S/O Schedule Polls

[thom]

In the sleep and bedtime poll I was really struck by how tight everyone's nightly schedules are. Many of you seem to have only a few hours to eat, do baths and bedtime if you have kids, and then lay out stuff for tomorrow and get to bed.

That's how many of my nights seem too, and I'm having a hard time fitting in a reasonable amount of cleaning & trying to unpack boxes/ reorganize stuff from our move. I squeeze in workouts because it's most critical to me. But our house usually is a disaster, etc.

Anyhow please share some thoughts:

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

House cleaning and organization
Exercise
Meal cooking or prep
Work (extra work aside from normal hours)
Family Time
Social time (beyond immediate family)
Personal time (that's not exercise)
Sleep

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?

[thom]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?
Yes, but probably 5 out of 7 nights on average. Sometimes I've got to finish extra work in the evening, or I'm just too tired.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen? Here and there? Sometimes on weekends but because I basically work weekends and I work from home sometimes I do things in late afternoon before daycare pickup. I usually feel behind in this area.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors? Yes, 2 dogs. We have a roomba we try to run most days, but that requires picking up all the toys and clutter! Currently do not wash floors often enough. And intensive vacuuming is maybe 3x per month.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc? YES!

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects? IDK. Looking for ideas. Or maybe I am still in rehab from spending super early mornings and late nights painting and getting our old house ready to sell. That was easier though because we were no longer living in it.

6)

Order the following:

1) Family time - I try!
2) extra work - usually this is non negotiable because it's animals and our own business.
3) exercise
4) sleep
5) meal cooking/prep
6) Personal time (that's not exercise)
7) house cleaning
8) social time

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy? Not exactly great. I am usually good at finding joy in the small moments and then feeling overwhelmed and stressed within in the same day. Or the same hour. 😉

[al320]

Im going to answer this generally (also, note its just me and my dogs):

Cleaning is my last priority. I stay on top of laundry and vacuuming (still less than i should, but i dont want to drown in fur), and the place isnt a pig sty, but its just not that important to me for my house to be perfectly neat. I have too many other, more important things to do and im not going to stress about it being perfect. When i have a project - like purging closets or something bigger house related - its either on a day where im suddenly struck with motivation and have nothing else to do, or over a holiday/day off.

[Susie]

Aug 6, 2018 15:41:27 GMT -5 thom said:

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?  My H does.  In our division of labor, the kitchen is his domain and he is responsible for shopping, cooking, and clean up.  It's basically his main household responsibility (I either do or manage/outsource almost everything else.)

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?  I hired a biweekly housekeeper when I went back to work after having Hobbes.  I couldn't do it all while working the hours I do.  I take care of our yard myself but essentially outsource all of these indoor tasks.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?  two golden retrievers, and I vacuum whenever the tumbleweeds annoy me in between biweekly cleanings.  Usually a couple times in the rooms they spend the most time in.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?  I don't particularly notice that.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?  Weekends, Calvin takes Hobbes so I can do that kind of thing or I do it during her weekend naps.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

House cleaning and organization (3) includes bill paying, statement saving/record keeping, etc.
Exercise (5)
Meal cooking or prep (Not my domain.)
Work (extra work aside from normal hours)  (1.  If I'm doing this, my client probably has an urgent need, so Calvin handles Hobbes while I attend to whatever emergency my client had.)
Family Time  (2)
Social time (beyond immediate family) (6)
Personal time (that's not exercise)  (what is this that you speak of?)
Sleep (4)

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?
It's definitely busier than I'd like.  Most weeks I don't get past priority #3 or 4.  I am working hard to fit in #5 (exercise).

[cinco]

Anyhow please share some thoughts:

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday? Yes

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen? Try to do them weekly, but have been slacking this Summer other than vacuuming, bathrooms & kitchen.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors? Yes. Vacuum the main rooms a couple times a week, washing floors...yikes, it's bad! I sweep non stop, but SUCK at washing floors

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc? YES. SO BUSY.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects? Um, we haven't adulted our house yet. We definitely need better decor. DH does a few major home building projects a year.

If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

House cleaning and organization-
Exercise- 4
Meal cooking or prep- LAST, I don’t really cook. We eat VERY simply
Work (extra work aside from normal hours)- 2, hard to answer b/c I don’t have “normal” hours
Family Time- 1
Social time (beyond immediate family)
Personal time (that's not exercise)
Sleep- 3


The ones I didn’t rank are somewhere in the middle.

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy? Good during school year. Summer is nuts.

[mrs.jacinthe]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?
Uh, we do dishes and counters daily.  Floor sweeping is ... less regular.  House tidying is in bursts when there's available free time.  

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?
Unfortunately, Saturday evenings.  No fun.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?
Yes and they all shed like there's no tomorrow.  We vacuum at least 2x per week, more if we have time.  

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?
No.  R does all that in the mornings on Saturdays.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?
We don't. 

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.
Order the following:

1. Family Time

2. Work (extra work aside from normal hours)

3. Personal time (that's not exercise)

4. Exercise

5. Sleep

6. Meal cooking or prep

7. House cleaning and organization
8. Social time (beyond immediate family)

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?
I am overwhelmed.  Entirely and completely overwhelmed.  I get up at 4:30 am.  I go to bed at 9 or 10pm.  At least 12 hours of my day is work.  Things are getting set aside I'd normally NEVER set aside.  

[jade]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?

- Mostly. H is obsessive about dishes and cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?

- I do big cleaning on Sat or Sun mornings. We used to be good about running the robot vacuum most days, but have gotten out of that habit. I sweep most days.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?

- One cat, see above about the roomba. I am bad about remembering to mop though. Mostly do spot cleaning.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?

- I ignore the yard lol. That is H's domain. If he doesn't mow it doesn't get done. I don't care

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?

- We rarely do these things.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

Meal cooking or prep
Exercise
Work (extra work aside from normal hours)
Family Time
Sleep
Social time (beyond immediate family)
House cleaning and organization
Personal time (that's not exercise)

- This was hard. I like cooking and I do it everyday, even if feeling busy.

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?

- We are pretty mellow. DS doesn't have any extra-curricular activities right now and H and I get to mostly do the activities we want.

[thom]

I'm sorry you're overwhelmed mrs.jacinthe. I'm almost there too, and it stinks.

Susie - yeah, non exercise personal time is tough. I guess I count things like any volunteer stuff I carve out time for, or even just scrolling through posts here or on social media. Not super exciting, but I know I waste small bits of time here and there and I dislike that. BUT I can't be so regimented that I go crazy either. 😉

[sadlebred]

Ya'll know I have a "huge" household, and I have no pets--so it's not too hard for me to keep the house clean. 1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?

-I just wipe down the counters and clean up from cooking (wash dishes, put in dishwasher). I only run the dishwasher once/week.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen? I have one room with carpet, do it gets vacuumed when I feel like it about once/month.

-sweep the upstairs and middle level once every other week. On the "off" week I deep clean 2 of the 3 bathrooms in the house. The tub gets scrubbed about once/month. The kitchen floor gets steam mopped every 2-3 months; spills get cleaned up immediately. I do all of the hardwoods and other tile in the house once/year or as needed.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors? Nope.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?

-I have a yard service to mow, blow, and edge. I try to do 30 minutes yardwork/weekend to keep things they don't do in check. Once/year they trim all the bushes, put down pine straw, and any other "big" thing I need.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?

-I outsource/pay a pro.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

-Sunday evenings I do 2 big loads of laundry, empty all the household garbage, straighten up the house, sometimes batch prep food for the week and any small misc. things that need to get done. Monday evenings the garbage and recycling go to the curb.

Order the following:

Exercise
Meal cooking or prep
Personal time (that's not exercise)/Social time (beyond immediate family) (same priority)
Sleep
House cleaning and organization
Family Time (no family)
Work (extra work aside from normal hours)

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?
-I usually stick to my schedule pretty well. I have household chore broken down into chunks of 20-30 minutes, so it's pretty easy to manage. Also helps that I'm not too messy.

[ktzmoh]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?

We do wash dishes and wipe down counters after dinner, but we don't sweep everyday and we certainly don't tidy the house everyday

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?

We don't. We hired a house cleaner who comes to vacuum, wash floors, and deep clean the bathrooms and kitchen every other week. We de-clutter before the cleaners come (usually in a panic the night before).

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?

Yes we have two dogs who shed a lot. We sweep up the dog hair every couple of days, but it only takes a few minutes.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?

We got all the outdoor gardens on self-timed sprinklers this year so that was a huge time saver. And we live in a perpetual drought state, so we let our grass die in the summer, so we don't really have to mow it. But inside chores definitely get harder in the summer because the kids are home (instead of at school) and htey are like small tornadoes.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?

We try to have one thing in the works all the time, and we just chip away at it. I think it took us six months to redecorate our bedroom last year - and we only just put up the new ceiling fan in there to complete the redecorating process like a week ago. Things just take a long time. When we were in your position and trying to unpack from a major move while working and doing the kid stuff - we just tried to make time to unpack one box every night. At least that way there was a small amount of steady progress every day.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

-Family Time

-Exercise

-Sleep

-Social time

-Work (extra work aside from normal work. But I don't really do extra work like consulting or anything like that. If I have a   pressing deadline or project, obviously this would get elevated to the top)

-Meal cooking (this just winds up getting outsourced to takeout or meal kit boxes when we get very busy)

-House cleaning (again, we outsourced this)

-Personal time other than exercise - I don't think I usually have this in my day/week. My personal time is my workout time. 

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?

My schedule feels like it's perpetually teetering on the edge of complete chaos. Things seem to hold together on a daily basis more or less, but things fall through the cracks all the time.

[gt7301b]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?

I cook and DH cleans. I ask him to do the dishes every night and I'd say he does them 90% of the time. I only cook 2-3 nights a week, most dinners last ~ 2 nights and we go out to eat at least one night.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?

We outsource. I am like a crazy person de-cluttering the house the night before the cleaning lady comes. I'm pretty sure we would be divorced if we didn't outsource the heavy cleaning.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?

Right now we only have a cat. I might vacuum once between cleanings.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?

Well DH is a teacher, so in theory this is his domain.  Things do go downhill in May because this is the crazy time of the year for DH. We also have a pool and we just opened it because we ordered a fence and it has been a complete disaster getting the fence made. This is the thing that has sent me over the edge this year. We are SOOO close to having it open, but it STILL insn't working.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?

Usually what happens is I have a list of things that need to be done and then I end up hiring someone to do something.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

Family time

Exercise

Sleep

House cleaning and organization

Meal cooking or prep
Social time (beyond immediate family)
Personal time (that's not exercise) - hmmmm, what is this?

Work (extra work aside from normal hours) - the nice thing about my job is a rarely work outside of normal hours

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?
If I could only work 4 days a week things would be perfect. Now that I have a kid I don't really like travel and I end up taking a lot of Fridays off so I can send the kiddo to daycare and get some stuff done.

[Wines Not Whines]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?
We wash dishes and wipe down counters most nights after dinner. However, there are some nights when we leave a bunch of dishes in the sink because we can't deal with them right then. Sweeping floors is not an every day thing. Honestly, our dog eats most of the food that gets dropped in our house. 


2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?
Never? We have biweekly cleaners who do these things. We'll wipe down counters and sinks, and we'll vacuum if it's needed, but we leave deep cleaning for them. I think our house would be a disaster if we didn't outsource this. 


3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?
We have a small, non-shedding dog, so he doesn't create too much extra mess. 


4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?
Not really. We have a yard, but it's all landscaped without any grass that needs to mow. My husband takes care of weeding and mulching. 


5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?
We take a day off of work or devote an entire weekend day to it. 


6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.



Order the following:



Work (extra work aside from normal hours)  - I wish this wasn't at the top, but if there's a work emergency on a night or weekend, I can't ignore it.
Family Time 
Exercise 
Social time (beyond immediate family) 
Personal time (that's not exercise)  
Sleep 
Meal cooking or prep - If we're too busy to cook, we'll do something easy or get take-out/delivery
House cleaning and organization
 


7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?



I'd say it's busy but manageable. I wish we all had more down time. 

[labbie]

It's DH and I, and a dog that sheds. 

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?
Dishes and wipe counters are a "pretty much" but not always, a big no to daily sweeping and tidying. 


2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?
De-cluttering is an ongoing struggle, try to do some at least each weekend. For deep cleaning baths/kitchens and floors we have a cleaning person come 1x every 2 weeks. I used to have a complex about this, but honestly it's the best thing I ever did (full disclosure, I've been with her longer than I've been with DH).


3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?
Yes, one lab that's only in the downstairs. Vacuuming when I see tumbleweeds of fur (maybe 2x a week) washing floors 1x every other week (See question 2)


4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?
Absolutely.


5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?
Weekends only, or at most 1-2 hours in evenings.


6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.
  


Order the following:

1. Work (assuming the extra work is required to meet a key deadline for main job, NOT voluntary overtime)
2. Family time
3. Sleep
4. Exercise
5. Meal cooking/prep (love cooking and it relaxes me generally)
6.House cleaning and organization
7. Social time
8. Personal time 
     
7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?
Too busy, and I am in the process right now of making a tough decision regarding a volunteer activity I've been doing for years that needs to go. 

[wawa]

I'll preface this with, yes my house is just as messy/dirty as you're about to imagine on a day to day basis. our new cleaning service starts NEXT WEEK and I'm entirely too excited.

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?

LOLs. No. I usually run the dishwasher while the kids eat dinner. We eat leftovers most weeknights so the time we spend not cooking is usually spent straightening and cleaning just enough such that the house is...uhh...sanitary? and we all have clean underwear.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?
When my MIL comes to visit we panic clean. otherwise...we don't.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?
Not anymore. which is just as well.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?
H takes the bulk of the outside chores, which means the rest falls to me. He does the floors inside, so...vacuuming becomes extremely minimal in the summer

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?
Uhhh...we don't. It has to be scheduled in place of any fun social or family time and eats a weekend. Our downstairs hallway and kitchen still don't have paint on the trim.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:
Family Time
Exercise
House cleaning and organization
Work (extra work aside from normal hours)
Meal cooking or prep
Sleep
Social time (beyond immediate family)
Personal time (that's not exercise)


7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?
Too busy, but not unworkably so - mostly because I gave up on a lot of the non-mandatory details a long time ago. I'm psyched that outsourcing said cleaning details is finally in the budget though.

[CallingAllAngels]

Anyhow please share some thoughts:

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday? Clean kitchen, yes.  Tidy the rest of the house? Not so much.  

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen? We have a cleaning service that comes every two weeks to do all of this except de-cluttering.  We de-clutter (tidy up) the night before they come.  

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors? I have a 135 lb St Bernard mix and a 70 lb American Bulldog mix.  The floors are a constant battle.  Honestly.  Our cleaning service came Friday afternoon.  By Saturday morning, hair is everywhere. We sweep/vacuum every day. A lot of times it's just using the vacuum hose to hit the worst spots.  Our SB mix doesn't move very much, so his hair is mostly in one area, which happens to be our front hall. 

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc? Not really.  If anything is neglected, it's the outside.  

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects? We don't do a whole lot of this.  If we do, it's because we have a free afternoon on a weekend.  We haven't moved in 10 years, and have no plans to do so any time soon.  

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

House cleaning and organization
Exercise
Meal cooking or prep
Work (extra work aside from normal hours)
Family Time
Social time (beyond immediate family)
Personal time (that's not exercise)
Sleep

I'm going to pass on this because I don't know where to start.  It just depends on the week for me.  I am not mindful about a lot that I do; I just fly by the seat of my pants, and it seems to work out most of the time.  

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy? Probably too busy, but not so much that I feel like we need to make drastic changes. 

[jane6672]

I don't have kids.

Order the following by priority:
1) Exercise
2) Sleep
3) House cleaning and organization
4) Family Time/Social time/Personal time 
5) Meal cooking or prep
6) Work (extra work aside from normal hours — I really don't. I've stopped taking freelance/extra jobs because my time is worth more to me than the money right now)

I CANNOT relax at home if the house is a mess. I just get aggravated and anxious. So that is pretty high priority to me. 

Meal prep/planning isn't a huge time suck because I keep it really simple and eat fairly repetitive easy meals during the week.

I've started prioritizing sleep more because I realized the profound effect that sleep deprivation has on my mood and emotional well-being, not to mention on my training. Even cheating myself an hour or so every night (I've regularly been getting 6.5-7 hours a night, on top of occasional but regular sleepless/insomnia nights) adds up so quickly.

Related to that, I just started reading this book, which is really good and fascinating:

[emilyj]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?
- God no. I wipe down the counters and stove as I’m cooking, or just after dinner when H does the dishes. We generally are not messy people though so we don’t have a lot of cleaning to rob

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?
- I outsource and have a bi-weekly cleaning person. I’ll do whatever needs a touch up as needed.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?
- ? If I need to sweep or wash up a cooking spill, then I do it right then. I guess I sweep the bathroom floor once or twice between cleaning visits? We have a cat, but she’s not a shedder.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?
- I outsource. Someone cuts/trims/weed eats my lawn. I don’t garden.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?
- When I have a decent break from school. Spring break, summer break.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

House cleaning and organization
Exercise
Meal cooking or prep
Work (extra work aside from normal hours)
Family Time
Social time (beyond immediate family)
Personal time (that's not exercise)
Sleep

Family is always first, exercise second because they keep me sane. Everything else is dependent on work, project phases, etc.

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?
- Totally depends on work, where I am in the semester, what deadlines are going on.

[oswin]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?
Lol, no. Dishwasher gets started every night, maybe some tidying.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?
I don't, I have house cleaners come every other week. When we didn't have cleaners, maybe it would happen on the weekend.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?
No, just messy children. We often sweep the area under the tables (every day or two) because they drop food.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?
No, nothing grows in the summer. There are more outside chores in the rainy seasons (spring and fall), but we often outsource the big ones (mowing is a 3 hour chore that we don't often have time for).

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?
There are only two times this can happen. One, if one of us (usually me) supervises the kids on the weekend for a long chunk of time so DH can do it, or two if one or both of us take off of work. Anything really big gets hired out. We rearranged our bedroom a couple of months ago, and we had to take a day off of work together to unmount and remount the TV.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

Exercise
Family Time
Personal time (that's not exercise) - I usually read before bed.
Sleep
Meal cooking or prep
Social time (beyond immediate family)
House cleaning and organization
Work (extra work aside from normal hours) - I only have work outside of normal hours when I'm "on call" at work (for system outages). When it does happen, it's top priority. DH sometimes puts in extra time outside of normal hours, but usually that happens when he's been using normal work hours for non-work things (e.g. taking the car to the mechanic, etc).

Something like that. If I'm sick or super sleep deprived, I won't exercise, or I'll exercise only 1-2 days in a week.

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?
Always too busy. People looks at us and wonder how we do it all, with 3 kids under 5, and it's pretty much only possible at all because we hire a lot of help and our house is always messy (and sometimes dirty). We're barely keeping our heads above water.

[jreeds]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday? Yes. If possible it's the first thing I do when I get home in the afternoon/evening. Put away backpacks, make lunches, wipe counters, take care of dishes, sweep/vacuum.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen? Weekends mostly

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors? Yes we have two cats. They are short haired so it's not too bad but I still vacuum daily.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc? Not really. it's harder because when it's nice out I feel like we should all be outside enjoying it.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects? Kind of like what ktzmoh, said. We ( well, I) keep a list of projects we need to work on and we just focus on one thing at a time until it's done. With activities and family obligations sometimes things take awhile but we just plug away at it.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

Family Time

Exercise
House cleaning and organization
Meal cooking or prep

Sleep
Social time (beyond immediate family)
Personal time (that's not exercise)

Work (extra work aside from normal hours)


7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy? It ebbs and flows but lately it feels way too busy. Between multiple camp pick ups, activities, DS's therapies... I never feel like there is enough time. This weekend coming up is our first weekend all summer where we have no plans and  I am guarding that time like a hawk, lol.

[hocus2]

We have a cleaner and that is a huge help to us. She does all the deep cleaning taking a chunk out of the list. We also have a mowing service. If you can I'd suggest getting one or the other if you feel like your evenings are too night. 

DH runs the dishwasher about 3X per week and every day on weekends when he have more dishes. I usually do what we call the "bag work" of unpacking and repacking bags for the kids. We have this year round since camp requires towels and suits. I think next year I'm going to ask the kids to help more with this.

Ad hoc projects tend to pie up until weekends. I can do stuff on Sunday afternoons if I'm not too tired. The kids usually stream a movie unless we're out. I sometimes take a day off work to tackle something start to finish rather than try to do it piece meal. 


Priorities 
1. Work (extra work aside from normal hours)
I rarely work outside of normal hours but DH does and it is required
2. Family Time
(we make an effort to do stuff on weekends together. Our family time and social time overlap a lot)
3. Social time (beyond immediate family)

4. 
Personal time (that's not exercise)

5. Sleep
6. Meal cooking or prep
-- I used to cook 5 nights a week. But with 2 picky eaters and a DH who comes home at a random time I've mostly moved to very simple meals like mac and cheese or sandwiches. Last night I made pasta, browned some meat and used bottled sauce. It was 10 misn of work. 

7. House cleaning and organization
. Since we outsource this to a large degree the basics are easy to cover. Our house tends to look very cluttered a few days after our cleaner has come. I just live with it to a large degree because it is a low priority.
8. Exercise I don't do this and I can't seem to fit it in. I've made peace with it for now. I wish it were easier. I feel like when the kids can be left alone for an hour I could maybe make a yoga class. DH doesn't have a predicable schedule where I could pick a night out and go to a class.

My schedule isn't really the issue for me in terms of stress. It is the never ending list of small tasks I need to do but can't seem to find the time for because I'm at work during the day and either can't or feel like I'm too tired to deal with at the end of the day. The number of tasks also weights on me. Things like running to the post office. Making a trip to kinkos to make color copies. Filling out forms for afterschool. Those are the sort of things I find draining.

[kadams767]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?  Yes and no.  I clear off and wipe down the counters every night, put out any recycling and go through the mail (which is 90% junk for recycling).  I confess to leaving dishes in the sink, though, we probably do dishes every other night at our house.  It's manageable because we only eat one meal at home and there are only two of us.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?  On the weekends usually, sometimes I get crazy and clean on Friday nights. 

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?  Yes, a high-shedding dog.  I usually run the stick vacuum a few times a week in the mornings while I get ready for work.  I get out of the shower and do this in my robe while my hair dries a bit.  It takes about 10 minutes to run it along the floors/corners/baseboards, which is where the hair tends to accumulate, and it makes a huge difference for me.  I hate the feeling of having to vacuum the whole house covered in hair on a Saturday or Sunday, it seems so daunting, so taking a few minutes a couple times a week has been a lifesaver for me.  I wash the floors with the steam mop every other weekend or so, more often during winter or muddy times.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?  Not really, because the only time we don't have to mow the lawn or do yardwork, we have ice and snow to clear most days.  Winter actually seems worse, because sometimes shoveling and salting is a neverending exercise in futility.  At least we only have to mow the lawn once a week.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?  LOL.  I have boxes in my attic from when we moved 5+ years ago that I haven't unpacked and I am thinking about just picking them up fully packed and unopened and donating them as-is.  Our design style would be best described as "sparse", not because we are minimalists, but because we haven't had the time to really decorate our house.  We hire out a lot of larger maintenance projects, and what we don't, we suck it up and waste a weekend day doing things like pressure washing the house or sealing the deck.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

House cleaning and organization 8
Exercise 4
Meal cooking or prep 3
Work (extra work aside from normal hours)  1 (#sad)
Family Time 2
Social time (beyond immediate family)  5
Personal time (that's not exercise)  6
Sleep 7

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?  We are pretty busy and are generally just holding everything together.  We don't have kids, but DINKs with more-than-full-time hours and a lot of work travel to accommodate, our weekdays are often just trying to survive. 

[awkwardpenguin]

We have a LOT more household help that the average family. We have a bi-weekly cleaning service and a twice a week light housekeeper/errand person. It has made a huge difference for us. DW travels a decent amount and we have two very small kids and no local family, so I was feeling pretty overwhelmed for a while.

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?
My wife does the dishes and counters in the evening, I enforce kid chores and tidy up. I might sweep if it really needs it, otherwise our light housekeeper does it twice a week.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?
The bi-weekly cleaning service does most of this. I declutter on my "lunch" on my WFH days and our housekeeper helps me sometimes.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?
Yes, two cats. Vacuum weekly, wash floors biweekly, spot clean as needed.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?
We live in a condo, so landscaping is handled although I have to arrange it. I have a community garden plot, but it's a hobby and I don't spend as much time there as I would like. I take DD with me to the garden and kill two birds with one stone - quality time and weeding/harvesting.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?
I have a maintenance schedule for the condo and I do most of this on weekends. It's stuff like organizing closets, cleaning and maintaining appliances, deep cleaning the cleaning service doesn't do, etc. We're likely moving soon and I'm worried about how much extra time it will take. Basically it will fill our weekends for a while, and take a long time to get done.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

I can't order the list exactly, but my priorities are basically:
1. keep the humans clean and fed
2. stay employed
3. keep myself healthy
4. tend my relationships with my spouse and kids

3 and 4 switch off sometimes. Everything else can slide, and does. Our house isn't perfect even though we have a ton of help, we don't socialize as much as we wish we could, and my career is definitely playing second fiddle to my personal life these days.

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?

Honestly, hiring the extra four hours a week of household help has transformed our lives. I know not everyone is in a position to do this, but we went from starting every week and weekend feeling behind to feeling roughly caught up. I'm really happy with where we're at right now. I am also the queen of low expectations, so if DW is out of town one week and everything goes to shit, hey, at least I fed the kids!

I also have two days a week of WFH and that makes a HUGE difference for us. I handle all the household logistics, so being able to make and take phone calls on those days helps a ton. Plus I can get a few chores done like throwing in a load of laundry. It also saves me two hours of commuting a week, which is like 40% of my exercise time.

[MrsE]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday? About 95% of the time I wash dishes, empty the dishwasher, and wipe the countertops daily. I do not sweep (in our case, vacuum, the floors daily). In an ideal world I would tidy daily, but not while I’m living in a renovation zone.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen? I try to do things sometimes during the evenings, but more often than not, on the weekend. I really miss having a cleaning service. We had one at our old house, but have been in constant project mode since moving into our “new (read: almost 100 year old)” house last year. I would like to hire a cleaning service to handle every other week cleanings before BabyE arrives.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors? Yes. I usually vacuum a few times per week but once a week at a bare minimum.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc? YES! Also, all the summer social commitments tie us up more than during colder months.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects? Sometimes at night, most times on the weekends. We are still renovating and unpacking from our move last year. We have so many projects on our “to do” list over the next few weeks!

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

It depends on the week and what’s going on that week.

For example, if we’re having family come in town or hosting friends, Cleaning and organizing takes on more of a priority than usual. If we’re having contractors come in or DH is working on a house project, it’s less important.

We usually try our best to prioritize exercise and meal prep (I’ve been slacking on exercise lately due to exhaustion, though). I try to prioritize sleep, but DH is one of those crazy people who operates fine on 5 hours of sleep. He’s like an energizer bunny.

We try to have at least one social plan per weekend as we believe our friends are our family here (and our family lives 200 miles away), but it’s different every week. We try to balance them all!

Order the following:

In an ideal world:

House cleaning and organization - 5
Exercise - 4
Meal cooking or prep - 2
Work (extra work aside from normal hours) - 7
Family Time - 1
Social time (beyond immediate family) -6
Personal time (that's not exercise) - 8
Sleep - 3

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy? Too busy! I’m getting anxious trying to get everything done before BabyE arrives!

C&P from my post on GP:

Are we crazy for deciding to renovate our entire kitchen before baby arrives? DH placed the order for our new cabinets last night and they should arrive in 3 weeks.. so I’ll be 35+ weeks then. I hope baby stays put while demo and installation are happening. Now we need to order countertops and new appliances. Deep breaths. This will all work out, right? I’ll have a functioning kitchen when baby arrives, right? Right?!? Eek!

[laurack]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday? If we eat at home, I rinse the dishes and load them into the dishwasher and wipe down the countertops. No we don't tidy the house every day. We have 4yo and a 6yo and the house is generally never tidy

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen? H vacuums probably 3x a week. One or both of us wipes down the bathroom 3-4xa week. Tidying, I suppose most days theres some tidying. H mops the floors 1x a week.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors? We have one large hairy dog and one cat. Vacuuming should be done daily (or 5 times a day really), but honestly it's more like 3x aweek just because life. I considered getting a roomba but 1) it would fill up quickly wiht my dogs fur and 2) there's always a stray lego or 20 somewhere

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc? well H does the outdoor stuff so I guess in summer I do more cleaning than usual to make up for that.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room,or larger maintenance projects? I have to take a day off work, where I'm home and the kids are in school/daycare in order to achieve something bigger (like I really need to do this to tackle the kids clothes situation which is out of control). Some things H has done over a weekend. Like last year he put in a sump pump in the basement himself becuase the quote for someone else to do it was way too much $. That took him a whole weekend but saved us thousands of dollars. Same for the fence- my dad was here and he and my H did the entire fence themselves over a few days after a company quoted us $14k (materials were $2,500). We've been considering indoor painting(ourselves again, because money) but we'll likely have to take some time off work to achieve it.

6) If you get behind because of work,sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

House cleaning and organization 6
Exercise 3
Meal cooking or prep 4
Work (extra work aside from normal hours) 5
Family Time 2
Social time (beyond immediate family) 7
Personal time (that's not exercise) 8
Sleep 1

I put work (extra) as 5 only because I rarely have critical after hours work- but when I do it becomes #1 because I have to do it. This only happens myabe once or twice a month though. I don't really take personal time that's not exercise very often and am finewith not doing so for the most part. Unless you count the times I go to the grocery store alone which rarely happens but when it does, it's nice! lol

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy? I would rather extra hours in the day. 2 extra hours would be perfect. I eitherhave to prep lunches, laundry etc. while they are awake and lose that time with them, or wait til they are asleep and lose sleep time. Also sometimes I just dont want to go right to bed afterputting them down, then doing the chores but if i stay up to lounge with H, I'm down more sleep. I don't function well on low sleep unfortunately. I wish I could just sleep 5 hours a night but if I get less than 7 I am a wreck, and 8 is better for me.

[bostonmichelle]

I do want to preface this that I’m a SAHM who works part time from home and who has a house cleaner who comes 1-2x a month.

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday? Yes most of the time.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?
I have a rotation of things. Like I vacuum and steam mop my downstairs on Tuesdays, same thing upstairs on Wednesdays, and tackle bathrooms on Thursdays. We also run the roomba every night or two downstairs. And we have a house cleaner come 1-2x a month to help with the deep cleanings.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?
We have 2 giant dogs. Roomba runs almost nightly downstairs and we mop weekly unless it’s rainy and muddy and therefore we mop almost daily sometimes.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?
No we outsource our mowing to our neighbor’s kids for $20 a mow and we have them do weeding and stuff. Our gardens are a hot mess but they are low on the priority list right now.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?
I try to do something every day for 15-30 minutes. DH does a lot of larger maintenance on the weekend.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

7) House cleaning and organization
1) Exercise
2) Meal cooking or prep
8) Work (extra work aside from normal hours)
3) Family Time
6) Social time (beyond immediate family)
5) Personal time (that's not exercise)
4) Sleep

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?
It was really crazy until we got the cleaning lady. I also have the wrinkle of dealing with my dad’s estate and splitting my time between two locations. I’m feeling better now but I’m prioritizing my half Ironman training at the moment and will rebalance after that’s over.

[ebeth]

I outsource as much as I can to limit chores: biweekly house cleaners, online ordering of groceries, amazon prime. Hire a house cleaner (or at least get some quotes!).  it will change your life.  If I can't outsource I try to do one chore per day after bedtime but sometimes sitting and watching whatever trash TLC is broadcasting wins. 



1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?
Dishes are washed and counters/stove top wiped everyday. Floor swept as needed.  Washed biweekly by the cleaners.


2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?
The only thing not handled by the cleaners is de-cluttering.  I'd do that after bedtime.


3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors? cleaners do this
biweekly


4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?
our lawn is not big.  city living.  so no. 


5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?
anything extra gets triaged for after bedtime.  we do alternate who handles bath and bedtime so when I'm not on bath and bedtime duty I have the time from dinner to my bedtime to do what I like a few days per week.


6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.



Order the following:


Sleep

Meal cooking or prep

Exercise

Personal time (that's not exercise)

Family Time

Work (extra work aside from normal hours)

Social time (beyond immediate family)

House cleaning and organization




7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?
it's OK right now.  I work from home so when things are busy at work it def spills over into the rest of my life in a way it didn't when I was in an office. 

[lilypad1126]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?

We wash dishes every day. This is 90% my H's domain. The floors are done....less often. The last time the floors were done, my H slipped and tore tendons in his foot, so let's just say they'll be done even less often now.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?

Whenever my H does them. He works part-time from home, so these are his chores. I work full time outside the home and do very little in the way of chores. If he doesn't do them, they aren't getting done. We don't live in filth, and while I think he could probably do them more often, they are not on my priority list, so whatever. He doesn't want to hire them out, so I deal with it.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors?

No. We used to, and it was awful. We swept/vacuumed every day it seemed.

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?

No, we don't have outside chores to do. Apartment living for the win here.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?

We don't. When we have larger/extra chores if we don't do it right away, it ends up sitting and waiting to be done forever.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:

This is hard. I put work 3rd, but my job hours aren't always regular and I have a lot of after-hours/weekend events that I have to attend. And definitely everything else takes a back seat to my job when events come up because I'm high enough up in the organization that when I'm invited to an event, I'm required to be there.

Family Time
Exercise
Work (extra work aside from normal hours)
Sleep
Personal time (that's not exercise)
Social time (beyond immediate family)
Meal cooking or prep
House cleaning and organization


7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?

It is what it is. I'm always busy and sometimes I wish I had more time and am jealous of my friends with more time to sleep and exercise, though I do prioritize those 2 things. But prioritizing those things and actually getting quality workouts/sleep are two different things. And then, when I am working out, my thoughts run to "I should be spending time with my H" or "I should have gone to see family this weekend" or "how am I going to get through my day on only 5 hours of sleep". Notice I don't ever think about how my floors are dirty

[shauni27]

thom, thank you for asking about this. It feels like a lot of us are just treading to stay above water and it ALMOST makes me feel a little better about it, lol.

I will answer generally--we do wash dishes and wipe down the counters nightly. We pick up the toys and everything is in it's place before we go to bed. Now that we have a house cleaner (who comes every other wednesday) I do not really do anything else and sometimes in my mind it is just gross. Everyone else tells me just because the floors need to be sweeped up or there is some grease on the stove that we are not messy, but to me that is a big mess for inside my space, lol. I just do not have the energy to focus on it anymore.

The same goes for exercise, too, right now. It always seems to be the last priority for me. I have to work (and fortunately I RARELY have extra work after 4:30), I need to do errands and cook and maintain the house and our lives and I want to spend as much time with S as possible. And I need sleep because he is an asshole baby who no longer sleeps through the night :/ Example: this week I ran a few miles on Sunday and will not have a chance to workout again until Saturday unless I ACTUALLY get a good night of sleep and can get my ass up to run at 6 am (lolol).

So all in all, I too feel like our house is not as clean as I would like, we do not spend as much time together as I would like, I am nowhere near putting in as much time doing exercise as I would like and I have had a grand total of maybe 5 hours of ME TIME in the last year.

[andreay82]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday? Dishes and counter wiping every night, toys are picked up before kids go upstairs for bath/bedtime routine.

2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen? We have a cleaning service. Decluttering is mostly when the crap gets to be too much for us.

3) Do you have indoor pets? If so, how often are you vacuuming or washing floors? Yes. See above...

4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc? Not particularly, hubs mows and stuff during naps on the weekend. We occasionally have an all hands on deck weeding situation.

5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects? Nope. No time. We did have a brand new deck put on this winter/spring but that was outsourced.

6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.

Order the following:
Family Time
Meal cooking or prep
Exercise
House cleaning and organization
Work (extra work aside from normal hours)
Social time (beyond immediate family)
Personal time (that's not exercise)
Sleep

7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy? Way too busy. I'm drowning. Whatever, it is what it is.

[starburst604]

1) Do you clean the kitchen (at least basic wash dishes, wipe counters, sweep floors) and tidy the house everyday?


yes to the kitchen. I'm far from a neat freak but I can't leave a sink full of dinner dishes or dirty countertops/stove overnight. I don't mind a few stray things in the sink. Tidy the house, depends really on what kind of free time I'm working with. I try to when I can. I don't really care about the playroom toys being picked up. 


2) When do you fit in other chores like vacuuming, washing floors, de-cluttering, and deep cleaning bathrooms & kitchen?


Basic decluttering happens mostly the night before the cleaners come, which is every other week. They do everything else listed here. Honestly, I don't know if or when we could ever accomplish deep cleaning. As far as other clutter, it's kind of ongoing. I list stuff for sale on FB Yard Sale sites a lot so it's kind of a clean as we sell process. 


3) Do you have indoor pets?


one cat - he's not really a lot of work. The cleaners are able to keep his fur collection at bay and we just do the litter box. 


4) Is summer harder to get inside chores done because of outside tasks like lawn mowing, watering plants, weeding, etc?


We live in a townhouse and the landscaping is mostly covered by our HOA, though I do little things around our personal area like plant flowers and pull some weeds. Honestly, that's another thing I have no idea how we would find time to do! That along with snow removal is one of the reasons we are thinking of staying in our town house rather than buying a single family. 


5) When do you find time for "extra" stuff like unpacking from a move, painting or redecorating a room, or larger maintenance projects?


Stuff like that I guess we just do little by little. We just had our kitchen and master bath redone and we're still working on finishing touches, wall hangings, fixtures, changing electrical plates etc. It will take us a while, especially since we aren't particularly handy and we do things slowwwwwly lol. Like if we see a rainy day in the weekend forecast we'll say - ok we'll do xyz while DD naps. 


6) If you get behind because of work, sickness, burnout, etc, what order do your priorities take? Let's assume you can't do it all and the last few items probably aren't happening. I realize this isn't a comprehensive list.



Order the following:



I had a hard time ordering this bc it really can shift from week to week. And I don't mean it to look like we don't value sleep, it's just that we get sleep every night and generally enough of it so I don't think too much about it. I certainly don't lose sleep to do work, though my H does sometimes. I also kind of consider exercise to be personal time and I do other stuff outside of it so I don't think too much about that either. 

Family Time
Work
Exercise
Social Time
Meal Cooking/Prep
House Cleaning
Sleep
Personal Time



7) Does your schedule feel good to you or usually too busy?


Right now it feels really busy because I'm marathon training and H is training for a tri, but I guess it always feels busy. I don't really know how to be any other way! I feel like we're able to manage most of the time, but I do wish I had more time that was just "free". I/we are always doing SOMETHING it feels like and we have to be so meticulous with scheduling our time around DD and her needs, and our own commitments.