Clearing out vs tidying vs MN!

[3birthdaybunnies]

Our house is fairly very messy. I really need to get on top of it rather than just picking up after the children (nearly 4, 6, 8 and 44). The trouble is that by the time I have dropped ds at nursery, come home tidied away breakfast, picked up all the stuff, filled/ emptied dishwasher, put washing on, cleaned the loo, picked up more stuff had a coffee and looked on MN paid some bills, it is time to go back to get him. I really need a good sort through - e.g. bookcases so that there isn't as much lying around and so it doesn't get as messy. He does 4 sessions a week, some weeks I need to work but in the other weeks what proportion of my week do you think I should devote to sorting out vs actual cleaning. - is a small 3 bed house with too much clutter. Off to sort out a bookcase shelf or two but will check back for wisdom later. P.s. tried fly lady but couldn't get past the sink cleaning - our sink is plastic so will never shine, and is really just a soaking area pre dishwasher so not too vitalfor my sense of wwellbeing!

Tell your OH you need a bit of help for a couple of weeks and change your evening routine a bit to make time in the mornings.

Do bathroom while kids have baths (not every day though, surely?). Put dishwasher and washing machine on at night, get OH to unload DW at least in the morning (just for a while if it won't work long term).

Get everyone to put the breakfast things away...not just you. You are training them for real life!

After drop off, hang washing up, sort a bookcase, have a cuppa, MN, do another bookcase.

Possible?

I have tried to move some things to the evening - it has all fallen apart a bit with holidays, back to school etc. I guess I need to get back in the habit, I usually put dishwasher on in the evening and empty in the morning after school, but maybe dh/dd1 could do it. They do clear plates from supper but not in the morning. I was thinking that maybe I can shift making lunches to the night before too. Dh does help a bit but he is more likely to decide to sort out the shed, which while useful might not be the more imminently urgent thing when the sitting room is chaos - I tend to work on a which room is a visitor most likely to come into whereas he will start wherever he is when he can't find something.

I did manage to tidy up 3 shelves this morning and chucked out loads of paper for recycling, but sitting room even messier due to ds now being able to see his jigsaw puzzles!

I sometimes just abandon the everyday jobs and do decluttering. I know the everyday job will get done eventually, whereas if I do that first I probably won't find time to declutter.

The flylady shiny sink bit annoyed me as ours was scratched and worn so never shiny!

I don't really let my husband decide what he wants to help with, tbh. I'm the family and household manager, so I set the priorities. .