Going Back to Work FT After Being a SAHM

The easiest and quickest way to deal with it is to lower your standards.

However, put a load of washing on each morning. Whoever gets home first can put it out.
Put the dishwasher on each evening. Have one of the kids unload it in the mornings.
Get a Roomba and/or a Scooba - thus dispensing with floor cleaning. Put it on every morning when everyone leaves so your floors are clean when you come home, and every evening when you go to bed, so they're clean when you get up.
Give the kids breakfast cereal for dinner every now and then. It can be a healthy alternative.
Keep some bathroom swipes in the bathroom and give the sink and toilet a going over after you've done your makeup in the morning - it takes 15 seconds.
Get your husband to clean the shower with a squeegee when he's showering.

Don't spend your children's childhood cleaning. Use the time with them wisely.

The hardest thing to do is learn to let go of your standards - just a little bit. Wouldn't you rahter be a mom who cuddles on the couch or reads a book without looking at her watch? you don't want to find yourself screeching about the dust bunnies (although you will and you'll be shocked at the crazy woman who invaded your body). REalize that something's got to give - would you rather it be your home, your marriage, your parenting or you? No kid or husband ever dies becuase of a messy home and a clean one is not worth a nervous breakdown.

When i found myself staying up until 1:00 to clean, and becoming a raving lunatic when the sun rays hit the dust bunnies one saturday morning I realized I had to change myself.

One day your kids will be old enough to clean and you can creat a checklist for cleaning up dinner, cleaning the bathroom, you can go to work and leave them lists that say: empty the dishwasher, vacuum the kitchen and dining room, clean out the weapon bin (nerf weapons) and store them in the basement, etc. I am finally at that stage and it works well as motivation to earn money or go places they want to go.

In the meantime you have to decide what's more important - having a perfect home of having good relationships with your husband & kids. (Then consider a cleaning lady every other week for the big stuff.)

You will be bringing in money.. Hire a housekeeper to come 4 hours 1 day a week and let her know what you want her to do,..

Clean all bathrooms, mop the kitchen, vacuum all carpets..

Laundry

whatever you want her to do.. Or ask her to come 6 hours and she can do everything..

It will make your week so much smoother and allow you all to spend time together on the weekends with out all of the stress.. Also at night, your child is going to be exhausted after school and will need to eat and prep for bed earlier.. You will want to be a part of this each night. When our daughter started school, I became a personal cook for a gentleman and his daughter. I made up a menu for the week with a healthy snack for her each afternoon. I left it there in the fridge so they could just microwave it. We ate the same thing for dinner..

Maybe you can find someone willing to prep food for all of you.

Make a weekly menus so you will always know what to prep the night before and if your husband gets home first, he knows what he should start cooking.

I do a load in the morning and in the afternoon throw it in the dryer. and start another load, the next morning, throw the load in the dryer and start all over again.. We all fold clothes in the evenings. it is an ongoing thing at this point, since it so hot, we tend to change clothing more often than in the winter.

I do one load of laundry a day. I use my crockpot a lot. I cook for two or three days at a time (or at least I used to, but now they eat it all within a day). I lowered my standards. A lot. I work full time and I always have. My youngest is 19 months old, so he just goes around making messes. It is like living with Pig Pen. Figure out what is more important to you and leave everything else for later. I have to invite people over every couple of months or "later" never arrives. Take any help that is offered to you. Right now my husband is home with all three kids while I am work during the day, so they are there eating and making messes all day. I sweep and do dishes daily. Laundry folding (which I hate) usually gets done on the weekend. Make a daily to do list - especially at first. It will help you get into your new routine, stay organized, and you will get a nice feeling of accomplishment when you check off a task. Planning meals helps a lot because you know what you are going to have and you have all the stuf on hand. If there are clean dishes in the dishwasher, use them for dinner instead of the ones in the cabinets - less to unload later. Enjoy your new job!

The biggest thing will be getting your husband (and you) to understand that he doesn't "pitch in" or "help you" anymore. Running your household is as much his job now as it will be yours. He can't play the perpetual new employee, assuming that if no one asked him to do anything that there's nothing to do. Yes there will be a learning curve but use your FlyLady control journal as guide for both of you. Sit down with him and show him what needs to get done every day/week/month and divvy up the day to day tasks: "Would you like to reboot the laundry in the morning or pack lunches? If I clean up after dinner can you take care of baths? I'll take care of bill payments if you take care of scheduling doctor and dentist appointments. Would you rather swish and swipe or empty the dishwasher?" etc. Give him some time to get up to speed but eventually, he should own as much of this as you do.

Then for you...learn to lower your standards. Use that FlyLady calendar for keeping track of school stuff. The crock pot can be your best friend. Stick to your basic FlyLady routines but don't worry about the daily missions or detailed cleaning, at least for a while.

In my opinion stuff stays a lot cleaner when no one is home all day making messes. I had less work to do actually. Dinner is the only thing that really takes time.

A lot of people do sports and dance and lot of other stuff every evening and work too. They make it work and you will do fine too.

Just start a load of clothes each evening while dinner is cooking then once dinner is done switch out the washer and dryer. The clothes will be dry by kids bedtime. Then you will have some time after everyone's in bed to put them up. This way there won't be a ton of laundry on the weekends. Just the deeper cleaning like mopping and vacuuming.

I have a dry erase calendar in the fridge, and I make sure every activity is on there, including cleaning things. Like, monday is clean the kitchen day, tuesday is clean the bathroom day, etc. That way everything gets clean once a week. And for laundry, I do one load a day by putting it in the wash before I go to work and putting it in the dryer when I get home.

How old are your kids? Are they old enough to help out by having chores?