Cleaning During Daycare Hours...

[jen]

I don't do yard work, but I don't do it ever, so that doesn't really count. I do laundry, but my laundry room is right off the playroom. I balance my check book and pay bills, the computer is in the playroom. I do the dishes after each meal, sweep up the sand that comes in every day! Whatever needs to be done, I do.

When daycare is done for the day, I want my home NOT to look like 8 kids have spent the day demolishing it! Although..the kids pick up the toys, not me!

[PeanutsGalore]

I don't do yardwork. That's not my job! I only help with the yard as need be, and that's in the form of taking some of my salary and hiring someone to cover whatever needs to be done on an emergency basis. If yardwork can be called an emergency...

I only do what has to be done during the day. Like today, the fride hasn't been cleaned for eons, so I cleaned inside and out. Yesterday, it was laundry; sometimes, I'll do a quick sweep and then sanitize the floors if someone forgets to take shoes off when they walk into the house.

What gets done everyday on a regular basis is keeping the kitchen clean, keeping the nursery/changing station/daycare closets clean, sanitized and organized, sweeping up after the kids and keeping toys/bottles/pacis clean and sanitized.

[Lianne]

I do anything and everything during childcare hours but only if I want to. Sometimes I don't want to do house/yardwork with the kids around so I wait til they're gone. I don't do everything everyday. Heck, I often don't do one thing in a day, . What I choose to do during daycare hours also depends on the group in my care that day. If I can trust them to play well, I can get more accomplished. On days I have young toddlers, chances are, I'm not going to get much extra accomplished.

My thoughts are that every job has it's perks and drawbacks. Some jobs get lots of vacation time, some have long hours, some get paid lunch breaks, some do not. A draw back to home daycare is there is no true lunch break. A perk to doing home daycare is that I can get house/yard work done while the kids are here.

[rjskids]

For just starting out also, I liked hearing how everyone else does it. I think of it this way...when I worked in a center there was work and clean up that had to be done before we closed at night. When that last child left we had to clock out and leave also so all cleaning (bathrooms, garbages, floors, dishes, laundry) had to be DONE before close and ready for the next day. Usually the late kids that were there till closing time knew this routine and loved to help with it. And vise versa for the morning. We had kids walk in the door right at 6 am and that is what time I had to clock in. So any opening procedures also had to be done while I had kids in tow. Just as we had to keep the center clean through out the day I also will have to keep my house clean.
Obviously places like our bedrooms, yard, major cleaning will be weekend chores like usual.
Here is my "plan". My DD has to get up at 6 to start getting ready for school. So that will be my morning cleaning time (sweeping floors, putting any dishes away, picking stuff up) and I will do this while I'm waiting for daycare kids to arrive. Any messes made during daycare will be cleaned up DURING daycare. Cause I agree...once my doors are closed I want it to by my family time. So as it gets close to closing and we are waiting for parents to pick up it will be "clean the basement" time. And I'm not a yardwork person but any doggie messes and watering of plants can also be done while kids are playing.
I just hope I can keep this up! haha! I'm such a procrastinator!!!

[jojosmommy]

I do what I can based on the group I have on a particular day. I just make the weekly rounds depending on what needs it most at any one time. If my group is more needy that day then I do little to nothing, if not then I throw in a load or wipe up something. I don't like cleaning for 2 hours after I get done with my already long day- that is my time with my family.