Can somebody help me prioritise? Getting house ready for guests

[ButterpieBride]

OK, tomorrow my parents, nana, youngest sister and childhood friend arrive. My other sister is already here. Friend and two sisters are staying over here thurs, fri, sat. Saturday night friend couple and their kids and 3 band members are staying over as well.(we will be off consumating like bunnies, our children will be at the ILs :) ) The house is going to be the base for all the wedding preparations and so on. It is a two bed dorma bungalow.

SO...I need to tidy up. The entire house is just generally grubby, in a day to day, I never get time to do more than the basics, kind of way. My sister will watch the kids today in the house, DP is at work.

Oh, and I have to bake approx. 120 cupcakes today as well ...

I am rubbish at priorities- I always end up spending hours cleaning an obscure bit of brickwork of organising my makeup in order of size or developing a new library system for the books.

There are two full laundry baskets, piles of clothes to be put away, 4 beds to be changed, a mixture of hard and carpeted floors, sinks and loos to be cleaned (two bathrooms), garden to be somehow made to look less wild, a general air of "not been properly cleaned", and every single piece of cultery, cup and mug waiting to be washed. I want the house to look welcoming to the guests.

Gosh! With that many guests I imagine no matter what you do your house will look messy.
IMO if you could do without the items in the laundry for the weekend, leave it (just make sure it's tidy in a laundry basket). Concentrate on the bathrooms as all of your guests will be using these and will notice whether they are clean or not. Then make up the bedrooms for your guests. And declutter, if everything is picked up and put away, whizzing the Hoover around and dusting/polishing will be much quicker!
Good luck with the cupcakes and make sure you clean as you go in the kitchen.

Bathrooms, washing up, hoover, change beds, make cupcakes, do garden if really necessary.

Hide laundry and clothes in your room and don't worry about them

Get some disinfectant wipe (or squirt cleaner on a cloth) and give all surfaces in the bathroom a good wipe, bleach the loo. Wipe over floor tiles/lino with a damp cloth.

Same with a damp cloth all round the house, surfaces and woodwork. Organise any junk into heaps or if desperate put in bin bags in cupboard so out of sight. Hoover/quick mop of hard floors.

Wash up! Let it airdry then do the next batch.

Leave the garden - wipe over the outdoor furniture if you get a chance, but you cd ask your rellies to do that if necessary.

Buy a couple of bunches of cheapie flowers and split them into a few vases or glasses/jugs around the house.

Washing in the machine(fastest cycle) then dryer, fold and put away as each load finishes.

I'd do the beds first and get each load of washing lined up ready to go in the machine. Get the first load started before you the next job.

Then clean the bathrooms, just squirting cleaner round the bath and sink and clean the toilet.

I would then hoover throughout and then have a whizz around the kitchen. Wash up the dishes and have a squirt round the surfaces.

Then finally mop the floors.

Have a little sit down with a glass of wine while the floors dry

That should just leave the sheets and clothes to wash which pretty much do themselves. Just dry and fold load by load. Quick wash to freshen should be enough :)

Yes and even if you don't "believe" in fly lady, I do think having a timer going off every 15 minutes motivates you, reminds you that time is ticking on and stops you from getting sidetracked into new library systems (I do this too) and you can "race" it ("can I do the whole bathroom in 15 mins?")

Good luck and enjoy the visitors

Gah. OK, up to now I have done two loads of laundry, two sinkfuls of washing up, 36 cakes (then ran out of eggs) and...that's it. Must do better!

It seems that, every time I get going, the baby needs feeding or it is lunchtime and my sister doesn't know where the corner shop is and we've run out of quick food.

OK, DD1 and sister are napping, baby is happily playing in playpen, this is when I need to lively up a bit.

Right, plan:

15 minutes- tidy up of kitchen and hallway (full of clean clothes)
15 minutes- move laundry along one step (ie hang out contents of machine, take down any dry clothes, load up machine again
15 minutes- wipe down entire kitchen
15 minutes- another load of washing up, putting away current drying rack full first.
15 minutes- tidy and wipe over downstairs bathroom
15 minutes- tidy and wipe over en suite
15 minutes- put away my huge pile of clothes that has been needing sorting out for ages. Anything not put away can go in a bag in the attic until next week.
15 minutes- tidy and hoover master bedroom. Hide anything embarrasing really, really well.
15 minutes- set out my clothes for tomorrow (register office at 3!) including a reserve outfit for if baby is sick etc.

Then it is time to go to work, so the rest will have to wait until after work or tomorrow morning.

Does that sound ok?

Go Go . Looks like you have it covered.
Have a lovely time tomorrow.

Meh. The baby wants MORE milk.