Please help me, my house is a craphole

[tabbycat7]

It's horrible and I can't bear it any longer. There is clutter everywhere, toys, books, art stuff, washing (mostly clean), coats and other assorted crap. I was almost on top of the cleaning and I'd started to wage war on the clutter, but then I went back to work (only 2 days a week) and I've let things slide. Some new glasses mean that on Wednesday, when I put them on, I was horrified to see just what a filthy hovel my home has become. The thing is I've barely been managing to hoover, dust, put away clothes, clean loo etc every week and don't know how to go about combatting the accumulated grot and crap without somehow genetically modifying myself so that I don't need to sleep. I also don't want to be the kind of mum who ignores her kids and spends all her time cleaning. My mum was one of those and tbh her house is still grotty. There are also diy jopbs that need doing, the kitchen needs repainting and the garden is also a hellhole.

Please help me, I don't know where to start. Thanks very much.

Any chance you could put your dc into childcare for a couple of hours a day so you can get on with it undisturbed?

I generally do mine top to bottom once a week (takes all day as I'm easily distracted onto MN), then do maybe an hour a day just tidying kitchen and keeping up with the ironing.

Oh, it's awful. I recomend flylady, has really made a difference for me. I felt like you about 3 weeks ago and the difference has been amazing!

www.flylady.net make sure you get emails as a daily digest though!

I had a situation like that last fall (moved from overseas to our current place that was full of junk, old clothes, clutter and grot). What I needed was perhaps two weeks of child-free time dedicated to decluttering, spread over 2-3 months. Children stayed at my parents, I cleared the attic, threw out bags and bags of junk, went to IKEA to buy more storage units (cardboard boxes, two glass-doored cupboards for the kitchen, more bookshelves), had them assembled and installed, had my husband rent a van for a day (he took dead electronics to the local landfill and everything that could be recycled or charity shopped). Most important, remorselessly storage or throw out anything you can. I threw away perhaps two vanloads of stuff. It's been over six months now and I don't regret a thing. Keeping the house organized is so much easier if you have some extra room and all cupboards are not bursting.

If you have some extra money, also consider hiring someone to do a spring cleaning. Washing windows and deep cleaning is extremely dull. It's much easier to maintain order if you can outsource some of the really heavy lifting.

I like the sound of getting someone in to clean! That just leaves addressing the crap. I tried flylady before but I got sick of her spamming me. Maybe I'll have another look: )

here is a list of things i've found have helped me:

• decide to sort one area at a time, ie winter coats - put them away, out of sight until you need them next autumn.
• accessories like books etc; get rid of what you know you wont use again to charity - very cathartic.
• for the bathroom, buy those wipe thingys; quicker than spray and cloth etc.
• buy some see through boxes and stuff all your 'junk' into them and then into the loft. that way, if you dont have time to sort it now, you can always do it at a later date. at least stuff will be out of the way in the loft, and not cluttering up your home.
• toys. decide what you absolutely must keep for nostaligic reasons, and then get rid of the rest to a local play group\ charity.

even if you spend just half an hour a day (not much in the great scheme of things), by the end of the week you will have noticed a difference). hope this helps!

Think I would just try to sort an area per day, so do all your usual daily stuff then say on Monday tackle the bathroom, Tuesday do the hall, wed bedroom 1 etc etc, it will be quite hard but once you get every room/area up to scratch it won't be too hard to keep it nice.

I think when you look at everything it just gets overwhelming and you end up doing little bits here and there but not really getting anywhere iyswim.

good luck and hope it goes well !

Thanks everybody for responding, that's really helpful. Focussing on 1 area at a time is a good idea. I was just fiddling about not really knowing where to start, but having a plan of an area and/ or a task is a good one. My boys are 5, 3 and 1 so quite demanding, but I'm taking advantage of no work and no school run and having a good go first thing in the morning. It's making a difference already. :) I seem to remember a good flylady tip was to declutter for 15 mins a day, so I've been doing that as well as getting on top of the cleaning a bit more. My sister's visiting today and she remarked on how tidy it was :) I'd warned her that the place was awful!! DH has agreed to take the boys out on Monday and Tuesday next week so I'll hopefully get a lot done then. :)

OP, I could've written your OP. I feel too overwhelmed to do anything about it, so it just gets worse and worse. Trust me, no-one would say it looks tidy - so well done on that. My place is awful and I am not being paranoid. I think it would actually take me at least one day on my own with a lot of energy, to do our bedroom (this is where all the accumulated rubbish ends up, including everything I intend to freecycle/ ebay/ gumtree).

Just signed up to flylady

It's funny that flylady's website is one of the most cluttered sites I've ever seen. Clearly too busy to clean real life to look after the internet.

I agree about how therapeutic it is to throw stuff out. Get a bin bag and walk around the house until it's full. The next day, do the same but with a charity clothes bag or the waste paper bin. Every round you make in the house will make it a little tidier and you will feel a little lighter. Rinse and repeat until you can see some floorspace again.

Merry, it's just like that, isn't it? The place is a tip but it's all so bad that you just don't know where to start. Doing just a bit has made me feel much better about it and that is motivating me to do more :). After I'd spent 15 minutes removing tumble drier fluff (the dishwasher and washing machine were actually furry , wiping things down and picking up crap I felt that I wanted to start on the front room. I've still got a long way to go (whatever my sister says the front room is not tidy, but the floor is visible and we were all able to eat at the table :) )but it's like anything else, starting is the hardest part. I hope you find the energy to start on yours :).

Ciske, love the bag idea :). I don't understand why she's a fly, all I can think about when I look at that fly is what my munm used to say about them liking poo.

It's very reassuring to know that other people's houses are also buried beneath a sea of mess. It always feels like I'm the only one.

You aren't the only one. My house fills up with junk the second I take my eye off the ball. I used to do a one day blitz every week but my childcare arrangements have now changed and I can't do this so I have had to adapt to little and often.

The bin/charity bag is key I think. I also never walk from one room to another without picking up something and returning it to where it should actually be. I also don't buy much stuff other than food/clothes/books/toiletaries etc. Sounds simple but I can never get over just how much "stuff" a lot of my friends have. Even clothes - I was watching that super scrimp program earlier and the woman there spent "£200-£300 a month on clothes and they were on a fairly modest income. I nearly fell over - I spend that in 6 months maybe. Buy less, buy better is my motto!

Better get off Mumsnet my bum and clean my sink with bleach !