I need things around the house to be easier and more time efficient. I'm working mega hours (60 last week to be exact.) so I need things to be easier for me around the house. Any ideas??

How many and how old are your kids?

I make my dd pick out her clothes for school the night before so there's no more whining about nothing to wear, or not wanting to wear that, etc. I usually pick out my clothes too, so I'm not doing the same whining.

That's all I can think of. What are your problem areas? Mornings, evenings?

I need some ideas for simplifying too. I'm in a perpetual state of

Not knowing where your problem area are, I will talk laundry. Here is how I simplify this. I have 2 laundry baskets for the family. 1 for dark and 1 for light clothes. Said baskets hold 1 load of clothes. Everyone's clothes are washed together. When a basket of clothes is full, the load of laundry goes in. The whole load is washed to whatever the clothing can tolerate. IE if some of the girl's stuff has to be washed delicate, that's how the load is washed. I do not have the time or patience to separate out the girl's clothes from mine or delicate from regular wash and there really isn't a need. The whole load does fine with delicate if that's what part of the load requires. If I let the laundry pile up, I am reluctant to do it. This way, I maintain a bit throughout the week and fold as we go, rather than the huge ass pile on the weekends.

Picking out clothes the night before helps.

Lunches? Can those be made the night before? I keep cans of soup at work so when I'm in a rush I always have a lunch I can eat at work.

Diaper bags should be prepared the night before. When dd was little I would even put it in the car so I had one less thing to tote out in the morning.

Easy suppers this week. Pizza, sandwiches, something in the crockpot. Cut the veggies the night before so you can just throw it all in in the morning.

You may not want to hear this but getting up an extra 15 minutes earlier can make a world of difference for me. I'll even set the alarm an extra 30 minutes earlier and hit snooze 3 times before I get up, so I'm still getting some time to wake up before I hit the floor running.

Evenings are my problem areas. My kids are 5, 2, and 1. I get up at 4, leave for work at 5, get home around 7 if I work OT. The kids destroy the house in a matter of minutes, so I'm left to clean up after them, do the laundry, etc.

I did go out and get 3 laundry baskets the other day and put them in the basement. There's a basket for my clothes, a basket for the boys' clothes, and a basket for Rorie's. I sort them right out of the dryer instead of piling Mt. Laundry. It makes it easier to fold (if I have time) and MUCH easier to find things. I feel like all I do is work and clean.

I feel the same way Chatter. Work, clean, and sleep when there's a little extra time.

As far as the house being destroyed, if it's toys, to me it doesn't matter. I've gotten over the whole "having the entire house picked up before bed" thing. As long as there aren't food crusted dishes in the sink and dirty diapers anywhere I'm happy for the night.

I tried not caring, I really did. But it made me twitch. Really. And I absolutely refuse to get up any earlier than 4am. I only have to worry about dinner on nights I don't work OT. I feel horrible for working this much. I know my kids hate it, and I hate it, but the bills don't pay themselves.

I concur.

I make a menu for the week and go off of it for dinners. There's just me, hubs, and and 8 month old so I only plan dinners. Hubby makes his own lunch - usually sandwiches unless I force him to take leftovers that are in danger of going bad.

It really helps to have a game plan for dinner, I get home later that hubby (6-6:60 pm) and if I don't have something planned I have to figure it out as soon as I get home so we will have dinner at a decent hour.

I also decided to make up a "bare minimum" chore list and spread them out over the week. That way I don't try to do everything all in one day.

Can you cook larger amounts on the weekend to use for the week? I.e., I'll cook a chicken and a larger amount of mashed potatoes, then reheat this on a weeknight, just adding a vegetable. Or doing no-boil lasagna, which is pretty simple, especially if you use good jarred sauce. You can make it up on a Sunday and have leftovers 1 or 2 nights. I will also sometimes rely on the prepared dinners you can get--Jennie O's Turkey slices w/gravy are ok, so is Tyson's chicken marsala--and add mashed potato leftovers and a veggie. Make a double quantity of soup or stew, stovetop or in the crockpot, then serve leftovers one night.

If your kids are picky, you can also do simple quick things like mac n cheese in-the-box and chicken nuggets. My dd will get by on a PB&J sandwich if she doesn't like what we are having--since she eats a big meal at lunch that's ok with me.

Also, be sure to pack any lunch bags the night before, it really helps.

Your 5 year old and 2 year old might be able to help as well--such as in setting the table, putting toys away.

As far as the laundry goes, I am now trying to do a load every night or every other night so it doesn't build up. Even if it sometimes sits in the basket, that's better than having your weekends filled with laundry.

5, 2 and 1 would make me too

Is there a way to declare a "toy free zone" somehwere? That way you wouldn't have to deal with toys at least in one area?

Do you *have* to do the laundry all the time? I know it can pile up, but would it be easier to do all the laundry on Sunday or something? I know I can go more than 3 days without doing my own laundry - it's not like I'm going to run out of clothes, kwim?

One thing I did too - for a different reason - was to spend an afternoon/evening on Sat or Sun & do lots of pre-made meals for the following week. I freeze mine, because DH is home (he cooks for shit, that's why I did it ) and can put them in the oven in time to be done when I get home. In your case, I would think that you could leave them in the fridge & pop them in oven or whatever when you get home.

I tried doing a toy free zone, but that's not really workable. Rorie's too small to play in her room by herself, so I have to have her toys in the living room. Therefor the boys think it's ok to have THEIR toys in the living room. I could not spend my whole "weekend" cooking meals for the week. Could.not. And until I get the rest of my uniform pants hemmed, I'm stuck doing laundry at LEAST every other day.

I did the part time single parent for awhile.

I like all the ideas here so far.

One thing I did was have one day of the week where I got all my household chores done. Mine was Thursday, as dh came home on Friday afternoon (was home Fri. Sat Sun).

Once a month I would do a good cleaning but my weekly cleanings did fine.

As far as your boys..give them a box that they can put their toys in and keep them in the living room (small box that they can carry) and they can only have as many toys as will fit in that box out in the living room. When they are done..they put the toys back in the box and return them to their room. If they don't put them away..you get to stick them in the box and put them in a time out. It will only take a few times for them to understand how this works (my mom did this with us).

Dirty dishes?? Pick one or two nights a week where you use paper and plastic! I know..bad for the environment, but if it saves your sanity until you can get a better shedule...

We also did paper towels and a spray cleaner for awhile. It works to clean floors etc in between moppings.

I'm sure I'll think of more.

Good luck.

Chatter-I'm happy for you that you found a job you love so much. (All snarkiness aside).

One cool tip I was given was to clean a little every day and to wipe down the bathroom when you bathe the kiddos.

I think for everyone's sanity a "toy free zone" is important. Even just the space around your favorite place to sit and watch TV or something.

But for what I suggested, which is just to make larger amounts of what you would cook on the weekend anyway, it really doesn't require spending your whole weekend at the stove. I do things like make my tomato sauce in the crockpot and I don't have to do anything, it cooks for me. If you were making lasagna, you'd do the work anyway, just in smaller amounts. Make a slightly larger roast chicken and you can use the leftovers, etc. Unless you don't feel like cooking on the weekends at all, I think it's a good suggestion.

Good luck.

That is a good suggestion. Usually my "weekends" aren't really weekends at all. I work 6 on, then have 2 off. One of my 2 off always falls on a day when Brandon has school. I did decide that he can ride the bus to and from school, even when I'm not working, because it's easier for me and he enjoys it. It makes my day much easier when I don't have to get 3 kids dressed to take Brandon to school, and then again to pick him up. It's worth the 20 rides for $13.

Well, I think I spend about 3 hours doing the cooking on a weekend - but it does require planning Sucks to need cream cheese or an onion and have to run to the store. several times Also, I use the throw-away aluminium pans. We don't have a dishwasher, for one thing, and I don't have enough pans for a week

I don't have a dishwasher either. Or enough pans for a week. Or enough freezer space, etc. etc. etc.

Me neither. Mine's full of breast milk.