I’m surprised no one has posted! (Maybe it’s because we don’t have any successful ideas

Full disclosure - if at all possible I try to hire someone to do things like rake leaves, clean gutters, blacktop the driveway, paint etc. My DH is away from home a minimum of 60 hours a week.  And that’s not counting the hours he works at home once the kids are in bed. He’s beat on the weekends.

I mostly manage big projects by myself.  I try to set a weekly goal and then I take all week to accomplish it.  This week I’m cleaning out 6 kids dressers & closets and will end the week by donating clothes to a charity.  I am a morning person, so I do best if I start a project immediately after breakfast.  I try to let the kids help (like sorting clothes) but mostly I work while the baby is napping & the others are playing.  On the weekends we aren’t as structured, so its more of a catch as catch can. If the baby is sleeping, and the weather is decent and we’re not exhausted and we’re not at a sporting event, we’ll just tackle something.  Like this weekend we put up Christmas lights (unseasonable warm here). We keep a list of home projects on the inside of a kitchen cabinet and just tackle them as we can . . .it’s hard. We have definitely let our former standards drop - but the babies are so worth it!

I wish the kids clothes only took me a weekend!  I have 5 kids and the seasonal change over of clothes is my most dreaded task.  It takes me at least a month to get all the outgrown clothes put away for another kid!  I wish I could hire someone to do it!  My husband and I can barely manage to pay the bills on the weekend.  We almost never find time for a family movie.  I sound really depressed about weekend chores because I am!

We ask for help.  We invite our parents or friends over.  I make a good, big dinner and my husband buys a case of beer.  The men do what they need to do.  The ladies chat.  We all eat and hang out, and whatever was supposed to be painted, etc. gets done.

The only suggestion I have for doing nasty procrastination-worthy jobs is to get yourself on prednisone. (I know, awful suggestion!) I was on it for 21 days to treat a major case of poison ivy and wow, did I get a lot done! While I hated the manic sensations, its upside was that I had an endless amount of energy. I’m not actually recommending you beg your doctor for it, but if you ever need it (validly), at least the consolation is you;ll have a mighty clean house in the end.

One thing that has worked well for us when my husband has a big weekend project is that I take the kids to my parents’ house for the weekend.  We are fortunate that they are an easy drive away!  He loves having the house to himself, uninterrupted time to focus, etc.  I try to take portable projects with me to do while we’re gone, and it’s lovely for the kids to have some time with their grandparents.  For smaller projects when we’re both home, the tag-team approach works well, for the most part.

I’m kind of happy to read that our family is not the only one out there who struggles with this.  My husband and I are constantly wondering how others get everything done.  It seems like we are always behind on something.  And I agree that something that makes it very difficult is that at least one of us has to be with the children at all times (ours are still too young to be left alone; 3 and 1).  Something we started doing several months back was to make a general to-do list for the house.  On the weekends when there is not something immediate that needs to be done, we look to our list.  It has helped, but it’s still tough.  We don’t have any family nearby, and without getting into too much detail, we haven’t been very successful at building a support system for ourselves.  It makes it difficult to get things accomplished sometimes and it does wear on us since it feels like there is so much we’d like to do but just never find the time to do it.  It is somewhat comforting to know that we’re not alone though and that others are still working out the same logistical problems we are.