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Often I feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities of managing a household and getting chores done. When both spouses work, how do you manage these things? Groceries, Target, errands, dry cleaning, workmen, cleaning, etc.--it seems like handling all of these takes up so much time. How do you and your spouse handle household responsibilities? We tend to do many of them together, but it eats up entire evenings after work, which I would much prefer to spend having fun. But groceries need to be shopped for, errands need to be done, etc. Do you do all these things on one day or do you space them out over the week?
Often I feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities of managing a household and getting chores done. When both spouses work, how do you manage these things? Groceries, Target, errands, dry cleaning, workmen, cleaning, etc.--it seems like handling all of these takes up so much time. How do you and your spouse handle household responsibilities? We tend to do many of them together, but it eats up entire evenings after work, which I would much prefer to spend having fun. But groceries need to be shopped for, errands need to be done, etc. Do you do all these things on one day or do you space them out over the week?
Yes, such mundane chores do take up time. I presume you have kids? Could you afford to hire a cleaning person to do things like floors, bathrooms, etc. every other week? I might suggest stocking up on things so that you don't have to go to the store so often, but keep in mind that weekend shopping is pretty much S.O.P. in many cultures on the planet--trying to avoid that is like bucking the tide.
10 years from now it won't matter if the clothes were wrinkled or the house was a mess
but it will matter very much if you took time to play together, be romantic, enjoy each other
also if you have the money, pay someone to do stuff for you
your time together and the quality of your relationship, is more important than things or stuff or money.
Kudos, DimSumRaja! Excellent response! I'm with you and to be perfectly honest here, the other poster had a good idea too. Lower your standards a little. Both of us work, we run errands and do grocery shopping on the weekends EARLY and then by 11:00 or so (sometimes earlier) we are done and have the rest of the day to play. During the week, we usually make dinner, if something needs picked up, usually I do it since I'm home earlier. After dinner, depending on who cooks, the kids clean up or one of us do. we all live in the house, we all share the duties. If you have kids, even if they are younger (7,8) its time to start helping out. I hate it when I see parents coddling kids until they are teenagers and then wonder why they don't lift a finger around the house. Between you, your spouse and kids - everything you need to have done can be and if you can't get it all done, don't worry about it. Read the book "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" and it will open your eyes a little. As long as everyone is fed, house is tidy and trash is taken out, the rest can wait. With everything being online, there shouldn't be much you can't do as far as errands online (i.e., paying bills, ordering stuff, etc). I used to really obsess over a spotless house, perfectly coifed kids and beautiful picture for my friends to see and then realized I was spending more time scrubbing floors then playing wtih my kids and doing what I liked doing. Trust me, life is too short.
Saturday mornings, is my cleaning day, bathrooms, floors, carpets, furniture, all that stuff. The rest of the week it's basically to picking up after each other, and dishes. My boyfriend is good about picking up after himself, my son also. We both get paid once a month, so the household items from target i do once a month. Grocery shopping once a week, i go wit a list, so usually does not take that long.
I know people that are cleaning the bathrooms everyday an moping, why? I come home from work, i cook, dishes, clean up and that's it, and it stays pretty clean all week.
Do you have a little kids?, i know it's harder to keep up if their little., if kids aren't the issue, then do like me, once a week for your deep cleaning, rest of the week, just dishes and pick up. When i come home, my house always looks clean.
It can be done if both of you are willing to share equal tasks. It was one of my main requirements when I first dated my husband actually. We've been doing it together for 10 years and we don't use cleaning service (we tried a few times but they never did it as thoroughly as we do it).
For instance:
I cook, he cleans.
He does laundry, I iron the clothes.
I clean main bathroom, he cleans guest bathroom and the powder room.
I dust, he vacuums.
He mows the lawn and I garden.
Grocery is done together (but I usually end up browsing too long at the book section while he shops all the rest).
It can be done if both of you are willing to share equal tasks. It was one of my main requirements when I first dated my husband actually. We've been doing it together for 10 years and we don't use cleaning service (we tried a few times but they never did it as thoroughly as we do it).
For instance:
I cook, he cleans.
He does laundry, I iron the clothes.
I clean main bathroom, he cleans guest bathroom and the powder room.
I dust, he vacuums.
He mows the lawn and I garden.
Grocery is done together (but I usually end up browsing too long at the book section while he shops all the rest).
We are similar, if I cook, he cleans up. If he cooks, I clean up. He irons, I usually do the laundry (and always put the clean clothes away).
I dust, he vacuums, we both wash cars together, shop together (big trips), garden together, etc.
I think Teamwork is big! We got up at 8 yesterday -- the house was a mess.....we busted it out and did 4 loads of laundry, cleaned top to bottom and were done by 11. Then we washed and vacuumed our cars.
Major shopping was done on Saturday, followed by a leisurely lunch and a nap.
Granted, we don't have kids....so maybe that changes everything.
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