Context is important here, I am an autistic mother of two, one of whom is disabled and has complex needs. I am the f/t carer of that child and do not work. DH is self employed in a creative industry and does really well, our annual gross household income is around £90-£100k, and we live in a modest mortgaged house in the SE. We aren't the types of people to live beyond our means and we don't have flashy cars or anything, just one family car on PCP that I drive.
DH has undiagnosed inattentive ADHD and is probably on the spectrum like me too. It's the ADHD bit that's really affecting the household though, he's just so disorganised. We have a system of locks in our kitchen to prevent our disabled child from accessing food and DH never locks them back up again. We have a gate on our bedroom to stop DS accessing the room and our medications etc (which are also locked away) but DH will nip up for his slippers or whatever and leave it open, then DS will go in, jump on our bed, throw all our bedding off, get in after having a poo and not wiping his bottom properly etc etc.
I am the only person that puts things in places, but DH for example has never twigged in sixteen years of knowing me that I always leave my keys on the kitchen island. Every time he needs them he asks me where they are and I say 'The kitchen island' and that is where they obviously are, but the way his brain works he just doesn't have zones or areas for things, it's just spaghetti up there really, unless it's to do with his work which he is brilliant at.
Anyway, as the children are getting older and growing (7 and nearly 4) our house is getting fuller and fuller with stuff that needs some measure of organisation. I genuinely think we need named and labelled 'zones' and specific named and labelled storage bins for all the stuff (school bags, shoes, lunch boxes, towels, letters, toys, guitar books etc etc etc etc).
But this is all a bit beyond me. I'm not a hugely organised person, just a mildly organised one. I feel utterly lost and freaked out at the prospect of getting my house in order. I genuinely don't know where I would start or how to go about it.
WIBU to employ somebody to do this for us? Initial outlay will be pricey but I just can't live in chaos any more, I need a tiny bit of order as my autistic side is being niggled constantly. DH will be very sceptical initially but I think I could talk him round.
Also does anybody know how much this type of thing costs? I could save, I think, maybe £400 a month over a few months to cover it.
Just help, MN, I'm drowning!