I want to create a new habit, who’s with me?

[Times10]

We’ve come back from holiday, and all the house is showing is that the “put things away once used” habit is not anyone’s forte but especially not mine. So I want to try a 30 day challenge to work on this one thing, and hopefully see a big improvement in the state of the house.
DH is tidier than me, and does put things away a lot more than I do, and I can’t ask the DCs to do it consistently if I’m not being a good role model.
I’m trying to figure out what could be a cue to do it, as that’s obviously what’s missing in the way my brain works at the moment.
So if you want to work on this, or another habit, feel free to join me!

Im with you!!! I have a bad habit of leaving the washed laundry in the basket. Takes me days to fold it and put it away. It sits there in the bedroom making a mess. Lol. I need to work on this habit :(

Oh yes, we have that problem in our house too! It becomes such big job when we leave it ages!

I shall join. I really need this push. Muddles on a big scale!!

I need to develop a habit of going back once I've done something to finish up. For example, putting washing on and hanging it on airers then leaving it hanging for days, dry. Or unpacking the tubs from our picnic lunch and putting them in the sink to soak and then not actually going back and washing them up or putting them in the dishwasher. It drives me mad, let alone my husband!

Oh, yep, that’s me too. DH jokes that he can see everything I’ve done that day by following the trail of unfinished jobs... My brain is obviously not wired properly, and add to that constant interruptions by the DCs, I’ve just not managed to get on top of it.

Looks like help is on the way! I, too, flit to one thing from another and the house never looks any different from the day before. How does this thread work, please - do we mention any clever ruses we have found / report on progress?

Both I think? Definitely any tips that have worked, and maybe if we know we have to report back we’ll be more intentional with doing what we need to? I live in hope 😀

I’ll join you.

We could definitely do with starting to put our washing away rather than leaving it hanging on the airer for days.

I’ve actually in the past week made a point of not going up or down stairs empty handed if there’s something that needs to be moved. Just need to work on putting it away now once it’s on the right floor

I found the audio book of Atomic Habits VERY HELPFUL. I listened to it on headphones while putting the kitchen to bed at night and just kept getting inspired... Plus I just kept doing jobs so I could carry on listening.

It really really REEEALLY helped.

Thanks for the book recommendation! I’ve read quite a few “productivity” books, but then forget to put them in practice! Maybe this is the one that’ll work.

I'm in!

I've just put away the collection of bags that I chuck over the banister after use. There were loads of them and have been there for weeks!

I’ve put away all the uniform I’ve labelled so far, still got a basket full to do, but it’s such a dull job I’m only doing a few a day.

I’ve neatened out the living room, there’s still a few piles hanging around, but they’re getting smaller.

You could try adopting the OHIO principle, as in Only Handle It Once. For example, washing up your picnic stuff right away (none of this leaving it to soak nonsense!) and putting it where it belongs. Put whatever you're running out of on the shopping list now. Fold the laundry and put it away. Make the appointment as soon as the reminder falls through the letterbox. It does save time in the long run, and you'll have a tidier house and a shorter to-do list. Good luck!

Im in! For the past week I’ve been trying really hard to keep the kitchen sides uncluttered and to always try to leave the sink area tidy. I would wash up then just leave it out drying never put it away.
So i had a declutter of all the surfaces and I’ve been keeping on top of the sink area drying up and putting stuff away straight away. Wiping the sink area down.
Its made so much difference always feels nice and clean to walk into and now theres not stuff everywhere as soon as things start to appear i cant stand it and tidy them back up.
Trying to do the same with clean washing really hate putting it away so trying not to let it pile up!
Little and often has been working for me in those areas so far just need to keep it up x

I'm in! My bad habit is running a bowl full of washing up water then wandering off to do something else so that by the time I come back to it, the water is nearly cold and I end up rerunning it or boiling a kettle to top up. Actually, on the whole, I'm a real bugger for trying to do several things at once, do I'm going to try really hard to start and complete one job at a time, unless it is a job I can leave and come back to, such a leaving a stain to soak!

I'm in too - the first habit I want to form is getting the kitchen sides clear every night. We have a dishwasher so it's hardly onerous to unload and re-load, but very often I leave it then regret the morning chaos. I have heard the best way to make a new habit is to "piggyback" it onto something you already do. So my tentative plan is to join it onto doing DC bedtime drinks. Hoping to make the link in my head that I haven't "finished" the bedtime drinks until I've cleared the counters...

I'm better at the other tidying somehow. My inner phrase is "don't put it down, put it away" each time I'm tempted to only get something halfway to where it's meant to be, such as armfuls of stuff getting home from work/school.

Would a habit tracker work? I found out about these when I looked into Bullet Journalling and it does work for me - a visual representation of when you do (or don't do!) something? Can be as simple as a list of habits down the short side of squared paper and a box to tick/fill in/put a sticker on running along the long edge for each day that you do it.

Also, if you are working with younger children I'd remind them a few times a day - say a 'top of the hour tidy' otherwise it's a bit too much at the end of the day.

Having a place to put everything really helps as well, if it doesn't have anywhere to go it's more likely to be left out (voice of bitter, bitter experience there). Make sure everything has a home it can easily go to, no tetris cupboards like the one in my hall

The habit tracker helped me put a wash on everyday a few years, but still hasn’t worked on the “put the clothes away”.
I’ll have to try again!
This morning, the house looks like it’s upside down... again. Funny how not doing things for just one day makes everything descend into mayhem.
My plan is to put the timer on for 10 minutes per room, and rotate until they are all under control. (The rooms will all need more than 10 minutes each, but it’s a start)

Managed to enforce a tidy up before dinner, so downstairs looked really good by then, and I've just forced myself to clean the kitchen so that's sorted too.
We've also finally tidied up all the clean clothes, and I found out we have loads of bags for life (we've been using them to put the clean clothes in them, so they've been out of action for a while!)

With a baby around it's tough to try and change my habits, especially leaving stuff for another day! But I'm such a procrastinator that I need to change because I have much less time to do things!

I agree, the kitchen feels so much nicer when everything's put away and it's clean. I managed to do this yesterday afternoon and was pleased, but come the evening it's back to its usual self. And the dry clothes are still on the airers.

One more day before I go back to work - I'm hoping having more of a structure to my week will help...

I’ve been forcing myself to keep the kitchen counters clear. As you found, it never lasts long, but does make a big difference to the usability of the room!
I’ve actually been decluttering a lot these last few days, and have sorted a few problem areas. There’s still some major sticking points around the house, but I should probably be happy with the progress made, instead of concentrating too much on what is still to be done!

Kitchen is tidy, dining table is clear. Upstairs is basically a tip though, although I’ve decluttered all the built in cupboards so that’s a big job done.
Our bedroom basically has too much stuff in it for it to work properly, it’s trying to be too many things at once. We would have to get rid of a lot of things for it to stay tidy but there’s a lot of tricky decisions to make which is why we haven’t tackled it yet. DH and the DCs are back at work/school this week, so I might have time to try and figure out something for it to work. And once that room is sorted, I’m hoping it’ll mean other problem areas resolve themselves too.

I have been better at putting things away and getting the DCs to help, but going back into school routine will be the real test to see if we (as a family) are finally learning to keep the house presentable.

Kitchen is tidy, even though I made 2 different desserts and cooked dinner. The desserts didn’t work out as planned, but at least the kitchen is presentable. Yay for small victories!
Need to sort out the clean clothes this evening, but I think I’m going to have an early night as I’m shattered!

Spent 45 minutes tidying up the bedroom, still a lot to do, but managed to hoover the floor, so it looks so much better already. I’ll try and do a bit more this afternoon, if I have the time, or tackle it tomorrow.

I’ve been making sure the dining table is clear before and after each meal, and that the kitchen is clean and tidy after each use, so that’s already made a massive improvement to downstairs. The putting clean clothes away is still a work in progress unfortunately...

How’s everyone else keeping with their habits?