To ask your top 3 organisational tips?

[booklover164]

My god my house is tip! New baby arriving soon and we need to get on top of it. Both DH and I are naturally messy people and throwing a toddler in the mix doesn't help.

What are your top 3 tips for keeping your house organised?

1. No one is going to do it for you, so crack the F on (that's what I tell myself anyway).

1. You do not need loads and loads of stuff. It's claustrophobic to have crap everywhere and stops you cleaning properly. Go for thoughtfully curated rather than filling space with shit you don't really like that much.

1. Fit jobs in whilst you are doing other things eg wipe sink whilst brushing teeth, clean loo after you have been, clean shower whilst you are in it.

4 (sorry). Before you start cooking have an empty dishwasher/sink full of soapy water ready to go.

1.De clutter
2.Have a to-do list

1. enough storage space

Audio books have transformed my housekeeping. I plug in my AirPods and work away. The time flies by.

The other thing that helps when I’m feeling overwhelmed is to promise myself I only need do 5 minutes. Often once that 5 minutes is up I have energised myself and keep going. If not, I stop and commit to doing another 5 minutes in half an hours time. At least that way after about an hour I’ll have done 10/15 minutes which is better than nothing.

I also find it useful to keep a separate set of cleaning stuff (cleaning spray, ecloths, rubber gloves and vacuum cleaner) upstairs and downstairs. It makes it so much easier to quickly whip round one room when everything I need is close to hand.

"Declutter" is very simplistic without explaining to op HOW to declutter

My top tips for decluttering:

If you haven't used it in a year (covers seasonal variations)

If it's not of sentimental value

If it's not genuinely potentially useful (eg tools, fuses & similar)

Get rid!

Totally agree with everything needs a home!

But PLACE those homes where they make the most sense -

I have my recycling bin right next to the door so any post I'm binning goes straight in there!

I started when I was first married and no longer living in a studio/bedsit (I married young) with the laundry hamper being down in the kitchen near the washer as I thought that made sense, but actually it was much easier having it in the bedroom where we undressed as otherwise we couldn't be arsed at the end of the day trailing down to the kitchen and so often ended up leaving dirty clothes in a corner, forgetting to take it down of a morning. Even more so once we had dd it was easier to have a hamper near the changing "station" (not a proper station, just an area we set up)

Note where you INSTINCTIVELY go to collect/put away a thing if it's not CURRENTLY where that thing lives and change it's home. Agree also this applies to items regularly lost! Change the "home" to the first place you're looking when you need it.

I'm cursed with a TINY kitchen yet I am usually a keen cook and baker - it's like playing sodding krypton factor at times!

But...everything has a "home" so I know where it is, I even inventoried my food using the nest egg app at start of lockdown as grocery deliveries were being a bit hit and miss and on it you can create your own "locations" and I've done so such that I know exactly what shelf and in what cupboard things are.

Also agree with not leaving a room empty handed. I'm disabled now so moving is difficult and painful so I'm not as good as many pps for tidying up immediately after say a meal but the next time I'm going to the kitchen anyway I'll take the dishes through etc in my case to minimise how often I need to move!

Set aside one day a month for the "stomach sinking" jobs - but don't do the same one each month! Eg one month it's the kitchen, another it's the hall cupboard, another it's one persons "wardrobe" (I made sure I did this seasonally with dds clothes and charity shopped the ones she'd outgrown)... you get the idea

I have upbeat music on when I've longer jobs to do, really helps

I'm new to being organised but these work brilliantly for me:

1. Declutter (Marie Kondo or any other method) - a big one
2. EVERYONE in the household spends a full 30 mins tidying/sorting/ cleaning (whatever needs doing) towards the end of the day, all together
3. Keep decluttering - randomly pull out a drawer each day and ask the DCs (or whoever's stuff it is), can I throw all this away? That usually prompts a proper sort

All of the tips given are excellent, and mine is that the kitchen is clean and tidy before bedtime everyday, no exceptions. Waking up to a messy, dirty kitchen starts your entire day on the wrong foot.

These are fantastic! Love the idea of the kitchen inventory too. Thank you so much

mine is that the kitchen is clean and tidy before bedtime everyday, no exceptions. Waking up to a messy, dirty kitchen starts your entire day on the wrong foot.

Yes, I go along with this. My husband can't understand why I do a quick wipe round, wash a mug, put the few dirty things in the dishwasher etc before bed but it's so much nicer than coming down to it in the morning. Ditto the bathroom.

Follow Flylady or The Organised Housewife.

Never put anything down always put it away.

Start a task and finish it before moving onto the next task.

A place for everything and everything in its place. Don't buy anything new until you know where it lives.

Tidy up as you go along while cooking or baking.

Deal with letters, phone calls etc as soon as you get them; practise the OHIO principle - Only Handle It Once.

Think of it this way...the laziest person only wants to do it once so do it properly first time. Put stuff straight into the dishwasher, wash up every evening, make beds before you come downstairs, filing paperwork once a week, etc.

Don't put off till tomorrow what can be achieved today - as others have said a quick whip round after the evening meal putting things away. And, when your child is older, putting toys away as they've finished with them. I.e. you don't get the lego out until the jigsaws have been put away.

Have a rough schedule for certain things - e.g. we wash towels on a Friday and bedding on certain days, we menu plan on a Sunday evening, I do the supermarket shop on Mondays (top up on Thursday), etc.