How does it all get done?

My husband is retired, I'm not quite there yet, but not working as I look after grandson for two and a half days and visit my 91 year old mother every other day. (Sadly she has mixed dementia and lives in housing with care). Husband is very much a "take life as it comes" person, while I have always been someone who lives by lists. However, I've found life to be much more agreeable since I adopted my husband's point of view. Necessary stuff gets done and the house is clean and comfortable, but I enjoy just "being" too.

I don't have a "timetable" for chores, they get done as & when just like when I worked. I've never been a great one for housework, as long as bathroom & kitchen are clean and washing done I can live with the dust.

I go out quite a bit with friends & Appointments are made for late morning if possible.

Sunday is my "special" day, get up when I wake up, read my Sunday Papers, do crosswords & sudoku, generally laze around unless I'm going out for Lunch or visiting family.

I have no-one to please now as I'm Widowed, life runs to my timetable as much as possible.

Coconut.Living alone there is no one to notice my can't be bothered days, or lazed in the garden on a sunny summers day instead of getting on with the ironing.

Ooh I think I must be a bit odd. I have a timetable -so I stay fit and meet real people. - Monday Pilates, Tuesday swim, Wednesday domestic day and singing, Thursday Zumba, Friday coffee meet up with friends
That’s where we are all going wrong. WE DON’T MEET REAL PEOPLE

Horses for courses sandelf your rigid week sounds like the week from hell to me and I reserve the right to have the/coffee/lunch/a drink with friends on days other than Fridays! Also to react spontaneously to impromptu invitations and apart from Paws current health issues which make it hard to leave him, the freedom to hop on a train to London for an exhibition or to Birmingham or to go to the theatre, ballet or cinema. Oh or read a book, walk the dog or potter in the garden. And if I am following hubby around it is probably because I am pushing his wheelchair!
Remind me in future to look out for real people to meet

I've never had routines for cleaning, ironing, etc. It's always got done as and when needed or when I can be bothered - not always the same thing...
However I will still usually have a bit of a blitz if anyone's coming to stay - only difference in recent years is that I need my glasses on to see dust, cobwebs, etc!

Before I retired I’d spend a few hours st weekends washing, ironing, dusting, polishing, vacuuming etc. Now my housework gene has vanished and I do everything when I can be bothered, the only 2 things I stick to on regular days are changing the bed and cleaning the bathrooms. My Sister visits in 2 weeks it’ll all be spick and span before that!

I've met you Maw and I'm fairly sure we are both real people or at least were then.

Same as Bags post - It never all gets done. We've survived so far

Sadly, the sod-it days mightily outweigh the get-on-with-it days

Invited retired friends for lunch- Oh sorry, we always go to Waitrose on Wednesday, came the reply- how sad is that?

I have a few groups I attend each week, other than that I do as I want to, with no routine, having to do certain things on certain days, that was what we had to do all our working lives. I have a fridge magnet which says"retirement is when the sun rises and you dont!"

Beginning to feel lazy reading posts about 'window cleaning, deep cleaning, ironing etc'!!

winifred01 may I come instead?!

Learning to procrastinate is a good start

Are Gransnetters all virtual people with virtual lives? Or are there real people behind the usernames?

I think I’m real, Jalima.

We have regular stints each week with the DGC (which we love), but nothing else is set in stone. I’m busier than I’ve ever been, but now just about everything I do is what I want to do, and it’s great! I never was one for housework, and it really doesn’t take long unless the family’s been round. I still love a to do list, and there’s still a lot on mine. I might never get round to writing that novel, or clearing that spare room, but I get round it by adding anything I actually have done, then crossing it off. Very satisfying. Today I’ve booked another trip away.

I like a routine, bit boring I know. That's how I am.
My gd lives with us and when she first came she was all over the place with sleep time, schooling meals etc.
She loves her routine and our social wirker said it was the best thing for her.

How does al WHAT get done indeed?! I do not recognise these organised lives - they certainly bear not the slightest relation to mine.

The priority is singing, going for walks, gardening, meeting friends, working for choral society and organising their publicity, looking after GC, running a village library and book club, doing school governor stuff, looking after OH etc. etc.

And now and again I happen to notice that a floor needs cleaning (about once a year!), or some washing needs doing, or we have run out of food (oops!).

Domestic activities are at the bottom of the list - or even off the bottom - and we all seem to survive.

Maggiemaybe I'm with you on the trip I have have just come back from hols with DD to Majorca and booked again to-day for hubby and I in March,between now and then I shall be doing what is needed and nothing more since retiring properly this time around I have stepped back completley,shop and clean when necessary see friends when I want and get up when I want,pure luxury in my book.

I love being retired and like so many others, like to keep the weekend special. When I was working it was so busy at the weekend, shopping washing other domestic stuff and looking after my first set of grandchildren, older children at home and elderly parents. It's a relief not to always feel that wherever I am, I ought to be somewhere else.
I do have some routines because I have pilates, yoga, grandchildren and dog related duties but otherwise, I'm flexible. Its a real joy not to have to get up and go to work, to work at night or at the weekend to get all the necessary work completed (it never was totally completed)
I do like a clean kitchen floor and the presence of various small children and dogs means I clean it at least once a week. Everything else gets fitted in between other more enjoyable stuff.
Retirement is fabulous.

Sheilasue I think it’s a bit different for you, as you have a DGD to bring up, so you both need routines.
Some people without children in the house like routines as well, but must say that I don’t, and find it joyous to wake up and think, what shall I do? It wouldn’t do for us all to be the same, as my dear Gran used to say.

After five years of retirement I still haven't got rid of my "organisation skills that i had at work". I inadvertently transferred it to my "retired life"..its not a problem, as it gives me a lot of free time, so I don't think I'll change my ways. I have a blackboard and get such pleasure erasing all of the tasks I have completed...such joy..or just a saddo!

Won’t answer that W11girl

I think I was born to retire but no matter how organised/disorganised my week might be, Friday night still feels like Friday night.

CdSheliasue, yes it is different for you, my gd lived with us until she was 12 and what a joy as well as hard work. But now 10 years into retirement I could be described as a slob! Get up when I feel like it and do what I want when I want. Tend to invite friends around for a meal and natter once a month so we do a better clean than usual but other than that housework is at the bottom of the list. Activities we do depend on the weather as they are mostly outdoors. I was born to retire, suits my nature.

I am something of a domestic slut. I have spent most of the spring and summer on my mission to knock my garden into shape . And just being out in the garden doing things is a real pleasure and relaxing . The dust is not too deep. It can wait . I have a few things planned two different choirs . A knitting "club" Wednesday . U3A Thursday afternoon . Friday is when I usually go shopping that habit is left over from when it was the one day I did not work. The last thing you want to do when you are retired is to be rigid about when you do what .