1 week until Christmas and my house is a tip!

[SmellyOldPartridgeinaPearTree]

Anyone else the same? I love having a clean and tidy house but I have a 4 year old and a 5 month old (who was hard to settle for a long time - turns out she had CMPA) and honestly I've been doing the bare minimum for months.

The main problem is laundry - there are heaps of clothes everywhere both clean (in the utility room) and dirty (every single room upstairs!)
Bathrooms also need a good deep clean, sofas and upstairs haven't been hoovered under in months and there are toys literally everywhere. Floors all need mopped.

So I'm going to tackle it this week - who's with me? Any tips? I'm pretty good at throwing out stuff so I'm not drowning under bags of stuff needing dumped thankfully! Although could do with a good toys clear out!

Same here. I'm off for Christmas now- three year old and a one year old in tow- and, come hell or high water, this place WILL be immaculate for Christmas. I'm dumping the kids with DH when he surfaces this morning (sending the 3YO to speed the process up shortly) so I can make a start.

Yes similar here although I feel like death warmed up so tomorrow is d-day

You've got this!
But don't be too hard on yourself, you've been busy being a mummy and that's the most important thing.
I love a clean house too, function so much better, but remember your babies won't remember how clean the house was, they will remember how much their mummy loves them.

Get your 4 year old to sort the dirty laundry by colour as a fun activity! Blitz as much as possible whilst your baby naps? Good luck!

Similar here.

I have an 8yo and a 2yo but bad mental health left me unmotivated for months and things have slipped.

Also working full time (and overtime), DP works away monday to friday and weekends spent on house renovations havent helped.

Im going to buy a brand new spray mop tomorrow and attack it then in the few days before christmas.

@DownWhichOfLate

Get your 4 year old to sort the dirty laundry by colour as a fun activity! Blitz as much as possible whilst your baby naps? Good luck!

See half the problem is he is such a kind and helpful child that I can't actually clean when he's here because he always wants to assist and it makes things 100 times slower and harder 😬 I feel awful saying it. It's only because he's so small!

Me too. DH decided we need a huge tv so the whole living room needs to be rearranged and decorated.

That’s why he needs a task! Could he dust the skirting boards? Put his toys in boxes? Very sweet wanting to help

Same here with same age children. I plan to get the house immaculate this weekend but with whirlwind eldest now broken up for the holidays I fear I may be in a worse state by Christmas Eve. And baby turns 6 months next week so we have weaning to throw into the mix. But we will do this!

Could your little one 'clean' the bath while you do the bathroom?

He could deliver the clothes to the correct bedrooms?

Ok so far today I have:

Put on a load of washing
The dishwasher is on
Sorted the (damp and mouldy as it turns out ) pile of post at the front door
The fruit bowl has been emptied of everything past it's best (everything basically!)
Rubbish taken out

Going to bath the children next

@edin16

Could your little one 'clean' the bath while you do the bathroom?

He could deliver the clothes to the correct bedrooms?

He wants the spray then and we end up fighting about whether he is old enough to use cleaning products or not. He won't be fooled!

I'm with you!

I've got 3 baskets of clean washing to put away, an overflowing washing basket as the machine needed repairing and toys all over, Xmas boxes to go back in loft .. also got a horrible ear infection which has wiped me out all week and showing no sign of shifting... I'm so far behind where I need to be - including all the kids presents to wrap

Yep, me too. Dds in the bath then they will putting toys away in their room so I can get in to properly tidy.
Kitchen
Christmas tree decorations on
Tidy living room, dust and vacuum
Tackle rest of upstairs including putting away mounds of clothes.

Dh does shift work and I work in the week. If tidying isn't done every day it gets out of control. I'll put christmas songs on while we do it!

Spray bottle with water?

Update: I have now cleaned the fridge in preparation for the big Christmas shop.
How's everyone getting on?

I've spent a good hour unscrewing the plug holes and cleaning the manky things! Very satisfying but I don't think anyone is going to notice or care, better get on with the hallway I suppose.

I feel you OP. I've been doing my best with the house, but we had a kitchen fitted in November and the enormous backlog of crap seems never ending! Particularly the washing, as we had no washing machine for a fortnight!

DH works nights so I haven't hoovered in weeks (only have carpets upstairs - downstairs has been swept and mopped) because he's doing buckets of (unpaid) overtime and I can't vacuum while he's asleep and he gets up just as the kids go to bed. There's clean washing all over the place because I can't put things away while he's sleeping... It's a disaster!

My parents are on their way up to us in Yorkshire from the South West as we speak, so I really need to get a shift on, but DH won't be up until after they get here. Ho hum!