House is a shithole

[Betterdayz2025]

I need some motivation to tidy up. I have done next to nothing since Xmas eve. My black bin was emptied yesterday . But it's full again already. Its 2 weeks till that's picked up again. My recycling is over flowing and has not been emptied. I still have rubbish to get rid of that's in the house. So I don't know how I will do that. I have no way of getting to a tip/recycling centre. I don't drive or have anyone who can help . It will right it's self but it's making it hard.

It makes everything feel a bit yuk and I feel un motivated because it feels like I can't get rid of shit.

I keep telling myself I will do xyz then I do fuck all

4 days isnt a long time to do nothing, cut yourself some slack. At this time of year most people's houses are a tip, its traditional !

Do you have a shed where you could bag up the recycling and put it out of the way until the bin is emptied again? At least it would be out of sight and feel less cluttered.

Put on a load of washing.

Squirt domestos down the toilet and spray sink, bath, toilet with cleaner

Do washing up/load dishwasher

Clean and tidy kitchen surfaces

Go back to bathroom and clean toilet, sink and bath

Sort out recycling and rubbish

Tidy sitting room

Mop floors and hoover

Have a cup of tea and put on Netflix

How do you sort rubbish /recycling if there's no where to put it . The bins are already over flowing.

Does your council not do bulk collection I find it cheaper then a rubbish collection company. I paid £15 for 8 binbags to be removed yesterday makes such a difference

Lucky you! I tried to book a bulk collection (£35 for 5 items) and next available date is 3/3/25 !

No its a real pain. They do bulk furniture collection such as a chest of drawers bed etc . But not bin bag type rubbish. I wish they did it would be so helpful.

This might sound a bit potty but one way to condense paper & cardboard is to throw it in a bucket of water whilst you’re cleaning up other stuff. It’s a bit of faff but when it’s wet it takes up much less room in the re-cycling bin.

Could you ask a neighbour if they have any room left in their bin?

No bin bags to put recycling and rubbish in or any large boxes laying around for temp. storage to put to the side somewhere, preferably out of sight?
I guarantee it's like this in many homes at this time of the year.
Bag it, Box it, put it out of sight till it can be taken, it'll help a lot if you can't see it!

Are you close with any of your neighbours? My neighbours were doing a tip run yesterday so asked if I had any rubbish to go. My house needs a good clean including bathroom and kitchen .

Are the boxes broken down properly in the recycling? If so then put any other cardboard type rubbish in a black bag in the garden or shed.

Plain brown unprinted cardboard can be composted or just used in the garden.

Any other non food waste can also go in the garden in bags. If there's room in the freezer I'd stick food waste on a large sandwich bags in there if you really have no other way of disposing of it as that will stop it smelling.

Can you hire a man with a van or someone off Facebook to do a few tip runs? I’d call around your local Vincent de Paul or charity shops, they might have a name/number to pass on to you.

It would be well worth the money for peace of mind. I also hate to see rubbish and recycling lying around. It really frustrates me how strict the bin companies are now.

When we had ongoing bin strikes I ended up pulling out the recycling and making sure everything was properly crushed and removing the glass bottles which I stored in a box in the house. I managed to get 6 weeks into the recycling bin in the end.

But really you are right, it'll be OK in a few collections. Think carefully about how to store it, cardboard can be flattened and put under sofa or behind sideboard, you can take bottles to local recycling,etc.

I just checked ours for furniture removal its 41 pounds for 3 items, 14.00 for a mattress removal and 60.00 for fridge /freezer. And there's nothing for extra rubbish general rubbish/recycling

Bag up rubbish and leave in the garden. Gradually get rid of it when your bins are emptied.

Pop a post on Facebook locally and ask for a 'man with a van' to run stuff to the recycling centre. Cash in hand, I would imagine.

That did go through my head but then tjat would make it heavier because of the water than they may think I have something in there that I should not.

I can't ask neighbours that could lead them to the same problem

Can you have a fire in the garden.
We used to have a barrel fire and burn all paper cardboards plastic anything that burns got burned.

Some of the recycling is alot of Xmas wrapping but it still takes up alot of room . I'm debating putting it in a vacuum bag and using the hoover to such the air out . Then I might get a bit more space .

Will the rubbish already in your bins squash down any to make some room? DH gets in and tramples ours down but there are gadgets on Amazon that do the same job, just search 'wheelie bin compactor'. Other than that all you can do is bag it up and shove it somewhere you can't see it til bins have been emptied, at least then it's not an obstacle to other stuff getting done.

Ours has to be dry or they won’t take it. My neighbour did this and ended up with half a bin of soggy and compacted cardboard and paper to remove and dispose of.
It is definitely worth checking your local council rules on this.

OP we have quite a few people in our area on facebook who advertise doing tip runs for exactly this kind of thing, but you need to check they have a waste licence.

I agree! So hard isn’t it🤦‍♀️ hate mess but not much can do with bins overflowing.

ivingafulllife · Today 13:10
**
Can you have a fire in the garden.
We used to have a barrel fire and burn all paper cardboards plastic anything that burns got burned

I think burning plastic is illegal?

Lots of wrapping paper isn't recyclable, DH pointed this out, it's made from recycled paper but you can't recycle it again. Unless you've used brown paper (that's what we did this year)

Wrapping paper is recyclable if you can** rip it where I live . If you can't rip it, it cannot be recycled.