How do you keep up?
 

I'm just interested to know how YTers keep up with their daily lives when there is so much to do.

If you're gone all day, just about everyday, then come home to the pups, and you're alrady totally beat and have a million things left to do, how do you get them done?

Do you have a cleaning schedule/method/system that works well for you? What is it?
Do you freeze meals up ahead?
Or do you stay up all night trying to finish everything and just live exhausted?

During the school year, our house looks like a disaster area. We eat junk because even cutting up salad stuff sometimes sounds too overwhelming after being gone all day. Something gets cleaned and an hour later it's totally messed up again. And to just quickly clean things daily so nothing builds up, that's a good idea, but that still takes a lot of time daily... I like the idea of Flylady, but the site and emails totally overwhelm me, then I clean nothing. lol

Any secrets??

If you figure this out, you will be rich. :) Lol. I have a hard time too. It is just life has become pretty hectic. It is really stressful to try to balance a job, a family, and all the other responsibilities. No secrets here but can't wait to see if others have any.

I was on top of everything until the doggies came into my life. :) House and yard work are seriously lagging.

I take back what I wrote here last year about enjoying cleaning house. I'm ready for a maid, but I know I would be like my mother and clean before the maid arrived. That is one way to force myself to do things, I suppose.

My solution: lower my standards. :p

Max and Teddy cured my OCD. :D

I don't have the answers either, but I think it does get a little easier as you get older. School is hard with all the other duties. My only advice is to not sweat the small stuff. Prioritize your responsibilities and duties. At the end of the day, what you don't get to will still be there. If you are truely overloaded, maybe there is something you can give up to lighten your load and relieve some stress even if it's only for a little while.

I used to worry about my house not being kept perfectly and orderly and worried about how bad a house keeper I was and what others may say about it behind my back, but I refused to give up the time with my animals or my kids. Spending time with them was actually my reward for putting in a hard day at work. Housework will always be there. (I do have to give credit to my DH, he does A LOT of our housework, but I'm not recommending getting a guy unless you already have one :p) So, now my kids are grown, and I have all the time I need to clean my house except I'd rather be here on YT.. I don't want to miss anything :D.

So true.

I purchase pre-made dinners, a local company offers a service where you pick 12 recipes from the menu and spend 2 hours preparing the recipes with fresh ingredients, in zipper baggies, they come with cooking instructions and everything, all you need to do is cook sides.

The company is called Whats for Supper. What's for supper? easy supper preparation introduction there seems to be companies like this all over the place.

I thought it would be really expensive, my bf and I are students, but honestly the food is amazing, and it works out to be about $5 per meal

Other than that, my house is still a mess!

I used to push myself to get it all done. I was "super mom".. worked, cheerleader coach, Girl Scout leader, vacation bible school teacher, all meals cooked from scratch, house clean.etc.........
then my girls became teenagers and my world fell apart.

My point.. what do I remember? Looking back was it how clean my house was? the food I prepared? no.. not really..

my point is make a list of what is most important, if you have to lower your standards do so!!! and just make sure you have some time to just enjoy life...otherwise it is not worth it all.

I think the short answer is that I don't keep up. At least not most of the time. With a 40-hour/week job, 2 teenagers, hubby and Rocco, I cannot always fit in cooking, cleaning, laundry, doctor's appointments, shopping....and sleeping. Something usually has to slack a bit, so allow yourself that.

During the week, the house isn't always as picked up as it should be, but I never have unmade beds or dishes in the sink, and I do my best to plan meals for every night. If at all possible, I prepare the night before and/or use my crockpot. None of us like takeout more than once a week, and I think a homemade dinner (not necessarily gourmet) not only helps us bond at the end of the day, but we feel better when we eat decent food. When Friday comes, it's all hands on deck to get the house in shape for the weekend...which is then spent doing laundry, errands, hockey practice/games, and friend and family time. Oh, and somewhere in there, I devote about 6-8 hours a week to couponing (planning lists and clipping, printing coupons); this has cut my grocery bill from about $125/week to less than $40.

Oh heck things are always falling apart around here. I do have a cleaning service come in once a month and do a deep cleaning.

I freeze a lot of meals, when I cook I make huge amounts and eat it for most of the week (or usually until Wednesday).

I try to do atleast 15 minutes of cleaning in the morning and at night and that really does help.

The one thing I wish someone would help me figure out is how in the heck to get my folded laundry from the downstairs laundry room to the upstairs bedrooms. Gosh I dislike laundry.

www.flylady.net has honestly saved my life! I have 4 boys ages 19,17,11 and 9! It really does work if you just take baby steps! Adapt it to fit your lifestyle.

I ask myself this question every day. I pretty much always feel behind. So for what it's worth, this is what I do:

1. Be creative. For instance, I negotiated working from home, so I have a lot more time to run errands & cook during the day.

2. Stay organized and have a routine. I LOVE Microsoft OneNote, it seriously changed my life. It's really easy to take notes and move stuff around so I always know what's outstanding and what is urgent.

3. It's okay to make your life easier. I must admit, I subscribe to this in theory more than practice... but it's okay to buy pre-cut veggies, get a dog walker, hire a cleaning lady.

4. If something like cleaning your house feels overwhelming, start as small as you can. When you get home, pick up for *5* minutes. Then give yourself permission to stop. Small steps done consistently can have big effects.

5. If you have trouble with time management or procrastination, read this book: Amazon.com: The Now Habit: A Strategic Program... . It's AMAZING. I read it fifteen years ago, and I STILL refer to it.

6. Make sure you prioritize fun! Don't get into a rut where your life is one big chore list.

7. Find that extra magical key which thus far I have been missing, and tell me what it is!

The one thing I do is when my apartment is looking rough I take Rizzo out to the dog park for about an hour, its really relaxing watchng pups running around playing. So by the time I get home I've sort of relaxed from the work week so I can tackle cleaning starting with the bathroom then bedroom living room, until I make it to the kitchen. My least favorite room to clean, so I start making dinners for a week or so and just clean as I cook, such as when the rice is setting I get all my dishes done, etc.
Although I only do this on weekends off, my house gets so messy during the week.

Honestly, the best way is to never get behind- lol! Otherwise, you always feel like you are catching up. I make sure to get up early enough in the morning to leave just 15 minutes to do things around the house, I throw a load of laundry in and pick up anything that is laying around the house, take out the trash or put some clothes away every morning. I do the same thing at night- just 15 minutes before I go to bed to clean, throw another load in, run the vacuum around, dust, etc. Then I don't ever have a really messy house to contend with, on Sundays I put aside one hour to do the heavy lifting (tub, toilet, floors, windows, etc)

I am lucky to work close to home, so I use my lunch break from work to run errands- bank, post office, drug store, etc.

I also usually have some time during the day at work to pay bills or other online banking, or make appointments, do phone things, etc.

I write down EVERYTHING i need to do each week- from laundry to something as simple as making a vet appt. then I force myself to do at least 2-3 things on the list every day.

After awhile it just becomes second nature and you are always on top of it and never get that overwhelmed feeling.

^How do you get so much done in 15 minutes? I clean up the kitchen, put all of my "stuff" away, and do essentials like trash every night before bed. Between these little chores and getting the dogs ready, it often takes me over an hour to get to bed. :p

I agree with having a list and committing to doing at least 2-3 items each day.

I don't. I always feel like I'm behind on things. I mean...I just put my Christmas tree up last night and tonight just hung the lighted wreaths on the doors and put the lil lighted trees outside...obviously a couple of weeks behind.

I try to use Sunday as my catch up day. I watch a new release dvd movie and clean up the living room/dining room and then blast music while I clean the kitchen & bathroom. Thankfully, Sunday's usually mean traditional English Sunday roast at mum & dad's, so I never have to mess my kitchen up after I've cleaned it that day.

My biggest problem is STUFF. I downsized to a house a third the size of my last one, yet haven't gotten rid of 2/3 of the STUFF. Part of it is I'm still figuring out what I want to use where and the other part is my kids. With both of them in college and living in apartments, depending on who they are rooming with each semester, depends on what they need to contribute. So the limited storage areas that I have, are taken up with their various furniture, decorating & cooking items TIMES TWO :eek:

Well Im a homemaker so I probably have more time than most but honestly I stay very busy. I multitask at home. When I go upstairs I always have something in my hands that has to go up same thing when I go down. I make lists for household chores and grocery lists and shopping lists basically I work off a list for everything. I try to clean as I go along and straighten all the time. I am not good at cleaning when everything is let go and cluttered and its just overwhelming, I like to just keep everything in some order at all times. My house is often not spotless but their is order and it is presentable. When I run errands I will try to do it all in one day which is Saturday. I do my grocery store in the morning then do errands and shopping after. I cook from scratch 2 meals a week and we have leftovers 2 days. The rest of the time we eat premade meals we get at sams club or eat out. I dont know I think the most important thing anyone needs to do is find their own system that works and that is mine

I STILL haven't decorated my tree! I'm doing that tomorrow. I'm honestly proud of myself that I didn't buy it on the 25th!

I use about 8 billion post-its a week. I have a customizable, small organizing thingy - and I keep a section for to do's -- I'll have a post it on a different page (using post-its make it easy to update/change) for errands to run/things to pick up, shipments I'm expecting, longer term to-do's, grocery list. My calendar is in there, important numbers. So, that's the organizing method.

But omg, I ALWAYS feel like I cannot keep up. And all of a sudden, it seems like nothing is in its place....I get overwhelmed...and don't want to attempt any of it....so yep, I get behind further. My method over the last few months is to talk myself out of that kind of thinking and just say to myself "do 5 mins of putting a few things away, and that's it" -- at least it's something I can achieve, without feeling like I failed bc I didn't do ALL that needed to be done.

I'm really prone to clutter/mess/mail piled up etc making me feel 'cluttery' in my brain. But, I can't seem to find the right way to avoid the clutter. Ya get rid of it, and 2 min later it's back. UGH. Endless cycle.

Confession: we don't make our bed unless guests are coming over. Gasp. Is that lazy or what?

My motto is: If people come to my house and don't feel the need to rinse my dishes before they drink out of a cup or eat off a plate, and they don't feel the need to hoover over the toilet while going, then my house is CLEAN ENOUGH! LOL

Seriously I do lots of things to make my life easier. I pick up every night, esp the rooms that company popping in would see. This makes real cleaning easier because I don't have to put away a million things before I can vacuum or dust.

I buy premade salads that feed 4 and are like $4 at the food store. I make simple meals, usually meat and veggies and rice/pasta/potatoes during the week.

I ask for help. I ask the kids or my fiance to do this or that real quick and they do it. That was hard and still is sometimes because I just think that they should KNOW to take out an overflowing trash or put dishes in the dishwasher and I'd get mad and do it myself. Now I just ask them to do it. I do the floors on the weekends only. My floors are always dirty. 10 mins after I sweep and mop them they are dirty. Now the person who tracks it in, cleans it up. I also invested in slippers that I like and now I never have to walk on dirty floors in just socks or bare feet bc I hate that!

No TV, computer or anything until after dinner. We all pitch in before dinner and then immediately after dinner to do the dishes ... 4 people can keep the house cleaner than 1 person can.

Decorating for christmas, I picked a weekend day in Nov and I set aside 4 hours to get decorating done. I wrap presents as I buy them so I don't have a whole pile that will take me 20 hours to wrap. I bake little things here & there so I don't do it all in 1 day. I really encourage others to help out. Its the only way to get it done really.

I worked for many years, and can tell you now.........it's impossible to be perfect in your job and your home at the same time. Something has to suffer, unless of course you have a cleaning lady and dog walker. I didn't have these luxuries and I had 6 sons and a dog. It wasn't until I was able to retire and stay at home that my house and dogs were all kept clean and organized. I do certain things each day Monday thru. Thursday. Friday & Saturday are spent going places with the girls and hubby and Sunday is church day. I always put a roast or large chicken in the slow cooker after church to have for dinner, (We eat lunch at the church since we have pot luck every Sunday). then we go for long walks or down to a beautiful park complete with a tiny lake and ducks and walking trails. The girls love it down there, but since we got Jilli Ann, we haven't been yet. Don't want to take her till she's had all her shots, and I don't want to leave her home. I wouldn't trade my life style now for anything.

Oh oH I now have a cleaning lady, but no dog walker, and well my house, my life is really not up to organized snuff!. But I've been thinking, just who do I have to keep up with? After all it is my rules, my house, my life. How can I be behind in my life? I make almost all of the decisions, including those ones that have me doing too much, in too little time, and on top of that procrastinating.:eek:

I think if I get the truly important stuff done that can't be avoided that is irritating, boring et al, the rest of the "stuff" is just the gnats of life(OOPS I make an exception for education-that helps you to earn plenty of $$ to do the next sentence):D. Pay your bills, your taxes..... the rest of the to do's is time negotiable. What isn't is; loving your family, your pets, your friends. Too often we put off the later, to do the former. :confused: Hope I said that the right way around.

Learning to say NO, is a great time saver. Particularly if your persona includes a truly fine character, coupled with a willingness to give and to help.

Lists have always helped me; in fact I am procrastinating right now about making my TO DO list, and then my Grocery List, and am just spending some time, enjoying Xmas music, having a lunsup, and relaxing.
How-ever once made, I love the sense of accomplishment ticking off an item. They do tend to keep me straight and getting done what I do truly want and need done.

The short answer is, I don't keep up. It's basically impossible. I can just keep everything at a level that doesn't cause stress and anxiety.

One of the best things I've been able to do over the past couple of years is having my younger brother (he's 22 now) move in with me. I went from living alone to living with a sibling, which was an adjustment...but it's been wonderful. He works very different hours than I do, so taking care of the pups, having someone home during the day to run errands...it's all gotten a lot easier.

I am very, very lazy about cooking during the week. I use my crock pot often, and that helps a lot. And then I eat leftovers for a couple of days because there are only two of us here. I wash and cut fruits and veggies as soon as I get home from the store, so when I'm ready to use them, there is little or no preparation.

I try to clean as I go. Dishes immediately in the dishwasher after use. Fold laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer. Put makeup and toiletries away after use. That makes a big difference when I'm not coming home to clutter!

My house is almost spotless, but I suffer in other areas... exercise for one. I don't get any. I work full time, help look after the house, cooking, the puppy, and always have homework to do evenings and weekends because I'm almost finished my accounting designation and a university degree. Sometimes I just have to sit and cry my head off because I feel so overwhelmed, but then I wash my face and carry on because I have to.

One thing most important to me is a clean kitchen. My kitchen is always, ALWAYS spotless. One place where I lowered my standards is that I stopped making the bed every day. If my b/f didn't do yard work I would hire someone to do it. I would love to hire a maid to come in twice a month to clean bathrooms and floors, and we can afford it, but it seems like such a waste of money. Maybe next year!