Time to ask for help...

[Rabidbun]

I try and balance dust (which I have to keep clear else it gives me hayfever and allergy breathing symptoms) and fun. Usually though I end up having to just go through the house every week or so and tidy, either to be able to walk without tripping over toys or to be able to do other things (like cook if I cannot see worktops etc).

Main things that have helped me (apart from not ironing) have been:

1. Majorly decluttering (either recycling clutter or donating it, or putting it into the loft, which is two boxes high all around the entrance atm).

2. Storage - making sure things either have a place to be (so that I can grab occasional things as I pass them and put them away in a specific place to tidy them) or are relegated to temporary places for when I buy storage (I will have a wardrobe one day!) has helped a lot and cut down on the moving mess from place to place thing.

3. Dusting with a damp cloth rather than with polish (gets rid of the dust a lot more) or using the brush attachment on the hoover to dust when possible. And embarrassingly, I do occasionally hoover the bathroom walls (but only cause the dust from the towels stick to them and make even more dust bunnies if I don't)!

Am reading the thread with interest though for tips regarding boy training (the three year old is Not good at picking up after himself to my chagrin ).

[Marthaclematis]

Ooooh! I just remembered something else which I thought of myself and it saves me loads of time... I keep a spray bottle (like you water seedlings with) full of diluted bathroom cleaner in each bathroom/toilet/utility and then every morning after brushing my teeth I spray the sink and top of loo and wipe. No scrubbing or rinsing, just spray-wipe-go. It takes seconds and you have an "always clean" bathroom.
I have watered down bleach too. I spray the toilet bowl and shut the lid. Saves money too I should imagine... (if someone flushes just as you've done it you're not wasting much).

[binley100]

Bribery works well with a three year old ........

[shirlthegirl43]

I try and balance dust (which I have to keep clear else it gives me hayfever and allergy breathing symptoms) and fun. Usually though I end up having to just go through the house every week or so and tidy, either to be able to walk without tripping over toys or to be able to do other things (like cook if I cannot see worktops etc).

Main things that have helped me (apart from not ironing) have been:

1. Majorly decluttering (either recycling clutter or donating it, or putting it into the loft, which is two boxes high all around the entrance atm).

2. Storage - making sure things either have a place to be (so that I can grab occasional things as I pass them and put them away in a specific place to tidy them) or are relegated to temporary places for when I buy storage (I will have a wardrobe one day!) has helped a lot and cut down on the moving mess from place to place thing.

3. Dusting with a damp cloth rather than with polish (gets rid of the dust a lot more) or using the brush attachment on the hoover to dust when possible. And embarrassingly, I do occasionally hoover the bathroom walls (but only cause the dust from the towels stick to them and make even more dust bunnies if I don't)!

Am reading the thread with interest though for tips regarding boy training (the three year old is Not good at picking up after himself to my chagrin ).

Not trying to be funny here - honestly - but Madmax's asthma and dust allergies are much better since we got rid of all our carpets and I stopped moving dust about. I always use a wet microfibre cloth for dusting but I end up in a rash from dust so I don't bother it often. When we first married I was paranoid about setting off an attack for him so used to dust round every other day!!

I hoover the walls and ceilings every couple months as the spiders like to festoon webs everywhere

Ooooh! I just remembered something else which I thought of myself and it saves me loads of time... I keep a spray bottle (like you water seedlings with) full of diluted bathroom cleaner in each bathroom/toilet/utility and then every morning after brushing my teeth I spray the sink and top of loo and wipe. No scrubbing or rinsing, just spray-wipe-go. It takes seconds and you have an "always clean" bathroom.
I have watered down bleach too. I spray the toilet bowl and shut the lid. Saves money too I should imagine... (if someone flushes just as you've done it you're not wasting much).

The guys have to do the bog cleaning - I just can't

[FionaH]

My sons CAN end for themselves, they just DON'T very often

OH hoards stuff and it is taking over the house

No storage space whatsoever in this place!

Feeling really cross now so off to stamp shout and threaten to go on strike. They don't pay much attention but it will make me feel better

ps I am a Leo

[binley100]

My friends mum used to keep an old saucepan to batter 'ell out of when she felt like that Fi, it certainly made you sit up and take notice.......

[FionaH]

Lol they would have their flaming headphones on! Just glad I go to work these days at least I'm not home doing battle with the mess full time.

Got people coming for food Sat night. More daunted by the cleaning/tidying required than the cooking

[binley100]

Do it in Jeanie's 20min mad dash bite sized chunks ..........

[janeyo]

A sore subject for me right now...
I find that I'm getting on by doing little things as I go, then the jobs of hoovering/dusting etc don't take too long. I have a family that do absolutely knack all to help me..until I start shouting, banging and throwing stuff about in temper - then there is a mass scurrying to get stuff done and calm me down!! I have been known to pointedly leave a black bag hanging on every door with the warning that anything that isn't where I believe it belongs is going to be binned. As the person that does 99.9% of the work, I decide where everything lives independent thought along those lines isn't encouraged.

I tidy the living room as I'm putting out lights etc before bed, cups down to kitchen, ashtray emptied, couch covers straightened etc, tidy kitchen/load dishwasher after dinner so I don't get up to mess. Kitchen table is hotspot, and if I have cleared it I will go mental at whoever puts something on it!! Bathroom gets tidied while bath is running/brushing teeth etc in the morning.
People get called as ironing done and given their loads to carry upstairs. Hoover roughly twice a week, and dust/polish once a week. Empty bins as they get full. Have major clear outs a couple of times a year or if a room gets decorated - no crap is allowed back in!

My children are only 6 and 3, but they know that if I am out with the hoover and things are on the floor then they go up it never to be seen again and they scurry about picking things up. I have also put toys in the bin if they are not picked up as requested. OH fished them out again I think. I am mean.
My brother is a lazy layabout so and so who can't work anything electrical apart from the tv or the kettle. I find this most annoying and have told his wife countless times to put him under the patio. My mother did everything for him, and he never lived on his own, went straight from home to married. As a result he is useless. He even used to bring his washing home to mum when his first wife left him!
I will not have my boys like that when they are grown up so they have to do certain things as young as they are. They tidy each night, and the eldest now makes his bed, and makes sure he has rinsed the toothpaste away down the sink. The littlest picks his clothes up and puts them in the wash-bin. And he feeds the cats the crunchies

T-S maybe it's a teacher thing?! We bark, they jump lol

I may not go to work full time, but I am not their flaming skivvy!

[kirsty b]

I've pretty much given up on the OH, but he will at least load the dishwasher on occasion, wash up any big stuff and tidy round the kitchen now and then.

The pickle knows how to load the washing machine, how much detergent/softener to put in and what programme I prefer to use! She also wants to learn to iron, but she has to wait till she's a bit bigger for that, then I'll be only too happy to show her!! She can cook simple stuff too (under supervision of course!)

[Two_Sheds]

My brother is a lazy layabout ...My mother did everything for him, ... He even used to bring his washing home to mum when his first wife left him!

Mr TS is the same. He likes going round his mum's at the weekends because she still "mothers" him. He doesn't have to lift a finger (not that he does here either)

I will not have my boys like that when they are grown up so they have to do certain things as young as they are.
I may not go to work full time, but I am not their flaming skivvy!

Round of applause smilie
The boys in my class (ages 7-10) are quite happy to just sit while the girls do the tidying up at end of lesson, so I give them all a specific job (collect the scissors, pick up the bits of paper off the floor) Skiving is given zero tolerance: although some TAs slip into Mum mode and just do it all themselves, I won't let them think that women and girls exist to clean up the mess they make. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[FionaH]

I won't let them think that women and girls exist to clean up the mess they make. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Absolutely not! I would have failed in my job as a mother if my lads couldn't take care of themselves. Both my boys are perfectly capable of cooking a full roast dinner, doing the washing etc.

It's the sheer laziness of teenagers thats the problem

[stella]

I have a small house and keep trying to find extra storage places. Some shops sell some very good boxes that can be put under the bed to keep things in, or I stack things inside each other. I work by the rule that if you have not used it/worn it for a year you never will.

[bobleponge]

Sticking up for the brotherhood here slightly:

When married to my second wife there were 3 of us at home, me, wifey and daughter. There was only 1 of us who appeared to be capable of changing the empty loo roll and replacing a full one onto the holder, and it was male.
Now with Mme Pastis, there are 4 of us here, me and 3 females and its still only me that does it. Me and Mme P share 1 bathroom and the girls share another, but I know that when I go to their bathroom to clean it (yes, its me that does it) there will be an empty loo roll on the holder and several half used ones perched about within arms reach.

Last night, I cooked a spag bol (nothing too adventurous there I grant you) made with home made passatta, with a home made butternut squash soup starter, and when we had all had our fill I washed it all up and cleaned down the kitchen.

My mother taught me nothing apart from how to endure beatings silently, so its nothing to do with that in my case.
People are either lazy, or they arent, gender isnt relevant. If they are lazy there is very little chance of them changing, imho.

[stella]

just as an aside here (sorry) bobleponge how did you make the soup. I have a BN squash that is crying out to be made into soup.
Also I find if I make list and give it everyone it saves me asking and asking and things do get done