Time Management of a Full-Time Working Momma: Household Tasks

Happy Friday Eve!  It’s time for another installment of Time Management of a Full-Time Working Momma… this week’s edition – Household Tasks.  Between working full-time and raising two kids and a husband (Haha – I kid, I kid.  He’s almost self-sufficient.), when in the world does one have time for cleaning house, cooking, laundry, and all of the other bazillions of nit-picky tasks that are necessary for survival?  Well, this is how we do in our household… 

Laundry 

We do laundry once every two weeks.  I know a lot of people say to do a load of laundry each day so you don’t feel overwhelmed having to do it all at once, but I could not disagree more!  I. CAN’T. STAND. doing a load of laundry once a day or every other day, because then I feel like it’s always hanging over my head – just one more thing to have to worry about on a daily basis.  Plus I know this would result in piles of dirty and clean clothes lying around all the time, and that would drive me completely nuts.  I would just rather just knock it all out in one weekend and then be scot-free for the next two weeks.     

So, every other Saturday is laundry day.  We wake up, sort the clothes into piles on the floor (we typically have around 7 or 8 loads), and we run that washer like a madman all day.  Some of the time we can’t get all of the loads done in one day, so we have one or two to do on Sunday morning, which is no big deal.  Sometimes if I’m feeling reeeeally crazy, I’ll throw a load in on Friday evening (if we’re home) to get a head start. 

We fold and put away everything as we go, and then after everything is done, I iron what needs to be ironed, which may I say is very little these days because #Ain’tNobodyGotTimeFoDat.   

The only exception is the kids’ clothes – we always have to wash a load of their stuff on our “off” laundry weekend because, well, kids are gross and they make messes of their clothes on a constant basis.   

This system may not work for everyone… maybe you are overwhelmed doing it all at once, or maybe you just don’t have 14 pairs of underwear to get you through two weeks without washing clothes.  The key is to finding what works best for you and your family, and this is the method that works best for us.  I cannot tell you how great it is being laundry free the majority of the time! 

One warning if you do use this method – don’t lose the baby in the mountain of clean clothes!  Oh, how I miss having a tiny baby!

Deep-Cleaning 

Again, this is something that I don’t spread over time or work on every day… I clean one or two days a month (gross, I know, but it’s all I have time for right now) and knock it all out at once, so I don’t have to think about cleaning something every single day.  Of course, there are always times when I have to do a little sweeping or vacuuming in between here and there.  We DO have babies that play on the floors, and I don’t want them crawling around in too much dirt. ;o) 

It typically takes a good two, sometimes three hours to clean our house top to bottom and these are the things I do: 

• Scrub all bathroom countertops (the kitchen is cleaned on a daily basis)
• Scrub all toilets/tubs (my favorite part – #sarcasm)
• Dust all surfaces in all rooms
• Sweep and mop all hard floors
• Vacuum all carpeted floors

Most months I’ll pick two weekdays back to back, and go home during my lunch breaks to clean (I’m telling y’all, I really utilize those lunch breaks!).  Then, whatever I can’t get done during lunch breaks, I’ll finish up right when I get home from work before I have to start cooking.  The best thing about doing it all at once is having the whole house clean at the same time.  And it’s also nice to get it all done over two days and not have to worry about it for the next month.  It would be nice to have the time to clean at least bi-weekly, but until we get a maid, monthly will have to do.  There’s no sense in wasting time cleaning on the weekends when I could be playing with the babies. :o)   

Tidying 

This is one of the things that I do every single day, because there’s pretty much no avoiding it.  Our kitchen island and the landing on our stairs are the catch-alls for all of our junk, so I usually try to take a few minutes every day when I get home from work or right after the kids go to bed to clear those areas and put things in their places. 

When it comes to toys, however, when you live with two small kids, you pretty much have no choice but to let it gooooo (now you’ll have the Frozen song stuck in your head for the next 45 days – you’re welcome).  It almost always looks like a Toys R Us exploded in our living room… and in the kids’ bedrooms… and in the playroom.  You get my point.  Rest assured that each time you see me post a picture of a beautiful, clean area of my house for a project I’m working on, I guarantee that it looks like a tornado ripped through just outside the camera frame.  As a matter of fact, this is what the living room looks like today: 

Cooking/Dishes

I do all of the cooking in the family since hubs only knows how to make scrambled eggs and frozen pizza, so he does the dishes most nights after dinner.  When I’m cooking, I try to clean as I go so there’s not as much to do afterward.  I also loooove one-dish meals that don’t dirty a lot of pots and pans.  That makes for super quick and easy clean-up!  I’ll be posting some of my favorite recipes for one-dish meals soon.

Yardwork 

We have a push mower that my tiny self can barely move, and our yard is verrrry large, so this category belongs to Hubs.  During the winter, obviously there’s not that much to do, but during spring and summer he mows once every few weeks, usually in the morning on a Saturday.  Then we have a lawn service that handles weed control because otherwise we would spend 85 hours a week picking them. 

Bill Paying/Finances 

This category also belongs to Hubs.  I had a reeeeally hard time relinquishing control of this when we got married, but this is the one area where B is organized to the max.  Like, more organized than me.  And he understands the stock market.  I do not.  Enough said.   

Summary

In summary, the best advice I can give to all of you full-time workers looking to maximize your free time is to get everything done all at once, and do them as few times per month as possible.  It’s less to worry about on a daily basis, which means that you have more time with your babies.  My final piece of advice is to marry a man who is willing to help out, although it may be too late for that now.  Hehe.  But no seriously, I am a very lucky lady to have a husband who helps out a lot with household tasks… it’s nice not to have to handle it alone!

I hope everyone is having a great evening!  XO