Support group for those trying to get their house sorted

[CatwantsaTidyHome]

Hi all, I know it's a crap title! I'm just fed up of living in an unorganized mess!

Tried to do Flylady but got sick of it, I need a less rigid way of sorting my house as and when the mood takes me.
I have paperwork chaos, tons of washing to get through and I find the washing up tedious! --so it tends to pile up--
Add to the mix 2 children and an untidy husband and I think you get the picture.

Anyone else living in Chaos want to join?
I won't get on here often but will try my best, Hoping there are others like me so we can support each other in trying to get sorted!

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Are we married to the same man, Yam?! In fact, we could be the same person, I have a dd that I feed before she sleeps and lying in a dark room for a bit is a massive motivation killer to do anything after the DC are in bed!
I've just done the basics today, although I did manage to get the washing done this morning put away this afternoon I usually put it off as I have to take the DC with me and they run amok upstairs and I end up with more to do than I started with
DS is at preschool tomorrow all day, so hopefully I'll be able to get something extra done while DD has a nap

[vvviola]

Is anyone still here?

I'm starting properly tomorrow. Using a home routines app to remind me to keep doing different rooms (I "tidy" in the sitting room a lot in the ad breaks )

[Jojobump1986]

Can I join too? I need a support group to guilt trip me into doing things! My issue has been that I've had depression since I was a teenager so I never had the energy to get into good cleaning habits - we're talking wearing dirty clothes after a spritz of febreeze & using anything I can find as a plate rather than washing up level! Been married 5 years & DH has pretty much always done all the cooking/housework while having a full time job. I'm pregnant with DC2 & have been ill for the first 4 months. At 25 weeks I'm suddenly feeling energetic & am blatantly nesting. I've decided that enough is enough & I'm going to use my nesting period to develop some good habits & gradually become the good housewife/mother I've always dreamed of. I shall start getting into the habit of doing at least one thing each day. We've even planned a strict schedule so I can remember what happens when & not put things off.

Today, I've shined my sink! I'm not really planning to follow flylady very strictly but I guess it's as good a place as any to start!

[Iheartpasties]

I'm in! I've got 2 dc's under the age of 2 and that is my main excuse for the place looking like a bombsite. I dream of having a place for everything and having everything in it's place. Sometimes though it takes me 6b months to find a place for something and then it doesn't 'work' so I find somehwre better!? eventually certain things get a place to live though - I need a rocket up my arse and then everything will have a bloody place to live!!

If I put stuff on the bed, when I crawl into bed (utterly knackered) I just dump it all on the floor. Down the side of my bed is always a a disaster zone.

Tomorrow morning (it's evening here in oz) I shall clean the shower and sink in the bathroom and empty the bathroom bin out. I am also hoping to go to office works and buy some storage for paperwork and whatnot so that I can sort one of my cupboards out a bit. I do actually love buying storage boxes, baskets, drawers, etc etc (saddo!)

[WhispersOfWickedness]

I'm still here, glad I didn't manage to kill the thread completely

We've been out most of the day today so I haven't got much done but on the plus side we haven't had a chance to mess it up either

[DeathMetalMum]

I'm still here too though slightly slacking. Have decluttered a lot but dd1 had her birthday last week so house looks a mess again.

Does anyone have any tips on storing toys? Dd is only two and we spend most of the time downstairs, what things do you store in dc's bedrooms and what do you store downstairs?

[WhispersOfWickedness]

I do a lot of rotating toys, so only some books, craft stuff and puzzles are permanently downstairs, and then the other toys such as all the food play/kitchen stuff, toy garage and cars, duplo etc get rotated when the DC start getting bored. I've got several vessla boxes with lids from ikea which fit well under DS's bed
We actually have loads of storage in our house, we're just really really bad at using it well

[Iheartpasties]

This morning I

1. Cleaned shower, and toilet, emptied bin in bathroom
   
2. put a sausage stew in slow cooker
   
3. put a load of towels on to wash
   
4. bought plastics drawers x2 to organise paperwork in messy 'stationary' cupboard

[Iheartpasties]

But I still need to

1. Hang out wet washing
   
2. bring in three loads of dry washing, and then fold and put away
   
3. bring in my newly bought plastic drawers and unwrap them and then make room for them in the cupboard and decide what I want to put in them.

[vvviola]

Today I

• put on & hung out a wash
• half tidied the playroom
• cleaned the oven (repairman arriving & it was disgusting)

I was hoping to force myself to iron tonight but I discovered mould in the water tank of my iron and my attempts to sort it with vinegar & hot water failed. I think a new iron might be needed.

I was supposed to (according to the app I use) be cleaning bathrooms today. Oops.

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Is it the homeroutines app you have, viola? That's the one I have too but been really rubbish at using it lately :( I am supposed to be on my bedroom and miscellaneous cupboards this week

[vvviola]

Yep Whispers, that's the one. I set it up ages ago using the habithacker system (which is a bit like flylady in some ways - baby steps etc - but less sparkly and more sweary ).

Haven't used it properly in ages, really need to get going with it again.

Today's task is getting a new iron....

[DeathMetalMum]

Thanks. Today I have managed to sort out dd'd room (v nearly finished). I sorted out the wardrobe and put a clothes rotation system in for doth dc, basically a box with next size up things at the bottom one for each of them. Cleared a lot of things that were just hanging around and sorted out a large bag of clothes to go. Charity shop and friends dc's.

Dp took loads of toys upstairs while me and dd we out yesterday - good it was him I would have been more picky. Dd hasn't noticed anyway, and she has actually played with them in her bedroom now there is more space.

I also made space and put away sheets for moses basket and spare blanket in our bedroom.

Tomorrow continuing with upstairs more decluttering icluding finishing off the pile for music magpie so I can send it off.

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Ooo, habithacker, will have to look into that, flylady does make me cringe sometimes! I've been out all day so not got much done and the motivation to get much done this evening has gone since the people who were supposed to be visiting tomorrow are not coming anymore! Why can I only get motivated for other people but not for my own family?!

[DeathMetalMum]

I am the same whispers. If my mum sis or bros are coming round I don't have any motivation to clean/tidy. Anyone else an it really motivates me, I need to find some more visitors!

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Me too, deathmetal Although I am equally motivated by my dad and ILs, the only people who don't benefit are my mum, DH and DC! I would love to have more people dropping in, but sadly I don't seem to make friends with the dropping in kind

[vvviola]

My parents visiting is a huge incentive to tidy up - as we live in different countries so it's always a big thing. Unfortunately they then stay for a while so it's pretty obvious that the tidy state was just a once off!

The most recent time they visited, we hadnt seen them in nearly a year - and the week before they arrived I had a small car crash and ended up with a sprained neck & bruised shoulders. House was even worse than usual - AND they had to help clean it up because I couldn't lift anything

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Oh no, viola!

My mum once told me that she was ashamed that my ILs saw my house in a state sometimes in case they thought badly of her!!

Thankfully it is a lot better since then, I would only be mildly embarrassed if someone dropped in uninvited rather than deeply ashamed!

[Iheartpasties]

Are we still all keeping on top of things??! :)

I love buying storage and buy and buy and buy it, I love ordering stuff from hong kong (because it's always a bargain) and then it takes about 4 weeks to arrive so I always think I'll be dead organised when all the new storage arrives. well I never am! I just acquire new storage ideas and once in a blue moon use it!!

I am terrible for only really going over the top and getting things spick and span when we have visitors coming. today I just did not have time to do everything before they arrived though - so I gathered up huge piles of stuff and put them in bedrooms and closed doors!! I had a stack of dirty dishes in the spare room

I am honestly slowly slowly slowly getting better than I was. It's just small baby steps for me. Today I have done pretty well all in all. I have done loads of laundry and put some of it away. I have cleaned in the kitchen, when normally I would leave it all because I'm knackered at this time of night (down under).

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Ah, I'd forgotten about this thread! So glad I didn't totally kill it

I'm actually doing ok at the moment. I am the same as you, iheart, we have loads of storage, cannot complain about that at all, but just aren't using it effectively. My current 'project' is to try and encourage as many visitors as possible as it's the only thing that motivates me to keep on top of it all I'm doing well, I had a friend and her little girl over last week, that one was a baptism of fire as she's a very curious girl so she and my DS spent a lot of time upstairs where visitors don't usually venture! It was ok though, I just said they weren't allowed to play in my room Have got a different friend and dc visiting on Monday and hopefully an older friend from the village sometime over the next week Also my mum is here for the weekend but she doesn't count

How is everyone else doing?

[Iheartpasties]

Whispers - that's a fairly good strategy. I sometimes tell myself 'quick tidy up someone is coming to visit' to try and trick myself into being tidy, it doesn't work!! I'd love to be able to tidy the day before they were due to come and then on the morning of a visit just do a last few little bits so that it's looking extra good. One day I'll crack it!

To be honest my mum was a very strict tidy person when I was growing up and even now has a very tidy (almost sterile) house, I hated it, as tidying and cleaning seemed to be more important than other things. She always looks pained if she comes here and I always feel she is uncomfortable because she wants to clean my place up, but it sort of puts me on edge so it's not even enjoyable to see her. I wish she could relax about it a bit, there has to be a happy medium. I tidy up before she comes over, but its obviously not up to her standards. She doesn't even call in to see my brother because she knows she wouldn't be able to stand 'the mess', so she misses out on seeing them to a certain extent.

So anyway I aim to be a bit more tidy and a lot more efficient in my approach, but I do not want a clinically clean household like hers, and I don't want my kids feeling that a bit of a mess is the end of the world.

I'm doing laundry atm, then I shall get up off my bum and fold up dry laundry and put it away, then I want to change the bedding on my dd's bed. Then I shall pick up her wooden puzzles and put them away (in the a4 plastic folders that I bought for them to live in, a top tip I picked up from MN), then because it is sunny here, I shall wash the bedding. I shall pop back here if I remember and see how I am doing with this list!!

[Iheartpasties]

dry laundry folded and put away, took less than 10 mins :)
another load in washing machine :)

dd's bed next on list, just gotta feed dd2 first.

[Iheartpasties]

Dishwasher emptied, and half full again!
Bed stripped, and made up with fresh sheets.
Wooden puzzles packed away.

I'm feeling like a reward! I wish I wasn't on a diet :)

[MrsHoarder]

I might need to join in. Once I've got off MN and done my coursework that is...