Possible to manage without cleaning lady?

Amarante

Mon, Jul 22 2019, 11:08 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Yes, during the hours my kids are in playgroup/babysitting.

So basically I would be able to clean only at night, once they're sleeping.

Is it possible? Of course it is possible as anything is possible. Cleaning help is a luxury.

Without cleaning help, you would have to drop your standards considerably. Your cleaning lady is currently relieving you of having to clean bathrooms, kitchen and vacuum I am assuming. Therefore, you only have to do keep the house neat (more or less) - ie. run the dishwasher; wipe the counters; sweep the kitchen floor; make the beds (or not).

People do work and have a schedule so that they clean when they come home - it's pretty exhausting though and I don't personally know any women who work full time who don't have at least one day a week of cleaning help. Even with cleaning help, there are still a lot of household chores that need to be done - even with the help of a husband. Of course, I am assuming that the husband also works full time and therefore all of these household chores need to be fitted in by two working people.

Obviously there are working people without the luxury of cleaning help. The reality is that there is just so many hours in the day and so you would have to triage and prioritize without cleaning help.

mha3484

Mon, Jul 22 2019, 11:20 am

I have reverse cleaning help. I have someone who comes for a couple hours a week and helps me with cleaning up all of my kids toys, sweeping, taking out trash, basically anything that involves extensive bending over which is really hard for me. I do laundry, clean the kitchen, bathrooms etc. I can wipe a counter down that is at my height, bending over to pick up legos is a killer. Its a lot cheaper and easier on my joints.

Also, I started meal prepping on Sundays. I make 3 nights of dinner (M-W), sometimes lunches or breakfasts and then I do a good clean up after. Then I am done with major cooking until Thursday. This keeps my kitchen much much cleaner and easier to maintain during the week. Its just washing a dish or two here and there.

little neshamala

Mon, Jul 22 2019, 11:27 am

Both DH and I work full time and never have cleaning help. I wont say its easy, but we push ourselves to do it because we allot the saved cleaning help money to "fun extras" like family vacations, restaurants, ice skating, art supplies, hobbies, more expensive toys than we would normally buy, etc

It really only works as a team effort though. If it would be only me I'd be exhausted. Every member of the family pitches in. (We're very open with our kids about this saved money going directly towards fun family things, so they understand they need to participate )

amother

Salmon

Mon, Jul 22 2019, 12:13 pm

You have to know yourself! It call comes down to priorities! Of course it can be done but if your not going to get to it yourself and you have high standards of cleanliness it may put you in a constant state of stress. Its in your hands (mind)

amother

Magenta

Mon, Jul 22 2019, 12:17 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I live in a two story, 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom home. I have two messy, active little kids.
Is it possible for me to run a clean, neat home without cleaning help? I currently have 8 hours a week. Wondering if it's possible for me to live without it.
Please post tips and schedule.

My house is the same size and I also have little kids. I didn't have cleaning help for almost 2 years. I am not a neat person but dh is. Dh did ALL the cleaning and laundry. It was hard but it worked. Now I got someone since Purim. I am happy I have help (12 hours a week) but sometimes I still feel like we can save the money and do it alone. I do feel that for my sanity I needed someone sometimes. The laundry and dishes are my hardest things and I am grateful that dh doesn't spend all Friday cleaning u til Shabbos bh.

Mon, Jul 22 2019, 12:28 pm

I would invest in a Roomba or something similar. Probably what you save by not paying a cleaning lady for a few weeks would cover the cost. Keep it on whatever level of the house gets the most/messiest traffic and have it do the floors daily. Once or twice a week, after it recharges, put it on the next level of the house and let it go.

Are you any of your kids old enough to get a kick of of putting on gloves and spraying/wiping? My kids used to enjoy cleaning mirrors and baseboards using old socks as gloves and going to town with the Windex and Pledge. IME kids also like to Swiffer.

Spending 10 minutes a day on the bathrooms and kitchen-spraying down counters, wiping our sinks--will go a long way as well.

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Jul 22 2019, 1:07 pm

I grew up with no cleaning help in the house. The kids took over the cleaning on a weekly basis.
I now have 5 kids of my own. and never had cleaning help and I work full time. It wasn't my priority when budgeting. Rent/mortgage, food and tuition took precedence.
That said my house is never fully neat. We vacuum, sweep and wash floors and clean the bathrooms ourselves. My oldest 3 are boys and we solicited their help at a young age. My boys started doing my bathrooms and floors at the tender ages of 9 and 11. We start Shabbos jobs at a young age of 4-5 years old. Each kid has 2 jobs (1 for the younger ones) and the house gets put together before Shabbos.
Making beds is optional, but we have a reward system for doing it. Most days all but my 2 year old make their beds.
So the answer is YES!! If you get the family involved it's very doable.

amother

Pearl

Mon, Jul 22 2019, 1:53 pm

Of course it's possible to manage. Cleaning help is a luxury not a necessity. The question is, are you willing to put in the work?
For me it's not worth it to clean myself. I stay 2 hours longer at work, in a nice office doing paperwork while the cleaning lady works much harder for less money. It wouldn't make sense for me to spend the time cleaning. The only reason we don't have a lot of cleaning help is because my husband thinks it's bad for the kids chinuch to have someone clean after them. He's probably right.

gamanit

Mon, Jul 22 2019, 3:05 pm

amother [ Magenta ] wrote:

If your husband is doing the cleaning when you don't have help then it's his decision whether to have someone else doing it instead of him or not.

thegiver

Mon, Jul 22 2019, 10:46 pm

Sun recover from shabbos. Tidy floor.
Mon dishes and tidy floor
Tuesday dishes and tidy floor
Wednesday vacuum one floor bring down laundry dishes and tidy floor
Thursday vacuum next floor do all laundry dishes and tidy floor
Friday do remaining laundry scrub toilets kids wash floors. Kids take their own clean laundry. Clean dishes before shabbos if possible.
Motzash wash all dishes (use disposable plates or maybehusband can help). Put away your own laundry.

Also clean as u see messes arise...esp bathroom. My dishwasher is my cleaning lady.

amother

Sat, Aug 03 2019, 11:45 pm

Week 1:
Exhausting.
A lot of begging my kids to please clean up because I don't have cleaning help. At least I don't think I yelled.

Dh helped a lot but it's very tiring! And we didn't do half a good a job as a cleaning woman. The floors didn't sparkle, the laundry wasn't as neat, the house didn't look so organized ... I have a lot to learn (or a good cleaning woman to find)