Has anyone managed to turn it around from being a messy person?

[riotlady]

I’ve always been messy, I suffer from mental health issues and when I’m low everything always goes to pot and I struggle to get it right again. My house is a tip at the moment, not just messy but there are parts that are dirty too and I’m so ashamed of it. I want to keep everything to a reasonable standard all the time but find it so hard to keep on top of things. Has anyone been like me and managed to turn it around and become a person with a clean and tidy house most of the time?

No, but definitely watching and joining in.

I find very very small areas are easy to keep on top of, such as a particular cupboard or shelf, but a whole room or house? No.

Oh god I was only wondering this yesterday. I could have written your post OP. My Mum is the most house proud person I know and I would give anything to be like that, but as I type, my lounge around me is a tip and yet I sit on my arse, supposed to be studying, rather than tidy it.

You know that meme that says something like 'more houseworks gets done in the 30 mins before guests come than it does all month'? That''s me.

Im a messy person.I've not turned it around completely but I'm better than i was.

The key for me is organisation. I got an app on my phone that provides me with a tick list of:
Daily Tasks (washing up, laundry, putting clothes away, tidying kitchen, putting bins out)
Weekly tasks (Hoovering, tidying kids rooms, stripping beds, cleaning bathroom)
Monthly tasks (Deep cleaning in a different area each month. Examples might be: cleaning windows, washing curtains, washing down doors, cleaning the oven)

I try to have specific times in the day/week to do housework and I tick off on the app as I go.
My house is quite cluttered so I've added "Decluttering an area" to the weekly tasks.

I'm still not houseproud by a long shot but things are improving.

What is the app called ?

The one I have is called "Cleaning Organiser" but theres plenty on the market.
They all seem to work the same way- by breaking the tasks down into daily, weekly and monthly.

Waited patiently until youngest started school.
House much tidier now!!

I need this thread!

Also following, could’ve written your post too op

I'm less messy than I used to be but I have also lowered my standards a bit

I could have written your post, my house isn't even that big. It's just so overwhelming.

Me, I used to be a disorganized mess. I started with Fly lady. Years on I do a little bit every day and house is now manageable. It's hardest when you're starting and it seems like a massive hurdle to climb but you have to do it in small chunks, 15 mins on, 15 off. Get some funky music going. 1 room at a time, bin bag and a basket for stuff that belongs in other rooms and move round each room clockwise.
Definitely start with surface mess, don't get bogged down with cupboards or drawers, these can be done another time.

My mantra is becoming "do it well, do it once". I'm saying it a lot to one of my permanently messy kids.

So could l. For ages l keep saying to myself l need to tidy up the house. I keep procrastinating. I need a rocket up my bottom. I would love to have a tidy home in time for Christmas!

Oh OP I’m exactly the same. We’re very much teetering on the edge of the house being unacceptable and I dread the door going.

There’s piles of both clean washing to be put away and dirty stuff needing washed. We have to wash the dishes every single night before we make dinner because we never do them after dinner. I have to climb over stuff to get into my wardrobe.

For a long time we were in the habit of having the living room tidy before sitting down at night before we could relax but were so busy these days with me studying and the kids having a million activities that that’s not even happening now.

TOMM has helped in the last. Not sure if you’ve ever looked into it but it’s 30 mins of cleaning one room every week day then I think another 30/60 mins in one specific room once a week. Something like that. It’s very very good and the only time our house was consistently tidy was the few weeks I followed that to the letter.

I’d always just rather be doing something else than cleaning and tidying plus we have an old house that needs a lot of work done so even when it’s tidy it doesn’t feel nice.

I’m generally a bit haphazard and messy but not dirty.
I just learnt that by cleaning my kitchen and living room every evening, I didn’t start the day playing catch up. No matter how tired I felt, I still did it.
Put some music on or podcast or audiobook and really it doesn’t take that long once you get into it and you’re doing it regularly.
Then just start adding daily chores like laundry, cleaning bathroom and changing bed sheets on Specific days, cleaning fridge out day before bin day, meal plan before you go to the supermarket.
Chuck stuff out too. I read something once about throwing 7 things out of each room when you clean it so I started doing that.
And make sure everyone does stuff. You’re not everyone’s servant.

I'm loads better than I was. (Also have MH issues and fatigue.)
I use three Flylady techniques which I learned years ago and they work so well.

Five minute Room Rescue. Set a timer for five minutes and see how much you can improve how a room looks in that time. Chuck out junk mail and newspapers, empty overflowing bins, hang up coats and bags, stick dirty dishes in the sink, plump up cushions, wipe dusty surfaces with a damp cloth. All this can be done in five minutes. It is amazing how much better the place looks. And it inspires you to do it again as it is so easy.

I use 5 minute timers to kickstart the day: unload dishwasher and reload with stuff from DC's midnight feasts Wipe down kitchen surfaces and stick a washload and the kettle on. Makes me feel like I've done something first thing.

The next one is '15 minutes to company ready'. That means you set a timer for 15 minutes and use it to get one room of the house looking good enough for unexpected guests. So if it's the living room you start wiht the 5 minute room rescue stuff then hoover the main sections of the carpet and polish surfaces.

If it's the kitchen, do the dishes, clear and wipe the table and surfaces, mop the floor.

The final one is the One-hour house blessing when you spend an hour doing a quick surface clean of the house broken into 10 minute chunks.
Declutter (get kids to put away sports kit, bags, toys etc while you do yours)
Change bedding (get kids to strip beds while you make them. Or get them to do pillows while you do sheets and duvet covers.
Hoover (I put a bit of cottonwool soaked in essential oil into the hoover each time to make the air smell good)
Dust and polish (DC dust with feather dusters and I polish)
Wipe down bath, basin, loo and change towels
Empty all bins

Flylady has loads of easy tricks to simplify things.

Use a no-rinse diluted floor cleaner in a spray and a swiffle mop that sweeps at the same time to do hard floors. No buckets of dirty water to deal with and the floors dry almost instantly but they really are clean.

Clean baths and basins with shower gel or bubble bath! No need for special cleaning products So obvious really. No harsh chemical residues or sour smells. I barely ever need to scrub the bath now. I just wipe it down with the existing bubbles as the bath drains and then rinse it with the shower head. It always looks really clean.

I'm not a tidy person at all. I also suffer with anxiety and depression. My house is currently a tip as I have spent the last 2 weeks clearing out a close relatives house after she died 2 weeks ago. I simply ran out of hours in the day to keep on top of mine as well as help clear the flat after relatives death.

Relatives house just needs a good clean now before we hand keys back.

It has really opened my eyes and made me determined to get on top of mine once and for all. My house is cluttered (but clean) we simply have more things than I can keep control of. Therefore things have to go. The charity shop will do well and I need to learn to buy less!

I will be revisiting the organised mum method for a cleaning routine and have downloaded a book about swedish death cleaning (from what I have read so far it isnt as depressive as it sounds and is just a different way of looking at decluttering).

Yes me!

It’s been hugely to do with clearing clutter for me. I had no clutter as a singleton, and wasn’t proactive enough in clearing kids / husbands clutter. I thought it was all about being respectful of other people’s stuff and their attachment to it. Then I realised it was more to do with them not respecting their stuff or the space we live in , which is small.
So I became more boundaried about what is brought the house, how it is stored and whether it is well looked after.
That was 80% of the battle.

So now I just try to keep on top of.

I’ve invested in some beautiful things that I love having, so when the house is tidy it’s really lovely, that’s a good incentive. Getting the b lighting sorted was key. I’ve done it all on a budget, just the occasional splurge at the Habitat sale.
I did give The Organised Mum Method a go. I’m never going to do it all the time, I’m just not a hugely consistent person, but it gives a good template, and stops it from seeming overwhelming.

@ohyesiam we have a problem with things not being looked after in this house. Once the initial joy of a new possession has worn off things are just discarded and left to get ruined. It annoys me so much.

Have a look at The Organised Mum Method on Facebook. It's been a life saver for me and my mental health has improved by following it.

I can relate OP.

Things that help for me are:

Having people round as the shame makes me tidy up!

The setting-a-timer thing mentioned above

Having less stuff. Eg. Things that are always left out and make a mess but aren’t actually played with just get chucked.

Finally - and I appreciate this is not possible for everyone - a cleaner comes every week. She doesn’t tidy, and she likes it to be clear enough so she can give it a proper clean. So having her come makes me tidy up for her. The house manages to get in a complete state in between her visits but at least it’s only 1-2 weeks worth (she comes weekly but alternates upstairs and downstairs). Of course there is always the temptation to tell her not to bother with a particular room, or to work round a pile but I try not to do that too much.

Examssuck, pain in the arse isn’t it . I laid down a few ground rules.

The other thing that helps if aim to have people over quite frequently, in to anxious/ neurotic/ whatever to have the house messy when we have guests!

I’m not there yet but less stuff, less stuff, less stuff, and then habit. I actually started a thread a few months ago about making sure my kitchen was clean before bed, and it does work, not 100% but a lot better than it ever was before. Now if I could get the discipline for the rest of the house too, that would be great!

The thing that motivated me was realising I had no free time.
I had such a disorganised house with never ending chores that I couldn’t enjoy going out with Dcs as I was thinking ‘need to get something for dinner, run out of clean clothes, need to clean kitchen before I can cook’
Sundays were awful as there was always so much to do and we couldn’t even get out for a family walk which I always wanted to do.
Now things are so much better and I feel like I have free time to go out, relax or read in the afternoon.

@Beechview that’s exactly how I feel! Constantly feel guilty for not being busy cleaning etc and doing other things instead. When we were following TOMM I was able to (probably for the first time in my life) sit down and read a book in a completely tidy house with absolutely nothing I should have been doing.