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My house is gross. But in a perfect world we tidy toys before nap and bed and I do one chore a day, plus kitchen and laundry maintenance. So Mondays vacuum, Tuesdays other floors, Wednesdays bathroom, Thursdays organize something, Fridays off, weekend catch up...

I try to prioritize a few specific cleaning tasks and don't worry about putting toys away until the end of the day. Toys out everywhere isn't gross to me like a dirty floor or bathroom. Not that my floors and bathroom are always clean! But basically I don't do a lot of deep cleaning, just vacuuming as much as I can handle (we have dark wood floors and it really should be done 2-3 times a week but once is good for now ) and I try to keep the bathroom clean. For the bathroom - I can wipe down the sink and clean the toilet in about 10 minutes. The bathtub has needed to be cleaned for um prob 2 months now but it's not gross-dirty like a toilet.

I don't really bother picking up toys til the end of the day, my husband usually does that as I'm putting the baby to bed. But I also think toy-pick up is pretty manageable here bc 1) our daughter is only one so doesn't do harder to clean-up stuff yet (like arts&crafts stuff), and 2) we really don't have that many toys. So maybe pare down your toys if it seems like that might help?

We also have a small house so that helps!

I know how you feel though, we toyed recently with the idea of getting a cleaning service but I can't justify the expense when I think we keep our house acceptably clean without much effort. I would just like a service to do the stuff that I never get around to (like that tub...).

ETA: All kitchen related cleaning I just do as I go so stuff is never piled up. And our kitchen is tiny so I can wipe down the counters in like 2 seconds.

I try to tackle one task a day like @MrsSRS
Though I just got over a cold that lasted a good week and this weekend was catch up.
LO is also really good about putting away his toys and putting his dishes in the sink, laundry in the hamper. He wipes down surfaces too.

Hamster on a wheel here!

This sounds like the story of my life, I feel so defeated at times because once I get one thing done and start the next all efforts of the first thing is already being destroyed... the only time I keep my house decent is if I never stop moving... lol

No great advice, but I can share in your pain. I feel like I spend all of my day cooking and cleaning. It never ends! Try to get your SO more involved so that you don't feel so overwhelmed. I'm working on that right now, but it's difficult with DH trying to get into grad school and house renovations going on around the house.

Same boat. The only real "thing" I do is that I have wipes for everything. Granite wipes, stainless steel wipes, Old English furniture wipes, etc.

I keep a giant canister of Lysol wipes on the island and just wipe down the table, kitchen surfaces, and stovetop and microwave whenever I think of it throughout the day and after I'm done with each wipe, I drop it on the floor and wipe up a small area with my foot before tossing it.

I keep a DustBuster charged on our counter and run it in corners or on DS' play rug and splat mat to keep up with crumbs after meals or snacks. I love the Clorox duster wipes to run over surfaces really fast - especially baseboards. I use Windex wipes for the bathroom mirrors and keep more Lysol wipes in every bathroom. Makes keeping up with the toilets and sinks easier. Tilex spray the shower every night after last person showers. Clorox extra thick toilet gel squirted in the bowl pretty much cleans the inside of the toilet itself.

I'll sweep the kitchen and then hand my husband the Swiffer wet wipes to clean the floors. I'll try to run my Shark steam mop every so often but sometimes Swiffer is what happens. Vacuuming happens once a week or so - it's just what we can manage.

We do laundry nonstop - DH and I keep a darks and whites hamper set in the hall next to the laundry room and as soon as one is reasonably full, it goes in and we've made it a habit to check the washer or dryer whenever we walk by. Clean laundry gets dumped on our bed so it has to get folded before we go to sleep.

We keep one big toy chest in the living room and everything get thrown in there every night after DS goes to bed. Most of the toys just live there. Dishes get done at night and run before we go to sleep.

We got rid of 90% of our toys (well, put away in the closet for now) and it has made a big difference. Even if LO takes out all of his toys, it still only takes 5 minutes to put everything away. And he's been totally cool with it. If he asks for something specifically, I'll go dig it out of the storage box, but for the most part he's content with what he has and actually likes having less clutter around.

I could have written this post, except my version would read "I feel like I'm always trying to clean but having to stop". Saturday morning was the worst. I was cleaning the bathroom until E wet herself. Then I tried again but she was suddenly hungry. After snack, I tried to clean the living room but she wanted to help, which quickly turned into a tantrum when I wouldn't let her spray excessive amounts of polish everywhere. I tried hoovering but we had to take turns and when I tried to enforce that my turn was long enough to actually do some hoovering, she started turning the hoover off over and over, insisting it was her turn. So I left her, having an extended turn, with the hoover and went to empty the dishwasher and, when I got back, she had emptied her toy boxes all over the room. Aaaaagh!

i would prioritize a few "must do" tasks that are manageable for the week, and try to let go of other things. it's super hard to do that sometimes, but we can drive ourselves crazy trying to keep everything spic and span.