When do you do chores and errands?

[shakinros]

I’m reading the Friday thread and everyone always has so much stuff to do that’s not housework!

I’d love to do fun stuff, but my weekends are consistently: laundry, meal planning & grocery shopping, cleaning out the fridge, picking up the house, return library books and get new ones, one trip to the gym, karate class for DD. Now that it’s getting warm, add yard work to the list.

When we do go into town or attend a festival or something on the weekend, that means no clean work clothes, nothing to eat for dinner by mid-week, or library fines.

How are you making time for all this?

[waverly]

Ha good question.

I just go. Sometimes I make us leave for the weekend because I can’t handle the chores anymore. We have to leave for the weekend today so I have a ton to do before we even get in the car.

If I can get 1-2 loads of clothes only laundry then we have clothes to wear. We actually made it 2 weeks once without doing clothes laundry so while I am a minimalist there is something to be said for buying a few more clothes or wearing different things to make it through. I don’t sort laundry that much either. I just wash with color safe detergent and not on hot water. We have enough towels and sheets like maybe 3-4 sets so we are totally ok there.

Groceries are ordered through Pea Pod. They also have the option for unattended delivery if we aren’t home. We didn’t realize we had to keep their soft side coolers and handed it back to them so we do need to get to those groceries within 2 hours or so. They leave them in a bag with dry ice. Or if we are home we just answer the door and the kids put them away.

I work at a library so no library fines is a perk of my job. However I can’t make it weekly to our local library. Maybe move that to every other or every 3rd week. They usually email to remind you to renew items so put that in your calendar to go online and renew. I don’t get movies from them.

I still have a 9 point list to do this morning before we leave with things like cat care, packing, laundry, etc.

When we go on vacation for a week we always rent a house with a washer dryer. This last time we did 1-2 loads of clothing laundry so that when we got home we could just put clean clothes away.

Remember it’s all about priorities. There is enough to do to fit everything into 2 days but maybe you can get your to do list done on Sun and do something fun Sat or vice versa. If you are spending the entire time doing chores then that’s going to feel sucky. Remember to count Fri night as weekend time as well whether it’s fun or chores block. I like to block my time so it doesn’t all bleed together. Meal planning and meals are simple and easy meals or meal kits.

[divanerd]

We also do chores during the week.
Our Saturdays are usually booked up.

I grew up doing chores on weekends vowed not to do that.

[ECB]

Yeah, i do am much as i can during the week as possible, especially laundry.

I’m lucky that i WFH 2 days a week. I’ll often run to the store first thing Monday morning. I can be in and out really quickly because no one else is there.

But past that - i simply don’t want to spend my weekends on chores. And we source out for our yard - fixing it up from the winter, mulch, etc. we pay someone for that. But we do mow ourselves.

[sunbutter]

I hear you. I make to do lists for the weekend and also a schedule. Conceptually, I hate the idea of a weekend schedule but in reality, it helps us.

Biggest help is that I have a cleaning person that comes every two weeks.

Laundry is something that never bothers me.
I wear my work clothes multiple times before I wash. I have about 5 loads every weekend. It gets done over the two days, sometimes bleeds into the next week.

I vacuum for about an hour every weekend to stay ahead of the cat hair.

I also meal plan and grocery shop. But I have been very basic and simple recently to reduce time.

We also have lessons for the kids and play dates (which I hate because it involves a lot of driving and scheduling but it is part of our lives right now.)

All of these things get intertwined into others activities. We put things that are priorities to us on the calendar and plan around them. On the weekends that we are completely away, the chores are done at the end of the previous week or beginning of next. Lessons are skipped. At our last house, I was really good at ordering groceries but haven’t quite figured out the best way in our new place (it’s available but I am a food snob.)

[ECB]

I don’t know what your week nights are like, but also rethink “how” you do some of these chores. Laundry for example - throw in a load before you go to bed, switch it over to the dryer first thing in the morning, fold it that night.

If you meal plan, create a schedule - one week is X set of meals, the week after, Y, etc. I’m not a meal planner but if it’s something you do, i don’t see why you can’t have a routine built in where “meal planning” isn’t that time consuming. And build your grocery list around this so that coming up with your list isn’t all that time consuming either.

[waverly]

I also avoid errands as much as possible because I hate them. Most things are Amazon. I do usually have a pharmacy stop in there weekly. So errands are more for planned family projects. Our yard is small so it’s only an hour a week during the summer to mow and pick up stuff.

[sandandsea]

I use grocery delivery which has made life way better. We have amazon prime so the only extra cost is the tip and it’s totally worth it. I’ve used Safeway delivery and Instacart too but now amazon is my favorite with the Whole Foods partnership.

I do laundry while I’m doing other things then pile it all up to fold later. I did have a high schooler coming over to fold laundry every other week but she got too busy with spring sports. So clean laundry sits a while and I have to let it not bother me.

We have a housekeeper come every other week to clean. We keep things picked up every night before bed so it “looks clean”. Except this week because I’ve already worked 60 hours and have more ahead of me this weekend. So the laundry is sitting (both clean and dirty) and I didn’t make the boys pick up their toys last night.

We also outsource lawncare. This was my first and most critical outsourcing.

[mae0111]

When I am working, I outsource cleaning and lawn. Laundry is done throughout the week as others have described- throw a load in before we leave, switch it when we get home, fold it before bed. Kids put their stuff away.

Groceries were done very early Sat am. I never liked what I got with Pea Pod, so I would go to the store, alone, by about 730am. Everything would be put away by 9, usually.

One thing that I love... I have 2 washers and 2 dryers. It kind of just happened- previous owners left a working washer, people that bought our old house asked us to take ours with us, then DH found a $100 dryer on Craig’s list. So I run 2 loads at once. One set is in the laundry room, and the other is in a utility room in the basement. Laundry in 1/2 the time. Glorious.

[186momx]

DH does his own laundry and he tends to wait until he has no clean jeans to do it. So that is all on him. I have 2 loads of clothes for DD and I and I hang dry most of it so winter time it is done in the evening and is hung to dry overnight then I fold as I take it off the rack and put it into a basket for DD to put away and for me to put away. We hang up towels after each use so I only have 1 load of towels a week as we reuse the same towel all week. Sheets get done usually every other week. We all shower at night so I don't feel like they get as dirty.

I love going grocery shopping alone. I tend to do one major shopping trip a month and then just grab perishables (milk, fruit, fresh vegs) when we need them. Off season I do this on Fridays. Right now I've been going after I get done working on Saturday or Sunday. Costco is relatively quiet at 5:30pm on Sunday night.

We actually stay home a lot on the weekends. No sports for us on weekends until next fall when we enter competitive gymnastic season. DD very seldom has a b-day party to go to. I do feel stressed when we are gone for the whole weekend and always want to get home early on Sundays to prep. Our friends don't seem to understand this need of mine.

[sdlaura]

If you do attend a festival, couldn’t you throw some clothes in the laundry when you get up, switch them the dryer after breakfast, and then hit the grocery store in the evening?

I have talked about Laura Vanderkam a lot before but I love how she puts into words how we all have 24 hours in a day. Say you spend 8 hours sleeping, 2 hours vegging/watching tv/ reading or whatever, and a couple hours preparing food and eating. That still leaves 12 hours for other things. I can spend 6 hours doing housework and 6 hours doing something fun. I break that down in different ways depending on the day.

Ever since having my first kid (the same month as you I think shakinros I’ve always had a napping kid, and I’m pretty religious about the 1-3 pm ish nap. So most of our fun activities are either pre or post nap, and I use half the nap to get stuff done and the other half to sit and relax. I outsource the heavy cleaning to a cleaning person every two weeks, and sometimes get grocery delivery. I’ll usually do my target run on my way home from work once a week. I do yard work whenever it fits -like last night I spent 4:30-6 pm after work weeding, while DS2 prentended to sweep and rake or what not . Things like that seem less daunting if I do a little bit here and there rather than devoting a whole weekend day to them.

[campermom]

Cleaning service biweekly
Grocery delivery
Laundry I tend to start Friday night. The big kids (10, 7) need to hang up and put theirs away and that helps a lot.
If I need to do haircuts or emissions or target, I try to do that friday nights.


I live...seriously live for naptime on sat/sun. Most days we can’t get there. There’s too much to do

[mommyatty]

We do errands on Sunday afternoons. Mostly that’s grocery store, maybe Target, and then the random thing like pick up a prescription or shop for new school shoes or something. We try to save Saturday’s for fun stuff, like baseball games right now and birthday parties.

Also, we divide and conquer if we need to. So if we have something fun on a Sunday to do, then DH and one kid will go to Target while I take the other kid on the other errand. I feel like as the kids have gotten older, we’ve gotten better at doing this stuff quickly.

[2chatter]

I don’t do everything.

DS grabbed a yogurt while I was talking to one mom in my living room and another was at the door and I yelled “that may be expired stop!” Checked the date and it was fine.
If they thought anything they wisely didn’t say it. Fridge cleaning happens when nothing else fits. Ha.

My workout clothes have been on the floor for a few months. I finally cleaned out a couple of drawers today. Playing games or practicing soccer with DD or chatting while laying on oldests’ bed or reading with DS are consistently more important to me.

Let some of it go. Choose what’s most important. For the things that have to get done do them at possibly unusual times. I currently shower while on early morning status calls - the kind I need to listen to and have one slide to cover at the end. I wash the dogs at 6:30am because I hate it and it’s kind of exhausting and I won’t do it on a weekend or after work. Figure those things out...

[rere]

1. I usually pick a chore a night if I can. I bathroom one night, mop one night, etc...
2. The Roomba has saved me a lot of time on weekends I am busy and not dragging out the big vaccuum.
3. Floors and bathrooms are the big priority on busy days, everything else can wait. Kitchen has to be wiped down nightly if we cook.
4. Laundry is Dh.
5. Grocery pickup has been a lifesaver.


6. I do errands, library, pick up odds and ends, dry cleaning etc...during lunch.

[k3am]

We have cleaners and gardeners that come weekly. If there’s any heavy duty cleaning that needs to be done, I either have the cleaners to do it or do it myself when I get a chance. (I have some things in particular about the way it’s done)

We keep the house tidy on a general basis. It is my neurosis.

I run the dishwasher at night before bed, put it away in the morning. We never leave dishes out - they go straight into the dishwasher.

I do one load of laundry daily - start it when we get home, into the dryer before dinner, and fold/put away during bath time.

We don’t do grocery delivery since we don’t plan well enough. DH usually stops by the store a couple times a week, and I’ll stop by Target or Costco during lunch or after work, depending on what we need to buy.

[covergirl82]

Unfortunately, usually on weekends. If I can go to the grocery store on Friday evening, I will. My every-other Fridays off are a life saver, as I do less frequent errands (e.g., Costco, TJ's) and some chores on those days.

Now that I WFH on Thursdays, I do my laundry and the sheets and towels that day. DH does his own laundry. I can also take a quick break to vacuum a room or clean part of a bathroom if I have time.

[twinmomma]

I kind of keep laundry cycling as needed. But it usually doesn't get folded until a weekend day when I have time. We just live out of laundry baskets until then. It's a chore I've released.

As for cleaning the house, usually I do it on Friday nights. I don't love Friday night plans since I just need some down time after the week. So I clean the house and get it all spotless so that when I wake up on Saturday morning I can enjoy my home and not stress about cleaning all weekend.

I usually pick up my groceries on a weeknight from Walmart pick up or I'll swing by the store on my way home on a night I don't have the kids. I've given up on full blown weekend grocery shopping. It's way too stressful and hard to fit in.

[mellym]

Some weeks are better than others and lately more has fallen on weekends because of sick kids and my foot issues. We have a cleaning service come every other week so the only cleaning we do is tidy up the kitchen and toys and we try to do that every night. We run the dishwasher at night or before we leave in the morning. The kids empty it when they get home.

My goal is to do most of the laundry during the week. We have a timer on our washing machine so I throw a load in the morning, move it to the dryer when we get home and then fold after the kids go to bed. Grocery runs has been early Saturday morning before soccer, like 7:30am early. I'm giving this ball to DH though and he's going to start picking them up after work one day a week instead. I try to use my lunch hour for all the other errands.

[waverly]

Well we got back from our weekend away and the house is a mess. Nothing is put away including laundry. We did have groceries delivered and put away, so that is done. I am trying to get some schedule type stuff done, but after that I plan to put stuff away from now until pick up the kids which is going really fast so I am running out of time actually.

[freezorburn]

I just do what I can each day.

I used to have this fantasy that I could whip the house into shape when DS is away for weekends with his dad, but the reality is that when he goes, I spend a ton of time catching up on sleep. So really the only way I will ever get on top of things is if I do a little bit each day. I do something of an abbreviated Flylady rotation of spending a bit of time in each of my high priority zones. Deep cleaning only happens when the situation gets really dire.

Laundry has to get done on weekends because I only have a few changes of my uniform ... so I try to run loads on Friday and Saturday and get them folded by Monday night at the latest for when I need them. Laundry folding time is my TV time. I think sometime in the next few months I'm going to teach DS how to fold and put away his own laundry. His grandmother helped him to Konmari his dresser when she was here last month, so I'd like to help him learn how to keep it that way.

[waverly]

I will say last night DH cooked, so I got all the laundry put away upstairs. DS did dishes last night, and I wiped the countertops and did the other stuff in the kitchen that he didn't get to this morning including wiping the dining room table after breakfast and running the Roomba. We also had time this morning for DS to gather all his baseball stuff for practice tonight.

[justcheckingin73]

I have house cleaners that come every other week and they are my saviors. I hated using up my weekends with cleaning.

Laundry is on the weekends. Mentally I need to finish my laundry so I don’t typically do it during the week unless I don’t finish on the weekend. A friend of mine does 2 loads a day but I would go crazy having to do laundry every day.

I’ve started using Instacart more but I feel like I always forget something - sometimes I need to physically walk the store to make sure I’ve got everything - so I end going on the weekends too.

[keh2oblue]

We have a cleaning service every other week, so minimal cleaning.

Laundry is on the weekends, but folding happens sometimes.

I also work at a library, so that’s not an issue, but other stuff (groceries, meal planning, other shopping) is all done on weekends.

[waverly]

I’ll do anything to avoid shopping during the week. So far on Amazon this week I have bought hair ties, a birthday present, a baseball helmet and cup for DS’s baseball and glass food containers because someone stole all my food containers. I had like 3 so I guess not as big of a deal as it sounds like.

My mom is on me about the sunscreen that doesn’t kill coral reefs. Problem is it is $$ and won’t work for camp because it has to be a spray and the counselors cannot rub it in. So now I have to go get it on sale and have it on hand to pretend we are using it? Otherwise she would pick it up and then make me pay for it and the last time she did that it wasn’t even the right item and then she went through my bathroom drawers and argued with me about it. This maybe where my shopping issues came from.

I am working Sat so I have Fri to do a lot of things around here. Really need to clean the guest bathroom is on the list.

[phdmomma]

waverly the sunbum spray one is really nice, although it costs a bunch. We don’t typically use spray because it isn’t good fro DS’s asthma, but need it for camp.

[madringal]

My answer is always the same: as needed. I found making a schedule just didn't work. I have 3 active kids and DH and both work full time and have volunteer commitments so I can't always say Saturday mornings, or Thursday nights are for chores. So basically we do what needs to be done as it needs to be done. So some days that's three loads of laundry, some days it steaming the kitchen floors, some days it washing the girls bedding, and some days its literally nothing. Thankfully, DH is just as motivated as I am to keep the house clean and orderly. So if he seems something that needs cleaned, he just cleans it. Now that our girls are getting older, we really do need to expect them to do the same, but we are not there yet.

We also both have pretty flexible jobs, so we can easily do errands on lunch breaks or to/from work. Things like pick up prescriptions, drop off Goodwill donations, oil changes - we just build into our work weeks.

[waverly]

madringal , Yeah I am the same I don't have a cleaning schedule and find it confining.


I do have a order groceries for delivery schedule but I can do that from work in 10 minutes on lunch and a put away laundry is typically Sun night so we have clothes for the week. But I am not doing the whole wash floors on Mon, dust on Tues stuff. I find I am not motivated to do chores during the week especially when DH travels as I have been in survival mode for so long. Now the kids are older I am not in as much of a survival mode, but I do have to manage my energy during the week especially with kid activities.

[waverly]

Apr 11, 2019 12:16:31 GMT -5 phdmomma said:

waverly the sunbum spray one is really nice, although it costs a bunch. We don’t typically use spray because it isn’t good fro DS’s asthma, but need it for camp.

We do a ton for the environment, and I would like to make this work.  However, my child is a jerk and sprays the sunscreen way more than necessary going through almost a bottle a week or maybe a bottle every 2 weeks.  The other sprays they have to rub in will not work.  How is my child supposed to rub in his own sunscreen on his back?  He isn't going to ask his friends, and other 8 year old boys aren't going to do this for him, and the camp counselors are prohibited.  I keep telling my mom this; she just doesn't get it, and has made it her personal mission to find something that I don't think exists (reasonably priced, not have to rub in, spray mineral sunscreen).  I am totally willing to buy mineral for non camp and for the facial sticks.  I just can't figure out how to make it work and not spend $30 a week on sunscreen (2 kids).  Plus they totally lose their sunscreen bottles a billion times as well at camp.  I need to find labels for them, because sharpie does not work.  It just rubs off. I'll look up this sunscreen though.  I was looking on Amazon. 

[hocus2]

Apr 11, 2019 13:22:43 GMT -5 waverly said:

Apr 11, 2019 12:16:31 GMT -5 phdmomma said:

  How is my child supposed to rub in his own sunscreen on his back?  He isn't going to ask his friends, and other 8 year old boys aren't going to do this for him, and the camp counselors are prohibited.  I keep telling my mom this; she just doesn't get it, and has made it her personal mission to find something that I don't think exists (reasonably priced, not have to rub in, spray mineral sunscreen).  I am totally willing to buy mineral for non camp and for the facial sticks.  I just can't figure out how to make it work and not spend $30 a week on sunscreen (2 kids).  Plus they totally lose their sunscreen bottles a billion times as well at camp.  I need to find labels for them, because sharpie does not work.  It just rubs off. I'll look up this sunscreen though.  I was looking on Amazon. 

  Is he swimming shirtless? I'm curious about the back issue since my kids have never mentioned it. My son just wears a rash guard and does his own sunblock and he was fine all summer. My daughter is a rash guard convert too. She has some more conventional suits but strongly prefers the guard.