Organising / Decluttering a House

[Hipsterpotamus]

How? Please? Any tips? Links?

I have a MH and severe medical condition and I am just living in chaos. Feel like I am in a vicious cycle and do not know where to start or how to continue.

Anyone?

One room at a time. Set a timer. Do ten mins then take a break. Then do another ten. Aim for at least twenty mins a day.

Sort bags out, bin, keep, charity. And put things in one of those three bags. You’ll get through it.

@Bluntness100 Thank you, I will try this. Starting tonight with the kitchen. Just ten minutes to do.

I love the blog and podcast a slob comes clean because she takes you through the absolute basics. It turned my life around.
All her methods are in her podcasts but she rambles a lot. Her book how to manage your home without losing your mind lays it all out clearly step by step. But you might prefer to listen to a podcast or two before commuting to buying something. this is a good one to start with.

Choose a cluttered spot and think about what should be there. Everything that shouldn't be there needs to find a home elsewhere or get rid. Everything that is there needs to have suitable storage and be easy to keep clean and tidy. For example in the hallway you might choose to have a key rack for keys, a basket for shoes, a coat rack for coats, a welcome mat and that's it. So you'd sort the right storage for the space, move everything else out and then keep that area lovely. Once you've got the habit of keeping that area tidy it's easier to keep it clean. Then you can choose another space to focus on as well as the first area. And hopefully expand over the whole house. Marie Kondo is good to help with decluttering she's got books and a Netflix series.

Have you seen your GP for CBT?

I have downloaded to organised mum app and try to follow it daily.

I also set my phone timer for jobs. So 30 minutes minimum daily for sorting washing, 30 mins for living room. Then I might set a number target to declutter, eg 10 bundles of kids things per week to Ebay, two cycles of being listed then charity shop it after two weeks, or grab five items a day to get rid of, or set a timer for 15 minutes and do a area at a time.

I have had CBT. But it's a never ending job. You need to change your mindset so you are something daily and other things weekly - forever. Like brushing your teeth. It's a none negotiable daily task

First job

Get a bin bag, go from room to room and put any rubbish in bag.

Put in wheelie bin and have a sit down

Then walk round house and gather all crockery...put in sink

Then get a big laundry basket and walk round house gathering all dirty washing

@thelegohooverer

I love the blog and podcast a slob comes clean because she takes you through the absolute basics. It turned my life around. All her methods are in her podcasts but she rambles a lot. Her book how to manage your home without losing your mind lays it all out clearly step by step. But you might prefer to listen to a podcast or two before commuting to buying something. this is a good one to start with.

Second this - she’s very very reassuring that it doesn’t come naturally to some people for a variety of reasons and she’s practical - do the washing up, start where you’ll see it make the most difference, don’t worry if it takes ages!

Some other people like Unfuck Your Habitat too - there’s an app I think.

Without a doubt the best thing that helped me was to work on throwing stuff away. Visions of other people's homes, how clear it is. How nice their shelves look because theyre not crammed with stuff.

Just getting rid of everything (not gifting, not selling) just any means necessary to get it out of the house. Enjoy and celebrate the sense of release when you remove 3 bags worth of items and can barely think what was in them. It spurs you on.

My thoughts are everything in the home, I manage. The less I have, the less I manage.

The joy of tidying book did really help with this process.

I also like a slob comes clean!

Her thoughts on decluttering (from memory!)

Did I use it in the last 12 months?
If I needed this, would I know I already had it and where to find it?

Sorry to hear that you're struggling at the moment. I would recommend the book Stuffocation, it's very good at examining our relationship with our possessions.

On a practical level, putting things on eBay is often effective as once it's sold you're committed to getting it out of the house! I like to aim for a bag out the door every week. I'm not sure of the Kondo method to be honest, I think if you're looking to make the lifestyle change of reducing your things then a more gradual change is better than an exhausting dramatic one.

Maybe pick one room to start with and make that a project to get everything in order, (and only filled with things you really want to own - that's where I do agree with Kondo!), then you'll have a visual reminder of what you can achieve when it comes to tackling the rest of your home.

Above all, remember that you absolutely deserve to have a home that re-charges you for the outside world not that adds to you feeling depleted. Think of it as self-care. Good luck.

Small but steady is better than a whole day and getting fed up. Realistically most people will need to get rid of a lot of
Stuff. Yes storage helps but at some point if you just have to much stuff it’s never going to look tidy. Or else you could spend months cleaning 1 room and moving all the crap to another and so on, without making a dent.

There are lots of decluttering and sorting out threads on the Housekeeping section, so have a browse of them and see which one (if any) are most suitable for you and the stage you're at.

Good luck with it!

Come and join us here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/4003927-Still-throwing-an-item-away-a-day-part-13

I was overwhelmed here with all the clutter but now I/we beginning to see the fruits of my/our decluttering. I then we began decluttering our clothes. Time and area limited ie one drawer. I set myself a task/rule of 2 things out each day. This covers the days when my health isn't great so might mean 2 pieces of paper on a bad day.
I'm now finding it much easier to declutter. If its broken or chipped its out now rather than it'll come in handy or can be repaired. We've gone through our clothes 2 or 3 times to declutter because some things we weren't ready to let go of on the first or second declutter.
Freegle helped to get rid of household goods and linen. Books!!!! Hundreds of them. Some sold to we buy any books because they collect the box so less hassle. Some were freegled and I have 10 bags to go to the charity shops still. One large bookcase has been sold. My target is to empty another - slowly but surely.
I've found the threads on here really supportive and encouraging.

Pick up each item. Ask yourself, have I used this in the last year or is it a thing of beauty that I love?
If not, put it in the get-rid pile.
Only have items in your home that you love or that are regularly useful.

It is so hard when you are doing it yourself because it gets over whelming. Do you have a friend that could help for a couple of days? I find that the best thing to do is to bag things up and get them out of the house straight away. Don't bother with ebay or anything like that. Try to keep one room clear so you have somewhere nice to sit or go to bed. I promise you will see an improvement.

Marie Kondo.

It has seriously helped me. We used to be extremely cluttered and now it's clear. Yesterday my SIL was surprised at how little clothes we had when we showed her around the house.

But just to warn you, it's not an easy process. It's taken us 4 years to get to this streamlined point and many categories have been Kondoed more than once.

Hi agree with people saying less stuff is the key, even if it’s counterintuitive, eg lots of clothes can mean less washing but then this meant I washed less and then when I did it was a mountain of stuff to deal with one small regular wash means you are more likely to keep on top of ironing and putting away etc