To ask if it’s possible to become a tidy person

[JaneAustensPen]

I have spent my life struggling to become organised and tidy but I live in a constant whirl of lost tickets, missing items, desk overflowing with paperwork, always looking for keys, phone, bag. It’s stressful, anxiety inducing and expensive and I have tried endlessly to impose systems and strategies but nothing seems to stick. Has anyone successfully managed to change themselves into a tidy organised person when that doesn’t come naturally? (Name changes for this.)

Following Marie Kondo made me a tidy person. I mean reading the book and doing it properly.

I wouldn’t have thought it was possible before, it’s amazing.

Keys phone bag etc only ever get put down in one place, or a couple of places, in the house. My door keys are either in my big coat pocket or hanging up on hooks near the door, I simply never ever put them down anywhere else. Phone is in my hand or where it charges. Trying to start that basic habit might the quickest, easiest impact on the lost keys/phone problem.

Concerta helps me but it's still hard with 3 kids.

Yes, it is, as long as you have places to put things away.

There's a difference between tidy and organised. My house isn't particularly tidy, but we do try to keep stuff in logical places. So the kids school bags will be either dumped in the hall or in their rooms. Keys always in the same place. Paperwork we try to deal with straight away, and take a photo if it's something we need to remember for later.

I think i have adhd which doesnt help. My brain finds it so hard to orgamise and i genuinely have no memory of where ive put anything. Id love an ordered house as it would help so much!!

swimming I have it and wish I had a PA to get everything in order for me lmao.

I’ll have a look at Marie Kondo again. I have so much stuff the thought of getting everything out to review it makes me feel a bit overwhelmed. Encouraging that it’s really made a difference.

I've become much more organised and tidy since moving in with tidy Dh. So it is possible.. having a place for things is the key.

I bought a tile which is a tracking device to help find things like keys and wallet. I try to deal with things straight away and photograph important things to keep an electronic record of them. I share your problems.

I’m messy and disorganised but I don’t like it. It’s not easy to start being tidy because I don’t know where to begin.
I’m trying in stages - first of all trying to have a place for things. My keys in one place etc etc. My biggest issue however is that my working memory can be a bit rubbish - so I’ll get distracted mid job and misplace something. It’s definitely worse since I’ve got a smart phone as there’s more to distract me!!!

I’m in the process of massively decluttering the house and setting up places for things. Hoping that this will help. Also doing short bursts of things eg ten minutes tidying here and there. Enough to crack a small area but not too much that I get distracted or bored.

(I’m in the middle of sweeping the kitchen floor, stopped to pick up my phone and look I’m posting on mumsnet )

Everything has a place that it lives in always!

I'm a messy person turned tidy !!
I don't have as much stuff. Zero patience for clutter (just get rid, you don't need it). And I have organised the things I have and don't have a 'junk draw' any more full of odds and sods - that alone has cleared my mind a bit!

And I spend about an hour a day cleaning or doing jobs around the house. Every couple of weeks I do a more thorough clean.

It's really helped with knowing where everything is. And the house being nicely kept. No more panic if a surprise visitor turns up at the door.

I'm better than I used to be - a place for everything helps, although I do hoard stuff & am trying to do better!

Bit by bit & Marie Kondo helps but haven't done it fully. If I hadn't put on a load of weight & clinging to several sizes of clothes, that would be much better. Also easier as dc get bigger

I have just Marie Kondo-d my house. I can't tell you the difference it has already made. I have two kids 2-and-under and heaps of baby/toddler stuff, and it STILL looks tidy. When I came home tonight (not in the UK) I felt calm and peaceful, rather than feeling more angst. If anyone were to ask me where any item is, I would know and be able to get to it in a minute.

I am definitely not a naturally tidy person but I was inspired by the Netflix show (as it sure a lot of people have been). We are renters and our place never felt like a home until now.

Def having a set place for the key things is important. We have a ‘charging station’, just a basket next to a powerpoint! But if phones or chargers are laying around that’s where they go!
A command centre (Pinterest) is great also. I have mine by the back door. Big whiteboard during term time, I draw up 2 weeks at a time. I put everything on it no matter how trivial. ‘Put bin out’ on Monday’s, Swimming, library, football sign on ect. At a glance I can double check I haven’t forgotten anything on my way out the door, plus prep for tomorrow. Hooks for our bags, a basket for hats, pump sunscreen, a change jar for those ‘bring $2 to school for this and that’, a hook for the dog’s lead. Personalise it to suit you! :) we are a paperless school so I have no need for the paper storage side, but you might.
Try to stay ahead of the game a little. See a markdown rack of clothes? Scoop the next size up. See a good bargain on a gift? Get it for your gift box (also a must have lol)
I have an 18 month planner I write everything in (looked at while I do up whiteboard). I bought a pretty one and heaps of stickers & decals & cute stuff (I’m secretly still 12!). Every Sunday I sit down, decorate the week (quite relaxing! I recommend stickers for all Mums! Lol) and write/check what my plans are.
My house still gets untidy and I still have ‘oh shit I forgot x y z’ but these few things make those moments few and far between.

Try to stay ahead of the game a little. See a markdown rack of clothes? Scoop the next size up. See a good bargain on a gift? Get it for your gift box (also a must have lol)

I would say the opposite. That is how people end up with houses full of crap

Never but generic gifts it advance. If you care about someone buy them a small carefully chosen gift.

Don't buy stuff because it is reduced. Buy less- just get what you need.

We are all destroying the planet and creating piles of crap in our lives by this stupid culture of having to have and gift too much stuff.

I’m not talking about buying shit for the sake of it and I have zero clutter in my house, it’s too small to have clutter.

What I’m saying is stuff like this. A cheese company have a free personalised lunch bag promo going, order online and just pay postage. I ordered my nephew an insulated lunch bag with his name embroidered on it for $4. It goes in the gift box and will be his Xmas present this year as he starts school next year.

My son has one small drawer I have filled with markdown clothes the next size up for winter this year, purchased from a mix of charity and department stores. One drawer, and only one size.

I’m certainly not going to advocate ‘wait till your child is freezing at school then go pay full price for a coat that day’. Wasn’t this thread about getting organised?

Loads of helpful suggestions - a place for everything seems key. V encouraged to learn that people have been able to turn things around. I do feel really oppressed by all the clutter. My brain feels cluttered as well - hopefully a clearer house would help with that.

Try and make things as easy as possible for yourself, e.g. set a place for your keys that is a convenient spot to put them when you come in. I'm not naturally tidy, but little things I have done have made life a lot easier. For example I always tended to have scarves, gloves etc all over the hall, I now have a drawer in the hall to keep these in, because it's convenient it gets used. Work out where you tend to put things, and then create a storage space that's handy.

I do feel really oppressed by all the clutter. My brain feels cluttered as well - hopefully a clearer house would help with that.

Me too. I have the Marie Kondo book. I've even read most of it. What I haven't done is DO the decluttering. However, I have watched her on Netflix and now, I have booked a day off work which is solely for decluttering my clothes and the other crap that lives in my cupboard of doom. Wish me well!

I was going to say yes and no. I am a naturally messy person, I spend lots of time cleaning and organising, it can be hard but it gets messed so easy, I still don't automatically put things back after use, it takes a big clean every day.
I must check out Maria Kondo too.

Another Kondo convert here!

I have historically always been untidy but now my house is effortlessly tidy, even the kids. It's just a case of only keeping what really matters to you and giving everything a place where it lives.

Of course things get left out and look untidy but it's a matter of moments to put them back where they should be. I think most untidiness is due to not knowing where to put stuff, or that place already being full of other stuff.

Read the Kondo book first though, it gives way more detail than the Netflix programme.

I'm about as untidy as it is possible to be, but I can usually find what I'm looking for.

Years ago I read a tip that the best place to keep something is in the first place you'd think of looking for it if you couldn't find it. Seems to work fairly well.

Definitely de clutter, and make sure everything has a place it’s supoised to be.

I couldn’t face getting all the clothes out etc the way that Kondo tells you to, so I cheated a bit. Did it by rooms/categories first, got rid of a lot that way and then once my clothes were trimmed down I could manage putting them all out at once and creating a capsule wardrobe.

Since doing Kondo my House is almost always tidy and any mess is easy to sort out as everything has a home.