The above comments about reducing the number of things you use (and therefore have to care for) were right on target but I thought I would add that a lot of the battles with housework for any of us are about overcoming sloppy habits, ours and our families'.

When something is a routine, it takes less mental and physical effort to get through it; on days when the physical effort is too much, there needs to be a Plan B that the rest of the family understands they will contribute toward.

I was extremely sick for two years as a single mommy and my experience was so horrible that I would do almost anything to help someone else avoid living that way.

So, back to habits: what works at our house may not work for you, but these habits alone have made our house so much cleaner and saved me from stress and time spent procrastinating:

1. While dinner is cooking, I take a few minutes and pick up the common room (whichever room your family uses for relaxing in the evenings-if there's stuff all over, it's time to get rid of or put away some of that stuff).

2. After my kiddo is in bed, I take about 15-20 minutes to wash some dishes and disinfect the kitchen counters and stove (and wipe off the other appliances as needed). My daughter puts away the clean dishes either in the morning or after school (or both, when needed). She also helps fold and put away the clean laundry.

3. After I've brushed my teeth and such and gotten ready for bed, I use a spray bottle of Pine Sol solution and some paper towels to disinfect the sink and the seat/lid of the toilet, and if the toilet bowl has need, I pour in a quick shot of Pine Sol from the main bottle and give it a quick brushing.

3. In the morning, I throw in a load of laundry before breakfast. If laundry being scattered everywhere is an issue for you, you and your family will now get into the habit of either leaving laundry in one central basket in the main bathroom, or schlepping their laundry to the laundry room before their Mommy Fix at bedtime(hug, story, whatever they do with you).

4. After my daughter goes to school (if your kids aren't in school yet, you can cleverly devise an activity for them in a designated room) I get the laundry drying and do a quick vacuum of the common areas and bedrooms (in a large house, break it into zones, one for each day of the week-if you miss a day, it can keep til the next week's day) and a very quick spot clean of the kitchen and bathroom floors. I don't scrub, I spot spray with my trusty spray bottle of pine-sol (I keep one in the bathroom and one in the kitchen) and some paper towels so that there aren't any *obvious* yucky spots on the floor. When I have the time and inclination, I do a thorough scrub (being honest, scrubbing happens only once or twice a month. I don't like mops but if you like them, swiffers and such might be a good option).

5. Groceries come home once a week, the fridge gets a cursory cleaning inside as they are put away. Also, all of the cabinets are labeled so that my daughter can put things away where they belong and I don't have to call the Marines next time I need the liquid measures.

Altogether, I spend an hour or less cleaning and tidying my place every day. Your place is undoubtedly quite a bit larger-the zone concept may help you immensely. If your kids are running wild messing things up behind you as you clean, it's time to set some boundaries. When my daughter was little, she was only allowed to have toys in her bedroom and in no other parts of the house. Some might think this is a little overboard, but this was when I was sick and it was absolutely too much work for me to play 152-pickup every night.

If these ideas don't work for you, there are other ideas that will, just keep looking and reading and experimenting. Habits can save your life, no joke. Some good books to look over are:

Kitchen Sink Reflections (encouraging book with some good advice)
Sidetracked Home Executives (I used their concepts but not their card system, it's a great read though, full of smiles)
The Well Ordered Home (written by a psychologist-really good)

No one system will solve all of your problems with housekeeping but a combination of advice will make it manageable and methodical, so that you can spend your mental energy on building yourself and your family up instead of on shame, guilt and being overwhelmed.

Be kind to yourself and please keep us all posted!

Love,
Charity