I spend alot of time making our house a warm, healthy and safe environment for our family. Isn’t that what cleaning is? Keeping toxins and all the nasty out! But what about the clutter, especially with kids.
Here is my guestimate on how much time I spend truly cleaning my home.
Vacumming– 10 minutes 3 times a week. This could be less but we have a black lab who sheds. So it must be done every other day. –30min
Sweeping– Honestly I do a big sweep only once per week and then small tidy up sweeps around the table or high chair- 35-40 min
Steaming- I have a steamer. An H2O mop actually, and L-O-V-E it because I do not have to use chemicals on our floors. I do this only once per week and I do the kitchen floor and all of the carpets.- 30min
Bathrooms- Honestly I do this once per week in the boy’s bathroom and once every other week in ours. Eeeek. That is honesty for you. Ours just does not get as dirty as thiers and it is off of our bedroom so no-one sees it. It takes be about 30-40 min per bathroom. Average 1hour per week.
Dusting- Once per week. Living areas are the worst. And for some reason Lucas’ bedroom attracts it alot. 30-40 min
Windows- Hahaha. Honestly the only windows I do are the sliding glass door going to the backyard and the front screen door window and probably once per week- 10min
Dishes- I do one to two loads every day but we have a dishwasher so it is just putting them in and putting them away- 2 hours per week
Laundry- One load per day on average- washing, folding and putting away- 2hours per week
So that is the cleaning list. Grand Total for one week= 8 hours per week of strictly cleaning.
Now lets talk about picking up. This is where some serious time is spent. Especially since I am a stay home mother and my children are here with me everyday.
Here is an example of how the day goes.
Get up. Make the bed.-5 min
Dress Lucas and Coax Ezra to get dressed. Pick up all the clean diapers Lucas has taken out of his diaper stacker. 5 min
Go out to the kitchen and make breakfast for the kids. Pick up the dog food that Lucas has spread all over the floor from the dog dish. Let the dog in so she can eat breakfast- 5 min
Clean up breakfast. Change the tablecloth since Ezra is having a hard time learning to eat over his plate. Let the dog clean up the floor around the high chair and table (hey, I am being honest here). Then clean up what she missed. –15 min
By now Ezra has pulled out a large pile of toys from his room. It is either Blocks or Playmobil or something of this sort with a million pieces. Once it is time to run errands (which we ussually have to do once a day) I have to coax Ezra to pick up and ussually am talked into helping him. 20min
Pick up all of the Wii games that Lucas has pulled out of the entertainment center. This is a problem we have not figured out how to alleviate as our entertainment center does have doors but they do not lock. –5 min
Get back from errands and let the kids play while I make lunch. While the kids eat lunch I pick up the kitchen. Glasses left from the night before, sort out mail left on the counter from the night before, toss anything that is not edible or needed (cookies that were made two nights before and are sitting on the counter). Take out the trash. Pickup lunch. –20min
Pick up the shoes left in front of the door- my husbands, Ezra’s, mine. –3 min
Once again pick up all the diapers Lucas has pulled out of the stacker-5 min
Follow Lucas out into the living room where somehow the floor is covered in toys. Let them play while I fold a load of laundry . While I am folding Lucas decides to “help” by throwing half of it off of the couch and onto the floor. Pick up laundry from floor and put away. Each time I come back for a new armful there are a couple new pieces tossed on the floor.- 15min
Rest time- Finally. Ezra lays down with a book (he is past nap age) or a little show and Lucas takes a nap. Mommy’s time to blog or read or do whatever. Ussually spend a portion of this time picking up misc items that have been left all over the house. A phone charger, a calculator, a book, a puzzle piece, a tupperware lid. This was part of my list today. I find misc items everywhere. Between my 6 year old love, my 13 month old love and my 27 year old love this house always has some random items here or there.- 25 min
Time to make dinner- put lucas in his high chair and cook dinner. This brings up another task that takes up alot of my time. Food preparation. That will have to be another blog though. So as I am making dinner I am also purging the refridgerator, tossing things that have spoiled. Again, I am cleaning up dog food. Why is there always dog food on the floor??? Organizing the items that have found thier way to the table, markers, tape, scraps of paper, a color book, scissors etc. Put a new tablecloth on the table so it looks presentable. Wipe down counters and sink. Serve dinner just as hubby walks through the door… not all nights but some. –30 min
Grand total picking up time for the whole week is approximately 18 hours.
If I did not have little mess makers following me around all day this would not be such a process. What would I do with my time if I did not have to constantly go over and over and over again cleaning up little messes throughout my house? I would be bored for sure.
I am sure there are some things I have missed and this does not include projects such as organizing the pantry, which has to be done once every two weeks, or changing the bedding on all the beds which also is done every week to two weeks. Whew! I am tired. Not to mention making time in between all of these tasks to play with each child individually and also together, helping Ezra with his daily school work and preparing meals, grocery shopping. I can see now why they say this is a hard job. It is a full time job.