I am SO Messy, and I hate it.

[CaulkheadupNorthStill]

I live in a houseshare, so try very hard to keep communal areas tidy. I do a fair share of the cleaning, and have no difficulty with that.

It's just the tidying. Please tell me how to do it.
In a previous job I used to tidy stuff away, and it was fine, then someone else would come and do...something...and it would be all lovely and tidy. I just don't know what the thing is.

Current house has a lot of storage so that isn't a problem. It's just me! Please tell me what to do!

I'll never be beautifully tidy but this helped me a lot with making sure things look nice/orderly (from Apartment Therapy):

• spend a while watching what ends up where
• make it so that's the right place for that thing
• put open-topped storage for that thing in the place where the things end up
• have waste paper baskets right where the crap gets created so you never have to carry things to the bin

So I now have coat hooks right inside the front door, a bowl for keys in the place where keys end up, a spot for post in the hall with a waste paper basket underneath it so envelopes go straight in there, and a designated chair instead of a floordrobe. Next thing I need is an 'out box' by the front door for things due to go into the car / to the charity shop / whatever, so they aren't on the floor.

I think a cornerstone of being tidy is being committed to "Throwing Out Shit".

If you don't Throw Out Shit, you'll never be tidy.

Watching - trying to ignore the four pens, mug, and rogue peas on the floor...

Marking place. I'm exactly the same and it infuriates me (and dd who is much more inclined to be today than me st six!).

I'm the same. Can't seem to tidy. Now I stand at the door, look round the room and count all the things out of place, magazines clothes cups and so on. Then I deal with these. Also stuff on chairs if any. Put them away. Empty bins. It always looks a bit better after that.

Cox I do that too. We had a corner of our worktop next to the toaster where the ketchup and mustard and honey and marmalade always ended up being abandoned. We jokingly called it Condiment Corner. It looked awful, bottles spilling out all over the place. Rather than fight it, I bought a rectangular perspex desk divider container and everything fits into it perfectly. So it's still all in the same place but now it looks like it's meant to be there! And it's lovely and tidy and no longer embarrassing.

I also bought one for the various oils that have gathered next to the hob. I bloody love desk organisers.

This is excellently helpful. Thank you.

Over the last few years I've gone from a messy house to one that people tend to comment how tidy it is! I seem to have managed to thwart my naturally messy tendencies. Main things are to get rid of as much clutter as possible, including putting into storage things you want to keep but are not using. I remind myself I don't need to be able to see everything. I have little routines and everything has its place. Not necessarily a logical or attractive place but just somewhere if always lives so tidying is simple. The main bits of house get tidied in this way every day.

Are you competitive? I'm exactly like you, but if I put on a timer or some music I like to see how much I can do in say 10min or 1 song or if I'm cooking how much I can clean before the pasta is cooked etc. It takes away some of the boredom.

I find tidying to be too dull to really get on top of it. I don't mind a bit of minor clutter but grit my teeth and do a bit just because dh is naturally much tidier than me.

I can't do anything houseworky for longer than 10 minutes, it makes me want to scream I hate it so much!

I'm not very competitive.

Given the choice, I put ten things away and then either stop or do another ten. That works when I have lots of time, but I need a better mindset/routine than that really

This has been a super helpful thread because although we are very clean at home, we are definitely untidy. I think I definitely need more receptacles to put things in where they end up, and everything needs more of a dedicated space.

I have a severe dust mite allergy so I've got really strict in my bedroom that clothes are always either in the wash bin or put away, never left overnight so that really has helped. It really does only take a minute or two to put the clothes away, I don't know why I would avoid it before! Tags off new clothes, etc, go straight in the waste paper bin so as not to gather dust on my bedside table, and all my toiletries, hairbrushes, etc, have their own boxes with lids.

Just need to get in to the same habits in the rest of the house. The only thing that really cocks up my kitchen is the recycling, I don't want a bin or box to get all smelly and gross, but I also don't take it out frequently enough.

Re clothes drying. If they are on dryer I would take off and fold as I take off and put straight away. So no piles of clean laundry (don't they get screwed up?). Also things that need hanging would get out straight on coat hanger wet, and dry on coat hanger hanging off rack. So can just gather up all hangers when dry and straight away

So glad I'm not the only one who is like this.

With recycling, we have a swing top bin that we empty when we do the other bins each week

You have made me clean out my kitchen cupboards.

I have a bag of stuff I never use, like fancy plant pots, for charity and a bag for the bin, a bag for recycling and now I have a wee place for the pen pot to go and an ALMOST CLEAR SURFACE!

Okay, another example for you all. I have just got in from work. Was early start today, and knew I wouldn't have time to tidy upstairs. So, in the next 20 mins until school run, I am going to:

Quick tidy kitchen;
Put away shopping I have brought in;
Carry a basket of clean washing upstairs;
Make beds in dcs' rooms, scoop up clothes from teenage ds1's room;
Bring down next load of washing.

That is 20 mins max...

Bite sized chunks. Always know what your next set of tidying is.

I'm so messy and fed up too!
I started decluttering the konmari way, and although we did get rid of loads, everything is still messy! DH is better than me, but I should be on top of it as a sahm. The worse is that I spend so long stressing about the house that I never play/do crafts with the kids. It's really depressing.

Yeah, I feel overwhelmed.

Piles of laundry to put away - but drawers which are bulging and clothes which are too small/in the wrong drawers.

toys the kids actually play with, with boxes to put them into , but, those are bulging with toys they don't play with.

A big storage cupboard, filled with stuff we sometimes use

A loft, full of stuff we never use.

So, I KNOW I need to just clear the loft, move the stuff we don't need/want out and organise the stuff we do need/want. We have the space to do that.

But, it's so very, very hard, so, I mostly just move piles around.

I used to always be told I was easy, and naggedendlessly over it. Guess what...I didn't learn to be tid...until muuuuch later. Some things I've learned are: Don't put it down, Put it away.. if I go into another room I take something that belongs there with me and put it away...I've got Marie London book as well. Just keep at it and don't beat yourself up you'll get there [fwnk]

I used to be hideously untidy but getting much better. My two big changes were decluttering (clear surfaces) and continually tidying. I have got into the habit of every time I leave a room tidying a couple of things. It's bloody amazing the difference it makes even if it's just tiny things.