Efficiently managing a household--I need help! (bathrooms, cleaning, kitchen, sq ft)

[dougnaie]

Check out flylady.com - this has been a real lifesaver for me. Lot's of ideas and routines to follow to make the day easier. I think lists are key, and having a daily plan is absolutely necessary for me i.e. if it is Tuesday it must be time to mop the floor. Important to remember to not let things pile up - that's when it gets overwhelming.

[wastina]

To weigh in from a different angle, take it easy on yourself! That you've already identified the challenges and have sought to address them indicates that you are a very concientious householder. It is not easy being a professional married woman, and the expectations are high. You are to be applauded for the standards that you set, and for your sincerity in meeting those challenges. However.... in the end, life is life. You work. You're trying to start family. You deserve a break.

What the self-help and organization books don't tell you is that most people have boxes from previous moves which take years to unpack. (Moving every two years, I can confirm that having taken the effort to pack and move all that stuff, I frankly don't want to SEE it for a while. And if I don't really absolutely need to find it, it can sit there until I do. And if I don't.... well, that tells me something, too.). Dirt exists more in the eye of the owner than anyone else. Food is a necessary sustenance which can be enjoyed, although is also a pain to prepare and clean up after and is usually taken more frequently out of a bag or box than anyone would like to admit.

If you're planning on kids, the situation will only become more difficult. Don't worry about keeping the perfect household: it's hard, and will only get harder as the kids and larger accommodations come. You'll figure out what's most important to you and your husband, and will learn to let the lesser stuff slide. Unless you want to become Bree from Desperate Housewives, sit back, take a deep breath, and let the lesser stuff go. You'll hit those dustballs when you notice them. Your heart and mind are in the right place, so it won't slide to anything horrible. In the end, your happiness and sanity is much more important than keeping the "perfect" household.

[Coldjensens]

Multitask and clean up as you go.

As you make dinner, rinse each dish or pot and put it in the dishwasher as soon as it is no longer needed. Pop dinner in the oven and mop or vacuum the floor while it is heating.

Sort socks while watching TV. keep cleaning tools near where they will be used to you can sweep the stairs as you go down them, clean the sink while sitting on the toilet, clean one shelf of the fridge while you make breakfast, etc.

Short cut on things that do not matter. We got rid of the stupid flatware sorting tray that sits in a drawer and proves that you have too many spoons and not enough forks. Instead we just leave the flatware drawer unrestrained. When dishes are done, we just take the whole flatware rack and dump it all in the drawer. It takes about one second to put away the flatware.

there are lots of little things like that that can save a few seconds or minutes. Do them all. It all adds up.

Designate a room as a messy room. Do not allow guests to enter that room. Keep your magazines, newspapers, etc in this room. When you clean up in a hurry, you can dump things in there to get them out of the way.

The bottom line is that you will never get it all done. The secret is that no one really does. We all just scurry around really fast and clean up a few rooms whenever we learn someone is coming over. Then they come in and say "I do not know how you do it!" When we visit them, they scurry and we exclaim. It goes round and round.

A dog is useful in the kitchen. Just spill something and let her lick the floor clean for you.

Our daughters came up with a great time saver. They just get dressed in the laundry room. No need to bother with those pesky dressers and laundry hampers.

Roombas are great for the three weeks that they work until the battery goes dead. We tried Roomba three times, and every time they were wonderful for about three weeks and then died. the battery costs about the same as a new Roomba on sale.

[kcam213]

well glad to see your post Cold.
I was just checking out the roombas thinking ("if I get a Roomba, maybe THIS will be the thing that make me a neater person, more organized, thinner, more beautiful...")

[DanielChang]

Get one of those meal services where they handle all the prep work, you put it together and then you have home-cooked meals for a week! Hire a housecleaning service, every other week or once a month. It's worth it. Make a task list and break it down into very easily manageable tasks (doing laundry in the morning before work, throwing it in the dryer when you get back ..., designate one day a week as dry cleaning day, for instance). And don't be so hard on yourself--things will work themselves out. Just stay organized!

[RobRiguez]

You need to divvy up the workload. Give yourself little things to do each day and try not to make a mess and there wont be one to have to clean up.

I am married with a 1 year old running around and my elderly mother in law living with us in a 4bd 2.5 bath house. My wife and I each have jobs to do around the house and we do them without complainaing. Sometimes we ask the other to do one of our chores instead but generally we share everything.

I do all the outdoor stuff. Yardwork, vehicle maintenance, fixing of anything/everything/garbage and recycle-ables. I am the official bug killer. I clean the 2 main bathrooms every week and the 1/2 bath every other. I usually do this on the weekend. If my wife has to work one weekend I do laundry in between everythign else.

My wife is in charge of vacuming (only the upstairs has rugs), mopping the floors (downstairs is all tile or hardwood) dusting, laundry, dishes, and generally keeping things "pretty" as she calls it. Laundry gets put into small hampers in the bedrooms and when its full the next person to go downstairs takes whatever clothes are in it down to the laundry room and seperates it into one of 4 big hampers. If a big hamper fills during the week we will put it to wash in the morning before work then move into the dryer when we get home.

We share as much of the baby care as we can but he usually wants mommy a whole hell of alot more than daddy and shes ok with that. Daddy is more for playing anyway while mommy gets the hugs and kisses and snuggles. At night whoever wakes up first tends to the baby unless the other has to get up early for a meeting or appointment or whatever and a little nudge will alert the other that its their turn.

For dinner, who ever is home first is in charge of cooking that day. We never plan ANY meals other than what to take out of the freezer in the morning so its defrosted that evening. Sometimes my mother in law will cook when she is up to it but shes usually tuckered out from being with the baby all day and is very happy to go "off duty" as soon as we get home. We keep enough food in the house to last us about 2 weeks but we go shopping once a week to keep the stockpile up. So whetever we want to make that evening is readily had in the fridge or pantry.

We both have a 1-2hour commute each way to work. We both work 8-10 hours a day. She sometimes has to work weekends. We live by the mantra that our house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy. All of these things are NOT followed to the T. There are always exceptions but, this is the general plan and its worked for us for the last 2 years so far. If something doesnt get done one day, no big deal, we just make sure to get to it the next day.

And as far as relaxing...we can do that when were dead.

[Buckhead_Broker]

Ha! Just wait until you have kids. You think you're busy now!? Seriously, if you can afford it, get a housekeeper. We've had one for over 25 years and it makes life a whole lot easier. We also have a full-time nanny - you'll want one of those after you have kids!

[nrosetulip]

I work FT, have 2 kids and 3 stepsons part time, and am taking a class.

A couple of our methods:
-If one cooks, the other cleans up
-I do laundry for me and our kids, he does his and his kids
-We each clean a bathroom
-We have Roomba and Scooba. I swear by both and am one of their top free advertising venues. I'm sorry to hear someone had trouble with batteries... We've had a red roomba for 3 years now and replaced the battery once. The nice thing is that you spend a few minutes tidying and getting the room ready, turn on the robot, go do another room... I like to hear it work, reminds me what I'm not doing.

I periodically sell stuff on ebay, it clears out the house, makes a little $$, and gives you something to watch for a few days.

[gentlearts]

If you seriously want to fix the problem, you must simplify your life until it's managable.
1. As others said, get a cleaning lady at least once or twice a month. I can't tell you what a great feeling it is to come home from work to a sparkling house and glistening floors. This is not a luxury, an orderly home is essential to the wellbeing of the household.
2. Get rid of any and all clutter you may have in your house. Clutter is a huge cause of stress. If your laundry tends to get too far behind, perhaps you have too many clothes. Like I said before..keep pruning things down until they're managable.
3. Keep your weekends sacred. There is no reason why two people can't spend an hour each night getting chores done during the week, and saving the weekend for special projects and recreation.
4. Make a detailed grocery list for the week. If you're like most people, you tend to repeat maybe 10 meals over and over again. You know you will need the same staples every week, so what's so hard about that? One evening a week, you both go out for dinner together after work and then spend an hour at the grocery store. On this night, this is your only scheduled task.
5. You are exhausted by housework because you don't feel you are on top of it. Once you get a plan and stick to it, you'll feel empowered instead of defeated.
GOOD LUCK. I know you can do it!

[Ohiogirl81]

If you're spending an entire hour a day cleaning, your house should be pretty clean already.

Also, you didn't say what chores your husband helps out with on a daily basis.

At our house, the only chores that are done daily are: making the bed, cooking breakfast and dinner and cleaning up the resulting mess(es) in the evenings, and running my used towel over the bathroom fixtures after my shower. Everything else is on an as-needed basis: vacuuming twice a week (darn cats!), cleaning the bathroom once a week, laundry, etc., and we just spend a few minutes in the evenings doing those chores. Big stuff is left for the weekends -- home improvement and gardening are relaxing to me.

My house isn't immaculate, but it's clean enough and frankly, I'd rather spend my time with friends and family than obsessing over the house.