a thread for making 2017 a cleaner, tidier and less stressful year?

[MyVisionsComeFromSoup]

I need to declutter, organise, deep clean, and potential redecorate the house as it gets me down. I love the principles of Kondo, but can't quite get the house to the place where I can properly sort one category at a time, so I need to chuck stuff from all the different areas first, before there's any chance of finding eg all stationery bits in order to see which post-its bring joy .

Less crap in the house will clear my head a bit, and let me focus on some health stuff (I'm about to be starting a treatment plan which will make me feel worse before I feel better I suspect), and making everything a lot calmer and more peaceful.

I meal plan and bullet journal sporadically, so I know I need to be more organised with that, I WFH part-time and have piles of paperwork which need clearing, and I really really need to cut down on spending and start properly saving to remodel the house (or move which seems a less stressful option as EVERYTHING in the house needs redoing from roof to floorboards via plumbing, electrics and plastering ). Plus I'd like to free up time and energy to do something about the garden.

Anyone else up for motivational nagging and bum kicking? Or alternatively just posting photos of beautiful minimalism for me to drool over?

I've done some tidying over the last few days but not much sorting out as I really want to do it the Marie Kondo way. Still no inspiration whatsoever for meal plans so if anyone could share their favourite meals to cook and eat I'd be grateful. I'm going to be taking soup for lunch at work as much as possible, making a big batch and eating it for a week.

Lego have you tried looking online for the school meal plan? Ours is available through the school website.

have bookmarked the January Cure website to read later (DD is having friends round, so i'm banished to the study for the afternoon and evening, although saving up a cleaning website to read through on NYE is a bit weird, possibly? ).

However, this lunchtime is Sort Out The Tupperware Hour Day - how best to store the boxes once I've chucked lidless boxes and boxless lids? Stacking boxes with all the lids standing up inside means that the end up scattered, and I like to make sure they're properly air dry before putting then away, so storing them with lids on leaves me a pile un put away on the side drying. I use takeaway containers a lot as they're portion or meal sized, so there are usually a lot moving through the system, and they need to be easy to put away otherwise it just doesn't happen. They've now spread to a second cupboard, and I really want it back.
What does everyone else do?

I bit the bullet, threw away all the odd sized plastic boxes and bought some stackable/nestable ones. But that was a year ago and some random (usually free like ice cream boxes) have crept back in .....

I'll be following this thread too.

What is a bullet journal?

I feel.like we live in a constant state of chaos and I can spend a whole day and feel like I achieve nothing.

Something has got.to change. I'm fed up feeling moody because I can't find stuff when I need it and I feel.like I'm wasting the children's childhoods feeling pissed off at the mess.

Realistically how long do you think you need to.dedicate a day to having a tidy clean organised house?

I'm in. We have so much stuff!

And me. Cluttered paperwork on desk.

I'm in, new house to finish building, old house next door to declutter.
Four month detox/diet/supplement regime for CFS started four days ago.
Washing machine broken and no repairs available till the 4th and bins not being emptied till Friday.
Aghhhh!

I've started a bullet journal today and spent the day sorting out some storage for all our stuff.

I'm pregnant so struggling to lift things and people keep unloading their crap donating baby things for me. We are short of money so I don't want to turn anything down in case I have to buy it later!

Happy new tidy year all!

And me!
So many toys... where are they all going to go?
Outwardly tidy house but every single cupboard and wardrobe and drawer and under every bed is bursting with CRAP.

I'm in too. My lovely mum came for a week before Christmas to help me sort the house. We made good progress on clearing the attic (old duvets, garden toys, highchair, travel system and most of the last baby clothes gone, plus must be more as we did a tip run, plus about 4 big charity shop runs, plus left some stuff outside on the pavement which mostly got taken), which made space to put the decorating stuff up in the attic. This means that there's more space in the easily accessible cupboards.

While logically I know I made progress, the house still feels cluttered and overwhelming. It feels like I'm playing tetris with the house though - sliding stuff round!

Oh and I have a corner of the lounge filled with stuff (mostly a million Reusable Nappies in various sizes, but also a massive triple pushchair) to ebay/sell. I listed about 6 items yesterday, but it took hours!

I'm hoping that 2017 will be the year that I get on top of the house, but as I make progress in 1 area other bits get worse/come into the house. Eg dc got (huge) new bikes for Xmas, so now the hall is really cluttered again.

I need to reread the kondo books to inspire myself i think...

Oh, I meant to say everdene. You probably know this, but sort all the donated baby clothes into sizes (0-3, 3-6 months etc). First discard anything that's really soiled/you hate. Then start choosing items you love up to about 10 per item (even if you don't have a tumble dryer, you'll never need more than 10 vests, babygros etc).

Then from the poundshop get vacuum storage bags - 1 per age group. Write on a piece of a4 paper the size, then a brief list of what's included in that bag (2 x sleeping bags, 8 long sleeve vests...). Then you will know exactly where to look when your dc get to that age and you can identify any gaps that you can shop for.

With other stuff again, lose stuff you hate and keep the best bouncy chair, playmat etc.

Hope that helps.

Leeloo that is great advice!! I have actually bought some vacuum bags but haven't known really how best to divide up the baby stuff!

One friend gave me her baby cast-offs in Chinese laundry bags already sized, so I can add the other stuff to those. I have some Ikea shelves to put up too to help take some of the stuff off the floor.,

I'm on a roll two loads to the charity shop since Friday, have completely blitzed the kitchen, wardrobes and clothing, bedding and towels and the understairs coat and shoe cupboard. The utility room is a work in progress as it's big and is s general dumping ground/storage area/kitchen overspill. I'm ignoring the office for the time being as paperwork is my nemesis.

Have also emailed British Heart Foundation to collect an old sofa that's been sat it the conservatory for months.

Have been reading a lot of minimalist living blogs and they've been very motivating.

I'm in. I have finally ordered some new lounge furniture, which means I can pass on the old, mega clunky sofa and chair. I moved in last March, I'd like to finish unpacking by this March!! And declutter as I unpack those last few boxes. Really looking forward to making the house feel like my own

I'm in too!

We've done a huge amount in the last year, but still need to sort the landing bookshelves which have turned into a bit of a dumping ground; the spare room which is also a dumping ground and we need to weed the loft so that we can put some of the stuff already boxed and labelled currently in the spare room up (the Brio which the DSs have grown out of but which we don't want to get rid of).

However, last week DH and I did manage to sort the cupboard under the stairs getting rid of all the half finished craft projects and things we knew the DSs will never do. We also sorted the mug cupboard of doom which had been over flowing for months. We can now get at all the mugs we actually use! Off to the charity shop on Tuesday with 18 old mugs :-)

I need to do my mugs too pigeon there are only a few mugs I actually like to use so a lot of them can go the the charity shop

I was full of good intentions for today but have ended up doing absolutely nothing so tomorrow will be my day for sorting things out. I want to put all the Christmas paraphernalia away but we leave the tree up until the 6th.

My mugs have sorted themselves over the last couple of months...we've had about 10 break & we now don't have enough .

Nothing done today. Although I found a rather large mouse hole under the stairs so have baited it. Tomorrow I'm filling with expanding foam. Haven't heard noises for a few days, but it's a bloody big hole!

Hello hello!

I twisted my back funny on Saturday so got nothing done. DH saw it is a good reason to sit and play on his phone all day ignoring the DC. Words were had and yesterday was much more productive!

Achieved so far:

Storage unit into DD's room and started filling.
Blitzed DS' room. Moved some toys upstairs to make more room for insane amount of Lego downstairs.
Found missing Everest toy, but now we can't find Zuma or Chase.
Took down Christmas cards and adjusted my list for next year.
Bought new garden gate, hopefully to be fixed today.

DH is planning to do a dump run today. I need to sort out passport forms for the DC. I might join in the mug sorting!

Bullet Journal coming along nicely.

Signed up for the January cure but I didn't get an email yesterday. I had a welcome email when I signed up so know I put my email address correctly.

I've just spent the morning searching for some sort of digital wall-mountable calendar so that we can all see the shared Google calendar and maybe afew other household organisation apps. Doesn't look like one exists so I came across a hack which I'm now fully invested in

So I've got an old tablet which was never used, no name type one. I've just bought some of those no nails strips which I'll use to mount the tablet to the wall (and will apparently not leave a mess when I want to take it down), I'll then just have to choose a spot near a plug, and then set it up somehow so that the screen is just always showing the calendar by default with the other apps also loaded and easily accessible.

I'm already feeling more organised...

spiderBM

thanks for this link, I have signed up :)

We are moving but have no idea where too I want to get the house we are in now completely de-cluttered and clean then hopefully the move will be easier.

Those of you who meal plan do you do it weekly or monthly and do you plan in lunches etc?

Can anyone recommend a good online meal planner app at all? Does such a thing exist?