Anonymous wrote:I used to fold laundry on the weekends as one of my PT jobs. I'm a teacher and it was actually great for me. I could do it when I had time. Some weekends I would fold for 2 hrs and some weekends it would be 3. It was very boring which is exactly what I needed after 7+ hrs a day working with 5-6 yrs olds and the constant noise. I'd either fold in silence or listen to a podcast. I found the job on Nextdoor. Pay someone and they will come!

Oh and about the toys. I'm a single parent and this is what worked for me way back in the toy stage. Whenever my DS got a new toy, I'd take an old toy and hide it in the closet. If he didn't ask about it for a month or two, I'd give it away or sell it (on Craigslist). Toys went in these wicker baskets around the house. They all had lids so they kind of looked grown up like and stylish.

I used to fold laundry on the weekends as one of my PT jobs. I'm a teacher and it was actually great for me. I could do it when I had time. Some weekends I would fold for 2 hrs and some weekends it would be 3. It was very boring which is exactly what I needed after 7+ hrs a day working with 5-6 yrs olds and the constant noise. I'd either fold in silence or listen to a podcast. I found the job on Nextdoor. Pay someone and they will come!

So many "mothers" on this forum do not really want to be moms. They just want some credit for reproducing.

Look on care.com

For the DC4 you should be teaching your child to put each toy away before taking out another. When were you going to start this, when DC is 10? Also DC to learn colors by sorting laundry. Make the chores a game and bonding time.

You work full time and you want less time with your kids in order to clean and organize? Hire the help for chores, not to be away from your little ones.

Also, it can be helpful to keep perspective. Your kids won't be 4 and 1 forever. They'll soon come into ages where they can help out more and more. Enjoy the stage you're in, accepting that it may be messier than you are used to. It won't last long.

This varies a lot. We have cleaners twice a month and a full time nanny. 4 and 1 are tough ages! It gets easier to get things done around the house once you have a two year old.

For me, I would love to outsource cooking and cleaning (more than twice a month- more like tidying up a daily basis). But that’s not really feasible, so the next best thing is having a sitter who can watch the kids while I do things I need to. We have a few hours of childcare outside of work so we can catch up on chores, errands, cooking, rest or working out.

I’m the 19:54 poster and one other thing I thought of is to buy some attractive baskets that can live in high trafficked areas of your house. The toys bother me less if I can just throw them in a pretty basket at the end of the night. Miscellaneous paperwork is also in a pretty woven tray. There is a nice basket by the stairs of stuff that needs to be carried back up. It really helps cut down on visual clutter.

OP, I’m also a type A working mom who is always looking for ways to stay on top of stuff. Here is what has helped.

-Bump cleaners to once a week (but make sure you’re keeping up with the tidying up type cleaning in between). Also, hire them to do occasional deep cleans such as oven, fridge, baseboards etc.

-Do at least a load or 2 every day of wash. I WAH so can keep it going. We do adult laundry (wash/fold over 2 days) kid laundry (wash/fold over 2 days), sheets (1 day), towels (1 day), and miscellaneous or hand wash type stuff (1 day). If we get too behind we send a few loads out (I recommend Columbia Pike Laundry if you are in Arlington).

-Keep a box or two going of items to donate. As you find stuff you no longer need, add it to the collection. Go to Goodwill once per month. Also, just purge ruthlessly in general and be thoughtful about things you buy.

-Take a full day (or at least half) off work quarterly to do all the seasonal stuff like clothing swap out, bike tune up, planting things, etc.

-Find a good handyman to come out every so often to tackle projects you just don’t have time for. We are lucky because we stayed in touch with our general contractor who did a big reno for us. He will squeeze us in at his hourly rate if we bundle enough projects together. We pay a premium, but he can manage it all and subcontract as needed.

-ToDoIst app, shared Google calendar, etc. w/ DH and check-ins at the beginning of each month at least to synchronize schedules.

Last of all, embrace the fact you’ll forever have stuff still left to do at the end of the day. But give yourself permission to have leisure time anyway.

What you’ve noted is bothering you is toys and laundry piles. It really makes a difference to streamline your possessions. Way less toys and have large bins or baskets to throw them into. The four year is perfectly capable of chucking the toys into a basket to clean up. If they won’t, get a trash bag and put left out toys into it. This method will work pretty quickly.
As far as laundry, unless dirty, kids clothes can be worn twice, and pajamas for days. Just change their clothes in the morning so they don’t eat in their pajamas. Capsule wardrobes are all they need. Doing small loads of laundry more frequently is much easier than letting huge loads pile up in my opinion.
SomethingI do in the evenings occasionally after bedtime is set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes and do whatever kitchen prep tasks I can in that timeframe. Example: wash and cut up produce, pack lunches or snacks, get oatmeal soaking for breakfast, set the table for breakfast, etc. Small things that can make mornings feel so much better but I don’t force myself to do it all. It’s amazing what a timer can motivate you to do.

We have friends who used to have someone come in 7-9 pm a few nights a week and handle a bunch of household stuff while the parents put the kids to bed. So they would come back downstairs to everything cleaned up after dinner, dishwasher loaded, laundry folded, etc. Seemed to work out great!

Same PP as above.

One thing that I will say is that I personally was not great at just "playing" with my kids on the floor at those ages.

But one thing I was good at was letting them help.

So during the weekends instead of doing all play time, the kids would help me cook, help me do laundry etc.

I made them feel like they were really big to be able to help out so much.

And it killed 3 birds with one stone. I got lots of good time with my kids, lots of work done, and they learned stuff in the process.

Your kids want to be with you, and they want to feel important and "big" so this is a good time to do this sort of thing.

OP those ages are tough and everything can definitely feel overwhelming.

I personally found it challenging to find someone who wanted to do just a few hours of "house manager" type work that was reliable and affordable.

You mentioned 2 specific issues so I'll start there.

Laundry - there are plenty of good laundry service options in DC. Just try it out for a month or two and see if it makes a difference.

Toys - I agree with 2 of the PPs on this.

1) Get a personal organizer to get your play room or area in great shape so that every toy has a home.

2) If there are too many toys, and they're not taking care of them, just take everything that's not cleaned up every night and put it in a big bin.

One of 2 things will happen... they'll either not notice that the stuff is gone, which is a sign that they have way too much crap, and you can give it away. Or, they'll be sad and you can say that toys that don't get cleaned up need to be put away for a few days, and then they'll learn to clean up.

Anonymous wrote:Op here again. Thanks for tips. It’s not the dirty aspect of the home, it’s truly just the mounting laundry and toy
Explosion. We don’t have any family in town so we literally are trying to figure out who and when to hire someone because we don’t have grandparents yo take the kids for the weekend to get stuff done.

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Who bought the toys? You did so that's on you. Toys they have outgrown go to Salvation Army. Same with clothes they have outgrown. Find a laundromat that does washes, dries, folds but be careful that you don't put in clothes that need to be hand washed or dry cleaned.

Most house cleaners are not going to wash your clothes nor should they because laundry is not housecleaning.

Start now teaching your children to pick up after themselves. I showed my children how to put toys away as soon as they started walking. They knew how to put dirty clothes in hamper when they were three and could bring dirty laundry to laundry room by the time they were five and at age 10 they could sort whites and colors. It's up to you to teach them.

I would start with hiring a personal organizer to help organize and purge the toys so there is less opportunity for "toy explosions". If everything has a home making sure they end up in their place will be less of a challenge.

Then I would ask the cleaning person to come more frequently and have them wash and put away all the laundry. I would also start a routine of putting away toys at night before bed. It is a pain when you start but once the kids have this as a part of a routine it makes like so much easier. My 7 year old now knows that toys are put away before bed and it only takes us 5 minutes or so each night.