Cleaning house!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-20-2005
Cleaning house!
12
Tue, 01-16-2007 - 10:49pm

Ok, please tell me Im not the only one with this problem!
We used to have the greatest housekeeper that we hired after my daugter was born, she stayed with us for 6 months and then quit due to some family medical problems.

Its been 6 months since we've been w/o a maid and my house is a mess! If it is clean it is clean temporarily and I cant stand being home in the mess anymore! I can only get soo much cleaning done with my 16 month old.

Dh has to be asked again and again to help so I end up just doing it myself. I also have two part time jobs in the evening.

Thinking about getting a maid to come maybe one a week.

Advice, how do u all do it???

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-14-2005
Tue, 01-16-2007 - 11:06pm
You might check out www.flylady.net. It's great for helping you develop routines and makes keeping your house clean so much easier.
The most important things I've found that help are to stay on top of the laundry and dishes... somehow if I can keep those two things under control, life is a lot easier.
HTH!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2005
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 12:56am

I pay the 16 y/o




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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-13-2003
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 1:49am

you know, its hard. My dh is a VERY meticulous kind of guy and wants a clean house (and organized, which it mostly is....just don't look in HIS closet lol), and he really does a lot of the cleaning on a regular basis, to the point that its annoying lol.


and I have a hard time with it. Between chasing 2 kids and a dog, feeding everyone, making sure dinner is prepped, kids have eaten lunch, laundry, paying bills, phone calls, playing, teaching dd stuff...there's ALOT that falls by the wayside.


Now that we are trying to sell our home, I HAVE to keep the house spotless at almost all times, which is near impossible with a 3.5yr old and a 10 month old and a dog that sheds one thousand

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Avatar for irishjeanne
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-28-2003
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 8:16am

I echo the pp about flylady, it is wonderful.

I manage to stay on top of laundry and dishes. OUr current house is about 1600 square feet and I have 3 kids and two dogs. I clean the bathroom and mop the kitchen once a week. I pay my 5-year-old and 3-year old minumum wage (I figure they are getting a good deal, they don't even have HS diplomas!) to dust and vaccum about once a week. They do a pretty good job now that they are used to it. About once every 5-6 weeks, I vacuum and clean my carpets myself.

This was my 5-year-old's idea, he wanted to use the vacuum, and my 3-year-old loves to use the feather duster. They learn about $ and I get a break! It takes them less than an hour to do it, so I am out less than $10. I let them spend $1 apiece that week if they want, and we put the rest in their piggy banks. Several times a year, we put it into their savings accounts, and my 5-year-old has occasionally proposed bigger things he wants to save in his piggy bank for, usually something Thomas the Tank-related!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-20-2005
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 8:52am

Thanks ladies!
I got home from work at 10pm last night and my back was killing me but I still cleaned up a bit. I am just sick and tired of asking dh to 'take down the tree', or take out the garbage. I know he is tired too and works hard, but its not easy being a sahm, as u all know I too am exausted at the end of the day.
I never thought of hiring a 16 year old to help out, that sounds great! I will look into it thank u! Maybe I can find someone who knows of someone only because I am wary of inviting a stranger into our home.
Thanks again for you advice ladies!

Monica

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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-04-2005
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 9:09am

I have a smallish house, just over 1100 square feet. Dh and



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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2005
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 9:33am

I have wanted to get a maid service to come in and deep clean but from what I understand, they dont move anything.




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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-11-2006
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 11:31am

This is just me and my way of life..

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-17-2005
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 11:59am

I clean something every day and make it a point to clean once Ryland is napping if he has made any messes.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-17-2007
Wed, 01-17-2007 - 12:32pm
I have a schedual of daily chores and the weekly/biweekly ones spread out. That way if I don't get to the daily ones:clutter, sweeping, kitchen, bedrooms one day I can do it the next without being behind as long as I get the weekly ones done. For example Monday is my heavy cleaning day. Daily chores include: clutter, kitchen, bedroom, sweeping. Then on the schedual for monday is Laundry, Bathrooms, Vacuume, On tuesday in addition to the daily chores I dust, wash sheets, and mop. And so on. I have also schedualed in 2 days where there is only the daily chores. That way I can take advantage of the few hours a week when both kids are in school. Works for me. The house is never spotless but I get around to the bathrooms and dusting which is something that I easily skip.

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