If you had all day to stay home, how long would the basic necessities take?

[Early Bird]

If you were a SAHM (with kids in school) or retired, how long would you spend every day on the basic necessities? And how much free time would you have?

Here are what I consider basic necessities:

• housework
• laundry
• hygiene
• meal planning and prep
• paperwork/bills

[Neeley]

If you were a SAHM (with kids in school) or retired, how long would you spend every day on the basic necessities? And how much free time would you have?

Here are what I consider basic necessities:

• housework
• laundry
• hygiene
• meal planning and prep
• paperwork/bills

I am a SAHM to two teenagers. Here is how much time, on average I spend on the items you listed:

Hygiene: 30 minutes - shower, teeth, dress. If I am going out of the house for errands then add another 30 minutes for make-up and hair.

Laundry: 0-20 minutes - We do 20 to 25 loads a week. I say "we" because DH drops a load in the washer every morning and most nights. All of the clothes are folded and hung on Sunday as a family chore.

Paperwork/Bills: 0-5 minutes - The only bills we have are basic utilities, insurance, tuition and a mortgage. It may take all of five minutes a month to pay our bills. Not one person only pays the bills. DH may handle them one time and I may the next. We don't have any other paperwork.

Meal planning/Prep: 10 - 15 minutes for the planning and prep. I do not do a meal plan whatsoever. Everyone in our family cooks dinner. It is not something I do alone. There are days when I never fix a thing other than breakfast because DH or DD will make dinner and DS will make lunch. Then other days when I may make all three meals. Either way, I am not in the kitchen for long periods of time since everyone pitches in.

Housework: 30 minutes a day at the most. Chores and housework are also split between everyone in the house. Everyone has set chores they do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. There are other chores that one person or another has just taken on as their responsibility and then some we just all get together and do as a group. Again, chores and general housework are not left up to just me.

I have as much free time as I want. If I want to spend all day to myself doing nothing then I do. DH and the kids are not demanding on me. They know how to take care of themselves, fix their own food, drive themselves, wash their clothes, etc... But on average, I have about six hours of true free time to do what I want without guilt.

[baxjul]

Housework: I spend appx 1 hour a day. If I have laundry to fold and hang, then it's about 1 1/2 hours/day.

Hygiene : about 30 minutes. I shower, put on a little makeup. Unless I'm going out, then I style my hair.

Meal planning and prep: I don't really plan in advance. I always know what I'm making when I get up in the morning. I use the crockpot a lot.

Bill paying: about 5 - 10 minutes. I pay them every week on Monday, usually online.

[Contrary Housewife]

I stay at home, no kids. Maybe I have less to clean.

Housework: it varies, 15 minutes to an hour, not daily. Once or twice a week, not counting dishes. Dishes might be 30 minutes every other day. DH helps.

Laundry: DH does his own. I bought myself enough socks and things that only have to do a load every few weeks. So maybe 30 minutes between carting it downstairs and then carting it back up when it is clean.

Hygiene: daily 10-15 mins morning and night, I wash hair twice a week and that takes 30-40 minutes.

Meal planning: cooking is sort of a hobby so a lot of time goes into this. Prep might take 15 minutes or two hours depending on what I'm making. Planning I do once a week when the sale flyers come out, I spend maybe 15 minutes reading over each web ad, making lists, and anywhere from 10 mins to an hour considering menus.

Bill paying: I write checks twice a month, takes maybe 15 minutes to write and stamp everything.

[MomToTwoBoys]

If you were a SAHM (with kids in school) or retired, how long would you spend every day on the basic necessities? And how much free time would you have?


Here are what I consider basic necessities:

• housework
• laundry
• hygiene
• meal planning and prep
• paperwork/bills

I'm also a SAHM and I usually spend all day getting everything done. Depending on what else I have planned besides the basic necessities, I may not get to all of them like I wanted to:

Housework - I do one room a day. I don't do more than that unless it's necessary. Depending on the room, it can take me a few hours.

Laundry - This is scattered throughout the day, but it usually takes me a few hours to do this as well.

Hygiene - It takes me 5 minutes to shower and then 5 more minutes to do other things (like shaving my legs). My hair is short, so it takes me enough time to brush it and put a headband in it. Makeup takes me about 2 minutes. If I am going out, it's the same.

Meal Planning/Prep - It depends on the dish. Prep can take me anywheres from half of an hour to two hours.

Paperwork/Bills - I pay bills every two weeks and that takes me about 15 minutes. Any paperwork that I have, I do it as soon as I get it. We don't usually have paperwork every day, but I also include budget data entry as part of my paperwork.

I have roughly about four hours a day that I can relax. For the last five months, I haven't had all that much time to relax. Between gardening, painting and all, I can be on my feet from 9am to 5pm and then still have to fit housework in. I decided to start scheduling a couple days a week to spend taking care of the house, while the other days are devoted to the renovations/gardening. I try to get in some exercise during the morning, as well.

Once the kids get home, I am busy with dinner and then bathing them and making sure that they get into bed on time. That takes me from 4pm to 8:30pm, depending on the day of the week.

[Early Bird]

I'm also a SAHM and I usually spend all day getting everything done. Depending on what else I have planned besides the basic necessities, I may not get to all of them like I wanted to:

Housework - I do one room a day. I don't do more than that unless it's necessary. Depending on the room, it can take me a few hours.

Laundry - This is scattered throughout the day, but it usually takes me a few hours to do this as well.

Hygiene - It takes me 5 minutes to shower and then 5 more minutes to do other things (like shaving my legs). My hair is short, so it takes me enough time to brush it and put a headband in it. Makeup takes me about 2 minutes. If I am going out, it's the same.

Meal Planning/Prep - It depends on the dish. Prep can take me anywheres from half of an hour to two hours.

Paperwork/Bills - I pay bills every two weeks and that takes me about 15 minutes. Any paperwork that I have, I do it as soon as I get it. We don't usually have paperwork every day, but I also include budget data entry as part of my paperwork.

I have roughly about four hours a day that I can relax. For the last five months, I haven't had all that much time to relax. Between gardening, painting and all, I can be on my feet from 9am to 5pm and then still have to fit housework in. I decided to start scheduling a couple days a week to spend taking care of the house, while the other days are devoted to the renovations/gardening. I try to get in some exercise during the morning, as well.

Once the kids get home, I am busy with dinner and then bathing them and making sure that they get into bed on time. That takes me from 4pm to 8:30pm, depending on the day of the week.

After reading about your kitchen remodeling, I was particularly interested in how you manage all that!

[MomToTwoBoys]

I have to cut up sections of the remodeling if I want to get anything else done.

I usually wake up in the morning and get the kids off to school first. By around 9am, I've had some coffee and I usually start then. I got into the habit of prepping the area the night before after the kids go to bed, so it's easier to get things done in a timely manner the next day.

If I'm doing a huge portion of the work, I'll set up the crockpot and rice cooker for the evening. If not, I make sure I'm done before 3pm (if I'm painting and have to move appliances, I stop by 2). That gives me 5-6 hours to do what I want, minus time for lunch and picking on Russ.

The most time-consuming part of the renovation is done. Now I just have cabinets to prime and paint, then doors to hang and handles to attach. I try to do one upper and one lower cabinet a day. Priming takes me a while, given that I put two coats on the wood. I then do one really good coat of paint and spend a lot of time cleaning up. If the paint's gonna take a while to dry, then I'll squeeze in either bill payments/paperwork or lunch or cleaning up a room.

I got into the habit of spending at least 5 minutes when I enter a room to clean up a little bit, then I do what I came in there to do. I'm all over the house, so I think that's how I keep up with housework a lot of the time.

[nuisance26]

~About two to three hours for the things you mentioned. Right now I'm spending three to four but everything is always a bit behind. Of course, I also have to get in homeschooling, outside time with the kids, sewing and computer time. My FV time is not free time. FV is my sanity bridge. It keeps me motivated and organized so it's completely necessary for me.
I get about 3 hours a day(most of that is after dinner clean-up) of actual free time to read, watch tv or browse online.~

[Libby]

I am currently unemployed & caring for my aging father with sometimes failing health...so free time is spurts in between activities or events - we go out on a moments notice and only plan to go to one store locally and end up across town spending the whole day out.

Housework - I try to spend 2-3 hours on this daily but this includes general clean up of the kitchen and sanitizing it after each meal my dad prepares: wiping down counter, stove and dishes. This also includes me trying to purge/declutter a lil each day. Sometimes I don't get to it b/c I'm either busy or out or lazy.

Laundry - Done once a week during evenings or weekends when hydro is at a lower rate, max time spent 2 hrs? I wash everything and hang dry most and toss 1 load in dryer. This includes both my dads and my own clothes & towels. Bed linen weeks take longer - sometimes 4 hrs if I'm diligent with changing the loads on time.

Hygiene - Wash and go kinda gal here - max 30 mins/day total for everything. Getting ready to go out somewhere not errand related = more effort = more time spent primping...not often I get gussied up to go out either

Meal Planning & Prep - 5 minutes. Our meal planning is spur of the day - depends on our activities/errands and where we'll be but usually we decide in the am/noon hour and pull something out to defrost in time for dinner here. I wish we could meal plan but my dad's not into that no matter how much I try. Its a lost cause.

Paperwork & Bills - Paper is another nemesis of mine! This goes under the 'housework' category with regards to filing/purging. Bills are paid weekly and takes me about 5 mins to pay...I don't really shop and I only have 1 cc which I pay online. I do spend about 15 mins/wk reviewing budget and planning future spending though.

Procrastinating & Wasting Time Being Unproductive - heh WAY too much time hence the reason why I'm usually here at the village and on the net or watching junk tv thats starting to rot my brain

[monkeywrangler71]

I don't know how long housework takes without kids, I'm thinking we'll send them to school in the fall and find out.

Cooking takes about an hour some days, less others. I don't have time (or an oven) to bake anymore, that would be a couple hours a week.
I spend about 1/2 to 1 hour every weekend on our finances - bill paying, updating accounts, reviewing our portfolio, etc.
After supper clean up takes about an hour.
Hygiene is about 10 minutes twice a day.
Laundry is a few hours a week (line drying), folding I do while watching tv in the evening.

Painting and repairing consumes all of my time now. I'm dreaming of living in a fancy apartment where I don't have anything to fix.

[freebs]

Ya know i have a few days off a week right now and it seems like i dont get anything done! I do eat lunch and sit here and my do some laundry and before i know it, kids and hubby are home and i really havent done anything...lol

[bumplett]

I work part time -

now I feel guilty for playing online

I think I'll go dust something

[lwlynch]

I am a stay at home mom and I really couldnt tell you how long anything takes, I multi task about everything. The only down time I usually get is from 12-2 which is the babys nap time. pretty much go from 6am to 7am when the baby goes to bed. when i am not doing house stuff, then i am writing, playing with the kids. I am a very active hands on mom. I may be showing my kids how to bake a cake, to playdough.. it varys.. I feel it just never stops. I do try to clean one room well everyday. No more than that or I will just get myself tired and then I am no fun...lol.. I guess I didnt even answer the questions..lol

[chevy_chick95]

* housework- daily about an hour.

* laundry-I do laundry on monday. it takes 5 or so hours depending if its bedding week or not

* hygiene- 30 minutes or so a day

* meal planning and prep- i spend 30 mintes every sunday and make up next weeks menu

* paperwork/bills- total about 1 hour a month. but i spend much more time pouring over my budget spreadsheet, for no reason other than it keeps me motivator.

[Early Bird]

Please keep your answers coming -- they're inspirational.

I have (finally) figured out that, if I can declutter and get my act together, I'll have a lot more free time.