Someone organise me please!

[GoodMorrowFairMaiden]

I’m overwhelmed.
The holidays have just started and my house is such a mess. Dcs do help but in all honesty, we have too much clutter. Even my fridge is cluttered with jars and nonsense that probably should be thrown away.
In between entertaining and feeding the dcs, I can’t seem to get proper cleaning and clearing done. Everything is done to an ‘acceptable’ level rather than properly clean.
I just don’t want to think about things anymore and just want to get stuff done but I don’t seem to be able to.
WTH is wrong with me?

Look at the parts and not the whole.

Write a list of what needs doing room by room.

Do the easy wins first (eg start with the fridge).

You're not going to get it done all in one go so don't think in terms of 'the house'.

I have executive function issues and this is what works for me. If I don't have a list I can't get started.

One thing a day or one thing an hour helps to not to be overwhelming

So ‘throw away that old ketchup’
Or ‘take those charity shop bags when I do the school run’
And come back and record it here! :)
We can cheer you on and it works as a diary to see how far you have got

When this happened to me I did the “behind closed doors” stuff first...ie cupboards and fridge etc.

One cupboard a day, bin & sort as required. Once they were done, I’d tackle the rooms, one square foot at a time. Psychologically this worked well for me because when I did it the other way round...clearing rooms then cupboards...the thought of the chaos lurking in cupboards and cabinets even in a tidy room was disheartening and made me want to give up.

It’s a journey, not a sprint so take it slow.

How old are the DCs? Can anyone have one for a sleepover at a time? I did this last week and spent a full 6 hours on my daughters bedroom. 8 bin bags later and a reshuffle of the storage, it now takes just 5 minutes to tidy at the end of each day. I have a lot of kallax in there so now instead of it all being full of crap, we have a box for Lego and a box for Barbies etc. It really helps. My sons room is now the same.

My kitchen is a mess but that’s inside the cupboards so this week I’ll be going through those.

My bedroom is also due a reshuffle to make the storage work.

It is overwhelming but do a small bit each day and you will get on top of it 😊

Look at the Organised Mum Method and Organised Time Technique.

Her book on the latter really is worth a read. She also has a podcast. The book about time management helps you identify why you never seem to get things done and feel like you're always struggling.

Also it helps to accept that you'll never get to the end of your to do list, so don't dwell on that, accept it and concentrate on making the most of the time you do have, be as efficient as possible and identify and cull time wasters.

Probably not what you want to hear right now, but it's not solvable overnight and now is probably the wrong time of year to start (the theme of a recent podcast I've just listened to is about her putting a lot of work and household stuff on hold or reducing as much as possible so she can concentrate on DC in school holidays).

In the Organised Mum bit, there's bootcamps for cleaning and decluttering and it's recommended that you do both of those before implementing the day to day method to keep on top of things by doing a bit each day, so nothing gets too bad.

Good luck!

Good points about doing a part and not all in one go.
I’m off to do the downstairs loo as the cupboard is full off tonnes of toiletries that will probably never be used.

I started decluttering during the first lockdown and I'm still working my way through cupboards and drawers! Get the kids to help too if they're old enough, they can sort through their socks and pants to clear out any that have holes, no matching pair, don't fit etc. Then clothes to take out any that don't fit or they never wear.
Do kitchen cupboards / drawers one at a time. I bought some shelf boxes from B&M which are good for all the small jars and packets such as herbs & spices as you can lift it out to see what you've got (don't even ask how many jars of the same spice I had at the back of the cupboard!).

Get a bin bag and keep going! Do throwing things out at any available moment, focusing on one drawer or shelf at a time.

Also, don’t start until you’ve got somewhere to dispose of your decluttering! I made this mistake during lockdown when charity shops and the tip were closed so then had boxes and bags of stuff sitting around waiting to be deposited. Charity shops round here still aren’t all taking donations.

How are you getting on?

Terribly. I got distracted by booking a holiday
But I have family coming over to stay in a weeks time so need to get my arse in gear.
I have got the dcs to clear their rooms at least and I took some crap to the skip today.

We’re doing the same. Work hard and next week all will be good.

I’m such a procrastinator but look what I found! It’s just what I need

listobsessed.com/30-day-declutter-challenge/