house too big, your best tips

[sunshineapples]

Will preface this message with I appreciate lots of people will criticise me for complaining. We used to live in a two bed flat which was super easy to clean and maintain. Have now moved to a four bed house and honestly it just feels unmanageable. I feel like am constantly trying to clean it and things always keep going wrong. Both of us have full time jobs and a toddler. In theory, the house is great - we can work from home and have room. But it feels like we're never on top of any of it. It now feels like am permanently either working, looking after DC or sorting out the house and none of it feels good enough.

How much time does everyone else spend on sorting it all out - if it's not a broken toilet, it's the dishwasher, or the garden or the dusting. There is always something to do and it all seems to cost so much money.

DH does lots of it as well so we do share the load and am not sure why we are struggling. I don't even enjoy the space because all I see is yet more chores. Does anyone have any tips for keeping a big house tidy or at least presentable? I just feel totally overwhelmed and tired and wishing we were back in our small flat

Oops didn't read entire thread I guess either drop standards or fit cleaning in at specific points in the week. So prior to our cleaner we did 2 hrs on Friday or Saturday morning. DH would do the bathroom and hoover upstairs and I did everything else. Still do that now but the baseline is much tidier because we have a cleaner. In laws have the robot vacuum/mop thing. I am not convinced it cleans well enough but clearly that's my assessment of their floors after they have been using it.

Its not the size of the house,its the stage of your life. Your toddler would make just as much mess in a flat. You would need to do as much washing, and probably find it harder to tidy as youd have nowhere to put things.

Its not forever, it gets easier when dcs are older and not as messy with toys (ok, dcs bedrooms are shit tips, but there aren't toys out downstairs). Storage is important. Throw things. Have cleaning products on all your floors if you are in a townhouse. Id really consider a hoover for each floor as well. Anything that means you can make the most of a spare 5 mins.

The Organised Mum Method is supposed to be very good.

Basic furniture
minimal amount of plates, mugs, etc
if you have a tumble dryer then 1 bed set per bed
minimal amount of clothes

YANBU. My house is too big and I yearn to live somewhere smaller but my young adult children haven’t left home (one at uni) and I share the assets with my ex so won’t have enough to buy another home to accommodate them as well. I have no money for repairs so it’s becoming more and more a ‘project’ for any future buyers. Stuff has accumulated over the years which is just clutter now. My friend lives in a tiny but lovely clean and uncluttered house (single no kids) and I love her little house.

I had exactly the same thing having moved 18 months ago for a two bed flat to a 5 bed house. It’s ENDLESS. First of all pay others to do cleaning- whatever you can afford. Secondly have a big clear out. Do a little each weekend. Thirdly create a rota- if you can afford a cleaner/ window cleaner this will be easier. Hoover down stairs every day even if you have a cleaner. Get a cordless hoover for this. You don’t have to do a perfect job just adequate. Get a wash on as soon as you get up in the morning. Fold and put away the one you hung out the day before. Don’t iron- only my iron when you need it. Before you go to bed set aside 15 ministers to do a downstairs put away/tidy up. Keep your kitchen surfaces and sink clear as much as you can. Empty the dishwasher as soon as you can after it finishes.

Haven't rtft but a tip I picked up on here is to never leave a room without taking something out that doesn't belong there and putting it back where it does. Eg kids bedtime toy ended up in kitchen? Take it to their room on your way. Etc.

We moved into a 4 bed huge house and I thought it would be awful to keep on top of but it's fine. Little bits every day, never aim to clean the entire house in one go. I do bathrooms (2.5) one day, get DH to vacuum another day, we do have to constantly clean the kitchen though as it's always in use.

I think the bigger tge house ,the more stuff? ( typically)?

Yes definitely!

Get rid of anything you can so you’re living minimalistic.
The less stuff you have, the easier it is to clean.

If it’s very big, then why not think about moving somewhere smaller but bigger than the flat.

I am sometimes envious of people WFH as you can put the washing machine on etc during your break but I found when I WFH during covid the home got messier because I was using it all day.

bathroom cleaned properly once a week

I have 3. It's a fucking nightmare. They are old and mouldy and impossible to clean. Can't afford new ones.

I feel your pain. We live in a large 4 bed and have the money for a bigger move but I'm not budging. I have a cleaner twice a week.

My top tip: don't put in too much storage. I've seen plenty of cluttered large houses. Use the space to make it feel roomy.

If there's one room you can close the door on, then do that.

We have a cleaner once a fortnight for 2 hours. You could always do the same and ask them to do the bits like kitchen/bathrooms. Costs us £60 a month but so so worth it!

Its only one more bedroom than my house, and its pretty manageable with organisation. Presumably you have a spare room, so just shut the door and ignore it. Have a rota and a plan, and it should be fine.

I alsonsecond robot cleaners, mine has changed my life! I know that sounds dramatic 😂 but I never use my normal hoover, I recently bought a little hoover for the stairs which I use every day and the robot hoove is either charging or being used constantly.

Another thing is when we put the house on the market I got about 80% of our stuff and put it in the loft, no one’s asked for anything I put away and the house has been loads easier to clean.

Sounds like you need more organisational ideas. Get some cheap storage and get everyone on board with putting stuff away and make sure everything has a place, chn put toys away before getting different ones out etc. Everyone to tidy away at the end of the day. Then make a list of repairs and prioritise them.
Of course properly takes maintenance.It’s an investment.

10k on basic maintenance?????? What is being broken exactly?

Oh FGS just move to a smaller home. Not rocket science is it?! 🙄

We moved from a huge 5 bed, and it annoyed me having to clean so much room that we didn't need. We held loads of clutter that we didn't need. Downsized and now live in somewhere half the size (3 beds) but with a huge garden. Was cheaper too. Became mortgage free at 42 y.o.

I have a cleaner twice a week. I have two kids and three dogs, and like a tidy home, so it’s pretty much the only way to maintain order. I still end up cleaning the kitchen and some of the downstairs daily. Our house is 8000 square feet.

Thank you everyone for all the tips. Will write them out and try and follow them.

To those who have suggested downsizing - I really would but we've only lived here less than a year and it will be another 50k to sell and buy. So for now, am just trying to figure out how to make it work but otherwise yes, downsizing might be the solution.

In terms of maintenance - we've had to redo lots of pipes that cost a ridiculous amount - 6k, plus most of our appliances broke and the boiler needed lots of work. No idea how we got to 10k - we keep hoping that it will stop but it never seems to. It's not even an old house and looked fine

I think that the shit just expands to fill the available space. One thing I did was to invest in big wicker baskets in every room. Whatever is lying around gets chucked in there, and gets sorted out when there's time. DH's one is called 'The Basket of Doom'!

I'm going to echo what other people have already told you.

1. Declutter - and make sure you don't re-clutter
2. Lots of clever storage - keep things put away. And put things away in the places you are going to use them. Spare bedding in the room it is going to be used in, for instance. A place for everything and everything in its place.
3. Yes to the robot cleaner.
4. If you are not using a room, give it a good clean and tidy and then shut the door on it. Don't use it unless you need to. Spare bedroom made up and ready to use, second sitting room kept visitor ready.
5. I spent a LOT of time and a LOT of money designing my new kitchen. It is really well organised. Everything is easy to clean and there is more than enough storage space. I keep the worktop as clear as possible so that it (nearly always) looks clean and tidy.
6. Don't try to do everything at once. Apart from the essentials do one room at a time and get it right. Do it properly and you won't need to do it again for a long time.

Thanks everyone. I think the dishwasher breaking today plus trying to tidy and sort out all the dust just tipped me over the edge

My advice would be to see what you can afford, and then outsource to that level.

So if you can do £15/month, send your ironing to the launderette.

I moved from a small house to a large 7 bedroom one with lots of bathrooms and reception rooms. I have a cleaner come in once a week for three hours. In that time, she does the areas we use (large kitchen diner/livingroom, hall, stairs, landing, master bathroom and en-suite, main bathroom, downstairs WC). She usually does a random job once each week- deep clean the oven or fridge etc.

About once every 4 or 6 weeks, instead of a random job and some dusting, she’ll vacuum the rooms we don’t use- we’re quite minimalistic and have hard floors so dust doesn’t gather too much.

Have a think about your house, what rooms you use the most, and then focus on those, using a cleaner occasionally if you can stretch to it.

But does that mean that you are still cleaning the bathroom yourself once a fortnight? Or that you let it build up to 2 weeks' worth of dirt ready for the cleaner?

I found moving to a bigger house was less stressful myself. The dirt spreads out. I found a small place with kids got dirtier quicker and was noisy and claustrophobic!

but the small place did make me very disciplined about clutter so I recommend the decluttering to ease the clearing and cleaning up

Don't feel it has to be show house condition OP!! I sweep downstairs once a week(wooden floors) and hoover our bedroom and landing around every 3 weeks . I do clean loos and bathroom and en-suite every week- takes 20
minutes. The biggies for me are actually ironing and garden. I take a pile to ironing shop once a month of stuff that really needs ironing (around £45) and have a guy do the garden around every 3 weeks in spring summer (£60 a time) . So basically I outsource about £120 a month -- but it's stuff that actually is time consuming and I hate doing.

In your case I would have a think - if it's cleaning and ironing that's a real issue , maybe get someone in every 2 weeks to do 2 hours ironing and an hour on bathrooms /kitchen - I think that would be about £150 a month but possibly well worth it-- if it's clutter just look at better storage systems- be prepared to just stuff a lot in attractive boxes/side units for a good few years !!

Townhouses are awful, imo. I think that’s honestly part of your problem, OP.

The only suggestions I have are around systems and routines. Eg have a set place on each floor where you put things that need to go to another floor and whenever you’re going up or down, take the stuff. One room at a time, do a really thorough tidy and sort, to make sure everything does have a place where it ought to live. Work out minimum daily tasks: kitchen clean, laundry etc. Then split weekly tasks between each day. Have one day where you only do bare minimum (cook, wash up) and try to get the house as clean and tidy as you can on the day before.