How do you keep on top of housework/daily routine with kids?

fro9etb8j5qsl2

It might have been a ploy to make ye feel uncomfortable and put ye off Millem. My family rented a house that was for sale when I was a teenager and the estate agent was awful, he would give us little or no notice for viewings. My dad always threatened to open the door in the buff and let on he was a nudist :pac:

Cunning Stunt

HI all
just wanted to chime in on this thread and say I know what it's like to have a messy house! We have one child of 19 months at the mo and another one coming in october, please god, so I am not expecting things to change for the next few years!

Now a little confession - About two years ago, a work colleague had her second child and she told me that she had hired a cleaner to help in the house. I remember saying to my husband that it was ridiculous - she only had two kids for god's sake, and she needed a cleaner?!

Needless to say this was before we had our first child and oh my God has my opinion changed since! We are now toying with the idea of getting a cleaner when the second baby comes.

How Strange

Our list is pretty much the same as pwurples although she changes the bedclothes every second week. I always thought a cleaner was a luxury until I went back to work after my first maternity leave. Now it's an absolute necessity. We forego a weekend takeaway to pay for the cleaner.

We found ours through friends. We used an agency a couple of years ago and the cleaners were useless. They did half the work of the previous cleaner. One didn't even wash the floors but insisted she had.

Some people guffaw at us having a cleaner in a 2 bed apartment but if we didn't we'd spend Saturday mornings cleaning and that's precious time for us to do family things.

We've got an ikea unit with 4 boxes that we put the toys into at night and some presses with doors where other stuff goes. So from 8pm - 6am our place looks lovely and tidy.

fro9etb8j5qsl2

How Strange wrote: »

We forego a weekend takeaway to pay for the cleaner.

I never thought of it this way! I'd much rather have the luxury of a relatively tidy house for a week than have the 20 minute pleasure of eating a salty chinese followed by a night of sweating and nausea the next morning from it (or am I the only one who feels crappy after takeaway?)

Penny Dreadful

Bruce Orange Mission wrote: »

I never thought of it this way! I'd much rather have the luxury of a relatively tidy house for a week than have the 20 minute pleasure of eating a salty chinese followed by a night of sweating and nausea the next morning from it (or am I the only one who feels crappy after takeaway?)

Nope, me too :-)

I have a cleaner come every second week and it's €40. She is great and is here for 2/3 hours. She does the kitchen and bathroom and washes and hoovers the floors. It's the best money I spend.

seamus

Millem wrote: »

Nikpmup I went to the strangest viewing a few months ago where the family and their Yorkshire terrier were in the dining room doing homework :eek:
It was a priest who owned the house and they were his tenants!!! They had also made very smelly fajitas for dinner!!!! Very very bizarre

My wife made a private appointment to view a house; the owner had told the agent that she wouldn't do private viewings. I had already seen it and we insisted that we were very interested in the house but my wife absolutely couldn't make any of the open viewings due to work constraints.
So the owner agreed to the viewing, but refused to leave for the 15 minutes it takes to look at a house. So while my wife was walking around viewing the house, the owner was watering her plants in the front garden and throwing dirty looks at her.

There's nowt queerer than folk, as they say.

lazygal

We went to see a house recently at an open viewing. There was one man who just stood on the landing and watched everyone else. I only copped later that it was the owner, maybe he was afraid we would rob his nick knacks or something. It was really off putting.


I also feel.crap after a Chinese takeaway. We occasionally get a pizza from a proper place close to us, but we have made a ritual out of cooking together on the weekend when the kids are in bed. Better for the wallet and the waistline!

nikpmup

All our nick knacks (iPad, laptop, watch, anything worth more than €50 and portable) comes with us in a bag when we leave for the viewings. I was fierce tempted to tag along at the group viewings and schill the f... Out of it! "Ooh, what lovely curtains, that cheap for a detached house!" Etc etc. OH and estate agent wouldn't let me '',

fro9etb8j5qsl2

Can anyone recommend a cleaner in Limerick by any chance? I've tried googling and done deal but can only find the larger contract companies. I'd rather deal with an individual. Filled the OH up with his favourite dinner a while ago and gave him half an hour of child free peace so now is definitely the time to broach the subject!!

sm213

Bruce Orange Mission wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a cleaner in Limerick by any chance? I've tried googling and done deal but can only find the larger contract companies. I'd rather deal with an individual. Filled the OH up with his favourite dinner a while ago and gave him half an hour of child free peace so now is definitely the time to broach the subject!!

Rollercoaster might have some ads up?
Sometimes there is cleaners. Also Gumtree but not sure how much you could trust it .

Diamond Doll

LOL! Can't recommend one in Limerick, but if anyone wants a recommendation in D15, I've a very good one.

John Mason

i have been spurred on by this thread and we are getting a cleaner :D

Things are bad when your 14 month old is picking things up from the carpet and handing them to you :o

Any recommendations for a cleaner Dublin 11?

fro9etb8j5qsl2

My OH agreed to get one :D:D

However, we've had some news in the last few days that may or may not affect our finances in the next few months so I'm holding off on getting one until we know more. Just here now doing up an elaborate spreadsheet with all the chores colour coded and itemised to see if it'll help.

I checked rollercoaster but couldn't find much for limerick. For some reason, I don't trust any ads on gumtree (I have no idea why ).

LegacyUser

Just found out I'm at the beginning of pregnancy no. 2. We have a 14 month old.
Also I'm moving job in the coming weeks, so going back to a full 5 days in the office (previously i was at home one day, and could clean on and off throughout the day)
I will be getting a cleaner. I can't wait

kitten_k

What do people to while the cleaner is there?

Roesy

I usually head out and about before lunch with my two anyway. The odd time we might overlap with the cleaner being there but then I just do what I normally do, laundry/play with the kids etc and she'll work around us. The lady who does our place is absolutely lovely and my eldest loves seeing her too. I do prefer to get out of her way though. Makes it easier all around.

Diamond Doll

kitten_k wrote: »

What do people to while the cleaner is there?

When she was in the other day, I decluttered while she cleaned the empty rooms after me. It worked perfectly. (Apart from the one room where all the clutter got shoved into, but sssshhhhhhh!) I basically moved from one room to the other ahead of her.

Other times she's come, I haven't been able to find stuff for ages after. So at least this time, I know where stuff is and everything is spotless!

lazygal

kitten_k wrote: »

What do people to while the cleaner is there?

Depends. I usually let her do her thing and head off somewhere. Now I'm back at work the minder will usually bring the children out somewhere. If I'm at home when she's there I'll try to do a job like decluttering or ironing. She has a key to let herself in and out.

rockinmama

This thread is a godsend! Sale agreed on our house (nikpmup I feel your pain on getting the house ready for viewings, so stressful getting the family, 9 month old, 2 year old psychotic boarder collie and knackered DH into a car packed with random crap to hide our shameful clutter) and moving in 3 weeks, trying to convince DH to get a cleaner when we get there but we were burned by Hassle.com on the night before our first viewing (the guy didn't even hoover the carpet properly, and who doesn't know to wipe away soap scum off a sink??!!! had to stay up till 12am cleaning and get up the next morning mad early to hoover again!) Complained and will try again as a mate with a toddler swears by them so hoping to give them a go when we move into the new house.
All the tips on writing boards are great too as DH works shifts so would be so handy not to send multiple texts!

Millem

rockinmama wrote: »

This thread is a godsend! Sale agreed on our house (nikpmup I feel your pain on getting the house ready for viewings, so stressful getting the family, 9 month old, 2 year old psychotic boarder collie and knackered DH into a car packed with random crap to hide our shameful clutter) and moving in 3 weeks, trying to convince DH to get a cleaner when we get there but we were burned by Hassle.com on the night before our first viewing (the guy didn't even hoover the carpet properly, and who doesn't know to wipe away soap scum off a sink??!!! had to stay up till 12am cleaning and get up the next morning mad early to hoover again!) Complained and will try again as a mate with a toddler swears by them so hoping to give them a go when we move into the new house.
All the tips on writing boards are great too as DH works shifts so would be so handy not to send multiple texts!

Rockinmama I am laughing away here at your 2 year old!! Our eldest dog is such a brat she would probably point blank refuse to get into the car :eek:

mrsWhippy

I found the hassle cleaners so unreliable!! 5 out of 8 cleans I booked stood me up, canceled or cried off sick at the last minute.

Try get a recommendation if you can. I've learnt the hard way that with a busy family, reliability of the cleaner trumps even cleaning skills!

rockinmama

Millem it was bloody ridiculous, I had to sit in the back with the dog in the front as there wasn't enough room for him to jump around in the back with the baby so there I am knees under my chin with all the clutter shoved on the floor of the car and in the end he climbed into the back on top of me cuz he wanted a cuddle!

And mrsWhippy I've only used Hassle that once but that friend of mine uses it every two weeks but gets the same person who is supposedly fantastic. I think once you find the right one you can organise to have the one you like come all the time, or is that true? 8 different people sounds a bit nuts...

millie_moo

What is your daily routine? Give us a run down ☺ï¸Â

I've 3 girls and involve them lightly in cleaning, ie: they take baby wipes and clean skirtings, bring there washing upstairs, put there dinner plate in dishwasher ect,

Under my stairs is a health hazard! Stuff literally gets flung there when doing a tidy up out of the sitting room! Put its still on full show, just not in my sitting room lol

I'm recently unemployed so no more excuses....eeeeek

fro9etb8j5qsl2

I tidied and rearranged under our stairs last week because it was driving me mental! OH usually throws all his tools and shìte in a big pile in there and then blames me for moving stuff when he can't find it so he has no excuse now :rolleyes: I did a huge declutter when we moved so the only crap lying around now is toys (and mountains of folded clothes )

I do a few small jobs, mainly upkeep every day and try to do at least one bigger job every day too. I stick a wash on and empty the dishwasher before breakfast and throughout the morning, try to get the kitchen and livingroom in order (putting away, cleaning surfaces etc) and bleaching the toilet. Cleaning as you go helps an awful lot, as does doing a quick tidy around last thing at night so that you're not facing into a mess when you get up. Like Neyite said, I also try to take things that don't belong out of the room with me when going from room to room, I have a little basket that I use to put the stuff into and take with me.

Todays big job is deep cleaning the bathroom, shouldn't take long and I'll do it before my shower

millie_moo

Mrs postman, can u come clean my bathroom too? I'll pay you with brekkie

millie_moo

This thread has given me great motivation ðŸ˜ÂðŸ˜ÂðŸ˜Â

dori_dormer

Ahh Mrs postman! You can't clean the bathroom BEFORE your shower lol! Do it after so it stays clean for the maximum amount of time lol!

I have a basket that I fill with crap as I go and it goes up and down the stairs when I do.

My mum had a rule growing up whereby if you went up the stairs and didn't take your belongings with you from it they got confiscated! When we were teens it was mainly piles of shoes!

fro9etb8j5qsl2

No no, it's always cleaning before shower, otherwise I'd only dirty myself again and be all stinking of bleach :eek: :pac:

God I would love to try that throwing stuff out rule with my OH he's an absolute terror for leaving stuff around.

Here's my schedule millie_moo just to give you an idea of what I do:

Diamond Doll

Bruce Orange Mission wrote: »

Here's my schedule millie_moo just to give you an idea of what I do:

May I marry you and live with you forever please?

moving_home

Bruce Orange Mission wrote: »

Here's my schedule millie_moo just to give you an idea of what I do:

Good Lord life is too short!!!!