How do I go from messy sod to organised and marvellous?

[travellingwilbury]

I have spent to many years thinking that it does't really matter that the house is a bit of a tip , as long as everyone is happy .

But it is now driving me nuts , I had a look at the scary fly lady site and I really don't think that is for me .

I just want to be the type of person that is all tidy and sorted and doesn't have to wade through piles of clean washing to find something .

It is giving me a bad head just thinking about it .

Help .

I feel just like you, and I don't know what to do either. (Sorry, not helpful.) I am starting to feel like my house is a reflection of the inside of my messy head.

That is it snailoon my head feels better if the house is better but I just can't find the motivation or inclination to sort it out .

There is always something more fun to do instead of tidying bloody bedrooms or some such .

Maybe the answer is that I need to earn more money and get someone in .

I am trying to do Fly Lady (but not very successfully). why don't you try the timer thing she suggests. set your timer for 15 minutes or less if you like and see what you can do in the time. just small steps. it can be surprising what you can get done although I know what you mean about lack of motivation sometimes. I get days like that.

Agree that fly lady a bit full on, also I'm not wearing my shoes all round the house!? However I do use a few tips from her, ie as I get ready and come downstairs bed is made etc I do also try and swish round bathroom sink and loo once I've cleaned my teeth.
Also agree that just 10 mins or so each day on putting washing away or tidying a messy spot really helps.

I have defo improved, don't have piles of clean washing lurking now which helps.

travellingwilbury sorry to disillusion you, but getting someone in won't solve the problem. I did that, and realised that you have to tidy up before the cleaner so the cleaner can clean...the house was messy and then I had a mad tidy up, the cleaner would clean, the house would get messy again...in the end I let her go as I got resentful of her doing the easy bit and getting paid for it (IYSWIM).

In short, I wasn't even organised enough for a cleaner

Not that I have got it sorted yet, but a routine is the way forward. Sort of like Flylady but without the lace up shoes crap.

wildstrawberry That really made me laugh . It is so true , it is the mess not the cleaning that gets to me . My huse is clean it is just a mess

Yes it is the lace up shoes crap and shiny sink nonsense that I can't take .

My garden is also shite . I am a lost bloody cause .

People always say "Oh , kids make so much mess...blah blah..", but I look around, and actually most of the mess is mine.

Most of the mess here is pretty much shared around the four of us . I work part time and my dh works stupid hours so it is mostly me that does the cleaning tidying stuff but I just find it so tedious .

And you have to do it all the bloody time which is just really dull .

But I feel so much better when it is done .

I need to win the lottery and get myself some motivation .

I sometimes think it would be better to move house than try and sort this shit out .

Could you start with one room at a time - do you have too much stuff and need to declutter? This would help. Do one room and allocate everything a 'place', try and keep that room tidy for 1-2 weeks, and then work on another room - get rid of stuff you don't need, think about whether you store things logically/if there's another way and allocate things in that room a 'place'.

I've been decluttering like mad ready for DC1 in our relatively small house and me and DH currently work 100 hours a week between us so v little time. It's been so liberating getting rid of 'stuff'.

How old are your DC? Could you get them to help you put away washing - if it's away you won't need to 'wade through' it.

If you give more specifics I could try and help - I used to be REALLY messy but have improved a lot the past year.

I take a few bits from flylady. i don't wear shoes. After set aside time each day (for me its just after school drop off) and I clean the sinks and toilets and put a load of laundry in and put away a load from the day before. I do it before I have any coffee so I can't procrastinate or I'll get jittery. When dcs are watching tv before bed I tidy/clean the kitchen and sweep the floors. I don't leave crap on the kitchen table, the coffee table or the hall table overnight. That probably accounts for 20-30mins a day. The house is still messy but the basics are covered. I do the timer on for 15 mins thing a couple of times a week with the dcs.

You can't be tidy if you don't have decent storage. Throw away crap from the back of your cupboards and use the space to store the stuff you actually use. I was keeping stuff on my kitchen bench because the cupboards were full of grapefruit segments and out of date 5 spice powder.

mrscog I love nothing more than a good de clutter , we have a lovely tip near by and I regularly go there and chuck stuff . I feel better for it but things just seem to breed in my absence and fill the space .

Storage is crap , we live in a victorian semi , olddog the five spice and grapefruit thing made me laugh , I am sure I could throw some crap away from the kitchen .

I think a lot of the problem is I just don't see it until it has got to the annoying stage . Or I go manic and clean and sort the whole house out in a day and then expect it to magically stay that way forever . But no apparently it has to be done all the time

I don't see it either. If you spend 10 mins a day putting away laundry and another 15 mins tidying up then after a week or so it will suddenly seem a lot better.

Don't think 'right, lets get this laundry sorted' and wade through the pile, just do 10 mins, then do 10 mins the next day and the next then it becomes habit and it isn't a huge job like doing 70 mins of folding and putting away once a week is.

Ok so the plan is to set a timer for 15 mins for downstairs and then 15 mins for upstairs every day and see how I get on .

What do you reckon ?

Starting tomorrow . I have a house full of people here tomorrow after work but I will not fall down at the first hurdle .

snailoon 'starting to feel like my house is a reflection of the inside of my messy head.'

OMG that sums up the reason i've become very unlike me and am actually de-cluttering and sorting everything. I've been all bunged up feeling unhappy and depressed for the lat few years, house didn't bother me much. But now, now i've finally started feeling like ME again I am like a woman possessed, tidying and getting rid of things i've been holding onto for no good reason. I also realise now that if I have less 'stuff' the house will be easier to manage.

and 'actually most of the mess is mine.' so so true in my house!! if it's not mine I am the reason it hasn't been binned. DH is ruthless!!

and as someone else said, the lightbulb flickered and I realised that the actual cleaning isn't the problem it's the 'stuff' that means I can't just clean I always need to tidy first

My house is looking better, been on my mission for about 2 months now. Including 2 bootfairs over the summer, the remaining 'stuff' went off out the house after the 2nd bootfair!!

I'm using a 'have I used it lately' 'do I like it' 'will it really ever be of use' technique in deciding what to keep. It feels so liberating.

Good luck!

I started doing FlyLady in the new year & found the way she builds the routine up slowly really good (I just ignored anything I thought was shite, like the "dressing to shoes" bit) - DD2 arrived in April & although things obviously slipped a lot bit, I still carried on doing some things (e.g a load of laundry every day & swishing/swiping) as it had become a habit so I just did it without thinking

Decluttering is key though. I got rid of loads of stuff this spring & the house looked much better for it - need to do it again though & drop some really big hints to people to not buy us any more rubbishy "stuff" for Xmas!

Right I have failed so far . I was away for a few days last week and today is my only day off all week .

So far I have managed to go food shopping and sit on my arse .

Can someone kick me please ?

I don't know where to start .

Pick ONE drawer/cupboard/shelf and properly sort it out (The odds and sods drawer in the kitchen is usually the one I start with) get rid of the stuff you don't need (rather than moving it about) and properly organise one small area. Then tomorrow do another. It'll only take 15 mins a day, and has a cumulative effect - spurs you on to get more done.

This is SO my thread! I start to do stuff then put the kettle on and sit down in front of this screen. I absolutely hate living in my house as there is just stuff everywhere and I never seem to get a handle on it.

My house has turned into a shit tip recently, must put my own advice into action.

I just wandered around for 15 minutes achieving nothing. I take it y'all have something in mind before you set the alarm? And the 15 minutes doesn't include the normal stuff like washing up and laundry?

Right I have been and done 15 mins and sorted out the pile of random paperwork on the kitchen table . But I have so much more I need to do so I am going to go and do another 15 mins now .

I think if I was on top of everything then I could spend half hour a day being busy with housework and then relax .

That is my dream anyway .

Jareth me and my dh have a drawer each in the kitchen And I know if I venture into it I will be lost for hours . It is full of important stuff childrens rubbish I can't quite throw away yet and many a take away menu .

Ahh, but once the hell that is the kitchen drawer is sorted out, everything else in the house seems a doddle in comparison

Okay I will go and do it but if I end up crying because you are making me discard my childrens precious shite then it will be your fault when I am drinking wine by 3 .