Is everyone's kitchen as hectic as mine? (Photo)

[harlacem0507]

A little bit outing but I wanted to know if people can relate to this hectic kitchen of mine! It gets cleaned and tidied every day but most things I can't seem to store anywhere as have very little storage in my house, but honestly, does this kitchen seem 'normal' or very unorganized, messy, chaotic etc? Because I'm not sure if I'm being overly critical to myself for having a kitchen like this or I do in fact need to seriously organise it better! (The white blob is my son!) For context I have a husband and 3 children aged 13, 7 and 15 months and work part time.

Is there not a garage or shed where you can put things like the bike (says the hypocrite who lives in one messy room!!!)

With a table and chairs I'd lose the stools, move or reduce the size of the radiator- maybe a thin tall one could fit by the door - and install a tumble drier in the space. And a dishwasher if you don't have one already.

I don't like using a tumble drier, but we live in a wet damp country, and with a baby and school age children in winter it's essential.

Put the bike outside under a cover, in a bike box, pop up bike store, anything to get it out of there.

Just having the washing and bike out would make a huge difference.

The rest needs a 10 minute blitz. It's not that bad, but would make me feel bad looking at the chaos.

Nope but I don't like any clutter.

That picture is making me anxious. I can’t stand mess. I do, however, have OCD and although my themes are not usually related to germs, mess etc, I do think it has a knock on effect which means I need order and tidiness.

As you have confirmed, apart from all the stuff on the table, that looks like a kitchen where food has just been served and children have been playing. It looks temporarily messy but clean. As long as you aren’t leaving dirty dishes and food out of the fridge all day and night it’s fine. It would take 10 mins to tidy.

I agree with getting a bike hanger. I think clutter breeds clutter. If there is a permanent fixture, like the bike, that makes the room look a mess, it makes you feel like it is pointless keeping everything else nice.

This would give me palpatations.

I'm not the tidiest person but that is awful.

You can't clean everyday as you claim.
If you did it wouldn't look like that.
Also , you can't clean surfaces that are covered in clutter.

'Let' the cat

I don't let mine sit on the counters
They ignore me

Fly lady is a Trump supporter.

Yeah it's messy but nothing that can't be sorted in a few minutes. The bike, however, would drive me mad!

OP just do it now. It will take 2 hours max (probably far less) and think how much better you will feel. Put the bike outside and wipe it down regularly if you don't want to put it in the shed (or get one of those cover things), put the laundry away, throw all the rubbish away. That'll be a good start.

This would stress me out big time.

Ha, Im a chef, my kitchen in work is totally spotless, home was getting to be like yours

If you get an hour, go look up clutterbug on YouTube. Saved my sanity she has. My kitchen now works, everything has a home and it's just so easy to put stuff away, because it's easy organisation , not military . So I still have a drawer of doom, but its sectioned up so stuff doesn't get lost in it, the pens can still be reached without having to tip the whole drawer out to find one

Id also move the clothes dryer to the bathroom. Its taking up too much space.

Sorry but I couldn’t relax in a kitchen like that. Mine is tidy and was even when I had little kids. It’s not hectic just really untidy imo.

He's off work sick as he broke his collarbone the week after Christmas, I think this is why it's so bad at the moment as we do tend to do house chores equally (well he works more than I do so maybe 70/30) but him being off sick I can't use as an excuse really I mean single parents don't let it get this crazy!

But there are others living in the house, and I bet most of them created the mess.

It's not all down to you.

But can you get more storage? Recycling bins?

And put away stuff after it's been used!

Are you saying that her ideas around housekeeping are therefore irrelevant?

To be brutally blunt here - your kitchen doesn't need to look like that.

There's a lot that should be either put away or thrown out.

The construction toys on the floor and soft toy shouldn't be there. The stuff piled on the table shouldn't be there. The bike is a problem. The biggest issue is the random stuff all over the counter, though. If you tidy as you go along and make the kids aware of where they're dumping stuff it could be less messy.

I'd put the clothes airing thing somewhere else if you possibly could.

Is there any way to get floor to ceiling cabinets on the wall where the table and bike are now? Even a few Billy bookcases would offer space for storage if you got cubes or baskets to put stuff into.

Haha that's ok! It was from Amazon, think around £30 it lights up blue when turned on 😁

Zero MH problems or SEN just zero motivation

No. But we can all make choices about who we do/do not give web traffic, ie, advertising funding, to.

Or above the dishwasher rather than in it?

<DH I'm looking glaring at you>

Can you get a bike shed to go out the front or side of the house? (Like this but perhaps more affordable! https://www.diy.com/departments/7x4-empire-bike-store-pressure-treated-tongue-and-groove-wooden-garden-shed-7-x-4-7ft-x-4ft-7x4-/5060659539653_BQ.prd)

Would keep it out of the house but keep it away from the elements and keep both you and DH happy.

As others have said, it probably doesn't take much to clear up what's left, but I get that it must get you down.

Remember it's not all on you though. The 13 and 7 year olds should be clearing up after themselves (and your DH too of course).

I know what you mean about the washing though. There's only 2 of us in our house and we're fortunate to have a spare room to hide the airer in, but it's so depressing that it's always there!

Oh god I wish I could but there's zero room! Does my head in. The only one that has space is my 13 year old she had the biggest room and I refuse to saddle her with that monstrosity. It's actually a heated airer from John lewis it was not cheap and I thought hey it's heated it'll mean it's put away every night and it's not, it's constantly up because I'm constantly doing laundry and trying to dry it all

There's untidy which is acceptable in your situation and there's 'dirty', which is not acceptable. Please clean the work surfaces and throw empty stuff away. Forget about the rest of it, the table etc, it can get too overwhelming to think about tidying it all. Just focus on the worktops, you'll feel so much better when they're cleared and clean.