The Organised Mum Method

[IcanDorisIwillDoris]

Does anyone fancy joining me in following the organised mum method?

Back to work tomorrow after the summer off (work term time only) and need to get on top of a house work routine after struggling this last year or so to stay on top of things.

I suffer with anxiety and can easily get lost in my mood without structure and I like what I saw on the website. Will probably tweek the method as I go but it's a good structured plan to kick things off.

I work odd hours around the kids being at school but have a clear hour each day to dedicate to this. Plus I am sick of losing my weekends to playing catch up when I could be doing nicer things with the kids!!

Four of us in a 4 bed semi which is clean, just full of stuff that comes with having kids. It can get pretty messy!

Have done the odd bit of decluttering over the summer which has made a bit of a difference!

Looking forward to having a house that doesn't embarrass me on the odd occasion a guest arrives unannounced

It was a lemon one. Or maybe citrus?

I think I'll just stick with getting things clean rather than making them smell...

It’s a disinfectant, that’s all, not an air freshener!

My bedroom is exhausting for all of the wrong reasons! I’m getting there but I didn’t realise how much crap I have! I don’t need so many clothes! 2 bin bags of rubbish and 3 of clothing to take to charity and I’m only halfway around! Send help!
On a good note ds2 is doing his and is doing well.

Another one here who doesn’t get the Zolfora craze! Has anyone tried Method cleaning products? That’s another one everyone seems to be crazy about on the fb page, I think it’s an eco range? Never tried it though.
Littlechocola my bedroom is the same. I’ve mostly finished decluttering now and it’s lovely, I feel I have freed myself from so much crap! Very satisfying. It’s a hard slog though!

I want to love Method but I’m not keen on any of the fragrances so far

Save me going through 46 pages... Is it better than fly lady because I'm only just starting tofaildoing follow that?

@JessicaPeach ooh I love Method (some of them). Which ones did you try?

@Handbaghag I couldn't get started with Flylady. My sink was already shiny and I didn't want to wear shoes in the house, so those two things dis-inspired me! TOMM is instantly useful and easy to follow.

@Handbaghag much better because it’s achievable, less faff and results are easy to see.

This sounds great. Can more experienced people tell me-

Do you need to declutter beforehand? I think my clutter would get in the way of my proper cleaning.

And if you work, do you still follow the weekly schedule and just fit it in after work? I'm worried I'd be too knackered and then I'd fall behind

Yes @Rainatnight you do need to declutter - this will be done naturally during the bootcamp you do before starting. There is a printable schedule for the bootcamp. This will be hard work but then it's a case of maintaining with TOMM. You don't have to do the daily 30 mins all at once.

Ah, ok, I see. Thanks for explaining.

How have people found getting their DPs on board? Or are you just doing it yourself?

I'm in! Just started boot camp and started with the bathroom. Ugh. Our house is quite old so whatever you do, it still seems grimy!!

@Rainatnight my dp does the opposite of joining in!

Rainatnight my DH and I came to an agreement many years ago, where he told me that he was more than happy to do anything in the household but that a lot of the jobs he wouldn’t “see” for himself, so I should just tell him. I know this is not a popular view on MN but it has worked very well for us over the years! (In his defence I should add that if I am away for a stretch of time, or working a lot of shifts in a row, “Level 1 jobs” as TOMM calls them would always have been done, DH is not a slob! But he would never think oooh those windows need cleaning, IYKWIM)
So with regards to decluttering, if it’s exclusively his stuff, eg his clothes, I have suggested that he has a good sort - but that’s his choice. If it’s his stuff which occupies “our” space, rather than “his”, I have asked him, for example would he mind if I recycled some of his old magazines because he’s not looked at them for 10 years and I am doing the lions share of the decluttering because I get whole days off in the week due to shift work, whereas he works most days.
If it’s “our” stuff, like an assortment of candleholders I have made the decisions whether to keep or dump - as I said, I’m doing the lions share so I feel that’s my privilege
WRT ongoing Level 1 and 2 stuff once the Bootcamp is completed, I have warned him and the DCs that it will be a shared effort. I don’t mind doing stuff by myself on my days off, but when we are all working I am expecting jobs to be done jointly, and I will be leaving them a list of things for those days.
As I said, this works well for us but I guess every family functions differently!

Littlechocola that made me laugh!

SummersB

This little and often approach is beginning to rub off on me. I'm naturally an all-or-nothing person. I thought I would need at least one whole day to clear out the kitchen cupboards, so I couldn't imagine ever getting around to it.

Today, I was putting away a baking tray, when I noticed the drawer needed a good wipe out. Rather than thinking, oh no, my kitchen is disgusting and I will never have the spare time I need to fix it, I took out the trays and wiped the drawer. It took a couple of minutes. Really. All that fuss in my head over a couple of minutes. I then cleaned out 5 more drawers and a cupboard, all while supervising DD's homework.

There's plenty more to go but it was so manageable that it has given me a real boost and I know the rest will get done at some point, because even if I do a drawer or cupboard a week, they'll all be done by Christmas.

@summersb

I live in an old cottage which is only 75m2, I bought it with (now) DH 3 years ago, and before that lived on my own in a 90m2 house. We have since added a dog and a baby!!

It is certainly possible to achieve a decluttered and minimalist (ish) cottage feel, but it really takes a lot of work, and it's never going to be achieved in a 1 week "bootcamp". I started when we put an offer in on the house, and managed to ebay enough stuff to cover £600 of solicitors fees (plus multiple car fulls to the charity shop and dump), and have had to keep on with it since. It is an ongoing thing, as we have had to make room for baby stuff. But DD has a toy box and a shelf downstairs, and will have a toybox and a kallax unit in her bedroom (she is still in with us, and her bedroom is not decorated yet), and we operated a toy/book limit based on what fits in these spaces.

It is really worth it as the housework gets so much easier the less stuff you have.

This is a really good list, to guide/inspire you when you are decluttering...

www.therusticelk.com/117-things-declutter-right-now/

I've just ordered a spray mop. What's happening to me?!

@Ollivander84 ha ha - I bought a microfibre mop. My DS just said "is that the Organised Mum's mop then?"!

Yy to the little and often steala; I've discovered that I can get quite a lot done in 10 minutes before the school run instead of dicking around on mn and fb

Cyw I see your point but our house is of similar dimensions and I live with DH and three DCs, two of which are older teens, so five of us plus a Labrador and a cat we don’t have a usable attic at the moment either so zero storage. We are like sardines in our house - lucky we all get on!
In all honesty I don’t mind not having a minimalistic house, it’s very cosy and people always seem to like visiting and tell me it’s very homely. But for that reason I couldn’t even begin to compare my home with those on the fab page!

My house will never be minimalist. It's a lot better in terms of being easy to clean as we've renovated it - our old 1980s bathroom with lots of exposed pipe work and rancid carpet was never clean no matter how hard I went at it... but our new one with all the pipework boxed in and the whole bog coming out of the line of cupboards setup is really much easier to keep clean as there's not the space to catch dust, and not the stuff out on open shelving to need dusting either. Likewise when we lost the 1980s kitchen.

I'm less obsessive than lots of the FB posters though - my kitchen's got fingermarks on the cupboard doors - yeah, so what, it's a drawback of having gloss cupboards and I'd go insane if I went to war trying to get rid of them... I go by the fact that yeah there might be smears and fingermarks but it's a clean smeared bit or fingermark and it'll get cleaned again fairly soon so I'm not going to get het up about it. That attitude works better for me - and like I say, I stepped away last week totally as I wasn't liking me starting to fall into the trap of putting myself under pressure to compete.

Our house is never going to be huge and uber modern - it's a 1920s house, none of the walls are straight, no DIY job ever is straight forward in it and I've got two kids, one of whom is a dyspraxic so stuff gets knocked and spilt and fiddled with because of her sensory seeking issues, and I've got the world's most annoying black sink (seriously never do this) that shows every single water mark, so I let things roll. I'm not sat there looking at inches of dust on windowsills and dust bunnies that have bred like bunnies on the floors anymore or depressed when I go into the bathroom which is the main thing I want to achieve from it all.

Week 1 of TOMM complete. And I can honestly say my house has never been so clean.

Some of the rooms took longer than 30 mins but that’s fine as I didn’t Bootcamp and now there done 30 mins will be fine to get them done in future if I stick to it.

I’ve actually got ahead of myself as tomorrow we’ve had advanced notice our electric will be off from 9-6 so I’ve done my lounge and diner today so I can go out tomorrow.

Spray mop off eBay ordered, so glad I saw that post as my steamer has decided to pack up again. Thank you for the recommendation.

Can someome tell me about spray mops and/or how they clean their kitchen floor.

I avoid using my big bucket and mop and just hoover it so want to move on. Local asda has a microfibre mop - is that basically the same thing?

Do i just use water? I used to have a thing i sprayed straigjt onto the floor but we often wear socks and it makes it sticky.