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

[BertrandRussell]

.....where do you start?

What are you looking for? How to blast a messy house to make it look better or how maintain it?

www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/flying-lessons/crisis-cleaning/
Do this!

Be ruthless and throw away LOTS then tidy whats left, i find storage boxes for specific groups of items out of the way help with whats left. Dividers in drawers to organise them.

Living room-
Dust everywhere
Clean windows
Clean surfaces
Hoover under sofa cushions
Wipe skirting boards
Hoover floor

Kitchen-
Wash up pots
Clean sides
Wipe cupboard doors
Wipe fridge inside & out
Clean microwave inside & out
Clean windows
Hoover floor
Mop floor

Bathrooms-
Sort out toiletries, throw away empties / almost empties that have been there a while, clear junk
Clean inside toilet
Wipe around toilet seat, cistern, and sides
Clean sink
Clean & rinse bath / shower & glass if you have one
Hoover / sweep
Mop

Bedrooms-
Tidy things that are out
Change bedding
Clean windows
Wipe windowsills
Dust everywhere
Hoover

Just write them down and tick each thing once you’ve done it. I prefer to do all the windows then all the dusting then all the hoovering etc at once

Then go round the house with airfreshner / use shake n vac etc, i find a nice smelling house feels much cleaner even when its not. Some days i do the bare minimum then spray a mixture of lenor and water on the carpets & curtains and DP always comments on how clean the house is when he walks in. If i dont do that he doesn’t tend to comment so it definitely makes a difference!

I procrastinate and start by MNing. Followed by digging out the Marie Kondo book that's misplaced in a pile of stuff. Get distracted until approximately an hour before my time is up (eg my parents are due to visit), think FUUUCK and run around like a loon trying to shove stuff out of the way. And then hoover.

But you're probably after some more helpful inspiration .

Thank you! Yes-starting is the real issue probably. We’ve had loads of visitors and boomerang child has brought her worldly goods home and I’ve had a couple of rush catering jobs, so a perfect storm really. I think I’ll start with the kitchen which is covered in a thin layer of icing sugar. Hold my coat,I’m going in!

DinosApple-I so identify with that! I did it before Christmas, and it’s been going downhill since then!

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.

I'm getting a bit better at this. I often think if they did a time and motion study on me doing housework, I'd be sacked for being entirely inefficient. Thanks God it's only me and DH at home as I think I'd sink under the weight of it.

Not helped by spending Saturday morning "designated housework time" drinking tea and Mumsnetting.

Put on the radio while you clean.

Or, or, you could invite friends around this evening and then let shame be your motivator? I think this might only work if a good portion of your upbringing was spent creating a dysfunctional relationship between housework and sense of worth though, I'm not sure.

That flylady crisis clean link is really interesting, because she rotates, so, 15 minute timer, 15 minutes in the kitchen, 15 minutes in the living room, back to 15 minutes in the kitchen.

I think this would drive me mad! If I have time to do 4 x 15 minutes in the kitchen, I would rather do the whole lot, and then move on to living room.

I don't really get her reasoning on this?

steppe I think the idea is that then you have a few rooms middling tidy instead of getting carried away scrubbing the kitchen clean and still having a mess everywhere else.

Oh, OK, yes I can see that, kind of makes sense.

Flylady principles are good, and the underlying system is sound, but you have to adapt it to suit your house and the way you like to work.

I think she goes all over the place for a crisis clean because it's intended to cover cleaning all the basics in the main rooms in a a short amount of time (say if you have unexpected guests coming or something) and the entire house has to look superficially decent.

The rest of the system involves steadily sorting your house in zones in steady, focused bits of time so you never have to spring clean again (well that's the theory anyway!). I find the decluttering aspect of the system difficult to fit in to the ordinary zones and routines though but overall I find it more realistic then the organised mum method. And of course you have to ignore the barftastic language and the dated website.

I get exhausted just reading about the organised mum boot camp.

In answer to the op... .

1. Choose slots of time (ring-fence them if necessary) when you have energy and won't be interrupted. Allow for regular breaks. Plug yourself in to an interesting podcast.

1. Take upstairs all cleaning materials, bin bags, Hoover, timer, laundry bags and three boxes. One for items for charity, one for items that need putting away elsewhere and one for items that need recycling.

1. Turn timer on for 15 mins. Rush through rooms at fast pace putting all rubbish in bin bag. Repeat multiple times if necessary.

1. Start at one corner of one room and go around removing laundry and anything that needs putting elsewhere (ie dirty mugs in kitchen) tidying and putting away stuff as you go. Try not to handle items more then once, same as with paperwork.

Repeat in each room.

1. Once extraneous items removed, and everywhere tidy, clean thoroughly.

Another way of doing this is by tackling horizontal, then vertical surfaces, then floors. Depends what suits you best!

Good luck!

Meant to add, finish 30 minutes earlier each day then you think you have energy for and use that time to: dispose of gathered rubbish and recycling, put away miscellaneous items elsewhere in house and put charity items straight in car.