Clutter help

[Fluffywuffyunicorn]

My house is constantly messy and it's making me miserable :( currently a sahm dd 2 yo & ds 9 months, so around it constantly. The house is full of toys and every surface has crap on it. Tools, cables, nappy bags, hair products, sewing machine, paint, clay pipes?!? Plus more random crap. Dp's idea of cleaning is to throw everything in a draw or under the stairs and never look at it again. Never throws anything away! I'v spent the last two days writing a plan of action to get on top of things, but finding the time to do it is near impossible with two little ones (mess goblins). Every time I clean one part of the room the rest has been destroyed, so I tackle that, then the bit iv just cleaned has been destroyed! Can't do much at night as they are light sleepers, and usually have other things to sort or just too tired.
I'v decided it's time to banish the clutter, so hopefully less mess and easier to tidy. I currently have next to no practical storage, and don't have room or the money to buy. I need help finding cheap and cheerful storage ideas. Can someone help me find cheap storage that could blend.i'm thinking baskets that I can just pop on the bookcase (will have to make room) or behind the couch. Or tell me how you make the most of your storage? Or any cleaning tips?

You have to get rid of the clutter first, not get more storage. So grab 2 bags, one for rubbish, one for charity shop, and start getting rid of things.

Iv already started that, slow going though :(

Stick with it OP even if you just do 5 mins a day your five minutes closer to clearing it every little will help - I agree with clutter clearing first but if the cleaning is also getting to you I set a 30 mom timer and blast a room I have an 8 month old so take him in with me and talk to him as I go / bring his toys - on Monday we blasted some 80s classics as we clean the thought it was hilarious 😂

*30 min timer

I agree with the other comments re getting rid of clutter before storing, otherwise you'll end up storing a load of stuff that you don't actually need.

At the risk of being too much of a Marie Kondo bore, you could do worse than have a read of her book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying. It's a quick read with lots of good ideas and has made a huge difference to my house. Her best suggestion is to tidy by category, so you sort all your clothes together, all books together, etc rather than just randomly decluttering bits and pieces. It makes it so much easier to see what you have and what you want to keep.

The other thing that has really helped me is having a realistic weekly rota for tidying/cleaning and sticking to it. If I miss a job then it has to wait until the next week, no backlog of jobs, so it's easier not to feel overwhelmed by everything and just get on with the jobs for today and nothing else.

I agree. I put a ban on buying unnecessary storage a couple of years ago. We cleared things out and sent the empty plastic boxes to the shed, so they didn't become re-filled.

There's really no use buying more and more storage, we can only use and enjoy so much.

I am getting rid of the clutter. I'm getting rid of everything that's not used or just tat. Not even attempting toys until one day when the children aren't around I just need storage ideas for things that don't have their own places at the minute. Hair dryer and straightners are currently behind the sofa, perfumes scattered randomly around the house, chargers, dp's treasures and I can't even remember what's hidden behind the chair

I have a basket next to my bedside table with my brush, hair straighteners, rollers and dryer in it op. I don’t allow anything else in it.

Agree with everyone else though you need to do the sorting before deciding how you will store what’s left.

Shoe boxes are excellent storage, you can use them temporarily as baskets, and then buy actual nice baskets once you've decluttered and know exactly what you need.