to ask those with nice, clean tidy home how you do it.

[FortyDoorsToNowhere]

I have spent 11 hours already this week trying to sort this house out. I have got rid of a lot of junk, but still have my wardrobe to sort out ( another 2 hours) as it is full of junk, clean the cooker and also do my nets and windows.

How the fudge do people manage to keep a nice, clean and tidy home.

No doubt by next week my house will be back to square one.

everlong!

How long do you spend every day when you say little and often? Does that time include filling dishwasher, putting on washing, cooking etc?

I think 15 mins a day is a bit optimistic in my case

I clearly need to up my game ! Don't you find it demotivating having to keep at it constantly? I find it so hard to find enthusiasm even though I love it looking clean and tidy.

It's like climbing the Matterhorn each day and finding yourself back at base camp every following morning

It would be helpful if people could provide context for their claims about how easy it is. DH and I both work full time, he leaves at 7.30am every day and I leave the house at 8am with our sons to walk them to the school breakfast club, then onto work. We pick up the kids at about 5.40pm from after school club and then I set to work cooking dinner while DH does packed lunches for all of us & PE kit for the next day in their bags. By the time the person doing bath/bedtime gets back down its usually 8.45pm. Often we have to bring work home or are scrabbling around before bedtime trying to magic into existence a World Book Day costume or batch of fairy cakes for a PTA bake sale the next day that the school only texted us about at 3pm. Weekends are about swimming lessons, errands, shopping, homework, kids parties and - if we are lucky - some family fun. There's really not much time left for me or DH to pursue our own interests and the housework/clutter builds up accordingly. If we have 15 min here and there to spare, we try to get stuff done but sometimes you just can't win. Something had to give and we chose to prioritise our sanity over housework. My username says it all.

DustBunny, I take my hat off to you - god only knows how families cope with keeping a house looking vaguely ok when you both work full time.

Keep having people around, this forces you to tidy up. If there are people around often enough the house looks spotless most of the time.

Disclaimer: the above only works if you tend to be embarrased by the mess, otherwise enjoy the visits and forget about tidying up.

Just try & keep on top of it & don't let it pile up. I had 2 kids 2 years apart & made myself have a routine. Clear up as you go, ironing when they had a lunchtime nap, ask them to help you tidy up toys before tea, while they're in the bath you can clean the bathroom & stuff like that. I was a SAHM but can appreciate how hard it would be if you're working. However, I started working P/T but every day when my youngest was 5. There wasn't the concept of 'me-time' as such, it was just a given that we didn't have time to ourselves. It sounds a bit Pythonesque 'we ad it tuff' but I didn't. I still saw mates, enjoyed being at home with my kids & the house looked reasonable. I can't relax if the house is a mess so maybe it's just me.

I did line up a cleaning lady the other week. But I talked myself out of it. I think my cleaning regime helps my waning sanity.

We got several cleaners to quote for doing our house but realised it wasn't a cleaner we needed, but a tidier/sorter. If the house was tidy, we could easily whip round with the hoover & cleaning stuff in an hour or two at the weekend. Sadly, tidiers are not advertised in the yellow pages.

everlong I feel the same. I would clean & tidy before a cleaning lady came which is why I wouldn't get one. I would also feel guilty laying about while someone else cleaned my home. My neighbour had a cleaner & she'd lay in the garden while the cleaner did her housework. I always thought ' you lazy t**t'. She didn't work so no need for someone else to do her housework.

I think it is relatively easy to achieve a clean/tidy home if

(a) you are instinctively a 'tidy' person and can't relax until the house is at what you perceive to be 'comfortable' levels of tidiness

(b) you have the 15-30 minutes daily to spare on 'fly lady' style cleaning/tidying

(c) you have storage systems in place for clutter and don't allow mess to accumulate.

If I'm honest, I have a clean/tidy home because all of the above apply. I have three young DC, and we live in a small terraced house, and it is generally kept in a clean tidy state and I don't find that particularly hard. I can't abide mess/clutter; I can't relax till I feel the house is tidy enough. I would rather tidy and clean up than sit and relax, simply because I can't sit and relax till everything is tidy and clean! And I have storage systems sorted, so clutter is easily enough sorted/chucked away/distributed to where it is supposed to 'live'. But - crucially - I also have the time to keep on top of it, because I'm a SAHM and can juggle my time accordingly. Far easier for me than for someone like Dustbunny, for example.

I also had my beautiful Golden Retriever at the time so had to hoover the house at least once a day and also clear up the poops from the garden & fit in taking her out for walks. Looking back I don't know how I managed but now she's dead & my kids are grown up & have left home, I'd go back to those days in a second. Try & enjoy what you have as you'll never get this time back

'Don't put it down, put it away' and each time you leave a room, look for something that shouldn't be there and put it away.

Im with Pear I try to invite someone at least once a week or fortnightly as it will make me more embarrassed by my piles of shit motivated.

Fly lady is starting to work for me as I've been doing her routine for a few weeks and its showing now. She has a few everyday basics and a special job each day. I set the timer for 15 mins and work like crazy then stop. (She has more if you look into her yearly planner).
I downloaded her student journal for my dd 11 and she is starting to do her own jobs for 5 -10 mins each day aswell as daily dishwasher duties and 1 meal a week. I think delegating is the future for me as it will teach my dc good routines and no one will be complaining that my ds can iron a shirt.

Get rid of clutter, old toys, broken things etc I read a feng shui book which advised to throw one item away every day for 30 days. I'm still doing it 15 years later.
The one which has really made my house tidy and cut the washing in half is my DD going to uni, and to be honest I'd rather have the messy clothes strewn round the house.

Hahaha it's got the point now where when the house is in such a diabolical state after three days without visitors, I'll invite someone round for a cup of tea at 8.30pm just so I can clean it. And can do the whole thing in under an hour

Yet somehow if I just tell myself to clean for an hour without the threat of guests, I find reasons to sit down with a kitkat....

Case in point. House was gleaming yesterday. Now kitchen is a state. Been staring at it for the last two hours. Friend coming round for a natter in 15 mins. Off the sofa I go....

Chateau your post about your dog and children is so poignant, I feel quite teary reading it . Very very true, I often try and remind myself of this that I will miss the noise and busyness of everything when everyone has left to get on with their own lives.

Personally my house is chaos ...
I'm a bit of a hoarder and a obsessive recycler (ie got rid of 4 bags of clothes a week ago - was tripping over 2 of the bags in my office for 3 weeks waiting for the collection day - a company picks it up and it raises funds for a charity I'm involved with - but the company wouldn't take the duvet someone had handed one in - someone was going to throw in in a skip - but no I've brought it home to take to a recycling centre (they hand them out to the homeless )- or to freecycle for pets etc - unfortunately I haven't got round to doing either ....at least it is one less bag than before...)
I hate the fly lady (thinks she lives on her own! -polish your sink!!!! grrr - I'd spend all day polishing mine!) -but there was another site recently mentioned on MN - Unfuck your habitat - the best message I got from that was if it takes 5mins or less just do it ...which was wonderful...except it is amazing how many things I do that take 5 mins ...and then when I'd done all those things - and then the things I never get round to - checked my oil & water & tyres on my car, checked my smoke alarms, watered my plants etc etc - all I had left were jobs that take hours - but I hadn't the energy left to get any done!!!
When I worked full time the house never got as untidy as it does now I'm a SAHM - even though my DCs are now at school it is amazing how much more mess they can make between 3.15pm and when we used to get back at 6.30 pm...I used to do a 3 hr clean of the whole house on a Sunday and that was enough..now it just seems to be constant...
Anyway I try (but am losing the will) to have a quick tidy up with DCs before bed - especially the kitchen...(but trying not to run dishwasher overnight - it is a fire hazard)
I do think storage and declutter is the best solution - Ikea is good for furniture etc...have a great coffee table has two wheeled storage cubes that fit underneath - this was great for baby toys and now has computer games etc in...
I would love a cleaner but I think it might be like when I lived in a flatshare - the cleaner refused to come anymore until the live in landlady got rid of some of her clutter...
I think everyone tidies up for a cleaner -but that is a good thing -it forces you to do it - and you get the pleasure of walking into a clean house -even if it only lasts for 10 mins...(in another house share we had one and it worked fantastically well)

Tigerbabyy has it right.

I do it as I go along and my house is clean and tidy all the time.

I put stuff in dishwasher then after breakfast things are in turn it on before work. Empty at night etc.

Wash on a Friday, iron on Sunday.

Dust, hoover every other day and bathroom wipe over daily.

I can't go to work unless beds are made but there's only me and DD

I'm a great believer in little and often too, but I can do this as I'm a SAHM.

Yup, I tidy for the cleaner coming. Also make the toilet civilised. I hate having to do it but its great discipline, and worth it so much when you come home to a gleaming, bleach smelling house.