My house is a serious mess. Haven’t been well health wise so having a hard time cleaning. Vacumming and mopping is painful. The weather is disgustingly hot and humid. I’m at work from 7am - 5pm.
My husband comes home during the day to have lunch, and totally trashes the place. I wash all the dishes before sleeping, and when i get home, the sink is full of dishes from him.
He works hard too, and helps out sometimes, but im not going to nag him about cleaning because he’s usually tired by the time he gets home.
I’m at my wits end. I would love to have a clean house. It usually is clean, but these days im just lost.
Can anyone help me??? Some motivation or cleaning tips would be greatly appreciated.
For cleaning dishes, use dishwasher or u can use disposable plates and bowls to make less mess in the kitchen. In your area if maids are available try to hire for once in a week or once in two weeks, it really helps to clean the house, these are professionals, after their service u can c the difference. They clean all the house, like rooms, kitchen, bathroom, vacuuming, moping and dusting too. Hopefully it helps u.
have candies handy...when he cleans his plates he gets a candy. aren't you tired when you come home? tell him this! he should be more responsible than he is...he must do his dishes at lunch. he must come out from his man's suit!
Make a list of all the chores you can think of. Be sure to include things you'd normally hold off on for Spring cleaning, like polishing the trim, *taking things to GoodWill, etc. You'll find that you never have to Spring clean again!
Now that you've made your list, divide them into categories. You may do this however you wish. I divide mine like this
Things I do everyday--Dishes, laundry, make the beds, etc.
Things I do once a week--Scrub the tub, wash windows, etc.
*Things I do less often--Organize closets, polish furniture, clean baseboards, etc.
Once done, grab your calendar.
Everyday tasks need not be written, you could just place a "D" in the upper right corner if you like.
Now, take your list of weekly chores and write one chore in each block for the week. If you have more than that, write two chores in each block andd so on.
When your finished with that, take out your list of things you do less often. Pick a day or two of the week that you are least busy. Mine are Tuesday and Thursday, so I would do this for example. Write one chore in every Tuesday block and every Thursday block for that month.
Simple as that.
Now you have your organized cleaning schedule. Those things that usually are pushed to the side for Spring or Fall cleaning days, are now done. You can pat yourself on the back and enjoy the rest of your day.
have candies handy...when he cleans his plates he gets a candy. aren't you tired when you come home? tell him this! he should be more responsible than he is...he must do his dishes at lunch. he must come out from his man's suit!
Im exhausted when i get home.. but he's more exhausted than i am :-(
Try to reduce the dish usage , like keep the same glass for each member for drinking water and wash it at the end of the day, rather then taking a new glass every single time ..
Similarly with spoons and plates, instead of using too much cutlery just make do with a single spoon ! the lesser you use , the lesser you wash.
Paper plates arent a permanent solution to your problem.
Also cant you guys have a rule or something that the minute you use a bartan wash it. So that it all doesnt get collected and it takes like then then a minute to deal with a spoon , plate and a glass !
similarly for cleaning, do it in chunks , maybe kitchen and the living room one day.. then you can do the bedroom the next day, the toilets you can clean when you get in to take a bath, takes a few extra minutes but at least something gets out of the way , you can just dust the house one day .. mop the other .. that way tasks are divided and you dont feel the pressure.
Basically home maintaining is also an art. Yeh jo shohar hazraat samjhtey hain na that what these lazy wives do, they should be left on their own. I am no more working but even if i neglect something due to laziness after couple of days it feels like I have never worked.
Its great to be organized and schedule this is the only thing which i seldom do :), but for a smooth process one should be. Specially working ladies have to be more organized.
Just dont panic, Im telling you by my experience, when I was working I was way too active. Now house wife since a year and have lost my habit of being active. Although in Pakistan my mom in law and maid were always there and i used to contribute negligibly to house. However when my mom in law used to visit overseas, I was in command and had managed things very actively. But yes here one does not have maids around and for me even no family support. But still i tell u working ladies are more active. They work, keep houses well, cook, look after kids and even maintain social ties. I want to get my active gene back now. Trying too but too hard :D
my brother's family adopts disposable plates and glasses during ramzan because it gets so busy that they simply do not have the time and energy to do all the cleaning up after iftaari, meals, etc.
if you are going through a particularly busy time then there is no harm in doing this temporarily.
the chore schedule is a great idea from Kinzz.......works well if you are able to stick to it.
if you end up having last minute changes because your family is more geared to a "spontaneous" life style, like mine is, then it seems to work better to devote just 10 or 15 minutes of time every single day to doing something.
as an example.....if laundry needs to be done but I don't have time to do it I will take the 5 minutes I do have to sort the colours from the whites and deliver the baskets to the laundry room.
if I don't have time to wash all the dirty dishes in the kitchen, I will run hot water on the soiled areas and stack them neatly so that they kitchen counter/sink does not appear untidy.
I also multi-task.....if I need to be in the kitchen to make breakfast I will try to prep a salad for dinner-time or get the recycling and garbage ready to be put out that evening.
I really liked this tip by Muzna, regards stacking up undone dishes neatly ... My mother does that and definitely it makes a lot of difference to the general look for the kitchen .. it doesnt look untidy and cluttered and you feel more motivated to get the work done ...
that’s the whole idea…to keep you motivated.
if your chores look organized and uncluttered then you seem them as easy peasy…but if there’s a huge mess then you just don’t want to even start.
Uff i find it hard too
Im a stay at home mum and still find it hard to manage it all, i have my two year old at home with me who forever makes more mess after i clean up love the ideas given by the rest, in shaa allah will be trying them out, keep them coming everyone!
^ KS09: I guess organizing your schedule a bit will help, make a mantle or even paper list of things that you need done. WHne it comes to tackling the house set the times, like 15 minute cleaning and undercutting per area of the house per day, you will notice by the weekend you will not be laboring for hours managing all and getting exhausted.
We try and clean and organize during the week, by thursday the house is clean and laundry is done, we tackle cooking and preping one day during weekend, so weekend is moslty relaxing, going out
BUT(yes there is a big but :)) MY HUBBY HELPS AT EVERY STEP, you will have to train yours to do small things.
Here is FlyLady.net I learned a lot from her because I am a clean and organizing freak and always looking for ways to improve on this front!!
love the ideas given by the rest, in shaa allah will be trying them out, keep them coming everyone!
if you know what does that mean!