husband can carry a huge amount home, I will carry home a bag here and there.

Kids help carry groceries (a small amount, but it helps!), they are OK about cleaning their toys but we do often do it for them after they go to bed, which I know isn't great.

No lawn to maintain.

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