Getting organised

[thereisalightanditnevergoesout]

I'm new to Good housekeeping (in many ways!) and I'm not even sure that this is the right place to post this - so please feel free to redirect me as necessary.

I have 3 DCs (5, 3 and a half and almost 2) and I'm expecting DC4 around Christmas time.

I'm not keen on housework, I'm not terribly organised and I'm a bad time manager. Mornings are usually fraught and I frequently run late on the school run. I'm frequently apologising for forgeting things.

I need to get organised and I wondered if any of you could offer tips, suggestions, jobs, lists of things you do (a routine for the day, perhaps) to make life more organised and run more smoothly. I don't want to have a chaotic home anymore and I'm getting a bit panicky.

I should also mention that we don't have much storage in the house and unfortunately I'm a bit of a hoarder and I'm not very good at doing things (sorting out drawers. cupboards etc) I don't like doing.

Thank you in advance.

well the tops things i can suggest for getting out of the house in the morning are

the night before;
-prepare lunches and put in fridge
-set out all uniforms/clothes for everyone- even baby

• have a set of hooks by the front door/porch with one coat/hat/gloves/scarf and schoolbag/handbag for each person. great if everyone can have their own hook
• set the washing to come on during the night so you only have to hang it on the morning

-same with dishwasher or if no dishwasher, do the dishes and let them air dry overnight ready to go away when teh kettle is boiling in the morning.

general stuff;
-a wash every evening keeps things ticking over and keeps you in the routine of it.
-wash dishes every night so none in the morning.

• every member of the house should know that if you use something, you put it back.

-everyone should put their washing in the laundry basket. -designated toy box/area and all toys restored at the end of use -a quick tidy round before bed keeps all rooms tidy, including bedrooms.

Depends on whether you're liveliest at night or in the morning. No amount of nagging can get me to do stuff the night before but I'll happily whizz round doing stuff at 6.30.

For hassle free mornings best tips are:
No breakfast until kids have dressed themselves.
No screens on in the morning - they eat time and concentration.
Have a place for shoes, coats, school bags, where they go as soon as they come home from school the day before, so they/you can always find them.
Have a notice-board with what happens when on it, so you know who needs swimming kit/football kit etc on what days.

Best flylady tips for disorganised people are:
Do things for 5 minutes. While kettle boils load the washing machine or empty the dishwasher.

Thank you both for your advice.

I have to say we did much of what you said last night, booyhoo and, although it was a huge effort (for me at least, being shattered) it did make life much easier this morning.

We still have a huge problem with kids putting clothes in laundry basket, picking up after themselves and putting things back after they've used it - but given their age, I think we can be lenient - though we can strive for improvement!

We have SO much laundry it's unbelievable. I fear that I'm going to be found, buried under a pile of laundry one of these days - having been there for weeks and no one noticed.

I'm not too good at night, either, realitychick but then mornings aren't so great at the moment because I'm going to bed too late, not sleeping well and feeling just as tired in the morning - but usually, mornings are when I'm most perky.

As for the dressing themselves - my kids, maybe not the eldest, but the DC2 and DC3 are a bit too little to do it (DC2 could but is just too idle, I think), but knowing them, I couldn't risk 'breakfast down the clean uniform' at the moment - maybe a bit later when they've stopped being quite so filthy!

Also, can I ask what 'flylady' means?

Thanks again - I really appreciate it.

flylady is a website, for helping you to organise and stay in he routine of it. there is actually a flylady thread on here but to get an idea of what it all means youcould google flylady and have a look at the website. some of it is a bit 'excessive' IMO but for some people that is wehat they want. definitely worth a look.

i am the same as you at the minute, staying up too late and being shattered in the morning. planning a week of early nights from tonight to try and catch up on sleep and get back to normal.

Flylady is here

It's basically a website with lots of tips on building routines for getting organised - the end goal is that you will eventually do all the stuff automatically, but it might take a few months to get there.

If you ignore some of the language she uses (well, it bugs me a bit) the ideas are really good - I am doing the babysteps just now and finding it very very useful.

(I am totally disorganised with only 2 DC so feel your pain!)

x-post - I didn't reload the page!

One example of flylady advice is the "before bed routine" - similar to what booyhoo has already posted.

Start with just 3 or 4 things that you do in the evening, then once you are in the habit of doing that, you can build it up.

Flylady starts with laying out clothes for the next day, and putting the things you need beside the front door so you are not rushing about in the morning. Sounds small but makes a difference.

Oooh ooh! I'm very excited about flylady - sounds like it might be right up my street (I don't mind having routines imposed on me - I sometimes just don't have a clue to go about it myself!).

I can't believe how much easier this morning was having done a few easy things last night - I think it might be easy to keep them up, too. I'm definitely going to try to go to bed early tonight (I might put my pjs on in a minute, actually!) and hopefully get a better bedtime routine.

I just 'shined my sink'!

With regard to the children eating in their uniforms and dropping food down them I used to get the kids to wear an apron for breakfast. So much easier than changing the shirt five minutes after putting it on!

Oh yes, aprons - forgot about those!

Ooh, I'm about to shine my sink, but I read day 2 and I don't understand what it means, can anyone explain?:

Today I want you get up and get dressed to lace up shoes when you first get up in the morning. This means fix your hair and face too.

In order for us to change ourselves we need to remind ourselves of what we are doing. I did this with yellow sticky notes throughout my home to guide me through my day. This was the beginning of my home control journal. I had little notes on my bathroom mirror to remind me to get dressed to shoes.

Shoes? Eh?

actually, screw that, I've just read the rest of it and I can't be bothered. hmmph.

LOL
Shine your sink?

On day one when it is full of shit?

hmmm

Well - I was a bit confused by that and I asked on another thread what it meant. I think the idea is to view cleaning your house like you would any other job - approach it in a professional manner - so get dressed as you would to go out to work. I can sort of see why this is a good idea - I suppose there are going to be things that we don't agree with or want to modify to suit us and I think that making some changes is fine. Maybe the key is to reinterpret and get it to suit us rather than see it as an obstruction and not do any of it. At least, that's what I think I'll do .

Yep that's what I do thereisalight. Adjust to suit me.

The "shoes" thing is to stop you sitting down and putting your feet up just for a minute - then 2 hours go by and you've done nothing. Also if you need to take out a bin bag or box of charity shop clutter or whatever, you already have your shoes on so you don't procrastinate.

If you have lace-up shoes on you won't be tempted to kick them off and go back to bed.

(disclaimer: I don't actually do the "dressed to shoes" bit but I think that's part of the idea behind it)

for anti hoarding- try your local freecycle group here

another tip to tackle jobs you hate is say to yourself 'i'll just spend half an hour on this' you'll be amazed at what you can achieve in just that half an hour and you may even get into it enough to keep going. but even if not, at least you've made headway

I think that's a pretty good tactic - and I read about using a timer and then stopping. I've always been like it - I can get sid-trackedabout pretty much anyting and that's what takes the time - but if I'm doing it in short bursts, it'll make me focus.

Not sure anyone on freecyle would actually any of the stuff I feel unable to part with !!