To have wish I never started cleaning?!

[messybedhead]

Broke up yesterday and need to clean the house from top to bottom.
I've done the bathroom in between wailing like a banshee at the mess, the clutter, the ungrateful DC etc. I've threatened to throw all toys away to make room for the new ones ( and am actually considering doing this).

Now I'm sitting on the stairs sulking. Oh and I'm also premenstrual and dropping and breaking everything.

So AIBU to carry on with kitchen and living room but shut the door to the bedrooms and do that tomorrow when I might not want to kill anyone?!

[messybedhead]

Wished in title not wish! I can't even think straight at the moment

[brainonastick]

What actually needs to be clean and tidy for Christmas? Just your 'communal' areas. Stuff the bedrooms (apart from your own - it will give you a haven to retreat to on Christmas day). Go and have a .

[messybedhead]

Need to do DC room so it's in a reasonable state before adding more junk to it on Tuesday.

We aren't even here for Christmas but I just have the fantasy of waking up Christmas Eve to a show home and spending it carefree drinking baileys and watching Christmas films .

I know I'm being a brat and lots of people have to work over Christmas and so I should be grateful that I'm alive.

But but but I just want to stamp my feet and have a nice home!

[JustOneMoreCoffee]

Haha I feel your pain, I had a frenzied clean yesterday and this morning it still looked like a bomb went off anyway! I'm just having a cuppa now, it can wait its not christmas yet!

[ledkr]

Why do we do this to ourselves? I've managed to calm down this year and keep telling myself its going to get messy anyway but I've already had a rant this morning about people's damn junk everywhere

[ledkr]

It's my wedding anniversary Xmas eve and we are both off so I'm even more pressured to have nothing to do by then

[messybedhead]

Have taken a break to make DC lunch. Scrambled egg on toast is all I can manage today.

Will conquer the rest of the house soon.

I don't know why we do it to ourselves - its not like anyone else notices!

[SantaIAmSoFuckingRock]

i used to do this to myself OP and you know i never acheived an entirely clean house for xmas day. never. i would get some rooms cleaned but not all.

i think if you set yourself a smaller target you are likely to feel happier on xmas day because you will have a big tick mark inside your head rather than feeling like you didn't get everything done.

so what are essential rooms?
for me it would be kitchen, bathroom and living room and stairs/front hall because those are rooms people are going to see if they visit (and kitchen and bathroom for hygiene obviously)

then you decide what is essential within those rooms?
for me it would be:
kitchen: counters cleared and cleaned, all dishes done, table cleared and cleaned, any piles of clutter stacked as neat as possible or put into a big box to hide it, floor swept and clean.

Bathroom: basin, bath, toilet and showerscreen/tiles cleaned with a flash wipe, floor swept and mopped and laundry hidden dealt with.

living room: clutter hidden or made to look as neat as possible, surfaces wiped, soafas wiped (cream leather), floor swept and mopped

stairs: hoovered.

hall: shoes neat in a row and floor swept and mopped.

i did all this today in about 90 minutes. it isn't a deep clean, it's a surface clean but it was definitely enough to pass my mother's inspection

your bedrooms dont need to be clean for xmas, you just need to have space to put new stuff. you have 3 days to have a quick look through all toys and bin what is broken, donate what isn't used and put away the rest. in your shoes i would get thsoe plastic storage boxes and just dump all the' to be kept' toys in them til you can properly sort them.

[ledkr]

Just think at 9 am on Tuesday the floors will be covered with wrapping paper and the kitchen line a bomb has hit it. I also achieved relative perfection yesterday and now I've got washing to go away and kitchen to re clean and tidy grrrrr

[messybedhead]

Thank you I'll be using your list as a checklist.

[SantaIAmSoFuckingRock]

and hint at your DH/OH/DP/DC/yourself to get you a lovely bunch of flowers for the living room. always makes the room look as if someone has made an effort.

[messybedhead]

I know I know. I've got 4 loads of washing to do today so that the only thing I need to wash on Christmas Eve is our bed linen.

It will get done!

[messybedhead]

I have a lovely bunch of flowers that school parents gave me yesterday and that is so true.

I'll put them in the living room once it's done.

[SantaIAmSoFuckingRock]

i'm not even going to tell you how much washing i have to do. you couldn't even guess but i can tell you it wont be done for xmas. it wont even be done for new year. my sheets may or may not be clean for xmas

[messybedhead]

Okay so maybe I won't worry too much about the washing then.

I blame my mum. Everything was so perfect when I was little and I just can't match up to her standards.

[SantaIAmSoFuckingRock]

same!

and we beat ourselves up over it. i have found something that really helps though. it's just to lose the guilt. there is so much in my life that i beat myself up over, and i never get anywhere to change the situation but i decided a few months ago to drop the guilt and just do something when i can. i have achieved so much since then WRT those things and i feel so much better about them because the guilt doesn't help you get things done. just makes you feel bad while not doing it. lose the guilt. do things when you can and have a happy christmas.

[messybedhead]

Thank you I have finished downstairs and just showered/ washed hair... Feel much better now!

[PerpetualAmnesia]

My house is tidy, but I decided to do a deep clean and now it isn't tidy, so I feel your pain!

[SantaIAmSoFuckingRock]

yay!!

well done OP. glad you feel better.

@ perpetual that is why it's never a good idea to do a deep clean!

[digerd]

Nobody notices ? Some years ago, I had been cleaning for days before DB, SIL Niece and dd were coming for my birthday. My niece said several times " Your house is so clean and tidy especially your kitchen" in wonder. I was offended because I had always cleaned for days before they came. < peeved and incredulous face> Come to think of it she hasn't said that in recent years !

[SantaIAmSoFuckingRock]

maybe she was comparing it to her own house?

[Alliwantisaroomsomewhere]

I also like the house to be as clean and as sorted as possible for the big day. I have done about a quarter today of what I should have done. ARGH!!!!

[digerd]

Santa
No hers is spotless and MINIMALISTIC, where as mine is full of stuff - every ledge,shelf and wall is covered and also have a big picture rail in living room. Dusting is a monumental task, so isn't done often.

[DontmindifIdo]

Hm, I've got Monday off work as I thought DS's nursery was closed on Christmas eve and they are open until 1:30pm, so I've got from about 8:30am when I get home from dropping him, until about 1pm when I have to leave again to get the house show home standard. I think this is perfectly possible as we normally have cleaners who do this who work for 3 hours and they will get my house sparkly - however they come on Tuesdays and funnily enough they aren't working this week...

However I expect i'll get distracted by daytime tv something that needs doing. (I also have to bake a cake for DS's birthday on Christmas day, so I bet that end up takes hours - must make something simple, no time for complexity)

[digerd]

DVO I've been waiting for a brilliant performance every week and she has done it, at last.