The Organised Mum Method - have I misunderstood or am I really slow?

[NameChangeyMcChangerson]

I have a new baby, and my house is a tip. I kept seeing people on Mumsnet recommend the organised mum method and saying it's just 45 minutes a day. This seemed like a great plan, as I find it hard to get much done during the day with DS (and I try to be out of the house as much as possible anyway) but I thought DH and I could take it in turns to look after DS and the other one do a 45 minute blitz each day. However, I've just looked at the blog and been seriously put off by this on the 'level 1 jobs':

These never change and are the same every day. This is the minimum that needs to be done in order to maintain an orderly home. This is supposed to be a quick top-level tidy – It should take no longer than 15 minutes. These are not included in your 30 mins because it is assumed that you are doing some (if not all of them) already … these jobs come with the territory of being an adult!

Quick floor clean of main living areas. This obviously depends on what floors you have (carpets, tiles or wood floors). If you have hard flooring mop at least once a week.
1 load of laundry
Quick clean of bathrooms, this includes a mop of the floors at least once a week.
Make beds
A little word on bathrooms… bathrooms are included in your level 1 jobs but you don’t have to do the same thing in there every day. Make sure you change it up so that all areas of the bathroom are getting attention. So, for example, one day you might tackle the floors and another day you might do the mirror and sink (I do clean the toilet daily though).

I can't do that in 15 minutes! Even just folding and then putting away a load of laundry takes me that long (and that doesn't include putting the load on and hanging it up in the first place). Similarly mopping the bathroom floor or hoovering our living room (which is a living room diner, so quite large) take that long once I include getting out and putting away the hoover/mop bucket. So then I wondered whether I was just supposed to do one of the tasks on that list - but surely not as it includes making the bed?! Can other people do that stuff in 15 minutes and if so how?!

Minty I think it’s the extent of the cleaning that some —I— question.

The extent of it Yikes? What’s excessive about it?

I started TOMM about a month ago, Im loving it. My house feels a lot cleaner and I don't feel like Im doing more than I used to, it just feels more focused. I have adapted some bits to suit myself but it feels great now that my weekends are only taken with ironing school uniforms rather than trying to cram everything in.

Echo what everyone is saying about how much more organised you feel and how much cleaner the house is.
Struggling to see how putting a wash in, quick hoover round the table and hall and wipe around the bath and toilet can take any longer than 15 mins tbh. I imagine it's because pps are going into too much detail when they do the jobs.
I have adapted slightly as I have a reasonably clean and tidy house, but with very messy cupboards and drawers.
I also don't mind a little bit of housework at the weekends.
So I follow religiously Mon-Fri, then do the utility room Saturday and the kitchen floor on Sunday night, as it would take up the whole half hour of 'kitchen day' otherwise (vast expanse of cream tiles).
I also tackle an additional cupboard from the Friday focus room at some point over the weekend, just until I get some order.
My two top tips that have made an enormous amount of difference are: A: Get a rechargeable cordless hoover and B. Keep a bucket of cleaning materials and cloths upstairs as well as downstairs, doubling up if neccessary. It's made a massive difference to be able to grab the bucket for a quick clean up. I am contemplating another hoover just to keep upstairs but the jury is out on that as yet

I agree that keeping a cleaning box upstairs makes a big difference to my cleaning. I would always forget that I meant to grab the window cleaner next time I went downstairs to wipe those grubby fingerprints off a bedroom window, so having things upstairs means I'll do it straight away. I don't have the space for a spare vacuum upstairs but I do have a sweeper in the airing cupboard which I can run round while the kids are in the bath and keeps the carpet looking decent until I next vacuum.

Cynically however, I’m sooooo wondering if Gem’s DH posted this thread after the massive boom of the weird cult that is Mrs Hinch’s Army. I’m kind of excited about the idea of a backstage Instagram

Can promise I'm real! If you search the name you'll see that he would have had to play quite the long game by having really invested in a back story for some time before using this account as viral marketing...

And thanks for the replies all. Some of it is great advice in general but not applicable to me right now (I already don't go anywhere empty handed, but that's because I'm always carrying a baby!) but this thread has made me feel inspired to try a bit harder. I also talked the TOMM plan through with DH and he liked it - he loves a system, he's that kind of person - so I'm hoping it might help us to split things fairly, especially since if we follow the days/lists it takes away the mental load issue - no one has to decide what needs to be done. We've agreed that we're going to spend this week and as much of the weekend as possible decluttering so that we're ready to start properly cleaning on Monday. Will try and report back on our progress!

I think it all boils down to the level of mess and/or dirt you are happy to live with. My sister has every surface of her home stacked with paperwork/magazines/books/clutter with no home. That would drive me mad, yet I am relatively happy to have a grubby kitchen floor and carpets rarely hoovered upstairs (until I started OMM)
However, I can't stand the attitude on sites like MN and FB that somehow not doing housework makes you a more interesting person, better mother etc etc. It doesn't, it makes you the same as everyone else but with a mucky house!

I use TOMM alongside Wunderlist. I can share it with dh and we can both see if the other has done a task because we’ve ticked it.

Awwww, Changeyname. You spoiled my conspiracy theories!

You can definitely make the method your own. So I have fallen off the wagon a bit but house is still looking better than usual.

We have 3 bathrooms so I rotate them so they at least get 1-2 cleans a week.

I hoover downstairs main areas with Dyson handheld at least every other day - takes 2 mins max.

We change our bed in full fortnightly I bought a flat sheet for under duvet cover and will wash sheets and pillow cases weekly but duvet cover and cushion covers fortnightly.

I stick a wash on with delayed end - either in the morning or last thing at night. We use our tumble and don't iron.

DH unloads the dishwasher in the morning and pulls back quilt to air bed. I try to keep on top of the kitchen because it makes me feel crazy when it gets to tornado stage.

One thing that I have taken away from this thread is that cordless hoovers seem to be life-changing!

They definitely are!

Get a partner with OCD.

My house is spotless.

I've been following it fairly religiously since July and it's going well. I take it that the method doesn't include hanging up/ folding laundry or kitchen stuff like wash up and dishwasher. I just spend a few extra minutes doing those whenever I get time. Is this what other people think or have I got it wrong? I also don't change the bedding every week.

It does really help to make a few things rolled into one, and like @meessh and others, alongside every little journey. I’m not a neat freak, I love lie ins, I like writing away for hours, but my house is always tidy and reasonably clean all the time. It makes me feel peaceful.

I haven’t read the organised mum or blogs but getting those habits is great to just feel uncluttered in our heads.

In the morning I get a lot done in an hour.

• I get my kids up, one still needs dressing etc. I take any uostaurs rubbish downstairs plus clothes. I make lunches. I throw a hoodie over my pjs. DP feeds and lets out dog. I pack their bags and make smallest breakfast. While I’m making breakfast I throw a wash on, check bins, unload dishwasher, check fridge and write food needed in fridge list. Smallest has Sen. Then I go upstairs, brush my own teeth, wash sink as I do teeth, get dressed, throw open windows, tidy kids rooms quickly, throw on duvets, drink some water. That takes 30 minutes.

- then I wave off kids in DPs car, and groom dog, then handheld hoover downstairs in hall, anywhere that needs it downstairs, clear worktops, do one tidy of one thing, a shelf or drawer, then take dog for 15-20 minute run, come back do 7 min exercise, then stretch then shower. Takes 40 minutes.

Honestly I hate housework, and I’m lucky I don’t have to rush out the door, but I’m all sorted then for the day 1 hour and 20 mins in!

I'm in need of a programme to help with the house, and this seems great, especially as I can adapt to suit. Lots of great hints, such as keeping some cleaning stuff upstairs.

We are moving soon, so I'm not going to be too fussed about this place, but we'll be able to sort and clean as we move into new place, so can start as we mean to go on.

I think it’s a really good plan, which I’m going to use on my home.

Mine is an absolute dirty mess, because I’m now seriously disabled and have to have helpers/ carers/ nanny’s etc.

Cleaning is the bit that I’ve not managed to get working to date, because people either do... nothing (!), or work on the basis of ‘I’ll clean what I make dirty’, which means no one actually cleans the stuff that needs cleaning, because no one takes responsibility for ‘making it dirty’ if it’s stuff that isn’t actually spilled but still needs cleaning.

My home also suffers from the ‘broken window’ theory... where as soon as one person leaves it a bit untidy/ messy, everyone starts doing it and it goes down hill extremely fast, until anything goes and stuff is getting broken / stamped on etc. Its called the broken window theory because of the idea that if a window is left broken on a housing estate, it encourages vandalism, graffiti, petty crime, and the rapid decline of the neighborhood. But if that window is rapidly fixed, people are more likely to take pride in their local environment and maintain higher standards of social cohesion etc.

It’s such a true insight into human behaviour! And utterly depressing when you watch it happen in your own home, to your own things that you care about, and can’t be replaced.

So, new plan!

15 mins of cleaning during every main shift. No probs. I suspect everyone will be pleasantly surprised on how much they can get done in 15 mins, and that if everyone does 15 mins plus a room of the day, the house will be lovely all the time! Fingers crossed anyway...

I love that TOMM replied to the thread. If you are still reading Gem, I'm begging you to use your talent to try and come up with a revised plan for those of us who can't get our house straight in a day? I have ADHD and too many children who also have ADHD and my house is constantly spiralling out of control. I'm constantly looking for a new method that will transform my life, and I thought I'd found it with TOMM I keep hearing about, but it's too messy to start.

@Ixnayonthehombre I don't know enough about TOMM to help but there is also the rather old-fashioned Flylady where you start by just cleaning your sink every night, then set a timer and attack one area a day for 15 minutes then it progresses from there. I have Aspergers and used to be mess-blind until a friend visited my home and kindly pointed me to Flylady. I'm still not perfect but it was just what I needed at the time. www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/

Thanks lengoodmanspickledwalnuts I've checked out Flylady in the past, but didn't find the instructions easy to follow, it was years ago and I struggled with the website. I've just looked again, and found the crisis cleaning method, which I'm going to start today. My landlord has just emailed and wants to inspect in a few days the crisis method looks great though.

@cathf I can absolutely 100% recommend having an additional hoover upstairs. It makes life SO much easier. It's not only quicker and easier, it helps to avoid the "oh god, I need to hoover upstairs but it's such a faff lugging the damm thing up the stairs" as it's there and to hand! If you can make it a cordless all the better. I kept our old Dyson cordless when we bought a new main hoover and keep it in the spare room so it literally takes me 5 minutes to hoover the bathroom and landing each day (I do the bedrooms less often as they don't need it but with a white bathroom floor every tiny little bit of dust/hair etc really stands out).

There are some great hints here. I’ve started the TOMM today too! Have been googling cordless hoovers too... are the old Dyson ones worth it? Any recommendations? Not sure I can afford a brand new one.

I'm an oddity in that everyone else seems to love cordless hoovers and I've not found one yet that I could use happily at home. They just don't seem to have the suction of my Henry and always need a charge before I'm done (only ever used them when helping others clean their homes). I can see how they would be great for someone with limited mobility as they are light though.

@Ixnayonthehombre hope your inspection goes well. Can you rope in any friends or relatives to help? I've helped friends with that exact situation before.