Anyone want to join me in becoming more efficient this Autumn?

[Thatsnotmybookworm]

Would anyone like to join me in a thread to encourage ourselves to be more efficient and organised this Autumn?
I'm about to return to work after maternity leave, and I've really enjoyed how organised and (reasonably) calm my life has felt over the past couple of months; I would really like to hang on to that state when I'm back at work, but I'll need to be pretty efficient to manage it; I'll need to figure out lots of shortcuts I think . Time is going to be my most precious resource and I need to manage it accordingly!
Would love some company on my journey

Just adding my name for now will follow and add with interest

Welcome @hobnobsaremyfave. Sounds like a very productive weekend @hidinginthenightgarden.
So far today I have given both upstairs bathrooms a quick clean while DC are in the bath. DS has a cough and I slept in with him last night; he is the most uncomfortable person ever to share a bed with and I ache all over; i think I'm going to have a soak in the bath myself now.

Ok so yesterday didn’t exactly go to plan but I’m back on track today.
Halfway through the washing/drying so far. I’ve also cooked lunch, got the dishwasher on, tidied my room, the bathroom and kitchen. I was in the middle of hoovering when the battery ran out so I took that as a sign to have a well earned sit down

I start thinking about Christmas in July so if I see anything I think someone would like I get it Thats. Only once in all the years I’ve done it have I regretted an early purchase.

Does getting a cleaner for the first time count? I feel like cleaning my house is so boring, time consuming and ultimately joyless that I can spend my time better doing things only I can do while outsourcing my most hated chore. I'm planning to get one after I move house.

Can I join too please?
I'm returning to work 3 days a week in September and my husband is starting a new job which means he'll be away 3 nights a week. It's all on me mom-fri.
I need to be organised and I'm terrified.
I'm one of those people who never plans and hopes for the best!
First off, today I bought a new diary and nice pens

Definitely! I feel I would be so much more organised if I had a place where stuff went away and I could find it easily again.

Have been looking at Clutterbug on Youtube, (which is something I saw mentioned on Mumsnet). Apparently I'm a cricket, so the reason my house is utter chaos is because I want the perfect system or don't do anything and I need to unbend and just do SOMETHING. Looks around at total chaos

Personally I think it's mainly 'cause I've got a HUGE commute, work full time, (...and am a lazy bint).

I've read Kondo, and I draw the line at throwing out screwdrivers because they aren't pretty enough, and don't anthropomorphise my bras... (no, they and all the other items DON'T care how I put them in the drawer.)

But I have made a start on buying plastic boxes and storing stuff I want and then charity-shopping/throwing stuff out. I read about throwing out all the DVD cases and just storing the DVDs in simple
plastic sleeves in alphabetic order. I'm a HUGE movie fan, so have cupboard loads of DVDs, so this would free up major space. But I'm worrying I will regret it later? looking at the box somehow seems like part of the pleasure of getting out the film. Anyone else done this, and not regretted it later?

Welcome everyone .

@AvocadosBeforeMortgages Absolutely getting a cleaner counts if that is what works for you and your family. I have a cleaner once a fortnight and wouldn't be without her. I'm hoping to keep her to once a
Fortnight rather than weekly as I feel the extra money can be spent better elsewhere, and that is one of my aims with this thread - keeping on top of the house for the weeks in between. If it turns out to be an impossible task; I'll change her to weekly, but for now, that's my aim.

Avocado - I have a cleaner who comes once every 3-4 weeks and it’s wonderful! I can keep on top in between. It’s the best money I’ve ever spent on the house I think. Try it and just book a one off clean or a monthly clean to see if it suits you.

Can I join please. I mostly need help organic I g work as home isn't too bad

I'm in! DC3 due in two weeks, third year of a law degree to do alongside it plus two older DC, a marriage, a house and a part time work from home job. I need to be much more organised and efficient!

I’m going n too! I started a thread about BuJo but but no one responded!

Decluttering isnt my problem, I’m fairly ruthless and getting more disciplined with time. My main issues are a) establishing new habits (anything from remembering to file my nails rather than bite them to going to the gym regularly) and b) fitting all the non work things in round work. I’ve been a SAHM for 10 yrs, have recently gone back to work 20 hrs a week, and finding it very hard to fit in all the household / DIY / admin / personal stuff that I used to do when kids were in school and I was at home all day! I’m hoping that a modified BuJo can help me fit all these things in.

Looking forward to all the tips for actually achieving - whatever it is we want to achieve!

Pinterest is your friend @Bogstandardbelle - I used a weekly lay out like a diary on one side of a double page and on the other side, I had my meal plan and gratitude journal and a spending and habit tracker too.

Think I need to go back to it.

Welcome @Queenofthedrivensnow , @BogstandardBelle and @fourplusonemore.
Very busy day today for me, completely overbooked really, but unavoidably so. Hoping to use my To Do list to keep me on track with the day's tasks in the few spare minutes I have:
Laundry
Lay out clothes for rest of week
Dinner
Tidy toy room

@Piewacket I went one step further and got rid of loads of DVD’s and have never regretted it.
I now have a very small selection of my favourite ones and they fit on one small shelf in my living room.
Kondo is a bit extreme but I did the process about 4 years ago and adapted it to what I wanted and I’ve never looked back.

I tried BuJo for awhile but it didn’t suit me. I’ve gone back to an a6 academic diary (fits in with my DC school calendar) that I jot in most days.

I’d really got into the FlyLady shine sink and swish and swipe at the beginning of the year. I’m going to try doing that again as it definitely makes the house feel instantly cleaner

Dinner ✅
Laundry ✅
Today for me was an illustration of how not to do Mondays when I'm back at work (I'll still be off on Mondays), as we were out of the house all day and I got very little organised at home. So it's a reminder to me that I need to spend half the day at home if I want to get properly organised for the week.
@PeterPrunus I don't think I would be able for Marie Kondo but I am trying to throw out something everyday and trying to be much more ruthless about what comes into the house in the first place.

I'm going to keep posting here as motivation for myself even if I'm mostly the only poster
Today I've made a big pot of curry sauce. I'm going to freeze half of it for another time and I'm adding chicken to the other half for dinner today and Thursday; so it will be meals for at least four evenings for one lot of cooking.
I've also laid out/ironed clothes and cleaned shoes for the rest of the week.

I agree Mondays are useful for getting set up for the rest of the week, I usually do mine on Sundays as it ties in nicely for DC at school. Yesterday was a mixture of entertaining DC, shopping, cooking and general tidying. Shined my sink before bed and swish and swiped this morning so feeling quite virtuous as I’m at work today.

I like the sound of your big pot of curry sauce, would you like to share the recipe OP
I’m going to be concentrating more on meals once DC are back at school. I meal plan only loosely at the moment and I’d like to get DC more involved and for us both to eat more healthily.

Hello! I need this thread. I have two school age DD’s and am self employed but I want to get a job early next year. DH is a contractor but work is more scarce now in his field and I am tired of the financial uncertainty.

@PeterPrunus I know I wouldn't be able to actually decide to get rid of DVDs or CDs completely.....I've only just managed to work up to getting rid of some of the masses of books piled around the house (and then only the ones I know I'll never read again).

With DVDs I'll suddenly get the urge to watch something I haven't seen for four years, so they do get rewatched at some point. Mind you, if you can get rid of the whole DVD, surely I can get rid of the covers...so that's encouraged me in that.

It's Jamie Oliver's chicken korma recipe @PeterPrunus; I'll PM you with details.

Welcome @EstherLittle.

That’s very kind of you OP, thankyou. I look forward to trying it out

I’m up and ready to attack the day today, no work for me and my first priority is to swish and swipe.
I started watching some of The Organised Mom methods on YT last night and that’s quite similar to FlyLady but she seems more fun with it.

@Piewacket I totally understand about not wanting to get rid of those that you will use/watch again. If you do get rid of some of the cases though, well done. It’s hard to declutter when you’ve been used to having the physical presence of things around for a long time. I remember feeling very odd about letting anything go, at first, in case I regretted it later.
I can say in all honesty that of all the stuff I moved from my house I might have regretted two or three items. And that was purely because I have rebought them since, luckily they were inexpensive!

I'm in, I've just found this after making a howler of a mistake which has left me thinking I need to write more stuff down nowadays!

I'm also on the Flylady thread here and like 'How Jen Does It' for inspiration (she also uses zones but different ones to Flylady).

Does anyone know of a good back to school
list? The ones I’ve found on Google seem to be about uniform, but I’m thinking of doing one that covers more than that, e.g. signing up for clubs, putting dates in diary when published, buying school meals, haircuts. Now I can’t think of anything further, maybe it is just uniform and I’m trying to be overorganised?

Welcome @SassitudeandSparkle and @camelfinger.

Today I meal planned for next week and did my online grocery shop for delivery on Friday; it's most definitely the thing that can save me the most time in the week.

Meal planning and laying my clothes out the night before are both really good when I do them Yet I haven't put them on my habit tracker I feel a revamp (of the habit tracker) coming on for September!