My week goes something like this:-
I get to work at about 8am and home by about 6pm. I don't do much to the house during the evenings. After work I cook dinner for us all and stack the dishwasher. Near the end of the week I make a dent in the laundry. I have my breakfast at work during the week. When I get to work I switch on my computer and as it is opening up I make my coffee and toast or cereal. I have previous days leftover dinner for lunch (we have a kitchen with combination microwave & toaster at work - very enlightened employer). Errands to the town and phone calls are completed during lunch breaks at work.
On Thursday evening my youngest son gets a few things out of the attic for me to sort though and give away. The attic was massively over crowded because we have been building on and renovating the house for 10 years. I wont know what to do with Thursday nights once it is back to normal.
Saturday is main cleaning day where everything is scrubbed within an inch of its life. My steam mop is the secret weapon and I don't require any leaning products with it. I vacuum after steaming (steaming seems to release things which need to be vacuumed so if you vacuum first then you actually have to vacuum twice)and also vacuum all of the carpeted areas. Saturday is also errand day for anything which hasn't been finished during work lunch breaks.
I notice I dont have many pictures of the house but this is my eldest playing guitar in the room we can the conservatory, which is bigger than a the rest of the ground floor and isnt at all conservatoryish.
Sunday - anything I missed yesterday plus any targeted 'sort outs' such as bottom of the wardrobe or under bed storage. Sunday afternoon is baking/complicated cooking time. Today I need to bake cakes as I have been receiving complaints from the kids that there is nothing nice to eat! Tch!
Sunday afternoon activity - We make lamb sausages
I have learnt a few thing that make my life easier to manage:-
1)Get on with it - Just get up and get on with it and stop whining - this was a revelation.
2)Delegate - I can do it at work so why not sometimes at home. Fixing things is not my area. Neither is car maintenance.
3)Prepare - Take something out of the freezer before going to work, ensure you have washing powder. This includes having the right tools for the job. My steam mop takes hours off the floor cleaning and saves me £££ in cleaning solutions.
4)Be realistic - I cant do everything. If I were at home all day then the place would look better, the garden would be more productive, the food might have a bit more variety. There would be more baking. These things are for weeks off work not all the time. I actually cant do everything.
5)Notebook/Lists - Write it all down but also keep it. You can look back to check things. This is especially helpful if your are menopausal and forget everything (which I am and it was a real shock to the system as my memory was amazing before. Good thing is that all my old books can be re-read as I don't know the endings, same with films.)
I think being realistic about what you can and can't do is really important. I used to have unrealistic expectations of myself and would push myself way too hard but now I've started to expect others to pull their weight too. It's caused a lot of friction, sadly, but I'm not going to give up. It's either help out more or find somewhere else to live. Simple.
ReplyDeleteIts true, we are all a part of the household, something must be someone elses responsibility. I dont mind being the organisaer to a certain extent but sometimes I think it would be handy if someone else had some idea of what needed doing.
ReplyDeleteLizzie