How do you keep your house from looking like a messy tip?

[Snufflebabe05]

I know it isn’t the worst thing in the world. I know there are other, much more important things in life.

But I need to know..:what do you do to make sure your house is tidy and organised?

Everywhere I look in our house, there are piles of crap. Bits of things the kids have made, letters, receipts, bits of games, random socks. There are piles of craps dotted all around the house. On every surface. Beside the bedside tables. Every cupboard is just jammed of crap. Just last night I opened one, pulled it all out, then repacked what didn’t get binned.

It doesn’t bother anyone else but me. I am literally the only person in the house that sees this as a problem. And I have to lose my shot before my OH acknowledges it, or tells me I shouldn’t sweat the small stuff.

Our house is small. But every surface has random shite on it and I’m fed up of it. I want a clear, organised home where everything has a place.

So tell me, how do you do it?

That thing you did with the cupboard, do it throughout the whole house.

Grab phone or kindle and go upstairs.

I bought 3 little baskets for the stairs that I can shove mine/DHs, ds1 & ds2s shit in and put it all away at the end of the day 😁

I asked my other half what we could do about the mess. He said just chuck it all in thr bin. Helpful.

I think the idea is to not let it build up, tidy little corners when you see them but I find even that just impossible. Someone suggested setting a timer for 10 minutes, do as much as you can in one room then set a timer in the next. Sounds like a good idea which I'm going to do any day now.

Watching for any good tips.

Throw the crap away. That is the only solution. Pictures the kids have made, photograph and bin (except maybe one or two). Letters, file or shred. Socks - put away or wash big they don’t have a pair, throw them away. It won’t take long. Be ruthless.

If not big.

We have a place for everything, so everything goes in it's place.

Sounds like you need to bin the crap and find a home for the rest of it, then make sure that stuff gets put away,

My OH is a bit of a hoarder. He has stuff everywhere.

I think we need more shelves, cupboards etc. But I genuinely think there is just too much stuff.

Start small.

Declare one flat surface a no-negotiable crap free space. I started with the windowsill near the front door. Anything at all that appears on it I immediately relocate- either to its ‘proper’ place (where you’d look fir it if you needed it), to the bin, or to a homeless clutter box (baskets on the stairs for each person are helpful). I added a spiky plant to the windowsill.

When your one spot is reliably clear and you don’t have to monitor it, choose another one. (I chose a surface in the dining room). Rinse and repeat.

Also, just throw more stuff away. I used to keep the stray bits of Lego or random socks hoping they’d get back to where they should go or their mate would turn up. But they never did. So now I chuck more- it’s much simpler. If that random sock hasn’t found its partner after a week’s worth of washing it probably won’t. And if it’s mate turns up in 3 weeks, you can chuck it knowing it’s partner has already gone. Sounds wasteful but is in fact quite efficient in the end because you have less socks and so people take more care of them.

I don't. I suspect I have hamster in my genes.

If you haven't used something in the past year, chuck it in the bin. Unless it is worth more than £300.

What about the 1 billion crayons and colouring in books that we seem to acquire each week?

The kids have presents they haven’t opened from months ago - shall I get rid?

I actually HATE the vulgar ness off it.

As others say, chuck stuff out. Either fill bags for the tip and charity shop, or get a skip. We get a skip every few of years and have a good, brutal clear out, house, garden, shed, you name it. Cupboards, loft, garage, wherever. It is very cathartic.

Sorry few was going to be few/couple of, hence the remaining random ‘of’.

Crayons - one spot for them. Nowhere else. We have baskets for crayons, felt tips, colouring pencils. They only live in one place. Chuck in basket when you find them.

Colouring books - again, one spot and be ruthless. No one EVER goes back to do the end of the 70% coloured-in book. Or misses it when it’s fine. Not EVER.

Definetly chuck stuff.
Give things that stay a "home". Eg we have a wooden box with a lid for all letters which need keeping. So if anything arrives such as a bill or annual renewal certificate etc it goes in The Box. Any letters dh leaves lying around get shoved in there. Once every 6m ill go through it and have a purge.
Be ruthless about it all.

Ask yourself -
Do I use this?
Do I need this?
Do I love this?

Iff it doesnt fall into one of those three categories - bin it.

Or misses it when it’s fine = when it’s gone.

I feel your pain - ours is the same!

My house is similar but I have to agree with pp - be ruthless. I throw out 99% of coloured-in sheets and crafts the kids do. Kinder egg type tat plastic toys - I let them lie around for a while (and get annoyed by the clutter) then bin them. It helps that I have a massive cupboard where all the playdoh, paints, crayons etc go. I bought a box for the Octonaut toys but there were too many of them to fit in so now the lid doesn't close. Still, better than just lying on the floor beside the sofa as they were before.

Other toys go in a chest and they are chucked in, with visits to the charity shop eveey now and again to clear stuff.

The other thing that I like to remember is that you get more attached to things that have been around a long time. So that’s why it’s harder to throw out the bit of tat the DC made on Week 3 than it is on Day 3. Admire it, then when you’ve had it ‘displayed’ for a week move it respectfully on...

I’ve got 3DC , busy house but very tidy and zero clutter

We just make sure everything has a place and once it’s used it’s returned , the DC participate with this too , it’s just our daily routine as normal as brushing our teeth
For example :
So after dinner all toys back in the kallax unit
All jackets and bags in hall cupboard
Bottom hall has a sideboard which we use for shoes so every pair is in there tidied away out of sight
All dishes done and put away
All surfaces completely cleared at night so we come down to a clear environment in the morning
Re : paperwork - dealt with as soon as it comes in house - school letters - transfer details into calendar - bin letter
Same with bank stuff - bin about 90% of mail as it’s mostly letters from bank trying to upsell accounts etc
We have one drawer with a folder for each adult which contains birth certificates / licences etc
We don’t keep paper copies of insurance documents as they can be easily printed from email if required ( have never required any in the 6 years we have lived in this current house )

Kids artwork from school - I bin about 90% - I’m extremely non sentimental so this helps , I keep maybe the Mother’s Day cards they make and a couple of paintings - a year - These go into a poly pocket binder

I have a rule where I don’t buy extra storage if cupboards or drawers are getting full , I just trim down what’s there . Loosely operate on a 1 in 1 out rule for clothing for myself / DP and kids .

I like sorting drawers and wardrobes and donate what no longer fits to charity
I don’t have the “ what if “ we need it mentality , if it no longer fits or is past it’s best it’s donated.

Basically just keeping on top of it daily
Bite size tidying tasks but completed daily and regularly stops a build up of anything ever occurring

Stop giving a shit?

Honestly, I dunno. Clean as you go.

My place is like this.

We've just, through necessity, had to gut and clear the pantry to fit a decent sized fridge in there finally, and do away with a fair bit of storage.

It's made us be ruthless and get rid of bags and bags of kitchen things to the charity shops.

And it's contagious. I've now sorted out other cupboards in the tiny kitchen too. And am reading and charity shopping books I don't love to make space - I've not read them for 10 years, I'll read them now and won't want to read them for another 10 years, by which point they will be yellowy and I'm getting rid instead.

It's going to be contents of clothes drawers next and the box where the kids keep all their stationery and their old school books - we've done their huge toy cupboard.

Everything having its place is key I think - and only 1 place for anything. So eg all pens go in 1 pot in 1 place. Then you always know where to find a pen and also don’t have random pens cluttering up the whole house.

We have 1 drawer for paperwork type stuff in the kitchen...when it’s full it gets sorted & filed / chucked as needed.

I am ruthless with the kids’ stuff too (just don’t let them see or they want to keep everything).

I never hang on to stuff ‘just in case’. Dh & I battle over this a bit, so he has a shed where he can keep the ‘just in case’ stuff. If it gets too full, he has to sort it...same principle as the kitchen drawer.