If your house is immaculate, how do you do it? <wails> I want one!!!

[sorky]

granted I have 4 kids, but still, I want a house that I can open the door to and say 'yeah, come on in' and be confident it's tidy enough for that.

I have been ill recently so there are cobwebs and a general scruffiness, but where to start? What level of cleanliness are we talking about?

I think I'm officially a slattern

[specialmagiclady]

Yes, nancy, you are. But it's 22.35 when you posted that! Go to bed...

[nancy75]

I wasn't doing housework, i was watching eastenders!

[ReginaPhilangee]

Anyone have any tips on getting rid of paper? I am a hoarder, what rules can I make to get rid of:

Magazines both very old and recent. I make sure I throw out old sky mag but otherwise tend to hold on to other mags and pile neatly in date order then only look at them once or twice a year... I also have old "collectable" ones like The Face and Colours

Cards - do you keep cards from people? we have a lot of them, I feel sad about throwing them out if people have written a nice msg, sent a letter of support etc. Also invitations. Cards with pics of babies and family?

Bills - never know how long to keep them so have many files full

Receipts. I try to keep receipts for expensive things in case they break etc. have a big box full. Do organised people throw all receipts away immediately?

These are the things I struggle with so I have paper everywhere.

[nomorefrizz]

Like many others it seems I can find an awful lot of distractions from house work -like now!
I am also an all or nothing person but have some standards like unstained cups and clean toilets. I was also brought up by very house proud parents (although it was mostly my Mum who did all the house work despite having a full time job)Yes I love a clean house but I always remember feeling slightly on edge in my parents house-we weren't allowed to make any mess at all and my Mum would iron all evening after a full days work(no thanks) to" keep on top of it" oh how I wish I had a little of that self control/martyrdom about me.
I still , despite my slatternlyness , carry a huge amount of guilt when things aren't up to scratch (most days) which is obviously from my mother.
The only time I really bust a gut is when my parents particularly or anyone else is about to visit when I become motivated fuelled by anxiety and guiltmy house is transformed from its usual tip to somewhere I'd actually like to live. I so wish I had this drive on a "normal" day but sadly not.

[SoloIsApparentlyACougar]

I'm home

[BoffinMum]

Regina,

Magazines - by all means keep them if they matter to you but file them in magazine files on a shelf. Or just clip the bits you like and stick those sections in a file on their own, throwing the rest away.

Cards - Buy display files and keep them in there so you can look at them and enjoy them.

Bills - up to 7 years for Inland Revenue purposes. Keep all things for each tax year in one great envelope and put it in a box with the envelopes from previous years in the loft. Chuck out any older than 7 years.

Receipts - Keep them in enveloped labelled month by month, for up to 2 years or the length of the guarantee, whichever is the later.

[BoffinMum]

The last 20% og housework standards takes 80% of the time, so this is where to economise if you are feeling pinched.

[Starbear]

My house is tip at the mo as I've been at work this week and in the last three weeks my Ds and Dh have been on and off on hols (bank hols and school hols) during the holidays. We have been in and out having fun in that time. We have just cleaned to be hygenic but the stuff mountain has built up around me to the point I have lost my diary some where in this house. I'm working this Sunday which means I'll have 3 days to whip this house back into order before and keep it like that until half-term. My problems are the following

1. I am lazy
   
2. I love a cuppa in bed with a magazine on a day off until 8am
   
3. I will spend time on Mumsnet instead of getting my life in order
   
4. I will read magazines and stuff instead of housework
   
5. I cook and eat too much
   
6. I should get up earlier on a working day and get some little chores done so I can go to the gym on my days off
   
7. I don't have any hobbies or a life other than magazines as I feel to guilt to do them because my house isn't in order. HELP!
   

P.S I had given up Mumsnet for 3 months and it has helped (until tonight

[Kiwiinkits]

Regina my tip for paperwork is to have ONE A4 concertina file (no more) for receipts and bills etc that you absolutely have to keep. You'll find that really deep down you don't need more than that. Also, you can buy a scanner and scan receipts, papers etc and keep them electronically.

And for cards etc have ONE box (say 50cm x 50cm x 50cm) as your 'memory box' for keeping memories. Once it's full, it's full. If you want to add another memory, you have to find one less important to chuck out.

Magazines. How often do you go back and read them? Never? Thought so. Chuck them out, it will liberate you.

[DoubleDegreeStudent]

When my sister and I were little my parents had a "secret cupboard" where presents were (allegedly) kept. We were not allowed to open it (not sure how this was enforced - we didn't though). I only found out when I was 20 that it was actually a cupboard of no return. Periodically they would just take toys that weren't being played with and put them in the cupboard. If we didn't ask for them in the next six months they went to charity and were never mentioned again.

Genuinely had no idea this went on, and it doesn't seem to have done me any harm!

I also find that telling people I have a tidy house helps. If you go around saying "oh sorry, you can come back but it'll be a total mess" then there's no pressure. Saying "come on back, I've done a whip round but it's a bit cluttered, sorry" brings with it a sense of expectation. Tell yourself each day that you will bump into a not-very-good-friend in the supermarket and will have them back for coffee. What are you most bothered about in your house? Start there.

[CheerfulYank]

I would also love to be able to fling the door open for a visitor any old time. :( I'm quite social really, and honestly my house is holding me back.

I've started Flylady and LOVE it. I've got a ways to go but it's really helping.

I bought my DS a toy storage thing (there's a pic of it on my profile, I love it so!) and that has been great. Before he just had a few big bins for toys and he would dump them out all over the place; now he can see what he's got.

I can't wait until I have a house that is reasonably tidy most of the time...how fabulous! :)

Boffin will definitely be reading your blog!

[mummybookworm]

I could have written many of these posts on here. I am going to give the "doing something every day" a whirl, as opposed to one mad clean on a Friday morning (ie today) and then the house returning to its usual tip by Friday evening. I am sure someone, somewhere has the secret to a permanently clean and tidy house. Dobby does exist somewhere, I am sure of it! trots off to clean bathroom and polish bedroom

[swanriver]

Starbear we miss you, please come back to Flylady!

[Matekiddleton]

Love the blog, boffin.

I pretend that I am Felatio Nelson's cleaning lady. Three hours a week on a Friday of the stuff that I don't want to do.

[BoffinMum]

Maryz, PMSL

I think it's unrealistic and unnecessary to live in show home form unless you are actually selling the thing. Think through your motives instead. If you want to be able to fling the door open to visitors, then create a tidy hall and living room and downstairs loo, make sure you have decent coffee and biscuits stashed away and some milk in, then start inviting people around! Forget the rest. If you'd simply like to be able to find things, then imagine you were a space consultant and think through what systems you could use to simplify your life. If you want to have a more relaxed life, then organise things that impact on your morning and evening routines and spend time create a pampering bedroom space instead. If you pick the areas of concern and spend your time on those, and finish off any little DIY jobs at the same time, then I guarantee you will have maximised outcome whilst minimising effort.

FWIW my own garage is an unfinished project, I dislike my sofas intensely and I am forever having to nag DS1 to clear his homework things away out of the dining room. However this is OK and normal, even for doyennes of historic housekeeping practices.

[MrsSchue]

I am trying to be more organised about doing a basic whip round every morning. I find that getting dressed straight away helps me to get started, so I put on 'scummy' clothes when I get up, walk the dogs in those and come back and do the cleaning , then get in the shower and put on 'proper' clothes.

The only thing that cripples me is the Internet. If I make the mistake of sitting down at the computer 'just for two seconds' I can lose hours. For example this morning I had to top-up DD's school lunch card online. It HAD to be done immediately as it can take a couple hours to update, but once I sat down at the PC I was here for an hour!!
I am in the habit of leaving the PC on all night, I think it might help if I start shutting it down at night and tell myself I absolutely can't fire it up until the housework is done...

[instantfamily]

Boffin, how do you manage to think about this with a job, kids, etc. I find it too depressing to have to come up with a strategy of how I can keep my house tidy. And that is probably why it looks like it does despite a cleaner who comes in twice a week...

[Starbear]

Hi swanriver I might in a little while but I did get a little obsessive with the housework. The very big time waster was posting my list on line. It always took me 20mins every 45 mins, even more if there was no one around as I would go on other threads while waiting for you to post as well. I know very bizarre, I think it was becoming an addiction. How are you? I will post on your flylady thread just as a catch-up but I must must get back to the grindstone xxx

[Colourworld]

I wonder whether you get reminded about some "mess" by your partner. I try to keep the house tidy but if I do it constantly then I do not have time for myself. Also it is impossible to have the house as clean as a mirror throughout the day as the kids play, eat. There is not really much space to have a table in the dining room so we often get bread crumbs in the leaving room. I am sweeping throughout the day. Sometimes the kids make a messy table like yesterday with papers, pencils and then my DH would say that the table is so messy (even though it was not), kind of blaming me for that. Why do DHs expect the house shine all the time is it just mine?

[Starbear]

Colourworld The advantage of being a part-time working Mum on shift sometimes is my DH has days of looking after Ds. He knows how messy having a child can be so if its DS's stuff Dad gets him to clear it up not me

[Colourworld]

Starbear, well mine is working and I am working at home with kids plus other things at home. I guess mine is one of those DHs who think if they earn money then the wife has to do everything at home even at weekends I do not have weekends. He said kind of joking it was my job cos he earns money. That made me feel sick.

[BoffinMum]

TBH any comments from my DH along those lines about the table being a mess, and he would be handed a duster and told to get on with it.

Our kitchen table is the place where mess happens and that gets cleaned up at the end of the day by the adult in charge. We probably use our dining room for its proper purpose more than other people, incidentally. I always think it's such a waste when people use them as a dumping ground - either turn it into a proper storage room or playroom and eat properly in the kitchen, or turn it back into a dining room and start entertaining and being more formal.

[BoffinMum]

WRT having the energy to think about the state of the house, I have a reasonably high powered job, so simply wouldn't be able to function at that level if I was wondering if we had milk in the house or clean pants in the drawer or whatever. It helps that part of my day job is developing, implementing and sustaining systems, so I just apply those skills to the household situation. And because my mother and grandmother thought like this as well, it's pretty second nature to me now.