If you have a top of a house to clean and tidy...

[BertrandRussell]

.....where do you start?

*tip

Room by room usually, one room a day

Have a look at the organised mum method. Start with the boot camp if it’s really awful.

various ways

1. one room at a time, tidy first, then dust then hoover.

1. go through all rooms and do a sweep, eg all dirty clothes sorted, then all mugs/plates. Then all stuff that needs to go to charity shop etc. Then once enough has been lifte off the floor, go back to method 1

1. Start with a sweep and clear of living room, as it is the main room, and dump the junk elsewhere if no time to sort (this is what I do if people are coming round!) Similarly, clean the bathroom and kitchen, as then it may be untidy but it no longer feels dirty.

I actually clean the shower when I am in it, it feels like a job done with no time cost

1. Get some cardboard boxes, dump everything from the floor in them and then make the rooms occupant sort it, you have 3 days, then it goes in the bin. This is an option for kids rooms, means you can clean

1. Spend ages reading Marie Kondo, OMM, Mumsnet housekeeping threads etc for inspiration.

1. Have a protracted and half arsed attempt at ruthless decluttering, in preparation for...

1. Pay a cleaner to do the OMM bootcamp bit so you can then do the OMM 5 day routine from then on

I've been halfway through 2 for about 2 years .

By getting off MN and cracking on with it 😂

Right a massive list of each room and each job needed and then just make sure you cross off at least 5 jobs a day. 20 jobs if you have the time.
Good luck

Room by room. Take an easy room first for a quick win.

Not so much now as moved out, but when I lived with my mum, there was a lot of us there as my mum has a million children. I used to go room to room and bin all the rubbish, then get those bins out the house. Then go room to room and grab all the washing, then it was all hands on deck, if you don't wear it or don't like it, it's getting recycled. Which means less washing to put away. Then go room to room and tidy away all the toys. Doesn't have to be perfect. Then the boring jobs like washing up etc. Dust and hoover. When it looks a bit better it's time to do each room and organise!

I get a bin bag and start throwing all bin worthy stuff away. At the same time make a pile of non bin worthy stuff. Clear all shelves etc and then dust. Put everything away neatly and sweep/hoover the floor last of all.

How much of a tip is your house?

If i really don’t want to go it I set a timer for 15 minutes and see what I can do in that time. You’d be surprised how much you can achieve and often when the timer goes off I’ll keep going for a bit longer because I’m more motivated

Every now and then I send DD for a sleepover with my mum then go through the place room by room.

Takes the whole day but it's easier than doing it around her.

I get a bucket and fill it with bin bags, cloths and cleaning stuff and just keep going until its done.

Is it your home Bertrand? It's different if it's yours and you have access to it all if the time. What kind of time for you have to spend on this?

I go round and pick up cups and plates etc then clean kitchen. Put a dishwasher load on as it makes me feel proactive.
I then put loo cleaner in all the loos and while that’s doing it’s thing - take a bin bag and empty all bins and obvious rubbish like empty shampoo bottles.
I then do as previous poster sweep through the house collecting dirty clothes - put a wash load as it makes me feel proactive.
I then clean the bathrooms.
Then shout at my family that I’ve spent hours cleaning and they can’t be bothered to tidy and vacuum their bedrooms.
Then sit with cup of tea and mn before vacuuming hall and stairs.

my mum gave me some advice about doing my garden, which also applies to doing a house like this

1. don't get sidetracked. if you set out intending to collect the washing and put a load on, don't get sidetracked into stopping in dcs room and putting away a load of toys, and then stopping to do something else etc. Do the job you set out to do. Then chose another job and do that. It is mentally much better to achieve one complete job than have done lots of bits.

1. Do it in bite sized chunks. So, if the living room is such a tip you don't know where to start, give yourself 30 minutes, or give yourself one bookcase to tidy, or give yourself one job eg hoover the sofa cushions. break that huge job down into bits. Then, when you have done the thing you set out to do, you have accomplished your set task. Next job can be done later or tomorrow. Otherwise it is too big and ou never start

If I had a whole house to clean, I'd do a quick sweep of all the rooms with a bin bag for the rubbish, as suggested. I'd put stuff away, if it had somewhere to go. If I start cleaning downstairs, I know I sometimes run out of steam at the bottom of the stairs, so only the bathroom will get done that day.

List categories and start with the quick wins (ie the ones that are both easy and will make a lot of visible difference). A quick win might be (depending on your house) to go round with a bin bag collecting up newspapers/magazines for recycling. There is no point keeping newspapers/magazines these days as you can search/retrieve online. Another quick win is to strip all beds, collect up all towels and launder everything.

I'm ashamed to say my house was awful a few months ago. Not quite that Kim and Aggie programme bad but closer to that than Mrs Hinch! I have very bad depression. I started decluttering for an hour a day at first (I'm also disabled so couldn't go straight in and blitz it in one go) and soon got a bit of momentum going.

I then switched to TOMM bootcamp. It's taken me far longer than the week she allows for it but it's getting there. I've bootcamped the whole house apart from one room. When that is done I can then just do the daily jobs.

I can't tell you how much better I feel for it

put on some music!

invite someone round so you have to do it

Music on, move as fast as i can doing 15 mins in each room, focusing on the worst bits. So picking clothes up off bedroom floor, wipe toilet, sink and bath, dust living room, wash dishes etc.

Do it in little spurts.

Set timer for 20 minutes, you'll be amazed what you get done.

Do it several times a day.

One room at a time. I play my favourite songs and try to see how much I can get done during one song.

I do it job by job rather than room by room. Collect all the laundry -start a wash. Collect all the cups from round house, start dishwasher. Take a bag round the house and collect any rubbish. You get the picture.

I just think it's quicker overall, especially if you have other people in the house you can give tasks to but it has the disadvantage that it takes longer to feel the benefit.

Also, don't be a perfectionist. It takes fekking ages to spring clean a room to perfection but about 20% of the time to get it reasonably clean and tidy. You can always do the small awkward jobs if you feel inspired later.