Reply to Why is there SO much housework wtf?

Forum Index » Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers

Reply to "Why is there SO much housework wtf?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]agree with others that you need to get rid of stuff. I can see why you feel overwhelmed. I would too with all that stuff sitting around my house. As others have said, set up systems for mail, packages, kids' stuff (though you don't mention it being a problem I feel sure that it must be given the other problems you list). And just do a big purge, as someone mentioned, getting rid of stuff is so freeing. Even get rid of all the extra pantry items you mentioned. If you don't think you'll ever eat them and they are non-perishable and haven't expired, take them to the food pantry. If they are expired or just gross, throw them away. If you think you'll eat it, put it out somewhere on the counter top so you'll remember you have it and make a meal plan that includes it ASAP to get it out of your pantry. Besides baking stuff and spices, you really don't need to keep much in your pantry. Only buy and keep what you will eat within a week or 2.

It is still a lot of work keeping up with all these 'systems' to be sure but it is much more manageable and less overwhelming when you have some organization and some sense of the way in which things should be done. I think without a 'system' in place, it's easy to just set things aside thinking you'll deal with them later and then you quickly get to the point you are at where there is stuff everywhere and no room to breathe and it's hard to decide what to tackle first.

The below may sound like overkill but it works for us so maybe it will for you too. My husband and I have a certain order in which we do housework on a daily basis and on a weekly basis. This is our daily schedule which really helps us stay focused on the most important housework/the things that always need to be done no matter what. We do the following every. single. day. The only thing that changes is who does what. we try to split up the housework as evenly as possible.

1) Make the beds.
2) Deal with the laundry (gather clothes and start a load or fold and put away clothes from the dryer)
3) Deal with the dishes (unload/load dishwasher) and clean off the kitchen counters. 
4) Start dinner prep as needed

It requires getting up a little earlier and working together, but we can get all that done before we have to leave the house for work and that way we don't have to do it when we get home and we can just relax a bit in the late afternoon/early evening and enjoy hanging out w/ our kids and each other a bit.

We also have a weekly housework schedule as follows.
Monday-bathrooms. After the kids go to bed, we each take a bathroom (we have 2) and give them a good, thorough cleaning...wiping down counters, mopping the floor, cleaning the mirror and here's this point again-looking through cabinets/drawers and [i]getting rid of [/i] things such as trash the kids neglected to throw away, empty bottles, expired medicines, etc.
Tuesday-kitchen. We go to town on the kitchen on Tues nights. Counters, floors, the sink gets a thorough cleaning, clean out refrigerator, organize cabinets.
Wednesday-living areas. We dust, tidy, generally straighten up but don't vacuum (we only vacuum on weekends unless there's a big spill)
Thurs and Fri we give ourselves a break
Sat morning is for vacuuming and cleaning the kids' bedrooms and our own bedroom thoroughly

I guess you could say we are a bit Type A and this is way too detailed/controlled. BUT...it works. And I find that the less time I have to devote to thinking about (let alone doing) housework, the better. Keeping a strict schedule like this definitely means I don't even think about it anymore and I have found it much less stressful since we implemented this schedule.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics