To seriously need a kick up the ass? How do I get started?

[Madmilkmaid]

My house is a mess. Crap everywhere, all cupboards full of crap. Not in a hoarder you see on tv way but still bad enough to depress me waking up to it every morning.

I just don't know where to start and have no motivation to sort it. I'm moving house in about 8 weeks and as excited as I am to be moving (bigger and nicer house) I just can't seem to get going.

I suffer from GAD so somedays I just don't feel up to doing anything but that's not really a good enough excuse.

Please give me this kick up the ass I need to get started on it and any hints/tips you have. It's not dirty but I have to much crap.

Other people will be along soon with good ideas soon - there was a great thread on this recently which perhaps someone can highlight - but when I'm stuck, I give myself a number. The challenge is to start by finding (eg) 20 or 50 items to put away or (ideally, in your case) get rid of. It helps me to make at least some progress when time is tight, but but also if I don't know where to start.

I don't bin anything that someone else can use but I give a lot to charity shops rather than trying to sell things on eBay etc - it helps to move things out of the house ASAP.

Also: if you're tired/anxious etc, advert cleaning - what can you achieve during ad breaks on tv?

Good luck!

Okay, here's my motivational speech?

YOU'RE MOVING IN 8 WEEKS!!!!! For the love of Mike, as someone who has moved houses and countries three times in two years, you need to start NOW!!!!!!

Moving is inherently hellishly hard work and very stressful. The less time you leave yourself to go through your things, to pack, and to throw, the harder and longer the days, and the more stressful it is.

Be kind to yourself. Start now. Make a list of what you need to do - for each room. Then plan out how you're going to achieve that within your time frame. For me, I went room by room, and each day listed what I wanted to get done. I get a pathetic jolly out of crossing off a job on my to do list. Factor in rewards. Be ruthless.

Think about how much nicer it is going to be moving into your new home if you aren't just taking crap from your old home because you couldn't be bothered making the decision to biff it when you were in your old home. How much nicer unpacking and finding homes for your things is going to be.

(The kitchen is the worst room for this, for me.)

Also, Unfuck Your Habitat is a useful website for finding a place to start. I struggle with fatigue and it has good tips for housekeeping around chronic illness.

Start small! You’ve got 8 weeks so even if you do a room a week youve got plenty of time to get it done.

What’s the smallest thing you could start with today? A junk drawer? A side table with a bunch of old post on it? I think you’ll feel so much better once you’ve done a bit

www.theorganisedmum.blog/

I found this website helpful. I don't follow it religiously but it's a helpful guide to stay on top of stuff around the house and in the 2 weeks since I started my mat leave, I've noticed a big difference. My laundry baskets are empty, the place is tidy and clean and it's not a huge effort.

Seeing as you're moving, I'd take this as perfect opportunity to declutter. Do you really need to move all this stuff, can you sell any of it? Donate it?

Word of advice though, do 1 task at a time and then finish it, 1 room at a time, don't overwhelm yourself by emptying every cupboard in the house and then feeling lost.

www.theorganisedmum.blog

This is what I do - when I’m clearing out if I haven’t used it or worn it or even looked at it in the past 6 months it goes to the bin. I have to do when DD and DP aren’t in though, they get very sentimental about the most random of things.

Thank u all!
I am genuinely amazed at how much "stuff" I have. I'm going to write a list and sort one room at a time. Just want to be able to get up in the mornings without the feeling of dread, that's makes me depressed and anxious. It's a bloody vicious circle.

I need to man up and get stuck in

The dread will dissipate when you start.

It's amazing how much you can get done in twenty minutes - quite often you can go through an entire cupboard in that time, emptying it out, sorting it into keep, charity and biff, wiping it, and filling it back nice and tidy (or packing it ready for moving!) And it's self-perpetuating, once you do one, it's very motivating to do another, because that looks and feels so good, and wasn't that bad after all!

Write down a day (today?!) and a time (now?!) that you are going to start. And the specific room and the specific cupboard, drawer, or household hell spot that you're going to do. . . aaaaannnnnnd GO!

When we moved last, I put everything into a pile in one room, and put it all on Freecycle and arranged one day on the weekend when everyone could pick up all the things offered. Anything not collected got put into the bin or taken to the tip.

We got rid of half a house of stuff in 3 weeks this way.

Basically if I don't use it in a year and it isn't being kept for sentimental reasons, things still get offered in Freecycle or binned.

Do you actually want all this stuff? If you can't be arsed to shift it to the new place, get rid.

One drawer/cupboard at a time. It’s a small step, but keep plugging away.
Good luck.

Watching for inspiration!

I actually don't do one room at a time because it's too overwhelming and there are so many things that need to be shifted about. I do the Mari Kondo thing of one category at a time - gather every single thing in that category from the entire house into one place, have a good look at how many repeats or multiples you have, and get rid of any that are broken/ugly/haven't used in years. Then decide a designated place to keep the rest which are hopefully the ones that are pretty and/or useful.

I did this with sun cream last week. Turns out 8(!!) separate bottles were dotted around the house or in cupboards. 5 out of date. One smelled rank. 2 bottles remain, easier to store in the bathroom cupboard when there's only 2.

So, I have put a 2 lists together. One to just get on top of the everyday jobs (that I haven't been doing everyday) and another list of what I need to sort through for the move. The list isn't actually as huge as I thought. Feel so much better to have a plan of action.

I'm now off to start on the first list and I'm not going to bed tonight until that's done.

On another note, any good housework spotify playlists?

I can do this!

I have every sympathy with you and this situation because I'm a dreadful procrastinator when it comes to cleaning but it's never as bad in reality as one imagines!

Three tips:

(1) however stressed and anxious you may feel (and anxiety is the pits ) dont wait for motivation to come to you! I have learnt through long periods of painful procrastination that doing something, however small, motivates you for the next thing, not the other way around, ie, fake it until you make it! Start with one small five minute task. I promise you that that will motivate you to do the next five minute task. And so on.

(2) when a thought comes in to your mind about "I must do this or that" then go and do it straight away. If you are the sort of person (like me) who lives in their imagination/head too much, if you think about doing things over and over in your mind but don't do them - it gets to the point when that is nearly as good as having done them - when you haven't done them in reality ifyswim (as mad as that sounds!).

(2) Don't think of it as a big overwhelming task. As cheesy as it sounds think of it as "being kind to your future self". Chop it up in to small bits. Then even smaller bits. For example, start by packing up all pictures, photos and ornaments and all purely decorative items that don't have practical use. Then books. Then papers etc etc. Work your way through from "least used and essential" > "most used and essential". Pack in that order.

(3) operate a colour coding system and buy stickers (or coloured markers) to match. Stick A4 sheet of corresponding coloured paper above door of each room in new house. Then you can say to the movers "all orange in the orange room" and "all green in the green room" and it avoids mistakes like movers mistaking dining room for sitting room and utility room for kitchen etc, as has happened to me in the past. Works well unless you have a colour blind removals man

Good luck!

X post with your action plan op! Sounds really excellent but don't overdo it and burn out on day one! Small steps consistently done are the key. Good luck

Sorry, have just seen that was four tips and I can't count

Solitarycaddis, the whole doing jobs in your head thing is so me lol. Every night I lie in bed going over and over what I need to do. Get up the next morning and log onto here and pretty much find anything else to do except what I actually really need to do.

Thank you to everyone for your advice. It doesn't seem like such a massive and daunting task now.

Have got my headphones in, music on and I'm making a start.

I'm in the same position OP. I'm moving at some point in the next month (no definite date yet!) and have a decade worth of crap to sort through before we move. I made a start with the kitchen this weekend and now I've got that done it's made a huge difference!

Set some time aside and focus on one room or section at a time. Put your music on, grab a load of black bags, roll your sleeves up and get stuck in!!

I can be quite ruthless when I put my mind to it. If you have things you know can go elsewhere, put them somewhere and set a time to take them to the charity, sell online etc. If they're still there after that then just get rid.

The good thing is now my kitchen is done, I think everything else will be much quicker and easier. Once you start it does get easier. And once you can actually see laid out how much shite you actually have, it makes you more ruthless in clearing out. I was embarrassed about just how much duplicate stuff we don't need we actually had. Like 20 Tupperware boxes!!

Don't be afraid to bin things. It's a shame but that's life.

So many things I don't want, but don't want to chuck, and don't know where is best to take them, so weeks and months go by.

Don't be crazy but sometimes, just close your eyes, chuck in the bin, and you'll unlock good progress

Good luck! There's something so satisfying about ticking tasks off a list!