I'm going to sort out and tidy up every drawer and cupboard in my house. Want to join in?

[MaryCondom]

This morning I woke up with a kind of itchy compulsion to sort and tidy every single drawer and cupboard in my whole house. I have no idea why but I'm snapping on my marigolds and reaching for the Zoflora.

I don't have a week or a fortnight off work to do one big blitz. I'm going a drawer or two at a time, and saving the big jobs (like under the stairs cupboard) for weekend days.

Today I've sorted out my two bathroom cupboards.
I've dumped all the old, out-of-date medicines, combined all my body cream remnants into one divine-smelling body lotion soup, re-positioned everything in order of actual use, and put everything on 'themed' shelves in one of the cupboards.

I've scrubbed the inside of the cupboards and they're now lemony fresh. Unfortunately, one of them's going a bit rusty and the other one is stained with Harpic 😯But they're clean and tidy.

I am very proud of myself and now rewarding my efforts with a caramel chocolate digestive.

Anyone want to join me? We can support each other, update on progress, perhaps share picture if you'd feel comfortable to do so.

Herewith images attached this time!

Looking good.

I have been doing similar.

I have some long term food storage I want to organise.

I want someone to come in and just throw everything away. Someone with common sense who knows to keep photos, my beloved dvds and books etc. but just bins everything else. I am totally unable to do this myself and I hate it.

OMG I did this over the last 2 days in my Kitchen!!!! A sudden urge to deep clean!!!!
I went through every drawer and threw out or gave away anything I dont use.
Dettoled every drawer, cupboard and door. Walls even. Booked an oven clean for Thursday too.

Next the lounge!

@Rockbird There was a thread about this a couple of weeks ago. Or it was mentioned on a thread, I can't remember. Basically, a couple of MNers had paid people to come in and sort their houses exactly as you describe. It might be worth starting a thread to see if you can find out more.

That sounds so incredibly satisfying.

I have these sudden deep clean urges every now and then. Where do they come from, I wonder? What combination of internal and external factors create these urges?

I am sorting out the airing cupboard and washing/tidying all the spare bedding. I think I'm going to fold them into pillowcases so the whole set is together. I'm also throwing away stuff that is old or stained.

It's very satisfying!

You're not pregnant are you?! 😂

I really need to do this. I started in the kitchen and did one drawer but then lost a bit of steam.

The cutlery and utensil drawer is next on my list.

I've been doing the same very slowly for the past month, so far filled three garage bins worth of stuff. Done DS7s room which feels a lot better.
Need to tackle the kitchen diner as it's basically a horders paradise.

I will, in September after my girls head off to uni and I am left to re-organise my empty nest 😢

I can't seem to organise anything without making a mess. Now I've got bags and boxes everywhere and want to cry

We are lucky to have lots of built in joinery in our house (some we added when we moved to our current house a couple of years ago and soem already here). I really thought that this would result in a tidy, well-organised house.

It definitely does make it much easier to keep the house tidy. However, i would not say organised. The problem is that when DH is tidying he puts stuff in the first empty cupboard space he finds, rather than keeping similar stuff together. For example, i was looking for some wrapping paper the other day. We have a long box with wrapping paper, labels cards etc which is in the garage. However, I wanted paper suitable for a new baby. Could not find any in the box but remembered i had bought some fairly recently which i used to wrap a present for colleague's new baby. I asked DH if he had seen it anywhere. He remembered tidying it away but could not remember where. Eventually he found it in a cupboard in the downstairs loo.
Admittedly in this particular example i should have put the paper away as soon as i used it, but he does it for everything .

I have asked him to organise the cupboards but he does not see a problem with it so long as the house is tidy. When i retire i plan to sort all the cupboards and put labels inside the doors of what is kept there. He does think he would comply with this at least.

Can I join? Far too much ‘stuff’ that we just don’t need. Getting time to do a big old declutter is impossible with small children so I think a drawer / cupboard at a time is the way forward for now.
I’d like to get to the stage where I can clean my house without having to tidy away (and find space for) clutter.

Yes, lot's of joiners!

Welcome!

@WhyOhWine I don't know why but it made me laugh that you found new baby wrapping paper in the downstairs toilet cupboard 😅

@SirenSays I'm sorry to see that tidying has made more stress and mess. I always get half way through a tidy with stuff everywhere and think "Why did I start this?"
Are the bags and boxes full of stuff to put back away, or to get rid of?

@Rainbowshit Nope, definitely not pregnant. I hope not anyway, I want to tidy and sort, not bring a chaos bomb of baby stuff into my life!!

Oh God don't do this, you'll regret it

Ooh WONDERFUL, this is my most favourite thing to do! I LOVE it!
Unfortunately nothing here needs sorting out. :-(
Am available at low cost.. ;-)

Well done. I properly cleared and reorganised my under stairs cupboard the other day. It feels amazing. Spare room is next!

@MaryCondom I had a phone call with an organiser on the back of that thread. She didn't actually offer the service I wanted. But signposted me to people who do. But decided it was a ridiculous waste of money. So haven't bothered.

Finally managed to organise my spare fabric and excess sewing kit the other day - had to throw the lot out as a mouse had got in the cupboard and eaten, peed, shat on the lot, it was gross. Was a weird feeling of sadness and elation that the decision had been made for me 😄

I hope you don't mind me asking but why do you think it's a ridiculous waste of time? If sorting/tidying is something that you don't feel able to tackle yourself and its getting you down, why wouldn't you pay for someone to help you?

I think of these things as analogous to holidays. You could argue that a holiday is a massive, ridiculous waste of money. But we pay money for them because they make us feel better, more relaxed, calmer, in control of things. If you'd get the same benefits from a tidying up helper person, then its only as much of a a waste as a holiday really.

So, what you're saying is that we all need a rodent infestation to help us along the way?! It's certainly a novel approach 😂

Only for the stuff you're really stuck on 😂

I asked DH for a hand with it last night. I've just discovered he's stuck everything that I'd already organised into separate piles in the laundry basket. New clothes with tags, tatty clothes for the bin, stuff for charity donation..everything from bobble hats to silk pillowcases. Can I kill him? Its totally justified right?

I started a mad tidy and sort prior to going on holiday because my sister was coming to house/dog/cat/gerbil/fish sit for us. Everything on a surface level is clean and tidy, but most stuff did get bunged into drawers, cupboards and cubbyholes I knew she wouldn't look in 😬 I need to keep the momentum going and start sorting through stuff. Current count is 27 black bags to the recycling centre and charity shops!

I don't say this often on MN but... LTB?