Always Feel Behind in Housework

flylady.net saved me! I was used to working full-time and when I started staying home with my kids had no idea where to start and got quickly overwhelmed. She helped me stay on track. It's crazy how I always think I can do it tomorrow and it just piles up til I don't want to touch any of it!

Good luck!!

Girl, you have enough going on with your little ones I can imagine. The only thing I can think of would be to sneak in a few minutes each day of organizing something in one room at a time. If you try to take on a BIG project while the kids are running a muck, you will never accomplish even the smallest of tasks. Maybe start with your mail. For 15 min. while the kids are preoccupied, go through all of the mail sort out your junk mail and pitch it, then put a pile of shred stuff in a basket or something the kids won't tear apart (I really don't think your babies are monsters!! I have a few to know that the little sweeties love to get into things!) and I'm sure you know what to do with your bills. I have a small file box (it very decorative from Office Max) on my little table in my kitchen (where every one dumps the mail) and when I get a few minutes i just file the bills and valuable coupons away! I may be assuming that you have a mail pile up problem, but to tell you the truth that has always been an issue for me and I am overcomming it! The truth is, mail or not I think just a few minutes each day will really work for you. Try it!
Good luck
C.

I know personally for me I have a specific schedule I stick by. Example being Monday - bathrooms Tuesday - bedrooms, etc. I do my kids laundry one day, my husband and my laundry the next and towels the next and I keep rotating it.

I always unload the dishwasher before I go to bed that way as dishes are dirtied during the day I can just load the dishwasher, then after dinner I run the dishwasher. Waking up to a clean kitchen actually makes me feel like my day is starting off good:-)

Everytime I leave a room, I pick up something that doesnt belong and put it away. I also get alot done after I put the kids to bed. Another little trick I use is that if there is a show on tv that I really want to watch....I watch and during the commercials I pick things up. Or, while the kids are napping set a timer for 15 minutes and pick up as much clutter as you can. I hope you find some relief soon!!

Some people can just do it. Like they have this magic wand and presto everything is in place. (I am not one of them). If you're seriously wanting to do this and don't have enough time. Try a timer. Set it at mins in 1 room and do as much as you can within that 15 mins.

I read a saying once ..."Doing housework while you still have children is like shoveling snow while it is still snowing!"...Don't have any misconceptions about having this completely immaculate house...But you can have the kids pitch in and help pick up toys or dust - whatever you think they can handle, while playing their favorite music. Give them a task to finish before the song ends. A friend of mine has a glass of wine while doing housework (when her kids are gone!). She figures if she has do housework, she might as well get some enjoyment out of it! Do laundry at night after the kids are in bed. You can watch some tv while folding laundry and relax a little. Hope some of these ideas help!

What I do to cut down on clutter is to minimize "things" around the house. For instance, I get the daily mail, stand over my garbage can, and immediately toss out the stuff I don't need. I don't keep alot of knickknacks around because they are dust collectors and creates more work. I do change what knickknacks I have during the season for instance, now I have up my spring stuff. Every Thursday, I check out the food in the fridge, my breadbox, and pantry and toss anything that is old since I'll replace it while grocery shopping during the weekend. If something breaks and isn't fixable, I throw it out right then and replace it. I have Purple Heart call me monthly and make donations of stuff I no longer use (stuff that I haven't used for about one year). With my limited closet space, I donate clothes then replace them with new seasonal stuff. The key for me is to not be a packrat. Alot of what I've learned I've learned from watching Clean House on the Style Network. If I see a good sale on toasters even though mine is working fine, I pass on it, saving living space and money. Also, I have alot of baby clothes and toys that my son has grown out of, so I will be participating in my subdivision's garage sale this spring. This frees up more living space and keeps the clutter controlled.

Hope this helps,

MC

Take one day and do everything. Send the kids to parents or have dad watch them. Than once you do that each day you clean a different room. Say Monday you clean the kitchen, Tuesday the living room and so on. That way things will stay clean and you won't have to do it all at once. Hope that helps.

This is a little cross stich my mother-in-law gave me...

"Cleaning & scrubbing can wait till tomorrow... for babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow... so quiet down cobwebs... dust go to sleep... I'm rocking my baby & babies don't keep!!"

I know this doesn't solve your problem but it always helps me to keep things in perspective when I'm feeling overwhelmed by all the housework I'm behind on!

I have struggled with this same issue so much. We have a fairly large house & I am a SAHM with a 2 year old & a 6 mth. old.
What I do to start with is spend a couple days cleaning like mad. I spend every free second I have cleaning... When the kids are napping, in the morning before they wake up (mine sleep til 10:00 am!) & at night when they go to bed.
Once I've gotten caught up I make myself a weekly schedule for staying on track. Monday I might clean 1 bathroom & sweep the kitchen. Tuesday might be dusting. Wednesday clean another bathroom & vacuum all carpet.... and so on. I do the daily housework during nap time usually but sometimes I'll plop my 2 year old in front of Bambi & I'll take the baby to the kitchen & put her in the swing. She watches me while I unload the dish washer & reload it. I'll fold the laundry in the living room so I can keep an eye on the kids but they can play while I'm working.
I take weekends off because just because I'm a SAHM doesn't mean I don't deserve a PARTIAL break from my "work"!
Of course, dishes & laundry pretty much have to be done daily. I try to do 1 load a day start to finish. (Wash, dry, fold & put away.) Otherwise I find I get REALLY behind... especially on the putting away.
Of course things come up & I don't always stick to my weekly schedule for maintaining my housework but when that happens I just start over with the couple days of crazy cleaning & then get back to the schedule as soon as I can.

Hope this helps! :)

Ha! I've just accepted that I will never catch up completely. Unless my husband suprises me with a housekeeper. ;)

Flylady is great, however they do email a lot. It may be overwhelming at first.
I am already organized, but I get easily distracted. Flylady has helped me focus on one task at a time for 15 minutes. It is sooo easy.

You will be amazed at how quickly you can clean your house with the 15 minute rule.

Good luck

"A Good Mother has Dirty Floors and Happy Children".......I love this saying. You will have plenty of time, very soon, to clean, clean, clean. A little bit here and there works for me!

Have you ever considered having your 2 and 4 yr olds help? I know sometimes that it will be more chaos than not, but get them started. I also feel behind. I'm a SAHM with a 3yo and 19mo. With my husband and I both doing our own side businesses, it is hard to keep up, especially when the line has been drawn...housework is mine, going to work is his. What I have started to do is take on one or two rooms a night. It doesn't take too long and it's better than one big, long cleaning on a weekend. Maybe the bathrooms tonight and the dusting and vaccuuming in the bedrooms the next (before the kids go to sleep...or just after they get up). And, don't stress about it. Babies don't stay babies forever...the dust and cleaning will always be there.

Check out flylady.net She has you set up daily and weekly routines. I never fully implemented her stragety but the little bit that I did made me feel great and made me feel like I was accomplishing a lot to keep my house and my family taken care of.

First thing though - you will never get caught up, that you just have to accept. This is not a negative thought it is reality...ask yourself just how long have you been trying to catch up? Sinc eyou had kids? Well, there not going anywhere!!! :-) Every day for the rest of your life there will be things that still need to be done when your head hits the pillow. Prioritize - your faith, you, your marriage, your kids. (depending on the husband, the housework can fall in that marriage category!!)

Best of luck!
from another woman with too much to do!

flylady.com ROCKS!!!

I feel that way as well. Every once and I while I will take a day off and completely clean the house. (I work full time out of the house so I will still send the kids to daycare.)

My husband came up with a cleaning chart. One day I vacuum the main floor and he vacuums upstairs. One day we each get a bathroom, another we each dust a floor of the house, etc. Dishes and dinner are my every day job. My husband does a load of laundry every day to make sure we don't get backlogged. We even have the kids (6 and 5) help out. They dust their rooms or dust off the TV screens, etc. Your kids are kind of young, but just picking up toys would help. We also use a sticker reward system and so many stickers earns them 25 cents or gum or a trip to the library. It really has helped to have everyone helping out.

Staying home is more than a full time job. If your husband can help out, even minimally, it would help you out. If your kids started with some basics, they would have fun too. My kids will fight over the swiffer duster. :)

K.,

This is the story of my life. It is just an everyday event. You have to pick up everyday or it just piles up. I try to keep up with it but there are times when I just take the naptime and get to cleaning. That is when I can get the most done. Once you have it clean it is just a matter of picking days to do different chores. One day you vaccuum, one day you dust, one day you clean the bathrooms etc. Don't try to do it all in one day. If you have one main thing that you want to accomplish for the day focus on that. Once your are done it's time with your children. No matter what the rest of the house looks like. You know that you focused on one main thing and it was completed. I said to my husband one day, "I feel like I just can't keep up with it all." and he said to me "You can't, don't worry about it and Cobey will live and survive it all." That really put me into a different mode. It was useless trying to keep everything spotless because we are just not that kind of family. You have to take whatever you can handle. If clutter drives you crazy then I guess you should go through and get rid of it every day. If a little doesn't bother you then spend that time with your children or throw an extra load of laundry in while you play. The 4 and 2 year old are getting to the age where they will be able to help you a little and they will probably enjoy it. Maybe just bringing different piles of laundry to it's appropriate room. They could just set it on the bed for you. Then it's there when you need to put it away without you having to do it. The 4 year old can definitely put away his/her own laundry as long as he/she knows where it goes. He/she can even help set the table now. My niece and nephews do this. THey also clear the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher. They each have a section of dishes that they do. They are now older but started when the youngest was around 4 or 5.

But, remember. There are just times when you are never caught up and that is okay. The joy of staying at home is being able to play with your children and really connect with them on a daily basis. So, if some of the house goes to the wayside for a day don't stress. Now, this is coming from someone who does try to keep up but I just get more and more behind everyday. But, again, it doesn't bother me or my husband so it works for us.

Take care!

D.

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