I have recently become an unemployed person, who therefore had to let go of the housekeeper. Being at work – it made sense to pay someone to use their time to clean so I could spend my spare time with the kids.
Now all the cleaning and laundry is down to me. I find that I lack the motivation to get it done. Laundry is no issue – I hate shlepping to the laundry room, but I love folding warm laundry, and the boyz are old enough to put their own stuff away. But the cleaning and the sweeping and the mopping and the dishes – ugh! The kids keep their rooms neat-ish, we have inspection a few times a week. That helps. But everything else – it’s just too overwhelming.
So how do you all get the cleaning done, without panicking ten minutes before the kids come home that the breakfast dishes are still on the table? (slight exaggeration)
Oh and I tried FlyLady a while back. Nope. Doesn’t work for me.
HELP!!
In the Pink 
Can’t wait to see the comments and feedback you get!
I have not worked out of the house for a very long time. Like twenty two years. But I have almost always have had cleaning help. Over here it’s only ten bucks an hour, well worth my sanity. Especially when you have a house and you have many rooms to clean. To me it’s a priority. You might want to take it easy with the cleaning anyway till you get over your coffee, or shall I say your lack of it!
ten an hour? and how many hours a week does she come?
Well, this past weekend I gathered up about half the old paint cans and supplies that the Flame’s ex-husband had left and loaded them into the Flame’s Flamemobile to be toted off to the recycling center. Then I swept most of the dust and debris out of the garage. Next time I will get rid of the REST of the paint and supplies, scrub the workroom floor to get rid of the rust and dirt deposited by the last flood, and finish getting the garbage out of the garage.
Any questions?
yes i do have a question – when are you coming over here to do the same for me? 😉 The Flame is a lucky woman to have you!
KoD would do the same for me I am sure, wouldn’t you m’love? (If i wasn’t such a control freak about my “stuff” i would probably let him!!)
You have a barn that needs to be cleaned too?
nope, just a lot of things that i prolly dont NEED but WANT….
Call KoD, tell him to slash and burn, and you hide somewhere else.
If you wanted, you could bring it here, and we could have bonfire for a REAL slash and burn. Tasty animal on us.
I also feel the drudge to clean house
sometimes. I try to stay on top of it, but the reality is, even with just the two of us, I HATE IT! R refuses to do it at all and says he’d rather pay someone to do it.
So, we generally do. It was a huge fight when we first got married. I felt like the house was my territory and I wanted to maintain it myself. I felt like less of a “good wife” if I didn’t keep up. R has since convinced me this is not the case and that since he knows how hard I work outside of the home, he is not at all upset to pay for someone else to take the pressure off me.
I still try to go for a week or two without extra help, like handling the smaller things; the bathroom, dishes and laundry.
I really prefer the cleaning lady to wash the floors and the bathrooms.
OK people, “hire a cleaning lady” was not really the answer i was looking for – I AM the cleaning lady LOL. i just want tips on how to stay on top of things. come on people!
Step 1 — Get bucket
Step 2 — Empty bucket
Step 3 — Invert bucket
Step 4 — Place inverted bucket on floor
Step 5 — Climb on bucket
You are now on top of things. QED.
sigh
don’t you have a groundhog to kill?
No, and you should know better. It is not Halachically acceptable to kill an animal simply because it is a pest. It is preferred to trap it live and relocate it.
where shall you relocate it once you have humanely trapped it? do we have to treat pesty people the same way? can we relocate them too? forcefully?
Groundhogs are very clever and difficult to trap live (trust me, I have tried many times). Finally I found a trapper who trapped and killed them. Sorry but if the little critters are digging holes at the foundation of my house you are starting with the wrong woman, this means war!
There are any of a number of parks that the critter would be very happy in.
Alas, live trapping of people, pesty or otherwise, is frowned upon, unless they are a pursuer.
Fortunately Lady, the ground hog in question has nested under an old small barn, not the house.
Your ground hog has a bazillion cousins in my back yard (they send their regards).
hmm, i have heard that deer have been seen in KoD’s back yard – groundhogs werent mentioned. Lady LnL – you must be special to the groundhogs – maybe they are attracted to the cats?
There’s a deer skeleton in The Flame’s. Does that count?
The one animal (well, bird actually) I have in my backyard that the Flame does not are Blue Herons.
All of us have groundhogs as they multiply like rabbits in the barnacle barnyard. We have tons of deer, sometimes I see a pack of ten in my back yard. We also have wild turkeys who my daughter hates. I saw a coyote one morning, he looked like a prehistoric dog. Oh, and my hubby came upon yogi bear one morning on brick church.
David: Love your instructions for getting on top of things when it comes to housecleaning!
Divide & conquer together w/ KoD? Does he do windows (or floors)?
Stay hyperfocused. Get ONE thing cleaned (a cupboard, a large shelf, something). Keep it clean a couple days. And ANOTHER thing. Keep it clean a couple days along with the first.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
The Flame’s problem with getting her home in order is simply the sheer overwhelming magnitude of the problem, and it is a BIG problem. By focusing on the low hanging fruit as it were (the floor, the old paint, etc.), I’m able to get the ball rolling on the whole process. By the time that’s done, the remaining more intractable parts won’t seem so daunting.
And yes — get KoD on board. It’s easier to do with two as one can be supportive of the other. Don’t worry about equal work, just worry about achieving the objective.
Check out flylady.com for an easy and flexible system.
Declutter and good storage solutions. Minimalism means less work.
Inevitably there are still the floors to clean and washing up to do etc. But when doing mindless tasks like that I find it’s a great time to be almost meditative – use it as an opportunity to plan and think through things.
Or else stick on some load music, put some zest into it, dance! Then you’re multi-tasking, getting fit at the same time. Saving money both on a house keeper and the gym 😉
you are a mimimalist – but you always were, Sarah! I cannot all of a sudden change my spots!!
I need to find my Salsa tape and dance to that….remember?
How could I forget …! 🙂
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