How do people find the time to go out all weekend every weekend?

I think I'd prefer walking to the grocery store to feed the ducks over ordering groceries online, too.

As would I but at some point, the OP has to decide does she really want to save time or does she not want to change her life.  At this point, it firmly sounds like the latter.

Personally, I would rather have more free time and visit the ducks when I am out for a relaxing walk.  

ETA:  I truly do not intend this statement to come off harshly.  I just am confused on what the OP wants if she defends everything she currently does. 

My hubby isn't that fussed about cleaning either, so I have learned to relax my standards (ok maybe they were already pretty relaxed ) - as it's just not worth getting stressed.

He loves to cook (making a mess in the process), and he does the washing up...  That may mean coffee grounds get strewn all over the sink and counters...  I tend to do damage control after he's been in the kitchen 2-3 times a week, and sometimes I just give up!

But I'm very grateful for his cooking & washing up (and doing the gardening & cleaning the oven on the odd occasion), so domestic peace is better than getting upset about other stuff.  I just wish I could 'learn' him to put things away after he's taken them out.  I know why he never really learned to do that - because his mum is a right livewire (lovely MIL who can't sit still ever!), all over the place picking up & putting stuff away as soon as it's set down.  You have a cup of tea or coffee at theirs, and as soon as you set your empty cup down, it's whisked away.  Sure if I'd had an early lifetime of someone picking up everything after me, I probably wouldn't have learned to do that either.  

Oh yeah - my mom was really pretty rubbish at keeping house, and I never really learned any routines for it or how to do anything.  My grandma was quite tidy.  I'd like to think I fall somewhere in the middle, but I fear I'm more like my mom in this respect.  She hated cleaning house & I'm not much better at it.

It's like PP said though, it's all about what your priorities are.  If your priorities are to be able to relax a bit after work, then you'll have to spend the weekend cleaning and doing laundry (and thus have less time to go out...or either go out and have a less clean house).  When I worked all day, cleaning was also the last thing on my mind so my sacrifice was to get up early on Saturday mornings and do all the cleaning then.  I would've liked to be able to sleep late on the one day of the week I could sleep in (Sundays were early morning church), but being able to relax after work during the week was more of a priority for me than sleeping late on Saturdays.

I think a lot of people have the cleaning attitude of your DH...clean it when it looks dirty.  I'm more like you sweetpeach in the sense that I want to make sure everything is clean before I see the dirt.  If I can visibly see dirt, my thought is that the amount of germs and bacteria are 1,000,000 worse than if I clean it before I do.  For me, it's also a priority to keep the carpets and floors clean because DD plays on it everyday (and we're having a baby soon who will be lying on/near it often).  Some people might not mind if their floors aren't spotless because they aren't rolling around on it.

I just meant that I don't mind going to the supermarket and as I said before I don't like ordering online for other reasons.

I would rather spend less time doing things inside the house.

I agree that if you don't clean on the weekends you have to clean during the week. I just don't see how people with full time jobs have the energy to get up early in the morning, go to work, and then spend the evening doing housework.

I guess, everyone is different. For me, just cooking dinner and doing the washing up is more than enough.

I've always thought of myself as messy and my house is far from spotless.

Similar to what (Im)patiently said, I think there are two attitudes toward cleaning.

Some people clean to make the house/flat look nice, be tidy (like DH), while other people (like me) clean for the sake of being clean (if that makes sense).

For example, when I clean I move the armchairs and the dining room chairs  to Hoover underneath, I lift up the couch cushions and clean under them and I clean under the bed.
Because I don't want dirt piling up, regardless of whether or not you can see it.  On the other hand, DH will just Hoover around the furniture so that the carpet looks nice.

However, if I drop my bag on the middle of the floor when I come home DH will complain that I am untidy.

Funny, the other day DH was saying that you don't have to mop the kitchen floor because you don't eat off it.

But it still gets germs just from having food dropped on it every now and then.

Then there is the school of thinking that dirt & germs are good for you!  Strengthens your immunities. 

Then there is the school of thinking that dirt & germs are good for you!  Strengthens your immunities. 

We work very hard at strengthening our immune systems at our house.    I think I am probably a disgusting pig compared to everyone in this thread, and I have no excuse, because I have no job.  It's just not a priority for me.  I would rather do pretty much anything other than clean, and the cleaning is nice enough to wait for me to get around to it.  I clean the kitchen as I go, because food-related ick grosses me out, but a little dust on the bookshelves doesn't bother me in the least.  And the bathrooms are always being wiped down, but beyond that, it's completely on an as-needed basis.  I do a heavy duty deep clean when people are coming, and there's pretty much zero chance that anyone would stop in unannounced.  But if so, I'd probably throw up my hands and apologize for the dust and move on. 

Every few months, I'll make a deal with myself that I will vacuum every other day or something along those lines, but it never lasts.  I stay on top of the laundry and the dishes, though.

My dad used to make fun of me for being a "slob."  My mom kept an immaculate house.  You could eat off any surface at any time.  It looked like a showroom.  After she died, my father realized just how much work it was to keep everything perfect all the time and stopped making fun of me.   

Our house is much like yours, Ophinky!

Andee was coming over for dinner last Thursday night, so on Wednesday night - I was hoovering, cleaning the bathroom, etc.  I told DH - it's a good thing we have people over every now & then, otherwise our house would never get cleaned. 

We work very hard at strengthening our immune systems at our house.    I think I am probably a disgusting pig compared to everyone in this thread, and I have no excuse, because I have no job.  It's just not a priority for me.  I would rather do pretty much anything other than clean, and the cleaning is nice enough to wait for me to get around to it.  I clean the kitchen as I go, because food-related ick grosses me out, but a little dust on the bookshelves doesn't bother me in the least.  And the bathrooms are always being wiped down, but beyond that, it's completely on an as-needed basis.  I do a heavy duty deep clean when people are coming, and there's pretty much zero chance that anyone would stop in unannounced.  But if so, I'd probably throw up my hands and apologize for the dust and move on. 

Yes! This is exactly like me!

Yes! This is exactly like me!

And me!

We have a bit of a losing battle with our floors. We park behind our house and that is, effectivey, a dirt/leaves/twigs/mulch driveway. We also have one of those annoying ghetto trees so tons of yard debris - oh, and millions of small pinecones. We have a back porch with a large mat, but it's not good for real scraping of things off your shoes. From there, you go straight into the kitchen - no mud room or alcove or anything. So dirt gets tracked in daily, and carried through into the rest of the house. I'd like to institute a no shoes policy in the house, but there's no place to leave shoes at the door. And when your hands are full and you have 2 little kids, stopping to take them off at the door, especially if it's raining or snowing isn't always an option. And the door is hung so low, we can't put a mat on the floor on the inside.

If I let that get to me, I'd be cleaning and cleaning and cleaning all the time and would still never stay on top of it.

So I chose sanity over perfect floors. I do what I can. My kids play on the floors and don't get sick from it so I guess it's ok. But meanwhile, I dream of my perfect house complete with mud room and self-cleaning floors!

Our house is much like yours, Ophinky!

Andee was coming over for dinner last Thursday night, so on Wednesday night - I was hoovering, cleaning the bathroom, etc.  I told DH - it's a good thing we have people over every now & then, otherwise our house would never get cleaned. 

Yep, that's pretty much the only time that *everything* is perfect at the same time.  And by perfect, I mean vac-ed, mopped (uh, swiffer/flash mopped), dusted and my shoe pile is moved into the wardrobe and I neatly stack the stuff on my desk.

Same deal when we're going away, because a cat sitter comes in to look after our furbags, and I'd hate for her to think we're unfit cat parents.  (Just in case anyone worries, my slovenly tendencies do not extend to the cats.  The boxes get cleaned 2x a day.) The upside is that it means we come home to a nice, neat clean house!

I will say that I am totally in awe of people who are internally motivated and have a cleaning routine that they stick to.  

I'm not super clean (as my partner likes to remind me!) but i do laundry,washing up and vacumming on a regular basis.
We have two greyhounds who tend to kick cushions off the sofa, and they throw their beds and blankets around the house, and of course tracking in dirt and food on the rug, so I have to vacuum that atleast 2 times a day.

Dont really have time to go out and do the social thing. On the days me and my partner are together in the shop, if he goes to his parents after work, I usually stay at home with the dogs since they've been alone most the day. So the only day both me and my partner are free together are on every other sunday. A few times a year we will go to car shows and drag racing events,but thats about it for us!

I think when cleaning becomes obsessive ie you physically CANNOT do anything else until you've done the house from top to bottom with every tiny thing MUST be done, then it's probably time that someone consider that they may have a Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

The only time I feel that I 'MUST' clean is when I'm feeling very anxious about something and the cleaning process helps calm my mind for what ever reason.

But, if you're not living in a complete tip and you're cleaning up your food drippings & bathroom (at least a spray of anti bacterial spray now & then) you're not going to catch a deathly disease from not mopping the kitchen floor every weekend or hoovering daily.

The only reason I hoover everyday is I have a 2 year old and no dining room, so we eat in our living room that is carpeted so bits collect on the floor through the day and it visibly needs to be done.

But I'm not going to bother wiping down the kitchen cabinets just because I've not done it in a while & if I've not spilled anything on them...what's the point so I can say that I've wiped them?

Then there is the school of thinking that dirt & germs are good for you!  Strengthens your immunities. 

God made dirt, dirt don't hurt!   
 

If it's only a few loads, if you could throw one load in the evening and have it finished before the 9pm restriction

There's a restriction???


ETA:  After reading the threading a little more carefully, I see that Sweetpeach has a restriction.  I missed that on the first go around

Heh - go me!  I cleaned a bunch of mostly empty glass condiment jars/bottles out of the fridge today.  Figured a teaspoon of this, tablespoon of that wasn't worth saving. 

Even convinced DH to let me toss the chocolate truffle spread (I mean it's a truffle spread, like the luxury kind the pigs dig up, but also flavoured with chocolate - that sulfurous rotten egg smell plus chocolate)... 

It was mostly all still there & he actually said (gasp!) - 'I didn't really like it.  I wanted to, but I just didn't.'  (It was a Christmas pressie from his brother.)

I agree that it's all down to priorities.  I know very few people who move furniture every time they vacuum, iron all of their clothes, or wipe surfaces when they don't appear to be dirty.  If that's important to you then go for it because it's worth living in an environment that you're comfortable in, but obviously that level of cleanliness will either take a lot of time and strength to maintain, or you'll need to invest in a cleaner.  DH and I value our time more than we value that level of cleanliness.  We take care of washing up and laundry and tidying as it arises, and only clean anything else like the bathroom or vacuuming or deep cleans if we notice that they look dirty (or have people coming round  ).  DH and I also do work for his business from home and when finding our current flat we specifically looked for somewhere with no garden and a 1-bedroom so it would be easier to maintain and we could invest more time in the things that we care about.

If you prefer to keep things very clean then I think the best thing to do is brainstorm ways to make that as easy as possible.  Look at how much time you're putting into something, and if the result is rewarding enough to justify the effort.

Have you ever tried freezing your meals?  Like one poster mentioned making twice as much and freezing the extra portions so you don't have to cook it a second night, or Once a Month Cooking.  If you spend a Saturday cooking 10 meals and freeze them into meal-sized portions it'll save you so much time in food prep and washing up for the next few weeks. 

If mould is appearing in your house after only a week then it sounds like that's a problem with damp.  Definitely look at getting a dehumidifier or trying to solve the mould problem rather than just cleaning it up each time it appears.

Even though you can't use your washing machine or vacuum after a certain time, you could still do most other cleaning tasks such as cleaning the bathroom, wiping down all of your surfaces, ironing, etc..  It might be worth it if you really value having free time over the weekend.

You could also look at not ironing as many clothes.  If you get an airer that allows you to lie them flat without having to bunch them up then you should get fewer wrinkles.  Just look at where you'll be wearing the clothes, if anyone will notice if it's ironed or not (especially tshirts and casual clothes) and whether or not them being ironed will make a difference to you while you're wearing it.