Wendy Grace
One of the things myself and my wife are finding really difficult to stay on top of is the housework. With the family at home all the time it is a never ending merry go round of cooking and cleaning and we are both feeling overwhelmed by it all.
It’s hard not to feel burdened by many aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic and having a house that feels more chaotic than calm can add to your stress. Keeping on top of it all, for all of us, is difficult. Try to let go of having your house sparkling clean (sure who is visiting anyway!) but having some more order might be just one less thing to fret about.
Remember that your family is a team, sit down all together and allocate various jobs to each family member, if it helps create a wall chart as to who has to do what job on what day. The better your plan is the more efficient you will all be. A lot of research shows that women still take on the majority of the household chores, everyone is juggling and working hard, so try to make sure the load is spread fairly. For everyone in the house to adopt a ‘clean and go’ method, piling up dishes in the sink is the last thing you want to have to deal with at the end of the day. Use your time smartly where you can, rather than having to find hours to do a big clean, try your best to clean little and often. Sorry to add to your online shopping list, but a cordless vacuum is an investment you won’t regret.
When it comes to bathrooms, clean the shower while you are in it, and just pick one bathroom to clean every other day, have surface wipes in every room, when you brush your teeth take an extra two minutes to quickly wipe down the bathroom surfaces.
One of the ways to be more efficient is to actually give yourself less time, when it comes to housework there is always more to do if there is time there you will end up filling it so keep it short. Set a time limit and prioritise what needs to be done. Once a week with your spouse, spend an hour cleaning together, you will be amazed how much you will get done as a team. Each evening, when the kids are down set your clock work with your spouse together to do a 15 minute clean, you will be again you will be pleasantly surprised what the two of you can get done in such a short space of time knowing a little relaxation is just a few minutes away, it’s always much easier to deal with the mess in the evening than to wake up to it the next day and one small change that makes a big difference is to never leave a room empty handed. So work together, plan well and don’t aim for perfection and you should find things become much more manageable.