Is it possible to revamp home in 3 days?

[penguinplease]

I'm so fed up with my house and my continual going round in circles with my tidying and decluttering.
Final straw this morning was a row with my dds about their messy room. Their response was that my room/ the house is messy too.

They are right. I'm ashamed and fed up. I'm off work today and have the weekend, can I do the lot do you think?

Also how do I break the cycle of moving things from one room to another ? I seem to always have a room full of boxes and bags of stuff that needs sorting.

My own mother was a hoarder and our house was chaos , things were often bought and never seen again, I hated it but I've morphed into it without realising.

I don't know where to start but I dream of a home that is tidy and where everything has a place to go instead of just piles of stuff everywhere.

Can anyone give me some advice, could I do the lot in the next 3 days?

Thanks

not sure i can add anything useful but thought id drop some encouragement your way!

i go through the same every couple of months, when the insides of cupboards, toy boxes etc are a mess. you definitely can do it!

how old are your dcs? get them involved in some way.

dont get overwhelmed! find a room to start and go from there. i usually do kitchen, hall, lounge, loo, stairs and then each of the bedrooms and bathroom after.

take bags or boxes with you and be ruthless. 1 for recycling, 1 for tip, 1 for sorting etc and take all rubbish ones outside straight away. if u can load up any tip stuff into the car straightaway then that makes it better.

i like to have a timer on my phone and race against it (cos im sad )

i also like to sort through junk, clean and hoover and then shut the door on said area so it doesnt attract more mess.

sorry for writing so much, im currently on a house mission myself so good luck. we will win!

also as your pottering around maybe think about house rules? iv been giving my dds stick about leaving junk around, putting coats and bags away properly, wiping toothpaste out of the sink etc they need to know its a joint effort.

anyway, do let me know how you get on, i could use the motivation too

I think you can achieve loads in 3 days (especially if you have some help) but also it sounds like you need a change of mindset too, if you want to really change your living environment

I think you are going to have to be a little bit ruthless. If something isnt useful or beautiful it HAS to go. You need to fill black bin bags with the piles of stuff that have been there for months. Seriously, if you havent touched in ages do you really need it? Google "living with less stuff", there are tonnes of blogs and articles to help. You dont need to "sort" your stuff, you need to get rid of it (sorry if that sounds a bit harsh). You will feel so free afterwards, I promise you

I would spend the next three days clearing out and taking bags to charity or the council dump. Otherwise general cleaning is pointless. Once that is done the cleaning becomes so much easier. And absolutely get the DDs involved

Good luck

Thank you both, I need harsh, I agree I need to get rid and stop moving things around.
I don't enjoy my own house as it's too cluttered, in turn badly organised and not very nicely decorated.
Something in me snapped this morning.

Thanks for the kindness, my long suffering dp thinks it's all talk, would love to prove him wrong this time.

Will let you know how I get on!

If you can afford it ring up now and order a skip, once it is sitting outside empty you will feel like you have to fill it up!

I had a massive clear out recently, I had tons of stuff I was going to put on ebay one day, but of course I never do. Getting rid of it all feels great

what helps is - it doesn't matter what something cost you. You can still throw it away if it is stopping you from living your life to the full. You matter more than the stuff.

Also, if you are really doubtful about whether to keep something "important" think books, toys, linens, ornaments, REMEMBER in the world of ebay there is nothing to stop you buying it back very cheaply from someone else who is decluttering, in the years to come. That is, if you actually MISS it, which is very unlikely.

My wake up is that I have no teaspoons but umpteen gardening magazines. I need the teaspoons far more than I need to keep dusting and tidying round more gardening magazines. They are preventing me organising the teaspoons. Stuff cramps our lives and prevents us functioning.

Today I threw away Harry Potter Cluedo the children never played with, and keep meaning to, but never will. I threw away 10 paperbacks of outgrown children's books. I gave away a Sylvanian tree house yesterday which had been next to my bed for 2 years, and completely unplayed with by my teenagers [obviously].

A little bit of decluttering helps start the ball rolling, you don't have to throw everything away the first day! It can take a while to adjust to the new way of life and the happiness of not being enslaved to things.

There is also a lot of pyschology involved in what you are actually hanging on. What do those particular things represent to you? Happy children in a house where there are lots of toys? Memories? Things you are planning to do, hopes and dreams for projects? It is worth examining some of these theories in cold light of day and how far the things that represent so much actually stop a lot of those memories, happy dreams, happy children, contented parents ever happening. Mess takes so much time, tidying so much time away from us. And the more stuff the more things there are to tidy and sort and worry over.

Start at the top of the house, have a rubbish bag, charity bag, eBay/carboot back if you are going to do that and a big empty idea bag for anything that needs to go to another room
Tidy and sort one room completely then move on to the next room, filling bags and taking anything out of the ikea bag that need to be put into that room, work your way around the house until every room is done.
Idea bag should be empty by the time you are finished. Put charity bags straight into car boot so they aren't cluttering house and no chance for people to take things back out, rubbish into back garden and if not ebaying straight away find somewhere to put eBay bags that is out of sight

I think when you are in a bad state it is a big mistake to start ebaying or having a big clearout. Just start small. Give yourself a bit of time to acclimatize to the idea of throwing away stuff which is perfectly good.

Put all papers which need to be sorted in a separate place. You can do them in front of the telly. They don't actually take up much space. It is the other clutter which requries so much thought and gut wrenching. That you have to do in small batches. Start with toiletries that are manky, unused. Kitchen stuff or anything that is past its sellby date. A sheet that never is used for but you are saving for a fancy dress item or a picnic in the garden or a dustsheet. Just chuck it, don't think that it might come in useful at some later date. It will cost you 50 p from a charity shop if you really really want that spare sheet.

Don't make big plans for skips and ebaying items, it is so easy to put it off and lose heart.

Another trick is to put something out in a box outside your house with a note saying Please Take - if it goes you know it has gone to a good home.

How did you get on OP?