Five days to sort out my home from top to bottom

[Goldenhedgehogs]

I have been studying and working full time also we have just finished extensive building work and the house has suffered. Plus my kids are now teenagers and have outgrown a lot of their bedroom furniture. I have kept mostly on top of the dust but I have spare furniture all over the show and I could desperately do some decluttering. I have five free days to crack this...wise mumsnetters please give me tips on how to start and how to keep going as it is all a bit over facing.

I think I would do it by room.
Have a keep, bin, donate pile outside each room.
Can you rope teenagers in to look at their rooms?
Listen to podcasts/music/audio book and have something to look forward to at the end of each day and make life easier for a few days - frozen meals, takeaway. What ever would take the pressure off.
If you are cleaning as well have a bucket with all your cleaning supplies in it so it can be moved room to room.
Good Luck!

If your are actually getting rid of furniture call your local charity shop/furniture mine to arrange collection. They probably can't come for a day or two so it'll give you a deadline to get it sorted out by.
Agree with audio books to keep you interested while sorting.
This could be a really satisfying project, have fun

Get rid of the large things like furniture ASAP.
Then go room by room with a bin bag, charity shop bag and a bag/box for things that don’t belong in that room and need to go elsewhere
In each room sort and declutter, so that everything is in its place. Move in the the next room doing the same and putting anything from the box that needs to go in the 2nd room away.
Do that until you have done all the rooms.
Then put rubbish outside/take to Rio and take charity stuff straight to charity shop

Then move on to cleaning. While house should now be tidy so ring round and do all the glass, then do all the dusting, then clean the bath rooms, then kitchen then do all the floors.

Good luck OP. I would recommend getting rid of as much as you can in the first two days. Bin/charity shop items from the rooms. Day three you could try and find homes for the remaining items and then the last two days you would have the space to clean. One of the big things I've learned over the last while is that you can't clean clutter!

Ooh, how exciting! I wonder if I could get my house sorted in five days too!

If you have furniture to get rid of I’d recommend Facebook market place and local selling pages - freecycle it or price it low and in my experience people will come collect it the same day, which helps the house feel clearer and gives you more space to work in

Thanks everyone, some great ideas. I think you are right about getting rid of big stuff first...I think I have been putting it off but will try and organise it on Monday.

Just an update, I have made some progress but not as much as I would like with general life getting in the way. But I have contacted a charity and they are collecting all the furniture on Monday, and I have deep cleaned and decluttered two bathrooms and done two trips to the charity shop. Today I have mostly sorted out a large kitchen diner and aim tomorrow to finish off and do living room. I did want to do the kids rooms but they are not too bad, our bedroom which is a dumping ground and sort out the understairs cupboard of doom. So not quite as much progress as I hoped but enough to make a noticeable difference. Thank you to everyone who posted tips, your words were really encouraging.

Get rid of big items first. Go with a charity that collects instead of hanging round hoping freecyclers will turn up when they say they will.

3 bags for each room: chuck, charity and relocate.Get teens to do their own rooms and build in a good reward such as a take away on Saturday night after al their hard work.

Put charity bags straight into the car boot as soon as they are full. Gives you the incentive to drive past the charity shop when you are running errands.

Good music or podcasts - definitely.

Make life easy. Buy ready meals every evening so there's minimal washing up afterwards.

Wear rubber or latex gloves. Handling lots of dusty things or fabrics can irritate and dry out the skin.

I’m off work next and I’m planning to this as well.

Mine is more overwhelming amount of stuff. Just loads of clutter, old stuff, ‘just in case’ things. I’m planning on doing 2 hours per room to stop myself getting bored and even if I don’t finish, I’ve made a decent headway everywhere.

Good luck.

Well charity shop people have come, they brought three strong men and took 1 mattress, 2 sets of bunks beds, 1 toy box, 1 dressing table, 1 child's wardrobe and 1 child's set of drawers. The furniture was expensive flexa stuff which we bought second hand but was still over £500 pounds worth and I had been worried I would regret letting it go for nothing. Yet I don't I welcome the space, am glad we can afford to give it away and I feel happy another young family will benefit. I have absolutely no regrets and wish I had done it sooner.