When do you find the time to do laundry and clean the house? Do you have any kind of houscleaning services? TIA...

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I work full-time from 6:30-11:30 from the office, then I have to go pick up the boys from pre-school by Noon and the second one at 1pm, then we come home, and I work the remaining hours from home. I do laundry during the evening with a load here and there while making dinner. I vaccuum the main floor every night after dinner. The kitchen gets cleaned after every meal. We normally pick up after ourselves right away. So that pretty much just leaves the bathrooms and minor dusting for the weekends. I sometimes will even spot clean the bathrooms before I shower in the morning, or while i'm giving the boys a bath during the evening. I use to have a cleaning lady (as many of you know) for about 4 weeks, but I wasn't too happy with the job she was doing. It's really not that bad if you have a system in place.

I'm not nearly so organized or clean! I do laundry on Friday nights and Saturday with the goal to have it all done and put away before bed on Saturday. Sometimes that actually happens! We try to 'pick up' every day or every other day to keep clutter down. I do some cleaning, straightening, dishes, etc. after my son goes to bed. Most weeknights are pretty hectic with religious activities, boy scouts, other stuff so I don't do much cleaning when my son is awake so I can spend time with him. Most heavy duty cleaning like bathrooms, floors, etc. happens on the weekends. My 8 yr old son usually works with me to do stuff. He also visits grandmas almost every Sunday for a few hours so that gives me time to do some things that are more difficult with him around like mowing the lawn.

My house is never spotless and would not be clean by some people's standards but it's liveable and we're happy in it.

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Better to give your kids the values you have
than the valuables you can't afford.

If you go to the "dirty little secret" post - you will see that i hate cleaning. My house is always messing. I will usually take saturday morning and clean. As for laundry, i put a load in every night. But since there is only 3 of us, it's not an every night thing. Like Lou said in her reponse, my house is never spotless and is would never be clean by some people's standard but i have better things to do. Since both DH and I work full-time, we have little time at night to be with our DD, so we spend time with her other than cleaning!

I am about the same as 2boys. I work fulltime 7am-4pm, so as soon as i get home my in-laws have had the two boys home all day, so start cleaning, dinner, and clean the house every night, and reset everything before I go to bed. I do laundry on weekends only, I keep enough clohtes for everybody so they can manage for 7-8 days and not run out. I do laundry saturday and iron sunday. I hate clutter and clean as I go along, so it never gets to the point where it is too much.

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We buy things we dont need,
with money we dont have,
in order to impress people
we dont like?
(Ramsey, D)

I work/volunteer about 35-40 hours a week. I do not have a service and I say I'd love one but honestly I'd probably have to clean for the cleaning lady. I just don't want anyone seeing our messes. I try to get dh and kids to help pick up their things. I do a lot on Fridays, Friday nights and the weekend. My house is always well lived in.

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You just do what you can. My house is never really clean and I can live with that!!! My dh does alot too, especially when I work the weekends (every other week). Otherwise, I throw in some laundry before I go to work, and finish it in the evening. I try to clean up as I go along, the bathrooms get cleaned when they get disgusting. I guess you just have to lower your expectations a bit.

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~Happiness is a large family~

I work 32 hours a week (I have Friday's off) I use to work 40 hours. When dd turned 1 I got a cleaning service. They come in every other week and do the deep cleaning and cleaning the hardwood floors etc. They don't do a fantastic job but it's something. I would rather spend my weekends with dd then deep cleaning. (since I'm not with her during the day M - TH) I do find I am always cleaning before the cleaning people come. You have to pick up the clutter so they can clean.

Anyway, we still have to pick up the clutter and it's hard with a small house to find a place for everything. I try to pick up as we go along and dd helps put her things away. Dh picks up and cleans when he feels like it but most of the time his stuff (mail or sweatshirts & shoes) are laying around. Dh helps with laundry so we do a load or 2 on certain evenings and then a couple on the weekend. Sometimes we do it all on the weekend and none during the week. I do clean the bathroom and kitchen the weekends that the cleaning people do not come and I also clean up after dinner in kitchen & living room areas. I always try to make sure the bathroom is clean and wiped down before bed.

it's HARD working full time and still managing the house, being wife, mommy, shopper, cook, party planner, nurse, etc. My dh thinks I should be able to do it all - he just doesn't get it!

I work about 50 hours a week. Currently, DH is not working so HE cleans the house (he does OK, but not a terrific job). I also DESPISE cleaning - UGH, I can think of a ZILLION things I'd rather do.

I always clean up & tidy up the kitchen at night, after the kids are in bed. When DH was working we had a cleaning woman come in every other week - it was a LIFE saver! We still did maintenance cleaning & our laudry, but it really was great to have her deep clean the house. It left SO much more time for both of us to spend with the kids. WHen DH starts working again, we will get another cleaning person here - probably once a week.

Hey, I can live with a little messy if it means more quality time with my kids - they won't stay young forever & I'm SO enjoying their current ages/stages (DS 3.5, DD 5).

Seriously, my house is a real disaster. I just finished picking up about 150 crayons that were scattered all over the floor and I ran a bit of laundry. I constantly have laundry to be folded on my dining table. I am great at washing it but not so good at getting it back to the rooms. The only help I get is that DH now brings his things to dry cleaner to be ironed (I can't iron...at all). I do use paper and plastic everything in the kitchen to cut down on cleanup, I figure since I cook every meal it frees up $ a little to use paper plates and cups; otherwise we would be eating out alot more. I would not DREAM of paying someone to clean for me, simply because I cannot stand the thought of paying for cleaning only to have DH and sons dirty it up again within 24 hours.

I know if I lived alone my house would be a lot better... but DH is a PACKRAT, never met a scrap of anything that he didn't want to save, and neither him nor my 2 DS's will lift a finger, not even to wipe their own pee off the seat.

I actually am making a quick stop here on the board before getting down to business of going some things for work tomorrow. There just aren't enough hours to do it all. We can't do it all without any cooperation.