Please be gentle with me...I feel like a slob

[MyGhastIsFlabbered]

I've never been any good at housekeeping. When I was young my parents never really did above the bare minimum so I was never really shown how to do it.

As a result my house is generally in a state of complete carnage. I don't tend to notice until it's really bad, then I panic and don't know where to start.

I'd love to be better at it but I don't really know how to start. Do people have a weekly schedule that I could take tips from? At the moment I'm out at work 3 days a week and live at home with my fiancé and 3 kids (10,10 & 7)

I agree decluttering as much as you can is the way forward. Marie Kondo has been done to death but she really does put the concept of keeping things ‘just in case’ in context. Once you’ve decluttered you can fit your things in your house rather than the other way round.

My goal is a weekly cleaner but (when things are normal) I pay twice a year for a spring/autumn clean. It forces you to sort things out before they come ( can’t have a cleaner see the mess!) but I’m also a lot more motivated to keep things nice once they’ve all been done.

Can i join you please?
My house is generally disgusting. I keep trying Tomm, it works for a bit, but then something will happen (usually a school holiday) which mucks up my routine and it gets awful again.
I also find it really hard getting stuff out of the house. Not just at the moment, with it being hard to go to the tip and no charity shops, but all the time. I have a clear out, but then stuff just sits in the hall or garden for months. My DH is no better, he is a lazy slob like me.
How can I sort myself out?????

Me too. I have been working ft for 4 years but prior to that was a sahm for 15 years. The house wasn't immaculate but wasn't so full of junk & clutter because I'd spend a day a week per room and kept in top of things.

We've been through 2 cleaners who couldn't clean because of all the junk they had to move first. I have friends I haven't seen for months together, coming over for a socially distanced afternoon in my messy garden (no, I'm not very green fingered either) & all DH can say is that I haven't washed the windowsill yet, which they won't see anyway as its obscured by a tv on a dusty stand!

This covid situation is just exaggerating these issues as theres nothing we can do until the dump gets back to normal. Right now we can go once a week if we book a slot, so my plans to take a week off and just go to the dump every day are now on hold. I had thought of taking a week off, hiring a skip and just chucking everything in it but our gates are too narrow so we can't get one in!

In addition, work are asking us to take annual leave and not just leave it all to take in a chunk once things relax. What's the point of anything.

Just keep on top of it once it's tidy and clean . It's the only way ! Tiresome but I hate mess and dirt so I make myself do it .

@fatted I think we may have lived in the same house.😂

@birdling I think that the thing that helps me is to keep in mind what my motivation is for keeping a clean house. The thought that I don't want anyone to think I don't care about the house and don't keep it nice is my motivation. This fits in with what I want to be i.e a clean, tidy, not lazy, organised person. It sounds so cliche to say "find your motivation" but it genuinely helps me.

Also, I think I stopped looking for too many short cuts, I realised that I just needed to crack the f**k on, It won't do itself. I just stick on a podcast or a book (a slob comes clean, clutterbug or my favourite, Kermode and Mayo's film reviews) and get to it.

More practically, I do loads some days, and just the very basics on others, which means that if I fancy a day off, it doesn't matter. It also means that nothing gets super manky as I never leave anything too long (the spotless app helps with that too) as I have TPAD (time passage awareness disorder - A Slob Comes Clean). Also I have a shed load of cleaning products, cloths, and wipes (not ideal I know) and I keep some in the bathrooms (we have 2 bathrooms and a cloakroom) and if I'm in there I have no excuse to get on with it.

Well I've started and I'm working on 1 room at a time, getting it really, REALLY sorted (rather than that'll do sorted) & hoping once it's sorted properly I can keep on top of it. So far I've done the kitchen, the hall, stairs & landing & both bathrooms. The worst rooms (lounge & my bedroom) are worst of the lot and will take a lot of doing, but I'm not going to be too hard on myself...it will take as long as it takes. Trying to do a bit a day, but again not beating myself up if I skip a day.

We can do it ladies!

well done @MyGhastIsFlabbered, you sound like you’ve worked really hard - be proud of yourself!

Well done! You can do it!

Blimey well done op! Keep going!

I did TOMM but bit like diets like SW or WW it was just a way of starting it off. I don’t enjoy cleaning esp at the minute with so many bodies in the house all the time wrecking it but I just dig out my secret stash of liquorice all sorts and put on a podcast through earphones so it can be as inappropriate as it wants and I crack on for 40 mins 3/4 times a week
1 living room and laundry
2 bedrooms and laundry
3 kitchen
4 bathrooms & stairs/landing
5 cutting grass and pulling out some obvs weeds on whatever the dry day of the week is

I’m a sahm though I would want it to be halved, like it was back in the day when we were first married if we were both working .

Unfortunately the reality has been though that my oh took on a sell your soul to the devil job when the kids were young and was out 11hours+ a day, so for years I worked and did all the kids/cleaning, ended up Ill enough to be hospitalised a few times and finally recognised my limitations and now I am a sahm at the moment anyway