to find it so difficult to keep my house tidy

[L8rAllig8r]

I just don't know why. I was the same with my bedroom as a child, leave it for ages then have a huge blitz, and it's followed me into adulthood. I want a tidy house. When I've thoroughly blitzed it I LOVE it. I find myself staying up later just to enjoy the tidiness. But it never lasts more than a week tops, and then the mess seems to get on top of me so quickly, which demotivates me even more. I end up thinking, what's the point, it'll be a state again by tomorrow.

I'm a single parent of a nearly 3 year old and want a nicer home for him. I'm bidding on some more storage on eBay to cope with the sheer volume of toys but it's not really space I lack (even though the house is tiny, there's only 2 of us and I haven't got much stuff), it's motivation. Even though I love it tidy, I don't want to clean EVERY day, but if I don't by day 2 it's a tip again and I go back into the spiral of what's the point of tidying, it'll only get messy again...

Any advice/tips to help me kick this longterm? I'm going to settle in for a huge blitz today and would love it to last longer this time.

Take a picture of your house when it is done and look at it or print it off and post it somewhere to look at. Also, break down all the jobs you do when you blitz the house into 15 minute short jobs. i.e vacumm, put laundry away, dust, bathroom, etc. Then everyday, do one of these 15 minute jobs (keep a list and ceck it off if it helps). In time, you may not have a tidy house everyday, but you will keep on top of the general mess enough for you to feel that you are accomplishing something. This is the motivation you need to keep going. Start small and make it a part of your everyday routine.

Thank you so much everyone for all your helpful thoughts and advice. Just knowing I'm not the only non-domestic goddess has made me feel better. The house is in chaos at the moment as I've moved the bedrooms around while DS has been busy wrecking the lounge! I have reassembled all the furniture though, and remade the beds, so good progress. I've won a bit of storage which I'll be driving over to pick up in the morning and then it's all systems go again tomorrow when I get back. The auction for most of the storage doesn't finish til Saturday though. I have already eyed a few bits around the house that can go, so will be ebaying a fair bit as soon as another free listing weekend comes up! Not had time to look at flylady but I will in the next few days.

I am going to print off a weekly chart with jobs to help, think that's a great idea. Just hope I can stick to it this time!

My DH is a dreadful hoarder. Refuses to throw away anything. The attic is full of all sorts of old things he'll never use. We had to have a huge throw out when DS2 was born to empty the spare room for him. It was painful persuading DH to part with 20 year old magazines, tattered old T shirts from places he's been, computer bits that have been obsolete for years etc. He has no concept of decluttering or tidying at all and would quite happily live in a place that would need Aggie and Kim. Housework is easily our sorest point as although I'm not a domestic goddess I can't cope with the level of mess and chaos that he considers fine.