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.

[LimitedEditionLady]

Kitties i put all this stuff in a box and say "look thtough that,do you want this?'and if alll else fails make a cupboard for their crap...

[KittiesInsane]

Good plan. I'll locate and hide my own stuff, then suggest DH makes a nice large box for everything else.

[LimitedEditionLady]

Haha is this a room sized box?heehee i like to sometimes bin random crap of others because i know they dont remember even having it!

[CoTananat]

I agree with you wholeheartedly quoteunquote. We always had things to do in the house as children. At 12 I was cooking the main meal one night a week, for sure.

Some friends of my parents were very shocked once on holiday to find their kids doing the washing up and sweeping the floor before going out to play. They were initially quite angry but came round, as my parents tell it, by their youngest weeping and begging to be allowed to do her bit like all the others.

I have never enjoyed housework, but I've alway felt competent and capable around it. And I would not like to be the sort of person who did not do their bit. Urgh. On reflection, as I've unconsciously said this twice, this must have been how it was sold to me: doing my bit, contributing, being part of a team. It's good to have team mates; it feels good, like you've got power beyond yourself.

My mum was a v good teacher (one of those superteachers who was parachuted into places) who worked with kids with profound behavioural problems though, so she was basically a child wizard who could not be beaten. V frustrating as a natural brat rebel, I can tell you.

[valiumredhead]

Dh is a natural hoarder and I gather his stuff together and say 'keep or bin?' Anything that gets kept has to go away properly either in his garage or wardrobe it risk being binned

[valiumredhead]

Or risk it being binned

[UserError]

We're very slowly getting there. The Unfuck My Habitat app is much better than the Tumblr and it has quite literally saved my sanity. The trick is not to rely so much on the random challenges, but set your own to-do list instead.

I give my toddler jobs. He has ASD but is perfectly capable of helping and actually being useful. His current job is putting the recycling into the box outside, once I've sorted and washed it and made sure there are no sharp bits. He also likes helping to rip up cardboard boxes.

[UserError]

By 'actually being useful' I mean I don't give him little jobs to keep busy, where it doesn't matter if they're done properly or not. I started doing that and then thought 'Why?'. So I came up with jobs he can do that actually make a difference to the household. He dusts the TV/TiVo box/PS3 too, with a mini duster.