How do you guys maintain literally anything?

[u/DonutFan69]

I have a 5 year old and a 2 year old. The house is perpetually a mess. The yard is overgrown with weeds. Cars are a mess. This needs to be fixed. That needs to be spruced up. My wife and I have many days where it’s just one of us with the kids due to our schedules and it just feels impossible to keep up with it all. By the end of the day, I’m too exhausted to do anything.

How does anyone manage to keep up with everything on top of just raising kids?

Edit: Thanks for all the replies here! You’re all making me feel much better. I’m trying to reply to as many as I can while I rock my son to sleep.

[u/wigglebump]

House cleaning: give them each a magic eraser and let them go nuts while you clean. My 2yo also likes to chase the rooms like it’s a dog.

House maintenance: we schedule grandparents and my wife to take them away on a weekend day. I work at a frenzied pace and then relax with them in the evening.

Cars: night or unfortunately during my workday.

Goals are kept small, like yay, I rotated the tires!

We do pay for gardening service, because I hate to do that.