[lmvsmom]

Hi everybody,

I am wondering how you working moms go about cleaning house. I work 5 days a week, 40 hours. I do laundry and keep dishes washed, but my housekeeping is very inconsistent. Quite frankly, I rarely clean. I'm a neat person, mind you, but I don't clean. I really want to change.
Do you keep a schedule for cleaning the whole house? A housekeeper is out of the question and the fly lady thing wore me out with the emails. Looking for your ideas.

And also, what cleaning products can you not live without?

Thanks in advance!

[drjeanne]

I have no ideas...just wanted to say I sympathize with you! I work about 50+ hours outside our home and the ONLY way I can do it is with my sweet husband who helps SO much around our home and because two years ago I just decided we HAD to get a housekeeper or I had to cut back my work schedule. I couldn't cut back my work schedule so the housekeeper won! I understand that you can't get one but, do you have a husband willing to help out around the house? Any nieces, nephews or neighborhood kids wanting to earn extra income that would be willing to help? Any family members you can lean on? I agree with you about Flylady too! My Lord! That's way too much organization for little old me!

Good luck to you! Sometimes it feels like a losing battle and you just have to change what you're willing to live with!

Jeanne

[chewy3368]

bumping for an answer to this one too!!!!!!!!!!!

Michelle

[JoshGuat]

Here's me helper.....

FlyLady.net: Your personal online coach to help you gain control of your house and home

She has great ideas on here for almost everyone Let me know what you think about her???

[RGirl]

Well, my house isn't perfect by any means, but I do try to keep it as clean as I can (and that is with a toddler and VERY large puppy living here).

I am a single mom and work full-time. The only way I can keep things from getting out of control is a schedule. I do this largely because I do not want to have to do everything on the weekend (although much of it does get done on the weekend). For what it is worth, here is my schedule (which is set up so that something gets done every night, but no weeknight chore takes more than 5-15 minutes; would my house be more clean if I could make time to do some of these things several times a week? yep. Is that going to happen? Probably no time soon!):

Monday night: clean kitchen and mop floor.
Tuesday night: clean the master bathroom.
Wednesday night: clean my daughter's bathroom.
Thursday night: clean the main half-bathroom.
Friday night: do my daughter's laundry.
Saturday: do the big grocery-shopping, vacuum and dust the whole house (sometimes the upstairs gets put off until Sunday) and do my laundry (which also sometimes gets done Sunday depending on what's going on)
Sunday: cook the dog's food for the week (yes, my dog eats fresh homemade food - I am OUT OF MY MIND), cook something for us that will last halfway through the week, whatever laundry is left.

I usually follow the schedule pretty carefully, but weeks like this one when I'm sick, everything goes a bit wrong, and I will be playing catch-up for a while. And I am trying to find time in there somewhere to turn one of the extra bedrooms (currently housing unpacked boxes from our move) into a playroom by Christmas morning. That last task seems to be tricky to fit in!!

[w8ting4Thomas]

When I took a new job with a drastic cut in pay (to be home more) the cleaning help went out the window. SO...now I have to do things at night. Once he is in bed I do all bathrooms one night, dust downstairs one night, dust upstairs one night, basement one night then usu floors (vacuum and mop) on the weekend.
That is the only way it works.

[susy...patience]

My solution is a cleaning service...

[2forus]

I recently became a SAHM, which helped, but when I was working it was 6 days a week. I would clean during nap time on sunday and at night. I pretty much get all my cleaning done on sunday.

[WJarman]

This is something I deal with daily. Four kids and a full-time career leaves little time to be a clean-freak. During the week I try and keep things to a dull roar. I will sweep, wipe counters and keep the dishes done, but the real cleaning waits for the weekend. I deep-clean one bathroom each weekend, so each of the 4 gets a good cleaning once a month. Between I do a wipe-up.

Things I can't live without:
Dyson vacuum. Can't say enough great things about it.
Bissell Steam Cleaner, I use it on carpets and tile. Easy to use and does a fantastic job.
Swiffer-type products. I give my boys the long-handled swiffer dusters and let them play hockey in the kitchen, use them as swords to dust the TV, etc. Keeps them busy and a little cleaning takes place too!

Good luck and don't sweat it too much.

Wendy

[KKR213]

My house sounds like yours. I recently took 2 days off from work and sent my son to pre-school and "de-cluttered". It lasted about 2 days!

They FlyLady emails bug me too.

Once on here I read a suggestion to clean the bathroom while your child is in the tub and I do that and it helps. My son also likes to "help" and I also give him swiffers to dust. He will fold faceclothes for me too. Sometimes the help is more of a hinderance but we are doing it together.

It is hard and it bugs me sometimes but I try not to let it stress me out too much.

[ana-mom]

I can usually manage to vacuum/dust when the kids are around but I end up doing it at night, after dinner when DH is home.

J's baptism was this Sunday and we were having 40 guests to our home afterwards. I left work at 11 AM on Friday to thoroughly clean the house before I had to pick up the kids at daycare at 4pm.

I still can't believe I took vacation time to clean my house!

[angel_bayou]

I literally clean most of the day! It seems like I don't a thing though because as fast as I pick uo my two girls drag out!! I have began to toss out everything I can and also donate the other stuff to the thrift store and of course send the outgrown clothes to Guatemala!! I don't feel so bad when I know it's going to be put to good use!

[keirasmom]

I do all my big jobs on the weekend..scrubbing floors bathrooms etc (usually every other weekend unless the floors are really gross). I vacuum on Thursdays which is our trash night so I can just empty the yuck and put it out that night.

I'm lucky to have an 11 yr old that I can boss around and who will do anything for change for the corner store. If a cleaning service is out of the question (which it is for me) how about hiring a preteen neighbor or relative for 2-3 hrs a week to help you out.

As far as cleaning supplies I can't live without:

My dyson and hoover floormate are the best things ever. We don't have a lot of carpet because of asthma and pets. The floormate is awesome at scrubbing the hard floor surfaces clean.