I am newly enagaged and need help balancing working full time and cooking, cleaning, and laundry.?

Question

My newly engaged fiance and I both work full time, and I am still expected to do the majority of the house stuff. Can anyone help me balance a full time job, which I want to work, and cooking, cleaning, and all of that? my mothe rin law suggests making food ahead of time on sunday, then freezing.

Answer 1

First, any meal you make, make enough for two or three meals. Takes the same amount of time to cook. Second learn to do laundry every night or every other. Drop a load in when you get home, toss it into the dryer after dinner and a quick fold before bed. To clean house, vacuum a room a day, and have the man help. Save dusting for the weekend. Don't worry about a little clutter, enjoy. Freezing food is good, you can buy a fully roasted chicken and just heat up the veggies and get 3 meals out of that. Good Luck.

Answer 2

Your mother in law has a good idea! That is if you don't mind eating frozen food of course and spend the whole day in the kitchen! From experience I can tell you that "a woman work never ends"

So the main thing is to get organized . I can tell you what worked for me ! First thing when I got home from work I started supper , then made the bed and dusted while supper was cooking, I put he laundry into the washer while the laundry dried we had supper ,did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen, while watching TV I folded the laundry and on Saturday morning I did more work and I had the afternoon free to go shopping. Since you have a partner that is willing to help this should be a breeze for you !

Answer 3

Start a load of laundry before you leave for work, and dry when you get home. Clean the kitchen while you're waiting for your coffee to brew. Clean the tub/shower after every use. Clean the sink after use. Vacuum and dust once a week. Make your bed as soon as you get up.

Your MIL is correct. If you cook a week's worth of food and freeze it, dinner is simply a matter of defrosting and reheating.

Invest in a crock pot. You can cook great meals while at work with little work or clean-up at night.

And get you fiance involved. He makes part of the mess too!!

Answer 4

Most of the meals I make take about 1/2 hour or less to prepare, then added time for cooking. During the cooking time, do the cleaning. Rachel Ray is not an excellent cook, but she has great ideas for quick meals. I adjust her recipes to the likes of my family when I need something quick and different. When I make a meal that takes longer, I make extra. You can usually store in the frig, if it's really cold, for up to a week. If you don't want to use the extra portion within the week, freeze it for a quicky later-freeze up to 3 months in freezer type bags. Use a crock pot to cook roast pork or beef or cook chicken, then do your vegies when you get home. Get a large crock pot a cook extra meat. I cook up to 5 pounds of beef roast at a time, then I can make a variety of meals with the meat, like bbque, tacos, eat as roast, ect. Same with pork and chicken. I buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs so I don't have to mess with that. My husband gets chicken with bone in for fried chicken because it tasts better, I deskin it myself. He fries the chicken to give me a day off. When my husband grills on the charchol grill, he makes enough for several days, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken and when he is done, if there are plenty of hot coals left, I "bake" my potatoes on the grill. He uses mesquite flavored charchol and this gives a great taste to the potatoes. You can freeze all of these as well, microwave to reheat, and chicken actually tastes better if you let it set at least overnight in the frig after grilling! Hope this helps in the cooking department. Set aside 15 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening for light household cleaning and putting things away. Then, on the weekend, it will only take about an hour or 2 to do the "heavy" cleaning. Keep the daily routine up and that makes it easier to do the heavy stuff!

Answer 5

That's what I do- I have a crock pot that I cook large quantities of chili, soup, chicken and dumplings-stuff like that, and freeze it in individual tupperware containers. You "set it and forget it" on a Sat or Sun afternoon, and the meal cooks while you do other chores. I use alot of "convenience" type foods- pre cooked chickens from the deli dept at the supermarket, ready made cold slaw, potato salads, etc.....
I don't know what your tastes are but sometimes just scrambled eggs and bacon can make a quick casual dinner without too much fuss and bother, but again, some people prefer a more hearty, traditional dinner meal.

Answer 6

Your fiance needs to kick in too. It's not fair that he expect you to do it all.

Your mother in law's idea is a good one. Another thing you can do is get a crock pot, and use that to cook lots of soups, stews, and pot roasts: That way your dinner will be waiting when you get home.

Another thing you can do is get several spray bottles. What I do is use two for diluted Lysol (one for the bath and another for the kitchen), 1 for diluted vinegar (for cleaning glass), and one for diluted bleach (great for killing mold and removing certain stains). And get a good supply of cleaning rags. That way in the mornings, you can spray down the sink and toilet and wipe them down so they never get dirty. And do the same with the shower when you're done using it.

If you have laundry, you can start a load in the morning before you head off to work, then put it in the dryer when you come home. The machine can mind itself in the meanwhile.

You and your intended will have to work out how to handle dishes, dusting, vacuuming, mopping the floors, and the garbage take-out. But if you two can work together on this, it really won't be that hard.

Congratulations- and good luck!

Answer 7

I sure hope Dear Hubby will help with the dishes. Make sure you have lots of fresh food in the house by shopping on Sunday. A great dinner does not have to take a long time to make. Gather a bunch of recipes for quick meals to make with fresh food. Stay away from the prepackaged quick meals from the grocery. You know, like Hamburger Helper. Yuck! Not good for your health. Make clean up after the meal "together time" for you and your man. Do laundry in the evening while you watch TV or whatever you do and don't let it pile up. Pick up after yourself and hopefully hubby will too but you may find yourself picking up after him also (And get used to it because if you have kids it only gets worse!) If you keep things picked up as you go its much easier to take an hour or two to "clean" on Saturday. By clean I mean, floors vaccuumed and mopped, dusting, and toilet scrubbed.

Answer 8

Do a little bit every day. Pick up clutter, do a load of laundry, keep up w/ the dishes. Then on Saturday do the more detailed cleaning. clean the bathroom, vacuum, dust. If you keep up with it it's not so overwhelming and it really won't take you all that long on Saturday to clean. Invest in a crock pot and a dishwasher! And Congratulations! Hope you have a long and happy life together!

Answer 9

Don't make the same mistake I did. I was so happy to play house I never asked him to do anything. 24 years later I am still pulling my hair out. Start from the get go. This is a 50-50 partnership. Make sure you both equally do what needs to be done. If you don't it will only get worse as years go by, and you will become more and more resentful. Good luck.

Answer 10

If you and your fiance work equal hours, you should split the workload at home. Train him now or you will regret it later! Make a list of all of the chores for the month and take turns picking until the list has been allocated.
Your MIL's advice should have been to enlist your fiance's help.