48hr blitz / productive weekend: Motivation needed, join in if you like.

[R00tat00tt00t]

Coming to the end of a really busy period at home and work as well as the end of the school Easter holidays. As per usual the house is a tip and we have the never-ending list of life admin to tackle including booking travel & accommodation for summer hols. Woken up this morning relatively well-rested and feeling (reasonably) motivated to declutter, tidy, clean and organise life but not sure where to start...

I've already filled a shopping bag with general crap (old receipts, sweet wrappers and finished makeup/toiletries) which is a good start but no real visible improvement iyswim?

Other ideas are:
Clear out kids books and take to charity shop
Clear out underwear drawer for too small knickers, old/holey socks etc, ditto for pj's etc
Several loads of washing/drying and put away straight away ( always have piles of clean washing sitting around).
Chuck out any shoes kids have grown out of recently (currently still lingering in shoe rack).
Sort through toiletries & skincare and sit out to finish in order of least left in bottle.
OH to clear out garage and do a tip-run.

My main problem is that some of these jobs can be quite time-consuming or "bitty" and often create more mess and I get stuck/give-up before finishing...

Anyone have any tips or advice or motivational words to get me started and keep me going?

Is anyone else planning a similar weekend and would like to join in for support?

Your plan sounds like my plans always do. I've got huge attention and procrastination issues and if I work like that I actually achieve fuck all. What works best for me and may help you also: choose one room to start in. Tidy it, then clean it. Do not open a drawer or cupboard until the house is tidy or clean as I'll then get sucked into sorting them not cleaning. If everything needs a blitz, tidy a room, clean a room, move on. Start with the rooms that do your head in most. I always start with kitchen and living room as if those are clean and tidy my mind is a bit less chaotic. I've done those this week - today is bathroom (which is tiny so can clean fast then sit - my room tomorrow).

Travel insurance first, never leave that for later.
Travel accommodation.
Then decluttering but keep it small. I read some where for every 10 mins for decluttering you need to allow 20 mins for the removal of it from your home.

I’m hoping to have a big clothes sort out for the kids but that will involve getting my oldest to try on a few clothes which is apparently akin to water boarding her.

Oh god I need this right now. I have just today off to get sorted - planning to blitz our master suite as I haven’t cleaned it in 3 weeks!!! Still lying in bed drinking coffee as I am shattered after a hellish week of work.

i would say that your house can’t be that bad if you’re just worrying about skincare/shoes/books. I could only dream about such things 😂. I currently have a conservatory that looks like a dumping site as we have been redecorating bedrooms - I can’t even bring myself to look in there!

yes yes me too to the baskets of clean clothes lying around. Absolutely hate putting them away.

My goals for today
1 Clean master suite and change all bed linen

1. Clean main bathroom

3 Put away baskets of laundry.

That will have to do as have to do a lot of ferrying kids around later - bloody football and parties and sleepovers!

Need to get out of bed 😂

😂

Thanks for all the encouragement (and laughs) so far. You are my people! Useless at tagging so will just make general comments for now.
-I am the Queen of procrastination - getting sucked into meaningless, time-consuming tasks is my downfall.
-I'm going to leave the travel plans til later as my "reward" because that is another wormhole I go down. I'll happily spend hours researching the perfect AirBnB rather than tackle a mountain of paperwork.
-Battles with kids to cooperate with requests are familiar in our house too!
-Good luck with your goals today. We can do this!
I'll check in later to update and hear about all your successes!

Pls do the travel insurance it will take 30 mins if you have existing conditions 10 if you don’t. My Mum booked a holiday and ended up in hospital very ill and wasn’t able to travel for 2 yrs.

Yes- 🙌 I’m in
my tasks this weekend are:

• finish painting my kitchen wall
• cancel my appointment at Skoda
• parcel up and post 3 vinted sales
• list a few more things from the never ending vinted box
• general housework and tidy up
• school reading diary for ds
• workout today
• run tomorrow

(2 of those are very quick wins as they will literally take 5 minutes )

My house isn’t too bad but I wanted a weekend of sorting, cleaning and tidying as we’ve got some busy weekends coming up after this one. One key task for me today (amongst others) is to tidy up all the dog food/snack/toy cupboards, getting rid of almost empty packets (why can DH not throw out empty packs?!) any making it easier to find things, then the same with the dresser drawers and cupboards, and finally bedside cupboards and drawers which accumulate unbelievable masses of junk. I feel this sort of organisation is really going to help me feel calmer going forwards… then, as you say, it’s on to the life admin massive list!

I did this last week after watching Sort your life out 😂. It feels so good. Some things i did were;

I emptied my cleaning cupboard and combined any half used bottles.

I cleared my kitchen cupboards and threw away any out of date spices, filled up my salt and peppers etc. also got lazy susans for the spices and sauces, feels so much tidier when i look in there now, takes up less space and easy to find things.

I emptied drawers and wardrobes, took some to charity, sold some and threw some.

Took trainers to the laundrette and washed them all.

Threw away my least favourite mugs and plates.

Cleared out the boot of my car.

Happy blitzing!

Put on a great playlist, hair up and comfy tracksuit. Thats the only way i managed it! Took about 5/6 hours in total but i keep walking around smiling now 😅

Well bloody done!

i’ e got my arse up and blitzed our bedroom and en-suite. Feel so much better!
Now going for a walk and then will attack the main bathroom which is disgusting!!!

We have split it up and I'm doing upstairs and husband is doing downstairs. We have been doing smaller bits and pieces over the previous 3 weekends so today is the big clean and final tidy up. We have done 4 trips to to the tip. And the house feels so much better! We all have far too much stuff. I don't miss anything we got rid of and I feel free and lighter.

The only job we have left till the nicer weather is the loft. That needs a massive sort out and we need to be ruthless.

You can do it! The satisfaction after is brilliant. And get a well deserved takeaway after! Good luck x

I've been doing this on/off for a month. I get distracted. 😂

One thing I did find helpful was going through a cupboard at a time and throwing/donating stuff I don't like/use anymore.
So a lot of random plates, pans that had started to erode, mugs/cups that I didn't like etc got chucked.
Did I mention I'm still doing the kitchen? 🤣

My partner did sort his clothes out though which helped! Still got the dc and mine to do but doing a whole house just isn't practical in one day unless you have Stacey Solomon hiding in one of your cupboards.. can I borrow her if you do?

Some great work going on here 👏🏻
How are you all getting on with todays tasks.
I'm plodding my way through and have ticked off 17/37 jobs on my list. Some were quickies inc. 2 washes (dark & light) and bleaching the loo's, then some more satisfying: chucked out 8 pairs of knickers & tights that were too small or bobbly; cleared out shoe rack and chucked out 2 pairs of trainers and have 5 pairs of party shoes, sandals & trainers to post on Vinted; filled 1.5 bags for life with books for charity shop.
Also used up some leftovers for lunch.
House still looks a state but must be better than it was...
Keep going 💪🏼
@Hoplittlebunnyhophophopandstop - don't worry, it's not travel insurance I need (already have annual cover), it's the actual travel to our destination ie; ferry/flights. Will get onto that later...

Whilst procrastinating on my phone I found this...I'll go and get on with some other jobs now 😂



This

I’ve done some of my tasks but had to have a sit down this afternoon (am recovering from a bug), so I have just spent far too long watching Big Jet TV live from Heathrow!

Definitely leave that for later. I can waste hours looking at holidays. I’m managed virtually nothing productive today.