Working Moms: How Do You Manage Housework?

by Melanie Edwards on April 19, 2010 · 48 comments

This post was first published on April 2, 2008. At that time, I was still working full-time outside the home. I’ve found that a cleaning schedule is also beneficial for the WAHM.

As a full-time working mom, it’s very hard for me to keep up with the household duties. I’ve posted before about the expectations – false no doubt – that I’ve set for myself.

Elizabeth over at Career & Kids touched on the subject recently, when a friend of hers realized there’s not enough time in the week. As she mentions, when you’re working all week, you want to use the weekend to spend time with the family. That is when I’d like to take a trip to the zoo, the park, or sometimes it’s just a matter of the “must” trips – like grocery shopping that needs to be done.

What can working moms do to manage the housework?

I’m not sure I have the answer just yet, but I AM trying something new.

I’ve set up a weekly chore schedule and broken down the housework to a little each day – there’s even a day off!

Here’s my schedule:

Sunday: clean bathrooms
Monday: wash laundry
Tuesday: fold laundry
Wednesday: sweep & mop
Thursday: vacuum
Friday: OFF day
Saturday: change bed sheets

Plus, every day is de-clutter day, since this can be done simultaneously with the other chores. That means, putting away toys, clearing the day’s mail, and other small tasks. The chores scheduled on the weekend can be done quickly in the morning before heading out for the day.

To keep track of my schedule, I’ve printed out Hannah Keeley’s Total Mom Chore Chart, but any calendar will do.

I’m hoping this will help keep me on track and make things a bit more manageable. I’ve just made my list this week, so I’m only starting to put it into practice.

How do you manage your housework?

Photo by Jane Ring

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Tagged as: balance, chore chart, chore schedule, cleaning, cleaning schedule, housework, housework schedule, Wahm, wohm, work life balance, work-life, working moms, working outside the home

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Pride in a Clean Home - Do we Clean to Be Proud of Our Homes? — ModernMami™.com: May 14, 2010 at 9:10 am

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1 pchanner April 19, 2010 at 10:12 am

To keep the balance and sanity in my home I have set for myself a cleaning/organizing routine. We barely ever use the dish washer because before and after each meal I wash the dishes that way there are only a handful at each time. Then on different days of the week I go about doing a different task. One day it is the bathrooms, another laundry and another dusting & moping, etc. So far it has worked out great. By the time the weekend comes around I have everything all caught up. If there are any projects around the house we will do them together Saturday morning. After that I have time for the family and catching up on my blog.

2 modernmami April 21, 2010 at 6:16 am: Sounds like you have a routine similar to the schedule above. I find it makes it a bit more manageable.

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3 Marcela April 19, 2010 at 4:12 pm

I absolutely HATE laundry. So instead of spending a whole day doing laundry I do a little every day. One load a day takes me about 15-20 minutes of folding (which is the part I dislike) so it's not so bad and our laundry is almost always done.

4 modernmami April 21, 2010 at 6:17 am: OMG – I hate folding too. I'm torn between doing a load every day or just getting it out of the way at once. I don't know if I could think about laundry every single day. lol

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5 Fran April 21, 2010 at 10:18 am