Women of reddit, how do you keep on top of housework?

22 comments

1. Our rule is that whoever doesn’t cook, does the dishes. He takes the trash out, but I always replace the bag and throw away clutter around the house. He sweeps, i mop. We have a very 50/50 chore set up that is super efficient for keeping it somewhat clean.

   Once it starts to pile up, I’ll set out a day to deep clean everything and then the cycle continues.

2. I do dishes, my laundry and tidy up the bedroom every Friday. He does everything else. It works for us. We both prepare our own food. I get my groceries delivered and he buys his own food.

3. My husband and I take turns washing dishes everyday (depends who cooked. If I cooked, he washes the dishes, and vice versa). My kids sweep the floor and feed the dogs. My husband cooks 2 or 3x a week. Laundry is done twice a week. Everyone folds their own clothes. I walk the dogs. Grocery store errands once a week.

4. Do what needs to be done every day. Don’t let it all build up. We take it in turns to do the dishes every time we eat, for example, so they don’t build up. My husband and I both set aside a certain day and time in the week to do larger tasks, like I clean the bathrooms on a Friday and he vacuums on a Thursday.

5. No spouse or children but live with my sister and 5 year old niece. We alternate weekends for deep cleaning (full bathroom, kitchen, living room clean + vacuum and mopping etc). Kitchen sink should be empty of dishes and clean by the end of the day, every day. And just clean up after ourselves daily plus my sister staying on top of my niece to make sure her toys don’t just stay out and pile up all over the place (she sets up these huge town spreads for her toys that take up most of the living room floor lol)

6. I have 3 young children so it gets hard sometimes. But doing something everyday helps keeping the home look acceptable and then once a week both of us do a deep clean. I do most of the housework during the week as I don’t work and on weekends my husband takes over for most cleaning. I don’t have a chore list (except in my head) and I delegate to my husband if I’m overwhelmed.

7. my partner soaks his dishes, kids know to set them in the sink, water bottles on the counter and they throw away their trash and clean up toys. I do everything, shopping, horses care/training/feeding nightly and morning feed. he helps with the kids when i shop and gives me money for anything I need. he makes more and usually works longer, plus I have a system to keep it all in check, especially with my adhd and autism (dx) and workout when everyone is in bed

8. Housekeeping isn’t my job lol I don’t get paid enough to do that on top of work XD

9. I don’t 😄 My house is a mess. But I live alone, so I don’t mind. I clean only when I’m in the mood to do that or before someone comes over

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11. No children but married. I do a little bit every day- dish washer always gets loaded and ran every evening. Laundry gets done as enough gets dirty for a load. Floors quickly swept almost every day.

    Honestly it’s just keeping on top of it. 10-15 minutes every day to keep things tidy is a lot easier than crazy cleaning for hours every week.

12. My girlfriend and I have a chore chart and we plan cleaning into our weekly schedule.

13. I do not. I’m trying, but I’m terrible at it.

14. We keep the place decluttered and have someone in biweekly to clean. I work from home so I can throw a load of laundry in during the day and get dinner started at a decent time. Husband unloads the dishwasher and I do the dishes because I have no problem doing dishes or laundry but fuck I hate putting either of those things away.

15. I make sure my husband does his share. Tbh he is really good with a hoover

16. I have a husband and child. I also have a hybrid schedule. I save a lot of my dev testing for the days I work from home (as a lot of them are running the program and reviewing to make sure it is acting as expected and then reviewing the results). My house is small and my office setup is in the living room, so I can always keep an eye on expected results while sweeping or mopping or whatever.

    Then I do a lot of housework those days (which is seperatw from the cleaning while I am testing). I also skip lunch and spend about 15 minutes an hour doing small chores, like switching laundry, stripping beds, general pick up, scheduling, etc…

    Today and tomorrow I am going to finish my taxes lol. I also plan daily, weekly and monthly schedules like checking the local theater and events, so I can stay in top of everything.

    Other than that, we (my husband and I) do 15 minute daily cleaning which is a combined 30 mins, but sometimes we don’t. We take turns cooking, but I plan and shop the meal plans most of the time.

    I also workout 20 mins a day and take one class a semester, although calculus might eat a lot of my time.

    All of this helps me keep a fairly clean house and have good work/life balance, too. I also took a step down in my career so I can manage all this as I have no nights, overtime, weekends, travel, strict deadlines, hard to hit metrics, etc… Just easy work. I have the rest of my life to climb the ladder.

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18. We have a regular cleaner. We share cooking duties. I do laundry and he does the yard.

19. TBH, I don’t. Cleaning is the one area of life where I slack. When the grime irritates me, I clean it (or assign it to one of my children or partner). We now have a high enough income to hire a cleaning service, so I’m about to hire a cleaning person soon.

20. Pay someone else to do it

21. Every one who lives here pitches in because this ain’t a hotel and I am not a maid!

    We sat down years ago (husband/me) and listed out all chores, put names against them and made sure it was fair. Kids have their chores and as they got older, gained more. Now they are teens and cleans their room, do their own laundry, make their own lunches, sets/clears the table, does dishes after dinner and cleans their own bathroom.

    With 4 pairs of hands keeping up with the house, everyone gets more “me” time to do what they want. I refused to be a domestic slave and have all that shit fall on me and work? HELL NO.

22. I have a 5 year old, and had been spending 2-4 hours every Saturday cleaning the house. I switched from an office job to WFH, and I’ve found that i can clean twice a week for like an hour over lunch or a break. It’s made life way easier