To ask for help with cleaning our house.

[ItsLeviooosar]

I'm recovering from a severe mental breakdown. I'm a lot better and we moved house recently but a combination of poor mental health and decorating means this house is now fairly untidy. I have help to get it cleaned, thank goodness for my mum!

However how do you do house cleaning routine? What do you do each day? I want to look after this house, it's our first ever home and I feel a lot better when the house is cleaned but I don't know where to start

We have carpet upstairs 2 rooms, Lino downstairs and in the kitchen and tiles in the basement.

Please help me!

Have you heard of the organised mum method? She's on Instagram and Facebook.

Everyone will tell you the less clutter you have in your house the easier it is to clean. Everyone is right.

The TOMM method is great too and has a useful FB page.

I am glad to hear you are feeling better. My mental health really impacts on my motivation to keep on top of the housework and I quickly become overwhelmed. I have found the organised mum method really helpful. Have a look at the organised mum method. She has a blog, the book is only 99p on a kindle at the moment and there is an app. It all depends what works for you in terms of following it.

The idea is you concentrate on one room each day Monday to Thursday. Then on Friday there is a focus day. This changes over an 8 week cycle. It really really helps. And what is great is that if you lose a few days, you can easily pick up where you left off.

I find it helps to have a plan, looking at it as a whole house can be overwhelming, break it down and have a rota. Monday am bedroom 1 and bathroom, Monday pm, Living room and dining room. Do a bit of the kitchen every time you're in there - so making a coffee, clean the worktops, waiting for your toast, empty the dishwasher. Do a load of washing a day and iron it when its dry. The trick is to be organised and don't let yourself get overwhelmed. If something gets missed for whatever reason don't beat yourself up about it - no one died because of a messy house...

Thank you!!

When I'm feeling low, the thought of cleaning can be overwhelming. I set a timer on my phone for 10/15 minutes, and tell myself I'll 'speed clean' till it goes off. Put some upbeat music on and off I go. 9 times out of 10 I carry on after the timer goes off, and I always feel better afterwards.

Little and often makes it easier too:

• Declutter room by room and make sure everything has a 'home' with nice storage.
• Have a "crap basket" to shove stuff in if necessary, TX Maxx do nice storage boxes for this. Sort through crap basket weekly/monthly.
• Wipe down kitchen and bathroom surfaces every day, it becomes a routine after a while. I do the kitchen while I wait for the kettle to boil and the bathroom before I brush my teeth before bed.
• Get a cordless hoover and a steam mop, or a spray mop.

Also see if you can find Flylady, I’d avoid the podcast, but the get the house clean in an hour really makes a visible difference. It isn’t thorough, as it can’t be in one hour- but it makes enough difference that you will want to keep going.

TOMM is good, and as PP said- make sure the kitchen is clean before you leave it.

As a single job, vacuuming makes a big difference because it looks tidier once you’ve done it.

I used to nominate a day of the week, and before going out on the school run would fly round the house shoving everything away/out of sight. I could then clean once the children were at school and by lunchtime the house would be spotless. It was the day of the week I most looked forward to!

Brilliant I'm going to have look. Thank you

Agree with others to look at FlyLady and The Organised Mum Method (which is a bit of a rip off of it)

Personally I don't clean like this (a room a day) but try to stick to the principles of:

• Clean little and often
• Put a wash on most days (needed if you have a family)
• Do a 15 min tidy up downstairs post dinner. This really helps to keep on top of high traffic areas
• Delegate tasks to others. I tend to dust/hoover but leave main cleaning of kitchen/bathroom to husband

I looked at Mrs Hinch and I couldn't believe the palaver . I have just rediscovered Zoflora and I find that the lovely smell once I have done one room motivates me to carry on