Disorganised Procrastinators sign in here........

[DillyDallyDawdle]

I procrastinate.......about everything (see, I'm doing it now - DH is out with the DD's and I could be in the shower, putting the washing mountain away or filing the paperwork, but I'm not, I'm on here starting this thread).

My house is full of junk, nothing has a place, I have a to do list a mile long and nothing ever gets done until the last minute because I am so disorganised, often meaning that I lose opportunities, money etc.

A lot has happened this year - I went back to work after maternity, my job has changed due to my boss retiring and now has more responsibility, my eldest has started school and in a moment of madness I have managed to volunteer to get the school PTFA set up properly and charity registered and myself elected as secretary.

Things HAVE to change and soon otherwise the precariously balanced house of cards that is my life will collapse with disastrous consequences for mine and my families lives.

So, I know that new years resolutions usually don't last much past 5th January, and getting myself organised is a resolution I have made many a year past and failed to keep, but this time I am determined.

I am hoping that by getting things down here, you lovely lot can help to keep me on track and maybe if others are as bad at being organised and procrastinating as I am we can help each other.

So come on .....if you mumsnet when you should be folding the washing, are depressed at the mountain of paperwork you need to get filed, want a lovely organised home and to feel on top of things or just feel generally disorganised and want to do something about it etc etc..... sign in here and let's get 2013 off to a positive, organised and energetic start........

[jesstheworstmum]

i need this so bad is it too late to join

[namechangecity]

Late is our speciality on here - welcome aboard :)

[ThePigOfHappiness]

Tree and decs down, sitting room hoovered (even behind the couch! ) and decluttered one press in the kitchen. Going to do another now :)

[TheJanuaryProject]

Sounds like you've made some good progress with today's list ThePigOfHappiness.

Feeling marginally more human now, but could quite easily crawl into bed for a big afternoon nap.

Reasonably productive - tidied, dusted and hoovered our bedroom and DS's, breakfast and lunch dishes washed and dried, hung washing, put more on plus been out with DS.

I didn't get round to setting up my priorities app lists at the weekend, so I'm going to do that just now while I drink tea and eat biscuits and DS watches a DVD.

[DillyDallyDawdle]

Late is our speciality on here

ThePig You've took decs down today AFTER 12th night

First day back at work today but I finally got to the bottom of my inbox which was definitely progress. I'm just about to start typing up the minutes of the PTA meeting, but I think that will be quite enough for tonight given that I'm knackered as the baby was awake for most of the night last night.

[ThePigOfHappiness]

I know dilly, but I was working yesterday so couldn't. Meh!

Didn't do much else apart from some laundry and the most delicious dinner dp has ever tasted apparently :o Oh actually I wiped the windows in my bedroom. I'll clean the bathrooms before bed.
Surely enough for one day?!

Which app is a good one for lists? I need one that will send me a notification to clean x now etc.
I need to get organised so badly now. I'm working days again so have more time to actually do something t home.

[namechangecity]

this one was suggested further up the thread: itunes.apple.com/gb/app/priorities/id417600877?mt=8&affId=1503186

Don't know if there are others out there that are better.

[Crikeyblimey]

I need to join in here. I've just gone back to work ft after 6 years of pt and the house was untidy and disorganised when I only worked 27 hrs a week. How the hell is it going to get better now I'm back to 37?

I am determined to avoid the "spend every weekend cleaning" nightmare. Dh works ft too. I do batch cook and we share the rest of the stuff but I tend to be the one remembering / noticing what needs doing.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

[TheJanuaryProject]

I'm in a similar situation crikeyblimey re: wanting to avoid spending all weekend cleaning and am trying to get in a more organised routine.

I've started with new daily to do lists (before and after work) to try and get into the really basic day to day habits and from that hope to build up weekly/monthly lists. I'm also, as a first step to de-cluttering aiming to re-do our home filing.

I'm using the priorities app linked to, but I have used the 'home routines' app in the past which was good too.

[Skyebluesapphire]

Can I join? My house is a total and utter tip. I don't know where to start to sort it out. My XH left at Easter, one of the things he threw at me was that "the house was a disgrace" his infatuation with OW had nothing to do with him leaving, of course it didn't!

I live here with 4yo DD. at the moment you can barely see the floor for toys and boxes of stuff. I go round in circles, never having everything tidy at the same time!

Anyway, the nature of my work means that I'm up to my eyes in it at the moment and can't even contemplate starting any clear out until February.

I need to declutter, toys, books, clothes. I need to dust and Hoover regularly. I need to tidy my office and file all my paperwork. I need to rearrange my furniture. I need to put the washing away when I take it out of the dryer.

Where do I start?!

[LibraryMum8]

Dh took down the X-mas tree and all decs this weekend I was so happy to have more room! Not even sad to see the tree go, I said, "Bye" to it on the way out!

Need to start cleaning the main bathroom. I had a cleaner come in October (!) and had kept it up just about every day washing this or tidying that. When the holidays (and sickness) came...well that went out the window. It's not horrible. It's just not good either. I must do it in stages. What to do first: Make dinner or start sorting out bathroom? Humph!

[Simpkins]

Well done everyone with the banishment of trees and decs! It feels so nice to have potential sparse white-walled tidiness glimmering underneath it all...

I do have an announcement though...drumroll please...

I have reached the bottom of the washing pile

[Jinsei]

Well done simpkins, that's quite an achievement! Enjoy the feeling while it lasts! :)

I am doing quite well I think. First day back at school today but everything was ready and I managed to do a packed lunch for myself as well as for dd! The house is still a terrible mess, but much less of a mess than it was iyswim! and I'd no longer be ashamed to let anyone in downstairs. Upstairs is a different story!

I'm doing quite well at work too - managed to draft a presentation today, which I might normally have put off for a bit longer!

Wonder how long I can keep it up!

[DoIgetastickerforthat]

Oooh Simpkins I think that officially makes you Star of The Week and it's only Tuesday.

Skybluesapphire - How about adopting the 15min declutter regime? Just do 15 mins a day on one job, it takes a while to see any progress but you will make a difference.

Tomorrow is d-day for me and I'm fairly pleased with myself. I got all of the important jobs on my list done and quite a lot of the minor stuff. Upstairs is clean and tidier than it has been in a couple of years and downstairs, the mess has receded somewhat. Still a ton to do but it seems possible now.

[DoIgetastickerforthat]

Oh, I've also downloaded the Priorities app, took me three hours as I had to update my phone to IO6 but it was worth it - it's very satisfying to see the jobs being ticked off.

[TheJanuaryProject]

It is very satisfying getting jobs ticked off DoIgetastickerforthat - good luck for the C-section tomorrow!

I'm feeling quite pleased with my progress this week. One of our biggest problems is that we don't keep on top of things through the week (both DH and I work pretty much full-time) so by the weekend the place is a tip and we can't get to any of the big jobs. I feel like we spend all weekend on chores (instead of having 'quality family time') and never make any progress.

So as mentioned up thread I'm concentrating on daily lists to get into good habits to keep the surface stuff under control, meaning that come the weekend we can do a little bit of the bigger jobs that need to be tackled and still have some time together as a family instead of DS watching far too much tv.

Our new daily regime involves:

In the morning, getting up when the alarm goes off, having breakfast together, putting the breakfast dishes away and putting a load of washing on (all simple things that we were not managing before Christmas!).

In the evening, we are now drying and putting away dishes instead of just washing them, hanging washing, putting another load of washing on, ironing & putting away any dry washing (instead of leaving the washing and ironing to build up to the weekend - one of our biggest sources of week-day clutter), sweeping the kitchen floor, making sure the kitchen table is clear, making sure the living room is vaguely tidy before we sit down at night (i.e. dealing with post, toys and general crap that seems to come from nowhere to build up on the coffee table), putting clothes out for the morning and making sure bags/laptops etc ready for work.

It's working well so far. I've not tackled any more real clutter sources since the weekend, but if we can keep on top of the day to day stuff it will be much easier at the weekend. I'm starting to build up a list of weekly jobs on my priorities app to supplement the daily stuff and making a list of any one-off clutter jobs that need to be done so they don't get forgotten about.

[TheJanuaryProject]

Meant to say to Skyebluesapphire - do you have good storage for your DD's toys? I have a 4 year old DS and his bedroom is the one room in the house now that isn't cluttered (it's a recent thing though!). We decorated before Christmas and now have lots of ikea trofast, bookcases and those plastic truggs (is that what they're called?) that you can buy from garden centres, homebase etc for toys and books. The truggs and trofast boxes are brilliant - one tub for train stuff, one for lego etc. So before bedtime DS is tasked with chucking all his toys in the right tub. It's made a massive difference. We also took nearly all of his toys out of the living room, so if he's playing in there we just bring down whichever tub he wants then chuck the stuff back in it when he's finished.

[namechangecity]

anyone that had that app how easy is it to move lists around if you change your mind what list an item should be on? and can it link in with a diary so that you can set alarms? Thanks.

[TheJanuaryProject]

I found it quite easy to move some items around and create different pages for different kinds of lists. Can't remember if I did it via the app or online though as I was playing around with both. I've got reminders set up in my app, but I think you can link it to your calendar though.

[namechangecity]

sounds like it will do the job then! thanks v much

[Skyebluesapphire]

Thanks for the advice - I have been having a little tidy up, trying to keep the dining table clear instead of piling stuff on it, and putting washing away as soon as I take it out of the dryer....

DD has a storage thing in her bedroom from Argos, that holds 6 plastic boxes. i also bought another 6 as they fit under her bed. I also have one large pine box in the living room. I think that I need to sort out all these tubs like you say and have a tub for each type of toy, then put her board games in the box in the living room. I need to get all of the toys out of the living room and like you say, bring a tub in at a time as she wants to play with it.

Its all just so overwhelming when every surface is covered and you dont know where to start

[Simpkins]

Thanks for my cheers Suffolk and the star Doigetasticker :)

I have an App called HomeRoutines- was recommended on another thread here and I have found it brilliant for keeping tabs on "actions" - eg post such and such, call so and so about thingummy, write cheque for whatsit, find bday present for whaddayacallim. APparently it works really well with flylady if you do that- i dont but just ticking off thev list and giving myself stars feels nice :)

[namechangecity]

simpkins is it this one (us style)?:itunes.apple.com/us/app/homeroutines/id353117370?mt=8 and hs anyone found similar for android?

[Simpkins]

thats the one namechangecity. I lurve it. (sad cow emoticon)