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Never have I spent as much time on Social Media as I have over the past two weeks!
My life as a Busy Bee has me so busy nowadays that for the pat few days I have been more of an “I can’t be bothered with housework” Lazy Bee.
I cannot blame it all on the internet, I just needed to take a break from my usual routine.
Here are the things I did not do:
- Laundry – Folded hubby and baby’s laundry then ignored mine
- Make The Bed – Left the bed the way it was when we crawled out of it
- Dishes – Did not load the dishwasher once, left this for the hubby (I enjoyed this)
- Take the trash out – Another one left for the hubby
- Clean up all the toys my little one spread out in the living room
One thing I did do: Catch up on A LOT of sleep!
According to new research, women do twice as much housework as men even when they have done a full day in the office.
I hear from a lot of women that their partner does not help them with household chores. Some women even bash their partners to their friends about how “he never lifts a finger, he can’t be bothered with housework”.
Lucky for me, mine does a lot of stuff around the house. HE EVEN COOKS!
Quite frankly, I prefer to do the sh&t myself. I am a control freak. I want it done in a certain way.
When the hubby does the housework, he does a great job.
Sometimes however, I find that I need to do something extra to get it just right (yup – if you have read some of my other posts you will know I am an OCD control freak).
I am a doer and an organizer extraordinaire. There are those moments though when I just don’t feel like it.
Have you ever wished you didn’t have to do housework for just a day, or two? Maybe a week? Keyword here wish.
Larger home with lots of people, kids, toys, food, need to be cleaned from top to bottom everyday. You do not have the luxury to say you can’t be bothered with housework.
No Need To Make Excuses
Your house doesn’t need to look like this…..
My son is currently 9-months old and I have noticed that when you have a baby, people tend to give you a pass for your home not being spotless.
They think or say, “She just had a baby” – Umm not really. LOL. That was almost a year ago!
“You are a first time mom, focus on the baby, leave the chores alone” – SURE!
It is harder to get work done when you have a child that is crawling all over the place.
So I clean, play, clean, feed, clean, dance, clean, put him down for a nap.
Should we use our kids as excuses for not doing housework? Nope. But it sure as hell works!
Five Tips For When You Can’t Be Bothered With Housework
1. Instead of cleaning all day long, designate a basket to put everything in its proper place at end of day.
2. Leave vacuuming and mopping until the end of the day so you won’t have to do this twice or thrice.
3. Clean as you go. This applies mostly in the kitchen. Wipe down the counters while making a bottle.
4. Try cleaning in 10 or 15 minute increments.
5. Learn to multitask – Although as a parent you probably already do this well.
If all else fails – Hire help or have your husband do it — you’ve earned it!
How do you get chores done with kids around? If you don’t have kids and just can’t be bothered with housework, how long do you leave it not done?
Share your tips and suggestions with me in the comments below.
32 comments
Haha I am a student living in a Paying guest sort of accommodation and the chores and work are never ending. There is no one but me to do it all! Oh well, thanks for the great tips anyway and onwards and beyond!
As my daughter gets older, she can actually help out with the tidying up, and we try to make things fun and playful. I wrote out this list of 25 fun and playful ways to get kids to help out, and although it takes a little longer it’s better than not getting anything done at all!
We have quite an old house so it’s never looked show home or spotless. I try and keep our living space clean as were in it all day but the bedrooms are a tip! I don’t know the answer for you but we have to try!! Thanks for linking #abrandnewday
I do the bare minimum for hygeine! I don’t know where to put all my belongings, I have two kids and each one has a skipful of toys. I need one of those house organiser people I think. All I do is pick stuff up, clean under it then put it back haha. Even on a sleepy day, you seem much better at housework than me!
#ABrandNewDay
OMG, so much feels! I have a couple of kids, one is a BOY in the Terrible Twos stage. He’s at that point in life where he touches something and throws it on the floor. Yep. So what I do is wake, cook, clean them up(kids) let my kids play typhoon and wreck the whole house, put them on a nap, clean up, feed the kids, clean up, and play with them, try to teach them to keep their things away (key word: try. XD ) and make them go to sleep for night time. then clean some more.
I always give myself time to enjoy the finer things in life though. like writing in my blog and commenting on yours. 😉
Nicole, thank you for sharing! I have heard about the Terrible Two and all the things kids do and try at this stage.I also heard they can be so stubborn, and I have a little boy so I know he may be a handful. LOL, exciting times ahead. I think we just have to all get into routines as mums and somehow figure out what works best for us and our kids. I am so glad that you mentioned you take some time for yourself to do something that relaxes you. Looking forward to reading more from your blog. 🙂
I definitely prefer my space to be super tidy. That said when my boys were toddlers we also had four cats and two dogs. (Blended animal family) and it was all I could do to keep up with the hair and drool and pee…let alone a deep clean. Raising little boys I had to learn that MAKING messes is ok…its LEAVING messes that is the problem. Teaching them to tidy and clean took a while but nagging and doing it myself was not going to make me happy or them skillful. In the end it is pretty good. I hope when your bundle gets up and into everything it won’t bother you too much. For me it depended on the day.
Four cats, two dogs, and toddlers! YIKES! You are a woman of true strength! You are right about teaching them when they are young, otherwise, by the time they reach their teenage years it will be impossible to get them to do anything. My little one is crawling all over the house and touching whatever is in sight. I don’t want him to feel like I am saying no to this new world he is discovering everyday but neither do I want him eating cables and dirt. 🙂 One day at a time…
Ugh…I’ve been terrible with housework lately! I have the “don’t-wants” so bad! Sometimes I wish I could bribe my 3-year-old to do it. Lol!
LOL. Hilarious. However, I am pretty sure she would accept the bribe. In exchange for what though?
I feel that housework is such a waste of time! I never ever feel like doing it.
We always try to divide the fixed set of work between ourselves. This helps to have some clarity and then the remaining work can be picked up by anyone.
I have no kids, but living with housemates also means no matter how much work I put in, there’ll always be dishes in the sink… You just need to learn not to sweat the small stuff. ; )
– Elodie x
You are right about that!
Glad to know I am not the only control freak, even making a cup of tea is a hit and miss affair for my husband… of 20 years! If it’s not exactly right I toss it down the drain! One of the huge benefits of living in South Africa, is having the help of a wonderful domestic worker three days a week. There is nothing like living in a spotless house when you don’t have to do it yourself!
Oh Tania – this reminds me of living in Ghana. Help 5 days a week. All the housework done on a daily basis. Gosh, yes I was spoiled back then 🙂
I agree, all of us have couple of such days in a month where we need to slowdown, take it easy and catch up on the nap time
Same. Same to all of it! My husband is pretty good about helping with certain things & he also cooks most nights, although I do all of our meal prep over the weekend. We are both working full-time along with second work at home jobs, so lately I’ve had to learn to let the housework slide and not get too crazy about it. We try to do at least one thing every night & then I do all the heavy cleaning on Fridays while our toddler naps.
Wow Kristyn, you are doing so much! How do you handle it all? Do you ever get to sleep? You are one tough lady!
Ha! Well I actually ask my mum to come over and look after bubba whilst I clean as I refuse to have a cleaner, even though the husband says I should as I may burn out doing everything! I’m seriously ocd I clean my tiles with a toothbrush…unsure a cleaner would do this!
I am terrible, because I don’t do many chores! I iron as and when I need to, I wash the pots either after the kids are in bed or when the little one is in the high chair and the 7 year old is next to him so she can shout me if he has any trouble with his food and then when things get dire I make my partner play with the kids whilst I blitz the house!
So probably not actually helpful, but some solidarity with the not cleaning thing!
Yes! I know what this feels like! I can totally relate. Thanks for sharing. 🙂 Have a great weekend.
Great post! I’m a control freak too. ‘If you want something doing, do it yourself.’
I am a little of a control freak myself, so I really understand you! I don’t have kids, but I work long hours and I started a blog 2 months ago, so sometimes my sink is full of dishes and I almost never make my bed in the morning… except from weekends! I often feel like each day doesn’t have enough hours…
I support you in that the day doesn’t seem to have enough hours. A system should be created in which you can go to work, and when your work is complete for the day, you can head home LOL. (In my dreams).
We are working here to make it 50/50 as much as possible. I run online businesses so it would seem that I have more time than he does to clean and what not, but its very opposite of that, I have far less time with trying to keep up with everything! And I am quite the organized person!
funny! I read that about the bed too (dust mites). Generally I have found men are surface cleaners but hey help is help. Its hard with kids for sure. I’m not the best example but schduling even the most basic things help. I spend a lot of time online too but I have certain days to do the whole cleaning and other times well its done when its done.
When its done, its done – yes. I had a few of those days last week. I have things I do every single day, then some chores I leave for the weekend when I have more time. This past week has just been a lazy week for me. Tomorrow brings in a new month with new motivation 🙂
Brilliant post first of all ! Second : YES , not making the beds up supposedly is a lot more healthy for us , as mites ..bedbugs…do prefer nicely made up beds ( sounds silly , but is true ) Third : Before I discovered FB & Co. only a few years ago , my house used to be spotless …. now there’s a lot of ‘ish’ to be added at the end of words like …clean …tidy … Well , let’s take it that way : at least you can tell there are people (and a dog , toywise similar to Toddlers ) living in my house , it’s not just a ‘furniture exhibition’ ! A happy spirit can live very comfy in a messy house !
Thanks Klaudia. I can relate to everything you wrote here. Cleanish houses are the best in my opinion. I do not believe in a HOME being spotless. I do not live in a museum. Same goes for the garden with perfectly manicured grass, I want a nice garden with trees and flowers but not a golf course. 🙂
My wife and I don’t really have a set chore list, we just do stuff here and there as it needs to be done. I did read that no making the bed helps it air out any bacteria, so that’s a plus!
OH – I did not know that about the bed! Thank you for the tip. Well in that case, no need to make the bed ever again 🙂