A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

I took the day off and I'm catching up on cleaning....

I work M-F

Monday evenings I'm alone with Cailen - I usually get him around 6.... DH does somehting every monday. Cai goes to bed at 8:30 - between feeding and cleaning Cai, and spending some quality time with him, and then bedtime, I am done come evening.

I wake up 4:30AM Tues and Thurs to work out - I NEED this time - I have no other time to work out. I usually work 14-16 hrs on Tues - until 7-9pm....

Weds, I work but then I teach a special needs Zumba class, and I don't get home until 7

Thurs and Fri - I usually get home at a normal hour.

Weekends - we have had so much going on - we rarely are home... And then I have my stepdaughters who come and just add to the mess

My question is about cleaning - I only have time to do laundry during the week, and a quick wipe down of surfaces, toilet, etc... DH does dishes

What is your schedule like? When do you clean? Do you have a cleaning schedule?

DH will only do so much, and I have to ask him to do it a billion times.

As for asking my stepdaughters to clean - I am so tired of being the bad guy and being on them, I gave up and stopped. So I will ask DH to ask them, and sometimes he just won't (which is a whole other issue)

So - if you have a schedule that works, please share with me!!!!

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

all Laundry and cleaning gets down on the weekends when DS is napping...

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

Honestly I couldnt do it and had to get a cleaning lady twice a month. She does the heavy cleaning, I do the spot cleaning weekly- usually on the weekends. Like you, there were just not enough hours in the day. Add to the fact that my MIL watches DD and my nephew at my home, I was coming home every night to a disaster...raisins all over the place, dirt throughout the house etc..Its tough!

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

When I see a load of laundry piling up, I do it that night during the week. It doesn't take long to throw it in the wash and dry it while I'm doing something else (but I have a washer/dryer in my home).

As for light cleaning, we do that if we see things getting messy. A full on cleaning I'll take a 1/2 day of a weekend to do when I'm not busy.

When I was little, my brother sister and I all had to either vacuum, dust or do the dishes and pots. It was written on the calender if we had pots or dishes (because we were fighting about who was doing more of what). Dusting and vacuuming occurred at least once a week, and it alternated. There was no choice, we did it, or didn't get to do anything else (or had to an even worse chore-like clean the bathroom!).

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

I only have a cleaning lady every 4-6 wks for a 9 hour full cleaning of the house - and she has her work cut out for her by then b/c I'm only surface cleaning in between

Vacuuming I do quickly one weekend morning - doesn't take that long and the kids follow me around. We all have a couple of area rugs and we don't wear shoes in the house so it's not much.

Laundry I've been doing in the morning before work at like 6:30AM I do it but it takes a while before things make their way into drawers

Bathrooms I lysol down probably every 2-3 days. Again, quickie - 10-minutes I bring a little bucket of water in, my spray and quickly bleach
DH does the shower every so often when he's in there

Hardwoods, again, it probably takes a few days before I notice a furball (and we don't have pets) and then I'll grab a bucket and a rag and just wipe around

So, I have no secrets. My house always "appears" clean - it really does, but I'm not doing anything thorough.

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

It's not easy and I wish I worked out like you
being prego and having a toddler doesn't make it easy

weekends I clean upstairs. Hall bathroom upstairs I do a quick wipe down. No one ever uses it
Our bathroom is huge so I try and clean it twice a week at night
Vacuum on the weekends and some nights during the week
if DS is occupied playing then I do a quick vacuum and dusting downstairs. WE have 2 bathrooms downstairs and I always forget about the 2 one down the hall (it's really the pool bath and we use the one next to the kitchen)
Kitchen is cleaned daily, I'm just anal about that

I used to be better, but the pregnancy is making me exhausted
we plan on getting our tiles prof cleaned soon then I'll have a cleaning lady come in towards the end of my pregnancy to help
Other than that DS loves to follow me cleaning (I give him the swiffer so he's happy)
He's in bed by 7 so some nights I do it then
DH does all the laundry

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

What I find that works for me having DH watch DD for a couple of hrs. during the weekends (taking her for a walk, a car ride, by this mom, park, whatever) and I do all my clean. Everything. I just do not have time to do anything after work during the week, besides dinner and cleaning the kitchen. So I just find that this arrangement works best for us.

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

We are in a co-op, limited space. Once DS was born and we suddenly had 1,000,000 baby things (or at least it seems like that many!!!), my place NEVER looked clean.

For me, I found that clearing the clutter was the best way to attack the "looking clean" part... becuase I was cleaning all along and it never looked clean enough.

So we started organizing and purging. I've taken one day each weekend or every other weekend for the past few months getting things more organized and getting rid of stuff.

As for actual cleaning, the thorough cleaning gets done on the weekends (and I hate that I basically use up either an entire weekend day or most of it cleaning). But we vacuum a few times a week, same with swiffer sweeping and mopping. Bathrooms get wiped down a few times a week when I'm in there. Weekends for full deep cleaning. DH usually does dishes, throwing away garbage, and laundry. That helps a lot.

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

I hear you! Being a FTWM w/o little help from DH sux. Most men seem to have such a high tolerance for messiness.

Here's my schedule:
On weekdays - 30 mins. per day of chores including cleaning up in the kitchen, bathroom and putting away laundry while DH is giving DS a bath.

On Sundays - spend 1-2 hours to alternate between cleaning 2nd and 1st floor every other Sunday.

Have you tried a chore list and get DH to agree to it and do some of the things so you're not left with so much?

Same with your stepdaughters, they need to pitch in or no allowance/privileges. You or DH gotta give them responsibilities.

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

I maintain all week long....

throw a load of laundry in (or fold a load) in the morning before work....or at night while catching up on the DVR..

Wipe down surface area in the bathroom while the kids are in the bath...

Toys get picked up every night before bed, dishwasher is unloaded after its cycle...

Ill vaccuum or swiffer after dinner if there is a big mess....

Usually on Wed or Thursday- I try to put DH on bath duty and I dust the kids rooms; then after they go to bed; I dust mine...

Then on Fridays I stay up, pretty much all night deep cleaning (what a life-right?
)
I can't do anything with the kids awake; so on Fridays my DH is in charge of bedtime- and I stay up and clean the entire downstairs....

My husband USUALLY does the bathrooms for me when he gets home from work on Fridays (he gets home like 2hrs before me and the kids do) and that is soooooooooo helpful!

On Sat- the kids play on the computer together while I vacuum up there quickly and I put away the laundry during nap time on Sat.

If there is something going on tee-ball, birthday party, ANYTHING on my reg days- my schedule is thrown off and I find it sooooooooooo hard to get the house clean!

Im a total neat freak; and cant function when things are messy/cluttered and I find that maintaining during the week is sooooooooooo helpful and doesnt take much time

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

I work Mon - Thurs only. I get up @5am on those days and don't get home until 5pm. Play w/ kids, dinner and am asleep by 8:30 at the latest. On Thursday nights, I straighten up before bed. On Friday mornings, I get up by 5am and scrub the whole house. It's the only time I have to do it.

I have no time either. Someone gave me a gift certificate for Molly Maids and I haven't even had time to call.

I wish I could afford a cleaning lady on a regular basis.

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

DH does the vacuuming, floors and cooking. We rotate the bathrooms (whomever has time to do it).

I do most of the straightening and the laundry.

I get a lot done on Fridays when I work from home - I get up early with DS and do things then, I do the laundry throughout the day when I'm working.

My parents usually come to visit one day on the weekend so I manage to get things done then too.

I will say it's definitely not as clean as I would like it to be though!

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

Toys and dishes we stay on top of daily (dh helps with the dishes). I also try to do a load of laundry or 2 during the week.

The majority of my cleaning is done on Friday nights (I know, you're jealous ), and I finish up the laundry over the weekend. Vacuuming is DH's job.

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

Thanks for all the responses ladies - it's nice to see I'm not the only one!!!!

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

The flylady (flylady.net) has great quick-cleaning tips & shares a schedule that focuses on different areas of the house over the month. I've found her to be helpful.

It is so hard to work FT & keep on top of the house and be there for your children!

Re: A question for FTWM who keep their homes clean - without a cleaning person....

I do it every night.. The girls sit down at 730 and I clean until about 845 or so if not then my house would be a mess!!