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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

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Original poster

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

46 replies

travellingwilbury · 23/09/2011 19:05

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 .

OP posts:

HenriettaFarthingay · 03/10/2011 13:44

I use lists and tick them off as I do them. And I tend not to spend too much time in one room. I'll do something like put a washing on, then go clean bathroom sink, make the bed, back to the kitchen and clean counters, etc etc. I've found if I spend too much time in one room I get bogged down, and don't seem to get anywhere.

Ragwort · 03/10/2011 13:51

As others have said -'de-cluttering' is the key - you cannot be organised if you have too much stuff - nearly every week I am able to take a bag of stuff to a charity shop and I am the Queen of supplying jumble sales - I constantly de-clutter. Once you don't have to move stuff around to clean it is so much easier and quicker.

I am shocked at the amount of crap stuff some children have in their bedrooms - I just refuse to allow DS to accumulate stuff .

JarethTheGoblinKing · 03/10/2011 13:53

Have a glass anyway, it'll help the process

KatharineClifton · 03/10/2011 13:55

I stopped lists years ago. They depress me with the length of them.

HenriettaFarthingay · 03/10/2011 14:29

Katharine, I keep the lists short. In my head I have an idea how long each task will take, and if I have, say, an hour to fill, I'll only put a few things on the list. If I have an afternoon, it'll be longer. So I usually get to the end of it. Oh, and I always list 'coffee time' as well!

KatharineClifton · 03/10/2011 14:45

That sounds good Henrietta. I am utterly incapable of making lists wrt housework. The last one I did went on for pages - broken up into sections per room. I threw that one away

I am going to sort a timer though - I think that would help me.

startail · 03/10/2011 14:53

I was going to spend 30 minutes, tackling the piles of clean laundry all over my house, but it's 28°C upstairs, in England in October
So I've escaped to the garden with a cup of tea.

leeloo1 · 03/10/2011 14:56

If you have a digital camera then take a picture of the kid's stuff that you can't throw away. Then you'll have a memory of it without the clutter. :)

halcyondays · 03/10/2011 14:57

I have a mountain of laundry that needs put away, must put at least some of it away today. Over the weekend we got a lot done for once, proper clean and sort out of bathroom and living room, ok, it's still ongoing, but made very good progress and got rid of a couple of units that were just being used to dump crap on. I think Flylady can be good to motivate you, you don't have to follow it to the letter, but the general principles of getting into a routine each day, setting a timer for 15 mins etc are helpful. My problem was that I tended to blitz for a day or two, then I'd get fed up and let things slide again.

And I hoard so much crap, it is really bugging me now, even when we decide to get rid of something, it sometimes seems to take us ages to decide what to do with it, instead of just quickly getting rid of it.

sleepevader · 03/10/2011 15:45

Those of you who have mountains if laundry to put away- could it be you have too many clothes?

Also what's left in the drawers when the clothes are still at the mountain stage? Are they worn. If not ditch them!

That's my only advice- rubbish at the rest of it myself!

Mackrelmint · 03/10/2011 15:59

Oh I ask exactly the same question of myself every day OP!

My problem is I'll come up with a miraculous solution (I will clean one room a day; I'll spend 20mins tidying up after dinner etc. etc.) and I'll get all enthusiastic about it for 3 days and then I'll just want to sit and have a cup of tea the next day and then I'll forget all about it...

I do find the '27-things' thing helpful - I think that's a fly lady thing? You see your room is messy and just put away 27 things. It feels quick and always helps.

I also have a routine for kitchen cleaning during making dinner. I got it from here - housekeeping.about.com/cs/15minutecleanups/ht/15minkitchen.htm It helps when I am thinking 'shit - where do I start with all this crap'. And stops me getting sidetracked by putting something away upstairs and stopping to do something up there etc.

I also try and wipe down the bathroom whilst DD is in the bath. (sometimes)

I agree that a cleaner doesn't help you keep the place tidy - and it can look like a shit-tip an hour after they've gone if you're disorganised BUT I wouldn't be without one for keeping the bathroom/hob/floors cleaned - all things I'd totally forget to do regularly if I had to do them all myself.

OriginalPoster · 03/10/2011 16:04

To get rid of clothes

Imagine you're off on holiday for two weeks right now. 'Pack' clothes for the holiday in a big suitcase. Take those clothes out, you can keep them. Then repeat for a holiday in all the seasons where you live. Then look out work clothes for two weeks. Keep outfits for 2 weddings/posh functions. Do the same for your dcs and persuade dp to do the same. The rest is probably not needed anymore.

To get rid of stuff in general

Imagine the item had been broken or damaged in a flood. Do you care, or are you thinking, 'well I never use it, or liked it, I was only keeping it because x gave it to me....'

If you find housework boring, get some headphones and iPod or similar, and listen to podcasts, music or radio while you are doing it. Or empty a drawer or cupboard into a plastic crate and sit in front of tv with cup of tea whilst you go through it.

Original poster

travellingwilbury · 03/10/2011 16:56

Thank you everyone

I have now sorted out my scary clutter drawer . And no tears , I think I will have the wine later anyway .

Putting clothes away is another one . I know I have too many but one day I will get back to the human size I am supposed to be so I can't get rid of the ones that don't fit .

I like the 27 things idea , that sounds not too painful but quite effective .

I think I will do one thing to keep and one thing to take to charity , I know we have too much stuff that we don't actually need . Especially childrens toys . My excuse for that is two boys who are two years apart so a lot of stuff the older one is bored with the younger one then wants so we end up keeping far too much .

I just want to be able to relax in my own home without looking at all the mess , I have stopped kidding myself that it doesn't annoy me . It does!

OP posts:

DreamTeamGirl · 03/10/2011 17:24

Travellingwilbury
The 27 thing is SO good- I often split it into 9 for put away, throw away, recycle, but even FlyLady herself now says 27 can be a bit overwhelming at times and her motto for 2011 in is something along the lines of

Lets do seven in 2011

which is just BRILLIANT
I quite often do 3 or 4 lots of 7, but I can almost ALWAYS do 7 things even when I am waiting for the kettle to boil.
Its ace!!!!!!!!

JarethTheGoblinKing · 03/10/2011 17:36

See, don't you feel better

offers

KatharineClifton · 03/10/2011 17:49

'If you find housework boring'

There are people who don't?

Original poster

travellingwilbury · 04/10/2011 16:35

Katherine I thought the same thing , I am obviously doing it wrong .

I have done the 27 things thing , only in one room but I am going to do it in another now . I like it .

Also the NSPCC have kindly put a sack through the door today so my next task is to fill that up too .

Slowly slowly but I am getting there .

OP posts:

BoffinMum · 05/10/2011 10:41

I think do a room at a time a day at a time. First think about what you are aiming for in the room, for example if your sitting room is a mess, get into a situation where adults can relax in there in the evening, to watch telly or chat, without too much clutter and mess. Then arm yourself with bin bags and charity shop receptacles, make a cuppa, put the radio on and get stuck in. Then perhaps reorganise the furniture a bit, give it all a good clean, and buy a couple of practical accessories to help things along and make the room look a bit more stylish, for example a wicker toy hamper or a storage coffee table. Sofa throws, rugs and cushions in an accent colour help to bring the look together as well. After doing this, it will be much easier to keep it nice and you will be inspired to move on to the next room.

More on living rooms Here

Minimum household requirements for possessions Here. If you have a lot more than this, ask yourself why?

Bugsy2 · 05/10/2011 11:00

travellingwilbury, could you & your family set aside some time one weekend to break the back of it? Sometimes it is so hard to do it all by yourself.

I used to be you - clean buy messy. Stuff everywhere, always a ready excuse about how busy I was or how it didn't matter - until it got to the point where I started to feel embarrassed & the cupboards were so full of cr@p, I couldn't do the run around before people came over to shove stuff in them any more, because they were bursting.

For at least the last 4 years, I have been Mrs Tidy - but you do have to work at it a bit. I did some massive, no make that really epic, chuck outs. I sold stuff on ebay, took stuff to the tip, gave every toy that hadn't been played with to friends or refuge centres, clothes I couldn't sell went to charity shops. I probably halved the quantity of "stuff" in my house with the clearouts. I then invested in some decent storage. I went to Ikea & bought stacking baskets, I put shelves in to cupboards, bought some drawers from ebay & 2nd hand shops & put stuff that we actually use into them. I got the kids labelled boxes & made sure that stuff went in them. It took us a while but now we all keep our stuff where it is supposed to go. I still regularly trawl through it all & sell or throw out on a regular basis, but it is much easier to keep on top of.

I can keep on top of the cleaning & lawn mowing but the bloody ironing still catches me out & that's with the kids helping me!!!!
Don't know if that will have inspired you or put you off altogether!

wol1968 · 06/10/2011 14:54

I like the 'shiny sink in every room' idea. Made beds, dishes put away, hob shined up, loos clean. What that tends to do for me is get me in the frame of mind where I can clear the floors etc., and get the place good enough - not spotless, but so that you don't trip over things and feel like the bathroom/kitchen's a health hazard. Mind you, I'm no domestic goddess. And right now I'm having a week where I'm feeling a bit rubbish emotionally. Not depressed, just a bit rubbish, can't concentrate for more than 5 mins at a time, that sort of thing. I just have to work round that.

FoxyRoxy · 06/10/2011 18:37

De-clutter, get rid of all the stuff! Get storage so everything has it's place. Cleaning wise, although flylady scares the bejeebus out of me, little and often is the golden rule. 10 mins to clean the kitchen before bed, 5 mins to wash the bath/shower after you use it... Means you don't spend all your weekend time cleaning!

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