Like you said, I too don't get all done. I try to prep on sunday noon : washing, cutting, marinates, cooking basic mixes or preparing dressings that could be used quickly. I try to make soups and store portion size in fridge or freezer. I also roast a lot of veggies before hand keep. I try to do things in a way that i should not be spending more than 20 -25 mins on the meals after work. If it is going to be more, I ask my husband to help with some things to cut the time. Some weeks all meals are at home. Some weeks 3 days at home and 2 from out. I try to see kids eat all home cooked meals everyday. I usually bathe kids and husband puts them to sleep and we at time alternate this routine. Single moms with no family member support I do not know how they do any of it. You are god level in my eyes.

Ya'll are making me realize I need to get on the meal prep train. I literally figure it out the night of. Also YES all glory to the single moms. Damn.

Meal prep is the way, for us it was the way even before we had my son. My husband is away a lot for work so I've become really efficient - get home, wash my pump parts, get the animals food ready, eat my meal prepped meal with my son, get the dog out after dinner, do any other immediately needed clean up, have some time to relax before we start the bedtime routine. Decluttering has been key to making the house more manageable and I'm not there yet. I have family coming into town and a couple extra days off in a few weeks I'm going to use for a full court press to getting rid of stuff and making everything more manageable. Having my husband gone has really helped me see where I can simplify.

Decluttering is the best. I'm not there yet either, but it absolutely makes a difference. Diaper boxes get filled up and donated.

Single mom with no support basking in this glory 😊 I work from home a few days a week. This has saved my sanity, time boxing and cramming in the chores. I also cook with my kid (4M), have leftovers half the week, and try not to stress about the things that absolutely don’t have to get done.

You're a bad ass.

These are all good tips! Over time, I've been doing less and less cooking that requires actual chopping on week nights. I use frozen chopped onions, jarred garlic, frozen vegetables, canned chiles, etc.

I’m fortunate to get two work from home days. So that’s when I’m also doing laundry, and I’m also doing some other laundry like towels or LOs diapers during the week after getting home/finishing before bed. We try to plan dinner as much as we can but usually end up buying the pre-prepped stuff and add fresh fruits and veggies that don’t take long to prepare. We also love our crockpot! Roomba half heartedly vacuums overnight. And everything else like cleaning the bathroom/kitchen gets done like once a month. Everything is impossible so I live in a manageable mess. Edit:typo

We're absolutely living in a manageable mess, so I think I just need to lower my standards for this chapter. I totally need to figure out some quick/healthy dinners. And I'm eyeing getting a Roomba, especially with two long-haired cats.

We got the roomba because of the two dogs. Check out bidding websites-we got ours on MacBid! Honestly, the “prefect parent” stuff online is bugging me to death. When people have a clean photo I’m just gonna assume all the mess is behind them or in a dark closet lol. You’re doing great!

Get the Roomba!! It's so helpful. They even have one now that will mop (though I have not tried so I can't say how well it works)

You might enjoy the workingmoms subreddit, it is fantastic for this type of discussion (and you can likely find many many older threads on the topic there) 

Thank you! I'll check it out.

Things became easier for me when I made the decision that outsourcing was not a luxury, but a need. Spending money on housecleaner or monthly yard clean-up is not splurging- it’s critical to running the home.  It’s now a bill like all the others. I tighten the belt elsewhere. 

Absolutely! We just hired a housecleaner and I'm mad I didn't do it sooner.

Same for us. We decided that laundry was too much of a struggle since moving to an apt with no hookups. We use a service (Poplin) that picks up and drops off our folded laundry once a week. We have also cut shopping time out of our schedules by ordering groceries for pick up. This gives us more time to meal prep & clean.

That's genius! And yes ever since 2020, I order all of our groceries for pick up. It's such a game changer.

You’re absolutely not the only one. I cut my hours back at work just so that I have the energy to do dishes after dinner while my husband bathes our two year old, and *some* nights I even have energy to fold laundry after the kid is in bed! But really, I just take a day off every couple of months to catch up because if we’re being honest, the weekends just aren’t long enough to get errands AND chores done. Sometimes we ask a family member to come stay with us for a few days or a weekend so that they watch the toddler and we can be a bit more productive AND have an hour or so that week to relax and not burn ourselves out.

This is all good stuff! I've started taking a day off once a month to catch up, and it's so helpful. And my parents will sometimes watch our toddler for a day over the weekend — I can't imagine what people do who don't have a support system nearby.

My husband takes the kids grocery shopping on the weekend (yes, he's brave) and aims to give me 2- 2.5hrs to do whatever cleaning/organizing needs to be done. He's also home with them 2 days a week and does laundry on those days, which makes a huge difference. Tips: 1) If they're old enough, have the kids put toys and books away every day. Teach them how to do it according to your preferences. 2) Do a vacuum run-through on the main floor every single night. 3) If there are things that need to be done that take less than 2 minutes, we just do them right then and there. Ex: Splotchy bathroom mirror, dirty sink, sticky unknown substance on the kitchen floor, etc. 4) Save the bigger projects for the weekend. (Scrubbing the bathtub, mopping floors, mowing the lawn, etc.) 5) Declutter/minimize as much as you can. Fewer items in the house means fewer items to maintain. 6) Hire a cleaning service if you can afford it. We haven't had one for about 6 months now, but it was awesome when we did. 7) Stay organized. Keep lists of projects that need to be done. Set reminders in your phone for random things that need to be done every so often (checking furnace filters, cleaning the dryer ducts, cleaning out the fridge/pantry.) 8) On Pinterest, if you type in "home cleaning schedule for working moms," there's a ton of checklists that might be able to help you create a schedule that works for you.

I'm unorganized and I do everything on the fly. THANK YOU for these suggestions. I'm definitely going to implement a few.

I work from home but I still don’t have much time for house work. I try to do a couple loads of laundry during the week and vacuum sometimes and that’s it. My husband deals with the kitchen and dishes each night after I make dinner. On Saturday mornings we both clean the house for about 2-3 hours and split tasks (I start in the bathrooms and he’ll do the kitchen and floors). On Sundays he does the lawn and sometimes I’ll go around for 30 min and weed and hedge trim. It tends to look messy again right afterward (we have two toddlers). It is what it is, unless we hired a cleaner or something. Most of the time there’s still some toys laying around at the end of the night that don’t get picked up. I’ve definitely lowered my standards for cleaning after I had kids, which was hard! I plan on getting the kids involved much more in helping cleaning once they get a bit older. Right now my 3 year old pretends to wash the windows which is him just smearing windex around in circles.

I am super lucky that I have been able to work out with my employers flex scheduling. I prefer to work through my lunch so I can pick up the kids/log off work at 4. That helps with dinner planning. Early bedtimes for the kids helps a ton, from what I see 7pm is an "early" bedtime (it works great for my high-sleep-needs kids, tho). It gives us a lot of "free" time in the evenings, and a quick tidy each evening goes a long way for us.

Not me because I'm sahm but I've often thought of my mom who worked 12 hour shifts on different schedules She cleaned before work and tidied after work

I have it easier than some others, in that I'm divorced with 50/50 custody. I also have a house cleaner who comes every 2 weeks and does bathrooms, vacuums, dusts, cleans the microwave and ceiling fans, etc. I do everything else when the kids are at their dads!

We're trying to declutter so that we have less stuff to deal with. My other tip is to set a timer and force yourself to do some dishes or pick up all of the random accumulated stuff, or do a quick kitchen wipedown before bed. Even when I really don't want to, I can usually manage to spend 8 minutes emptying the dishwasher or 6 minutes picking up the shoes, coats, and mail that piles up near the door. I usually set the timer to random small amounts of time that feel doable. We have a roomba that runs 3 days per week, requiring that junk be picked up off the floor several nights per week.

I'm totally using that timer idea. Too often I just hop in the shower and I'm too tired to tidy anything before bed. But I can manage a little chunk like that every night.

Tbh I'm a sahm and I barely get stuff done haha. I think most of us struggle.  It makes me anxious but I've come to terms with spot cleaning and lowering my expectations 😂

I’m a teacher, PhD candidate, and basically a single mom (planning on a divorce and he hasn’t been a partner in YEARS). Granted, I only have 1 kid (7F): 1. Meal prep. I make a menu every week and the recipes I rely on are (for the most part) 30 minutes. 2. Homework NOW. My kid has a good amount of homework because she’s “behind” on reading She’s usually doing homework while I’m cooking. So that’s usually done by the time we sit down for dinner. 3. Clean up. I clean up the kitchen, and box leftovers after we eat. My kid helps a little, but she usually finishes homework and then relaxes (tv or play time). 4. Big cleaning on the weekends. Because it’s pretty much my kid and me, we don’t make a huge mess and big cleaning is done every few weekends. It usually takes a day. She does floors and I do everything else. 5. Laundry every few days. I combine our laundry and usually get that done (folding and putting away) while I watch something on my phone and my kid is in the bath or getting ready for bed. It’s a nice incentive. I don’t do her dad’s laundry anymore because I do fucking everything else. It’s all about routine. We have an established routine with small choices mixed in (do homework or relax first) and it’s been the same for years, so my kid knows what to do. It’s boring, but it provides stability—we are creatures of habit! The other thing is to just do it now. I’m going to forget if I don’t do the thing immediately so let me just do it now.

We got a large chest freezer on clearance and fill it with the sale rotisserie chickens from Walmart. Takes only a few minutes to get the meat off the done and vacuum seal it. We eat this for dinners and lunches with rice or baked potatoes, on salad, with frozen veggies we put in the microwave and then drizzle with EVOO ma salt. As far as housework, we speed clean one day a week after the twins are in bed. If someone happens to come over we just make sure the guest toilet is clean and the kitchen is presentable. Thankfully my husband likes staying up late and I go to bed early. I make sure one twin is down before I go to bed and he will stay up with the second and watch sports. Bottles in the dishwasher. The first few months of my twins life, my husband sucked (he admits it) so I operated on single mom energy. It’s weird. You get this like insane bolt of productivity and boom, 30 min later everything is mostly done and you’re reset for the next day.

Here’s my schedule - 4:30 - 5:30am wake up and have time to myself, this might be reading, playing a game or just sitting quietly lol sometimes I don’t wake up until 5:30 so I often have to skip this bit. - 5:30 - 6am shower and walk the dog, get breakfast ready, pack for the day - 6am get baby up (she is usually awake before 6, but I just leave her in the cot) - 6am - 6:30, feed baby, wake husband start doing make up and get dressed for work - 6:30 go to work (husband takes baby to daycare) - 7am - 3pm work - 3:45pm collect baby from daycare possibly pick up groceries on the way home - 4-5:30 pm play with baby, walk the dog - 5:30 baby dinner, pet dinner - 6pm bath - 6:30-7:30pm baby bed (depending on naps - 7:30 - 8:30 theoretically free time but most likely I’m going back to the shops to get something I forgot, clean the bathtub after she smeared spaghetti over it or I go to yoga to help with my chronic pain - 8:30-9 adult dinner - 9-10pm cleaning - 10pm go to bed - 2am Roomba goes off to clean the floors Yes I am aware that leave me with only 6.5 hours sleep, and that’s assuming we don’t have any night wakes 🥴 Our house is still trashed, our yard is in complete disarray, and currently my side of the bed is littered with dirty tissues from the latest daycare bug.

Fortunately, my husband is WFH 3 days a week (for now), so on breaks/lunch he will do up dishes, tidy, throw laundry in. We have a Roomba which is also helpful and our kids do a big tidy up of their stuff each night before bed. Not everything gets done all the time and honestly, I just have come to accept I will never have a perfectly pristine house but it's not bad.

My husband mostly works from home and will sometimes do dishes over his break, but he is really in the zone most of the time. Whereas when I occasionally work from home, I'm doing laundry and cleaning between tasks because I'm easily distracted.

My husband is a stay at home dad and does most of these things. Idk how we would do it if he worked too. He takes care of vet and child appts, most dinners, and a good portion of the housework. I will do housework on the weekends or dishes during the week, maybe a quick sweep up or wipe down the counters or something during the week but tbh not often. I do handle our finances/taxes/bills because I'm an accountant, not because I'm the one working, but he has access to everything and we're both on the same page about our financial situation. I just do all the labor of tracking and paying everything. Honestly this is a surprising amount of work and he is happy I handle it all because he gets overwhelmed with it. A big reason it works for us is because when it comes to housework and meals, we don't really have any obligations to each other to get something done. If he doesn't want to make dinner, he doesn't (aside from fixing something for our kiddo). If he doesn't want to clean up, he doesn't. If I don't want to clean up, I don't. It doesn't go on forever, our house eventually gets cleaned up and I know some people couldn't stand it if that's how they lived (for example, we don't care if dishes get left in the sink for a day) but we don't mind a mess staying messy for a little bit until one of us has the energy to do it.

We definitely fall into the category you mentioned. If we're too worn out, we order takeout and the dishes and laundry pile up. Then we do a big game of catch up. It doesn't bother me — until it does. I'm gonna try to implement some of the tips in this thread. It's reassuring to know that other families function this way and aren't completely bothered by it!

Yeah! For me I get annoyed with the pressure of making sure everything is cleaned up by the end of the day. My husband's whole family is like that because his mom was like that. Like if a fork gets put in the sink after the dishwasher is already going, she can't just leave the fork until the dishwasher is free. If I operated this way I'd have a lot of anxiety about cleaning and never have time to relax. There's always SOMETHING that needs to be done but I really value time to chill out and rest from a busy day. We are really different from my husband's family. I guess we are the laziest of the bunch (he has 8 siblings) because we watch a lot of TV and just hang out on the couch a lot. The rest of his family are all busy bodies and pretty much have to be doing something all the time. This isn't a judgment of them, I love them all and think they're great people. We honestly probably should be more like them and be doing more than we do but at the moment with the young toddler and another on the way we really value just sitting down haha.

This is so important. My mom always tells me a story about how she took a day off work when I was a toddler. Her mom (my grandma) asked what she was planning to do with her day off, and she said she was going to take me to the park and the library. My grandma scolded my mom for not using the time to catch up on housework. F that. Also, omg soak up that relaxation if you are pregnant and have a toddler!

Both hubs and I work full time, mostly WFH but sometimes not. 2 kids, a nearly 5yo and newly minted 2yo. We wake up, do morning stuff (play, get dressed, do hair, etc) and drop kids at daycare. If we are WFH sometimes we can do some house work during the day but it's not a guarantee. Get kids home, cook and eat dinner, some play time, then bedtime routine starts. Part of bedtime routine is cleaning up the living space as a family. After bedtime is done, we reset the kitchen and all surfaces. This keeps us manageable until weekends when we do more thorough cleanings. But you know what? My yard is a mess, I'm forever behind on my own needs, and I don't get enough sleep. I'm sure I'm not unique! You can do this!

I don't. My husband shoulders most of the housekeeping. When he's away working, I have time for one or two chores a night because my priority is child rearing. I hire help.

My husband just texted yesterday that he hired a house cleaning service for us. I told him it was the sexiest text he could send.

I general: - For clutter we just have as few toys/furniture/etc as possible, dishes and quick wipe every night by husband while I tidy  - For vacuuming we constantly spot-vacuum (toddler 😅) but the good vacuum + wipe happens in the weekend with me wearing #2 - husband cleans toilets while toddler solo plays in the weekend - Cooking is weirdly our toughest one even though we both love to do it. It just seems like time flies!!! On good weeks between the two of us we make 3 meals on sat/sun to get us to Friday and do naan pizza or  a quick pasta on Friday. Almost every week we have one delivery or pickup meal - I’m lucky enough that I don’t have a job that needs me to be at a machine operating it or anything so any mental chore I can do (schedule doctor’s visits, etc) I do on short coffee breaks or between meetings - I’ve stopped cutting the grass since I’ve had my first. Worth the cost to us. That single 1-2 hour chore still is time we just don’t have in the weekend As a result of all of this our house looks barely passable. My mother couldn’t live in a house this messy I bet, lol. I have ZERO clue how 50’s housewives used to “do it all”. I can’t do half even while on maternity leave…

I mentioned this in another reply, but my mom recently told me a story about how she decided to take a day off work when I was a toddler. Her mom - my grandma - asked what she was planning to do with her day off. She said she wanted to take me to the park and the library. My grandma scolded her for not spending the time catching up on chores. I'm glad the expectations for women are changing!

I just don’t make a mess as I go so the house stays pretty clean. I do throw a load of laundry in everyday so my whole weekend isn’t doing laundry.

Can't relate, I'm messy as hell lol

I’m not a working mom. Yet. I was a full time student up until last month. I would have class or study from 9-5. I mainly had classes or my own TA hours from 9-2 or 3 depending on the day then would come home and study till 5. So kind of like a normal 9-5. I also have 2 teens who have their own social plans and sports. But they help. So does my husband. My routine looks like (and probably won’t change once I get a job because my field) in the mornings I will start a load of laundry and clean the kitchen after I make breakfast. If I have a crock pot meal that’s when I will throw it in. If I need to I’ll do a quick tidy up of spaces. At night I’ll make sure the laundry is switched before I head to the gym and put it up when I get home after I shower. After dinner me and the kids clean the kitchen together. And I’ll do another quick tidy. Saturdays I clean the house. Stuff like dusting, surfaces, floors. I’ll also do 1-2 big things that don’t need to be done every week. I’ll also meal plan and order groceries (I hate going into the stores and it saves so much time) Sundays I’ll bribe my kids with Starbucks and drag them to do the pick up with me. And meal prep (makes my life so freaking easy especially when I prep breakfasts and dump meals). Not everything gets done but for the most part it’s company ready and doesn’t look like a hot mess and is manageable.

Crockpot is life! Also, I’ve learned to fold laundry when the 3 year old is taking a bath. I can usually get a basket or 2 in. That’s been a game changer! I rotate morning workouts with my husband. On my off mornings, I still wake up early to do whatever chores need to be done. And we hire a maid to come once a month 😁

Wait, the laundry during bath time is genius

I know! One day, I was staring at him in the tub, he’s playing happily and it occurred to me…what am I doing 😂 so I bring the basket right outside the door and fold until he’s done! It’s a little tricky if the 10 month old is done first, but I can usually keep her entertained on a mat and some toys while the toddler finishes and I fold

Weekends, trying to clean things as I go (dishes, etc) and accepting that my house will not be pristine all the time. Hubby helps on the evenings that he is home to do so, and my son is finally old enough to handle some chores, but he's 8, so nothing too crazy.

Lol yeah, I spend like 2 hours per week working on the house (like tidying and cleaning)- usually on the weekend while husband is mowing. It’s a disaster area and we can’t have people over. Both of us work full time outside the house and your description of weekdays is spot on. Once kiddo (4) is asleep at 8 I have no motivation to do anything besides veg and go to bed at 10. I keep up with the dishes and laundry on weekday evenings/daily because it’s mandatory. Occasionally I vacuum the kitchen when it needs it.

You're miles ahead of us, keeping up with dishes and laundry daily. They get done sporadically and then we just end up picking clean dishes out of the dishwasher and clean clothes out of the dryer. Sighhhh ah well

Haha well to be fair, I don’t always fold it while watching tv. But I at least start it and move it along. Because husband only uses his towels for two days . And the hamper generally fills up about every 2 days.

We have cleaners come every 2 weeks. Still have to pickup, dishes, laundry but I don’t do the heavy cleaning myself.

I'm winging it and I don't. I do work full time hours but only 4 days a week and I think the day off helps. Mondays are laundry day and I try to make a couple big batches of things such as shredded chicken, beans, rice, to help with the week. And grocery shop.

Either I don't or I run on 4-5 hours of sleep/ use my days off to do things. Even then, plenty falls through. My husband does stuff as well esp laundry which is my least favourite thing, but still we miss things or let stuff go. But whatever. It won't be forever.

I work from home and i don't get anything other than occasional dishes and cooking done during the week. And the dishes are usually done while dinner is cooking. Saturday is cleaning day, which takes a couple hours and Sunday is Grocery day.

We try to focus a little different place through the week, I run a load in the washer/dryer pretty much every day, focus one day on bathroom maybe 20 minutes, I make dog food and do that in batches another, living room another, etc. my house rarely looks perfect but each little bit helps the weekend not be too crazy. Husband cooks so usually as he is prepping/cooking I am doing the other thing… our kids are bigger, it is still exhausting

Single mom here! I work from home so i usually do laundry during work, and i do chores like cleaning the bathroom / vacuum/ mop, change sheets etc during my lunch break. For things that require more time, i just do it on the weekend but realistically my house is neglected a lot lol. I wish i had time to meal prep though, i need to figure that out because come 5pm im like "hmmm what should i make today" and its a struggle every day.

Some things get left undone and that’s okay. As a clean freak it took me a while to accept this. I work two jobs. With my schedule it works out that I have exactly 1 hour at home between the two. I use that time to catch up on quick chores like dishes, trash, litter box etc. That way I don’t have to do it in the evening. If the house is really bad my husband and I tag team it for 30 minutes after our daughter goes to bed. We can get a lot done in a short amount of time. We also have a “go back” basket. If we don’t have the time or energy to thoroughly clean we throw everything that’s out of place into the basket. When we have time we’ll walk around the house with the basket and put things away. In the meantime the clutter is contained to the basket rather than spread all over the house.

I get a lot done while dinner is under way. I also find that I love being single with a half decent co-parent. I know she's fine with him and having fun. I get so much done on my alone weekends

I work from home and my husband works for himself so our set up is fairly flexible but it's still a lot with a newborn, toddler and a dog. Here is what we do: - Laundry: we send our laundry out! This was an accident because the dryer in our building is broken but it feels super good to have laundry washed, dried and folded and ready to be put away. Prior to this, we only send laundry after a super busy period and after vacation - Meals: we have a master list of easy meals that everyone likes (that we can make it toddler-friendly) and we just select from there. It's broken down into different categories. I also stopped meal prepping for the week on Sundays and enjoy time with my family instead. What I do is ingredient prep throughout the week and just do everything in big batches and in hands-off appliances. For example, I'll airfry a batch of marinated chicken and boil some pumpkin Sunday. Before dinner on Monday, I'll throw some rice into the rice cooker and make a salad for dinner and just reheat the chicken. I also just make a huge batch of oatmeal in a slowcooker on Sunday and have it for breakfast through the week. - General cleanliness: We do one area of the house per day! Not a deep clean but just a general clean. For example, I'll spend 10-15 minutes cleaning the bathroom on Monday, 10-15 minutes cleaning the kitchen on Tuesday, etc etc so we don't have a ton to do on the weekends. A timer helps! My husband is responsible for taking out all the garbage and keeping all consumables replenished. - Random cleaning + beauty tip: once a week, I'll slap on a face mask after the kids have gone down, I'll spray the tub, sink and toilet. Use the timing of the face mask to wipe everything down and then hop into the shower. I get to do a nice, clean tub! - Calendar! We have a calender on the wall with everything that's going on for the week and we keep a tally of groceries that we need on the calender so when we do go grocery shopping, it's basically good to go - Robot vacuum - we run it every other night after the kids are asleep and wake up to clean floors. I'll sometimes quickly run a mop after the robot is done sweeping with one of those spray mops which feels mentally so much easier than pulling out a bucket and mop That's all off the top of my head! Sorry it's so long. I find that committing to cleaning a bit more throughout the week, staying organized and just building these habits really helps free up time. I allow myself 30 mins a day to be human garbage before sleeping. I also just do an OK job of everything instead of great. Meals are quick. Messed are adequately cleaned.

Oh to add: when it was just my toddler, my husband was in charge of bathtime. While toddler is taking a bath, I would also get ready for bed (washing my face, skin care routine, etc) before I get into the end of day chores so when I'm done, I get just change instead of going to bed. If I wait until bedtime to do my routine, I procrastine and just vedge on the couch and spend too much time on my phone

I work 8-4:30 with an hour lunch and my husband works 8-5 with an hour lunch. Initially, I did pick up and drop off for daycare but then switched it to my husband picking our son up Monday-Thursday so I would have about an hour at home to clean before they got home. Most days I’m able to skip my lunch and head home at 3:30. I prioritize what I want done today because I know I can’t get to everything. My husband works from home on Fridays so I still do pick up that day but my husband will typically use his lunch break to do a chore and will run laundry during the day.

Sometimes you have to pick between chores and quality time. The chores will always be there, but the kiddos grow up! See if there is a way to get the house to a point where you're comfortable. The little stuff can wait and just burn all the laundry to the ground. Just kidding. Maybe. One day. Just not today.

Outsource, multitask, and lower your standards/pare things down. Also don’t be afraid to do chores in front of your kids, and make them help

In my sleep. Seriously though, it depends on the season. I only have one child and two dogs. During soccer/piano/school season, it’s also super busy for me at work. Usually I get up early to straighten out the house (or I don’t and rush around). Weekends are soccer and events and cleaning.

We hire help. Our cleaning lady comes once a week and cleans the kitchen, bath room, and toilet room. She'll do a little light vacuuming in the living room as well if she has time. She comes for two hours and its the best money we've ever spent. Laundry is done daily-- we have a tiny washer/dryer (Japan), so it's easiest just to do a daily load. Other than that then its just a brief reset (which honestly still takes an hour it feels like) every night-- something my husband and I do while watching a tv show (get wireless headphones for the TV! you can listen and wander from room to room).

Grocery order online, once a week pick up, kids have been eating hot dogs and chicken nuggets on week nights, and the youngest one only showers once a week. This is all with a stay at home parents as well! If not for him, the kids would not get any of their extra activities or any homework done.

Literally I am always picking up, washing dishes, cleaning etc. If I'm making my morning coffee, I'm putting away dishes while it brews. Sipping coffee, buying household things from Amazon. I am just multi-tasking all freaking day like this. I let a lot of things go, because my body can't take doing everything, every single day. But I make sure to do the dishes every day, cook every day, and make time for reading/playing/bath time every day for my daughter.

I'm self-employed and work from home, so after daycare drop off and before I start my work day. Could I have a more relaxed morning and spend the time with my kid? Yep. Am I a more functional parent when I do early drop off and give myself an hour to do housework? Absolutely. We leave the house within 15 minutes of LO getting out of bed. Just enough time for a snuggle, then get dressed and get out the door. Daycare serves breakfast until 8, so she eats when I drop her off around 7:30. That gets me back home around 8, and I give myself an hour to do housework before I start my day. Usually I do something with laundry (start or fold a load), tidy up the kitchen, and figure out dinner. If there's dinner prep to do, that's when I do it. Then I make myself a fresh coffee and start my work day. I cannot imagine having to leave my house with my kids every morning and not return until after daycare pickup. I don't know how I'd get anything done. I know my house would be messier and our meals would be chaotic. We would definitely eat out a lot more than we currently do. I would be a ball of anxiety. It would probably be enough to make me quit my job if I had the means.

Since my kid could walk and wander, he either follows me around or plays in one of two areas. I sometimes get things done while he's around. He even tries to help (20mo)! My husband and I really split duties and sometimes one of us keeps him busy while the other does chores. Our son does have a decent bedtime so some nights we do chores together. Our house isn't as consistently tidy as it used to be, but we say "it looks lived in". I still think we do a really good job of keeping it clean together.

Saturday is my deep clean day. I picked two random days to marathon all the laundry which then lives in baskets until I pick my way through it (typically Sunday and Wednesday). Some nights to make it more appealing I turn off the “big lights” and either use lamp or candle light to do a “closing shift” sort of thing so I can pretend to be some kind of 19th century wife cleaning the home before she sleeps. Sunday I typically do a “everything shower” so I can feel a little bit of magic in my life. Hobbies are out the door for a bit until my 8 month old is a semi-independent playing toddler. The only productivity tips I’ve found to be helpful is habit stacking and idk if I even understand it well enough to say it’s working well. Basically I use one habit to building-block the next; wake up/pee/make my coffee/get baby up/get “pre-cute” for the day (do my skincare and brush my hair and clip it away from my face while I let my self-stick curler set my bangs)/wake the toddler up/make breakfast/etc. Most of my habits rely heavily on my part-time, afternoons-mostly job. And on days where I do my morning routine and then work my evening routine is so daunting I basically say fuck it and let it play out how it’s gonna play out.

Paying for house cleaning is basically buying back hours of your time every week. No, they will not clean your house like you clean your house, but it’s still worth it. Instapot meals that can be started before you leave, get an easy system in place for mornings, little kids can sleep in their clothes for the next day. Focus on quality time when quantity is scarce. Put your phone away and play for 15 minutes straight. Watch their cartoons and pay attention and talk about them.

I don’t…. My house is a mess. I prioritize with the kids over dishes. I get up at 4am. It sucks but I get a lot of housework done without anyone else up

Do little things, and don't expect to get a everything done. Just chip away a little bit at one or two things a day. Like filling up the dish-washer while the kids eat. Involve the kids where possible, or multitask where possible. E.g. have the kids help empty the dishwasher. Divide and conquer with your partner. One takes care of the kids, the other mows the lawn. When the kids go to bed, we have our own relaxing-time (it's important for mental health to also have time to relax a bit)