When Does The Housework Get Done?

I learnt very early on that if I would like to rest (& I do need rest to function), I would need to do as much as possible during the day while the children are awake. If I were to wait till they were asleep (either nap or bedtimes), I’ll never get the rest I need.So as much as it is possible, school, cooking & housework is done when the children are awake & around me. So how is this done?

Firstly, I teach the children to play by themselves as soon as possible. This starts from when they are babies. Now I must admit that I have not been very consistent with this. And I have reaped the consequences of this. But when I have been consistent with it, it is just so freeing to be able to put the baby or toddler in his crib/room with a few toys & tell him – “Playtime!” and he would happily stay in the room or crib (depending on the age) for at least 30min. Many things can be achieved in 30min.

Later on, when this is no longer necessary, when the child is able to sit still for a longer period of time on the couch, I will vacuum or mop with him sitting on the couch watching me or the tv. Yes, we do use the tv! This also means that I need to work fast. I do not have the luxury of dilly-dallying. Unless there is some great mess to be cleaned up, I vacuum the lower floor in 15min max. As for the deep cleaning, I vacuum, mop both upper & lower floors & wash all the toilets in 1.5hrs.

One big help in achieving such speed is making sure I do not have to move furniture around too much. IOW there is very little on the floor to transfer from place A to place B & then back to place A, know what I mean? However, clutter has been slowing building up & I need to de-clutter again soon. Also, a friend has blessed us with a 3 +2 seater sofa set which tho’ wonderful, is taking up more space than I would like. I need to re-configure the house layout again in order to help make my job easier.

Back to occupying the children when I do the housework – all of them have learnt through experience (including the 17mth old toddler) that if mama says “wet floor”, they had better stay put whereever they are or quickly get to a chair/sofa & sit there till I say “floor is dry now”. Now that I have older children, I sometimes pack all of them upstairs with the toddler while I do the lower floor. The older children will then occupy the toddler till I give the all-clear to come down.

So doing housework while the children are awake instead of waiting till they are asleep has helped me to accomplish much more in the day. This way has another side benefit – they see mama doing housework. Housework is not something that gets done with a wave of the wand By teaching the children to occupy themselves when I am working has allowed me to re-charge during the afternoon rest times and to do other stuff that require my complete attention at night when they have all gone to bed.