Anyone up for a Spring Clean motivation thread?

[hangingkebab]

I've woken up with an urge to get the house sorted, which doesn't happen often!
I'm starting in the living room, I'm about to put all the loose covers on the wash, sponge down the rest, dust, polish and then deodorise the carpets. I'll come back when I stop for coffee...please tell me what you're doing to keep me motivated!

Also any tips to make the whole thing quicker and easier would be very welcome, as would ideas for getting two preschool DC involved! (I usually give them a bowl of warm water and lemon juice and 'let' them clean the skirting boards - they find this weirdly exciting. Oddbods).

Hi, can I join please? Read this thread today whilst toddler was napping and I was lazing on sofa and it gave me a kick up the butt to get some chores done instead.
I desperately need to de-clutter and spring clean my flat but seriously lack motivation to get anything done. I'm off work next week but want to make a good start this week as OH and kids are off too so want to enjoy family time without too much stressing about the state of the house.
Anyway after reading this I made a start on the kitchen, cleared and wiped down all the sides and done all the washing up, hoovered and mopped the floor and emptied the bin/recycling. I washed & dried 1 load of laundry, washed another load and popped in the dryer ready for OH to switch on when he got in from work ( I leave for work before he gets home), hoovered the living room and general tidy up.
It doesn't sound a lot but it's a start and I'm glad I used the couple of hours doing it rather than browsing the internet avoiding all the stuff I should be doing. I'm also hoping that posting here will encourage me to keep going. I love reading these threads and reading what everyone else is up to but never post so hopefully this one will keep me motivated to do a little bit each day.
We've got toddler group in the morning then I've got work in the evening but will try to fit in some more laundry and some other small/quick jobs and update on here with my progress!
Hope everyone else is managing to get jobs ticked off their lists

Today I did five loads of laundry and tried to sort out some things for the charity shop. I find it very painful to part with clothes though

Familylife, I'm trying to do the same. I could easily get lost down a Facebook rabbit hole for this whole week. It's a funny week for me as i haven't had a non term time job for ages and have had to use this annual leave. When i was at home before i would procrastinate and get nothing done. Writing it down does help.

Good morning! Welcome to the thread, new folk!

This is great, you're all being so productive and making me feel very guilty, which is exactly what I need!

Today I'm aiming to catch up in the bits I failed to do on Monday, and sort out the cupboard under the stairs, then do the bathroom (which won't take too long as it's the size of a postage stamp).

I'm glad others are finding the thread helpful too - I feel like I'm making myself accountable to you all by writing my goals on here, which means I'm more likely to do something about them!

I'm also banning myself from daytime internet (I know that rabbit hole all too well!) so I'll pop back once the DC are in bed this evening.

Happy sprucing everyone!

Well my morning didn't quite go to plan as we woke up late and was a mad rush to get out the house on time for school!
I did manage to get a load in the washing machine so that was a bonus.
We've been to playgroup and done some errands. Instead of coming home and sitting down with a cuppa I put the laundry in the dryer and another one in the machine before I made lunch.
Toddler is napping now while I have lunch and check in on here while contemplating the huge pile of clean laundry I have to sort and put away!

Oh, I so need to join this thread. Going to finish making lunch for DH and then coming back for motivation

I managed to tackle the mountain of laundry! I've also took another load out the dryer and put another in..... I honestly do not know where it all comes from! There's only 4 of us in the house 🙄
Anyway won't really get much more done before school run, sort dinner then head out to work but I will make sure I wash up the kids dinner dishes before work so that's one less thing to do in the morning.
How is everyone else getting on today?

I meant to attach my after photo of the laundry pile

Im getting there, I've done so much laundry today and emptied out my linen cupboard and got a load of stuff into binbags to take to recycling. I've got to put tea on and then take DS to cubs as I am on "volunteering" rota to help supervise a cub ramble. I'm so very excited

So tomorrow is my day off and I'm so glad I've kept on top of things this week as normally I leave it til Thursday and then don't know where to start cause there's so much to do!
I'm planning on doing the bathroom first thing before I go on school run.
Pick up anything I need from shops while I'm out.
Make a start on some ironing before lunch.
General tidy aswell as dust and hoover living room and kids bedroom.
Declutter one of the cupboards in the hall.
I'm leaving it at that for now and will see how I get on, will update my progress throughout the day.
I'm finding it really helpful to write on here what I'm doing..... if only I had posted on one of these threads before now

Hi everyone!

family and knickers it sounds like you got loads done yesterday, hooray! You have your sofa back family!

I managed to drag myself through my list of jobs yesterday with very little enthusiasm, but at least the bulk of the kitchen is done - the oven will have to wait until I get to a shop, I'm not attempting it without Oven Pride!

Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day today so I'm going to focus on laundry and tidying the garden, hopefully DC will get involved a bit.

cikecaka did you manage to make a start?

Definitely get the oven pride . I am going out in a bit with my Mum. So am having a day off. But crucially i have put a wash on, taken recycling to bin, washed up breakfast things, cleared a kitchen worktop and folded some laundry. I probably wouldn't have bothered without this thread.

I've not done anything off my list yet this morning!
I postponed the bathroom cleaning as I wanted to pick up a new squeegee for the tiles & shower while I was out.
I spent longer at the shops than planned as I decided to pick up a new storage unit for my bedroom to try and tackle some of the clutter. The store I went to didn't have the colour I wanted so have told OH we will need to pick it up tonight from another store. He suggested we wait til the weekend or I can order it for delivery but I have my mind set on getting it today!
I have done some more laundry though - currently have a load in the machine and one in the dryer so I feel like I'm almost on top of that now.
I'm just going to start on the bathroom and then clear out a cupboard.
The ironing will have to wait til later.... it's my least favourite job!

Very productive day at Kebab Manor!

I have:
Done two loads of laundry
Weeded and watered three flower beds
Mowed, watered, weeded and reseeded the lawn
Dug out a bank of nettles and planted it with wildflower seeds
Pruned a bush
Sorted out the hanging baskets.

Also taken DC for a walk, to the park and to the library.

This thread is DEFINITELY doing me good!

I am now on the sofa, drinking tea and eating custard creams, thinking I am probably going to be in some pain tomorrow, it's a while since I was that active!!

family yes I've been putting off sorting out the kids' rooms until I have better storage, it just seems a bit futile otherwise!

knickers hope you had a nice day, good work this morning!

Thanks kebab, had a lovely day, went out for lunch with my lovely mum. Have just picked my DD up from a night out and it started raining. Ran into back garden, grabbed washing still on line,. Phew! Now in bed planning on tidying the cupboard under stairs tomorrow. Will report back.

Kebab, I decluttered my window and countertop of papers and junk, that is the height of what I have done.
Feeling totally exhausted this week.
Trying to get on top of laundry so that I can make a start on utility room, that is my mission for this week

Can I join? I'm at the making a list stage after seeing the sunlight hit my house for the first time this year. I'm clearly not as good at cleaning as I thought!

Done nothing yet really. Made tea, not started cupboard under stairs. Hello Pokémon, the sunlight brings out the dust and streaks in my windows beautifully also

Glad it's not just me intheknickers!

My list is written, it's stupidly long and slightly overwhelming. I feel like having a declutter which is not on my list. I may declutter, add it to the list, then cross it off.

Oh god I so need to join this thread. This is me officially signing in!

Lost my job last week but fortunately no need to rush back off to find work so I'm taking a few weeks to get the house sorted and try and make some sort of sense of the garden!!

Today I have:
-Tidied the kitchen up (how does it get SO messy from just a day or so of not doing a lot?!)
-Weeded the rockery that was massively neglected by previous occupants FOR EIGHT YEARS
-Fed and mucked out the chickens
-Moved 7 calves, checked the other 70 odd.
-Cleaned downstairs bathroom and attempted to de-scale the bloody glass shower enclosure (I'm not sure whose idea it was to have a fully glassed shower enclosure but they want sacking)

Still need to:
-Clean out the crap from the freshly painted built in wardrobes and put all our stuff back into them since it's been in the other bedroom since before bloody Christmas!
-Pull out all furniture and dust in the bedroom
-Gut the upstairs bathroom in readiness for the plumber coming to fix the toilet (I'm not holding out much hope mind since he's been supposedly coming for the last 6 weeks )
-Go up into the attic rooms and dust/Hoover/generally tidy those up.
-Assemble new headboards and attach to new beds.
-Dig over the right side of the garden so I can plant seeds/veg by the end of next week.

So naturally I'm sat on the sofa looking at seeds for the garden... Must get up and do some more!

I've been a bit rubbish the last couple of days. Didn't get my list done on Thursday so that made me lose motivation a bit. I have managed to keep on top of the laundry minus the ironing part!
I got new storage for my towels which I built yesterday so that frees up some space in my cupboards.
I've kept up with the day to day stuff pretty much and stuck a load in the machine before I left for work this morning. OH has been home all day with the kids but didn't think to take it out and pop in the dryer so I'm just about to do that now
I hope I can keep on top of things when we are off next week... this will be a challenge with the kids and OH at home all week too!

family I've been rubbish for a few days as well, so I've been dodging the thread in shame . I know exactly what you mean, you would think having two adults around would make it easier to get things done, but somehow it doesn't work out like that!

Pattern some of your tasks sound pretty full on - moving livestock around etc! Sorry to hear about your job though.

What's everyone up to today? I'm aiming to do DD's room, which I've been avoiding all week because it's such a state. Plus continue with the never ending laundry.

I've not done so much this week either. Ds helped with the spring clean by being sick all over his bed, so I had to wash the duvet and pillow! He also upended a bottle of water on the sofa (and didn't notice) so all the cushions had to go outside to dry. He spilt a dish of chicken stock under the microwave, so I had to move that to clean under that. Oh and he dropped a stack of dishes from the dishwasher, so that helped with decluttering!?

He's not normally clutzy, so I'm blaming the tonsillitis! It's been annoying, as I feel like I'm fire fighting all the time.

For those saying they need storage before they get tidying (I've spent years buying more and more storage, so sympathise with this), can I point out that Marie Kondo says that you need to declutter first, as otherwise you don't know what storage you need and you're just buying storage to house clutter. Obviously you know your houses best, but if you're in a cycle of buying more storage to store more things, and more storage for more things... Eventually it's really helpful to stop and kondo it all (pull it all out by category and keep only what you love).

Eg, a few years ago I wanted new hangers, but they only had 24 of the style I wanted in tkmaxx, so I didn't get them as not nearly enough. My mum was with me and went back and got them for my birthday. Initially I was a bit irritated - as I still had lots of mismatched hangers. Then about 6 months later I read about kondo and kondo-d my wardrobe (getting rid of all of the tops that were 'fine' but for some reason or other I never wore) and although all my tops and tshirts are still hung up, I actually wear all of what I own and I now have 8-10 spare hangers! If i'd bought the 60 odd I 'thought' i needed I'd have wasted so many!

She also says as you declutter to keep any storage that becomes redundant until the end of the process, so things can be repurposed.

Apologies if everyone knows this stuff already, but thought it might be useful if you haven't heard of it. As you can probably tell I'm much better at the theory of this cleaning /sorting malarkey than the practise!

I don't know much about Marie kondo so that's interesting. do follow fly lady -half heartedly-. Her clear a hot spot in two minutes approach (hot spot is places in your house where clutter accumulates) is useful. She also says about setting a timer for 20 minutes and then stopping. When you're decluttering it can be like opening a can of worms. This is why i still haven't tackled the cupboard under the stairs. I have no idea what's in it if I'm honest!

Leeloo you're DS helping you by being sick on the bed made me smile 😊.

Ooh Leeloo sounds like you've had a fun week! I totally get what Marie Kondo is saying about knowing what you need to store before you buy the storage...but we definitely do need new storage .

knickers I like fly lady's shiny sink theory, it always makes me feel better about the kitchen if I get the sink clean even if I can't see the other surfaces

I managed to do quite a bit in DD's room today, including finally sorting through a box of crap from when we moved house. Six months ago . Quite busy tomorrow, so just aiming to hoover the stairs, which is a job I hate more than it deserves.