Cleaning up an Hour Before Your Spouse Gets Home.

hahaha, that was my normal routine. I even spritzed pinesol here and there so it SMELLED clean when he got home.... the aroma of pinesol is a great way to run interference.
If the dishes were done THAT was what made the house seem clean. A sink full of dishes and a messy kitchen counter is the first thing most people look at and decide the house is a mess.... that and the bathroom.

No, I don't do this. He stayed with my son ONE day while I had a day to myself. He knows I don't do squat all day!! Even if cleaning isn't what I'm doing all day, he knows I have plenty to do.

1 hr? Wow, you're good!

Me? More like 20 minutes. He pings, "I'm starting"....and when he enters the door 20 min ltr, the house is sort of neat. He probably would like more than 'just neat', but lets me be. :)
I reward him with 'really spotlessly neat' once in a while..

If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done...and some days it still doesn't!

So funny. I also totally do this. I don't know what the deal is. It is the same with me. And even though you say you squandered the day I am gonna bet you got your kids fed, did a load of laundry, cleaned the mud off the floor from the dog (at least twice), consoled a friend, made a grocery run, played with your kids, checked on his Mom, swept the patio, dropped your sister off at the dealership, bought the kids new shoes, and on and on and on. Yet somehow, if the beds aren't made and the dishes are in the sink we feel like we didn't do "our jobs." All those darn commercials in the 1950's and 60's suggesting what a good wife and mother should be is still affecting us. It's crazy!

This is so funny!! I do this too but I can't figure out for the life of me WHY!!! And no, I'm not going to get a whoopin or anything - if he EVER touched me in that way he'd be out the door in a heartbeat!!

The only thing I can figure is because my Mom was like this and it's ingrained in my brain - she was the typical 50's wife that would do the cleaning, cooking, etc. and then have the house spotless when my Daddy came home. How she did it all, I'll never know!!!

I still love being the stay-at-home mom, and that whole "scene" but I know I'll never be as good as my Mom!!

Fun question!!

Yes, but not trying to be sneaky...
I just find that if I spend a lot of time on it throughout the day, that the kids trash it right before he gets home. Or I do, because I get the mail and have the bills all spread out, etc...

He comes in and puts his "stuff" on the island. Right in the middle, or the end, or .. wherever. So I make sure it is cleaned off, so he doesn't plop stuff down in the middle of something gross. LOL

I personally don't like coming home to a mess. So I try to pick up pretty well in the 30 minutes or so before he gets home, and also in the 10 minutes or so before I have to go anywhere. I do stuff all day, but only whatever I plan to do already, not the "when he gets home I don't want him to see THIS mess" stuff. I mean.. he doesn't notice that clothes are washed and put away, usually. But that can cumulatively take hours. But he notices if the coffee pot hasn't been cleaned out/grounds dumped. He notices if there is newspaper all over the sofa. He notices if the kids have left stuff all over the family room. Shoes everywhere. Dirty cups on all the kitchen counter spaces.
He doesn't notice a vacuumed rug. Or sheets being changed in the kids' rooms. Or closets de-cluttered, reorganized (unless it is HIS closet). He's unaware of how many times I took the dog out to exercise. Or how much time I supervised the kids in the pool. Or how long it took to balance the checkbook, pay the bills, and figure the budget for the next paycheck (summer camp, vacation, tournaments, birthdays, etc). He doesn't SEE that stuff. If he doesn't see it, it doesn't exist, ya know?
So I spend the last part of the day just before his arrival cleaning off the surfaces. The kitchen counters are as clean as I can get them (some clutter just breeds and will NOT go away!), the sofas are cleared of misc "sctuff", the games/cases are put up, shoes are put in rooms, folded laundry is put away/hung up, the newspaper goes in the bin, etc.

But, the day does get away from me sometimes too.
Yesterday, I baby sat 2 kids for a friend (just turned 3 yr old and a 2 month old) until right before it was time for us to walk out the door for an appointment for my son. Mom showed up for her kids, we left 10 minutes later and didn't get home until 7:15 pm. I told husband, "sorry everything was such a mess.. I got NOTHING done with the little ones there"... he says, "looks like it always does". :/
So... hmmm.... maybe he is even less observant than I think. The kitchen was disgusting, the trash smelled of poopy diapers, the coffee was still in the pot and so were the grounds. There was stuff on the counter I didn't want to throw out b/c I didn't want to open the lid to the trash, b/c it was so stinky (it was pouring rain... so I didn't make my son with the cast that can't get wet take it out in the rain).

But, he was happy that I had done the kindness for our friend, and our son got his cast off, and that was that. :)

Yup, yup. :) I don't do the whole house, but I almost always make sure the kitchen is spotless. I cleaned the house top to bottom the other day, and have been doing a really good job of keeping it that way....let's see how long it will last this time. :)

I actually like to clean my house in the morning. We often are out of the house by 10sih and don't come home until 1ish. When we come home it is nap/quiet time for all...including me. I don't like coming home to a dirty house either...so before we leave in the morning, I pick up and vaccuum. The dishes...well...they get done when I get to them...usually in the evening after dinner.
If we happen to stay home all day...then I still vaccuum in the morning, then play with the kids the rest of the day.

Ha, I do this EVERY day. He always texts me when he's leaving work. This means I have 15 minutes. So I tell DD "we need to clean up because Daddy's on his way home". Toys get picked up. I vacuum if necessary. If I forgot any laundry in the dryer I fold it and put it away if I have time. All of this also depends on what is for dinner. My dailey goal is to have dinner done when DH gets home. Of course nothing happens if these things aren't done. But it's just the way I like to do things. I think it is a sign of respect to have the house clean and dinner done when he gets home. I try to do what I would want and expect if it were reversed.

On the rare time that I am home all day with a sick kid or my babysitter is sick or on vacation, I totally do this. I try to have the house picked up and dinner just about ready when he walks in the door. I wish that he would do this for me when the tables are turned...

HA! I totally do this.

I love my husband to have the house clean when I get home. Doesn't worry me if he does it 5 minutes or 5 hours before.

im the same way sometimes and it drives me nuts that I always wait last minute to get stuff done but when my husband comes in the door and sees me working he thinks ive done more during the day lol.. love being sneaky lol

I do it - rather grudgingly - because she (she) said seeing the mess stressed her out. So now 10 minutes before she gets home I have dinner going, dealing with the clingiest time of day - and bending over picking up toys.

Grrrr.....it ain't sexism, ladies. It's "the grass is easier"...

Nope. Don't do it.

I am lucky to have a husband who spends enough time with my daughter to realize that some things have to just wait.

On the other hand, I usually straighten up in the morning while DD is playing. This means doing dishes, taking dinner out of freezer, laundry, etc.

Also, I am always out when DH comes home so he can have 30 minutes to unwind so he can be refreshed for DD.

I totally do that!

Especially like tonight... he's been gone on business since Tuesday and I had to take my son to his end of school dance. I thought SO might get home while we were at the dance, so I definitely used the hour before the dance to run the vacuum, mop the kitchen, make sure the dishes were out of the sink into the dishwasher, and make the beds with clean sheets.

It isn't like he would even say something about it if it was a mess. I work outside the home too, so it isn't like the household stuff is my JOB, but he's really good about noticing that it IS done, and it makes me feel good to take care of things like that, and makes him feel good to be taken care of.

Lol I used to do that! I really don't even care anymore, now that I realize that hubby doesn't think I'm lazy. I do like for the house to liok nice when he gets home though, i just dont stress over it anymore. (Not saying you stress about it) However, I DO leave all the clean clothes hanging in the laundry room & all the folded clothes in a basket for him to take upstairs when he gets home; mostly because it's much easier on my back if he does it (lol), but it also let's him see all the laundry I did! Hehehee ;p

Ditto.
I assume you are talking about SAHMs?

But I don't see it as doing squat all day.
I have 2 kids, who are in school.
But I am still constantly busy all day whether they are home or not. I don't do squat.
But I do tidy up, before the Husband gets home.
Most of the time.
But if I don't, so what.

My hubby gets home at 5AM I am not even awake lol.

We just had this talk last night. I mentioned how stressed I am before my husband gets home trying to get the house in order and then keep my son from instantly destroying it. Let's just say his initial reaction to this was far less than ideal. BUT after a long conversation he realized that we'd all be happier if 5:00 didn't start with so much tension. Today went great! Didn't hurt that we were out of the house most of the day either...

My husband does more to mess up this house than the kids do (he does clean it up when he has his days off), so no, I don't. I don't care what he thinks, and never have. He has never criticized my housekeeping because he's rarely part of the process.

On the rare days that I actually HAVE cleaned it all up before he gets home, he always says something nice about it, but he never ever expects it ;)

Housewife trick from ages past: Look Busy.

It's sad, but true.

Even if you spend 14 hours a day busting your hump, if you're relaxing when they walk in the door it's a 'first impressions' kind of psychological trick. Whatever you're doing when someone first sees you, they assume you've been doing it all durn day.

So the 'trick ' IS to clean JUST BEFORE they come home. That way nothing gets messed up again (as it DOES with kids... Spotless in the morning but natural disaster by night), and when they get home and you're just putting the evidence away? Yep. They assume you've been busy all day.

It's not a man thing. Works for SAHDs, too. It's a human thing. First impressions.

Didn't work w MY ex, because I never knew when he'd be home (4pm-4am... Anywhere in that)... Except by dumb luck. And yep! Jerkface thinks those were the only days I actually did anything. But that's the jerk part of Jerkface. Most working spouses are smart enough to realize, even if they don't get the 'Ahhh! A clean house! You've been busy!" feeling when they walk In the door.

Mine KILLS himself so I can stay at home. I've been known to clean up at midnight when he gets home around 1:30 am. I can at least clean up the toys so he doesn't have to kick his way thru the door. LOL!

He would NEVER in a million years say anything about the house. He knows how insane our son can be and we both know how easy it is to get sidetracked and often fall asleep and not get anything you really wanted to get done.

I the same way....I work best under pressure