Ashamed but asking for help!

[VintageGardenia]

This is very embarrassing but I have decided to ask if anyone can advise me on how to "keep house". I have only one child, and a small dog who's quite clean, and our house is always a complete mess. I don't really like housework - vacuuming, dusting etc - and it hardly ever occurs to me to do it. Then someone comes round (or I see a photo taken in the house) and I realise the stairs are dusty, there are piles of papers all over the dining table, my desk is a spaghettibowl of cables, biros, DS drawings, books I'm reading & Beano free gifts.

I would love to live in a clutter-free, clean, bright, clear atmosphere but I don't know how to start achieving it. (OK obviously I could get off my fat a* and get the hoover out) I'm looking for VERY BASIC advice e.g. you need to hoover once a week and defrost a fridge every fortnight, bleach the loo once a day or whatever.

Ermmm ... any ideas? Thank you. Or perhaps there is a handbook about? I don't mean how clean is your house with recipes for counter cleaner made out of a spoonful of yoghurt and some cornflour or whatever - more a sort of minimum routine.

Eeek. Perhaps I should have changed my name...

you need flylady. look for one of the fly threads

here

A group of us are just starting out- join us!

hoover at least every other day

Kitchen floor washed at least twice a week

bathrooms and toilets daily (even if just a squirt of bleach!)

Go to bed with a tidy kitchen and living room, then everything else will seem more manageable

Its easier if you do most things daily. I hoover daily maybe twice a day, bathroom daily, kitchen is always clean so if I make three meals a day thats 3 times I clean it a day. I do windows and mirrors when they need it no particular routine.

If I were you Id make a start bining everything and anything you dont need. Find a place for everything, sort out cupboards drawers ect so you have order and know where everything is. Then once you have your house how you want it then clean it.

It is the tidying that takes the time not the cleaning.

Take a binbag and bin all the Beano toys and McDonald toys and broken toys and recycle all the papers etc

Make a pile on the stairs and whoever goes up the stairs has to take something with them and put it away.

Train your little one to tidy up by making it fun but only tidy at the end of the day.

Have sprays in bathroom and wipes so you can wipe up mess as you go.

HTH

VG - I was going to start a similar thread. Can you really change the way you live? Can a cluttered person actually change and become a minimalist? Will I ever really be able to maintain a tidy house?

In my opinion

• bleach the loo once a day,
• hoover at least once a week downstairs.
• sweep wooden floors daily (although rarely do this as often as I should)
• Defrost the freezer, if you don't have a frost free one, once or twice a year(once a fortnight)

My problem is not chucking things out. I am a hoarder. I am sure it would all be so much easier and quicker if I just didn't have so much stuff to move out of the way before the cleaning even starts.

I should say that my list is my bare minimum, not the only things that I do.

Wow excellent, lots of advice! The Fly thing - have looked a little - sort of programme to follow daily if I am right?

Problem is yes fundamentally

1. too much crap in house
2. I am too lazy (tell myself too busy)
3. I genuinely don't know things e.g. me lol at freezer once a year / once a fortnight. I am 35 and have not exactly lived a life of ease surrounded by teams of housemaids so no excuse!

I do believe you won't really change yourself, I mean I am a "stuff" person not a minimalist but I want to give myself a fighting chance. I suffer a dreadful lethargy at the idea of starting the ESSENTIAL weeding out mentioned by lornaloo and collision. Yet at the same time I know it's necessary in order to be starting from 0 every day, not fighting to get to about -10. if that makes sense.

Sorry - did one of you say hoover TWICE a day????

FGS - have you nothing better to do? it's bad for carpets you know!!

A few examples of my slatternly behaviour just to disgust you all:

1. Ironing board has been up in sitting room, with clean clothes piled ceiling high on it, for 5 days.

2. First 6 stairs have piles on them. Piles include e.g. junk mail, books I want to read, a bag of clothes to be collected by charity about 3 weeks ago, etc.

3. I have to sweep rightwards with my right forearm if I am to eject a CD from this latptop right now. Rightward sweep will be followed by sound of jewellery box, tin of mints, mobile, notebook, canister of CDRs, crashing to ground. On to dog's head.

I am trying to look on the humorous side and hoping it is not coming across as me glorying in the vileness of my environment.

You have to de clutter first, set aside some time (a day or 2 if you can) ask someone to look after dc (for 2 reasons, 1. If you have to stop to entertain/ change nappy/ feed/ bath etc etc it takes HOURS longer, 2. you feel obligated to use that time to do the job (or else its a waste of a babysitting favour)

Get your dh/ dp to help this is not all your mess (unless you live on your own)

You have to de clutter first, set aside some time (a day or 2 if you can) ask someone to look after dc (for 2 reasons, 1. If you have to stop to entertain/ change nappy/ feed/ bath etc etc it takes HOURS longer, 2. you feel obligated to use that time to do the job (or else its a waste of a babysitting favour)

Get your dh/ dp to help this is not all your mess (unless you live on your own)

Get up earlier and spend half an hour doing stuff - empty dishwasher/wash kitchen floor/hang out laundry.

Do stuff as it comes - chuck/put away/take upstairs.

decluttering is wonderfully therapeutic - you don't need all that crap.

Declutter declutter declutter. My name is Janeite and I am a former clutter-bunny. Once you start, it's really easy and you will want to get rid of more and more - just don't go mad and throw all of your clothes away! And for the stuff you must keep - have boxes and if it stops fitting in the box, get rid of something rather than buying another box!

I'm a proper domestic slattern but worship the ideal of clean order.

I decorated our sitting room, got rid of all the crap in there and dh and I love being in there now SO MUCH MORE! The atmosphere is calm when there's order.

My problem is hoarding and not chucking stuff out. It's my paperwork that is Hell on Earth - I just don't have a good system so I end up going in circles endlessly and never getting anywhere! I envy people with ordered paperwork I could honestly go to a church where such people are worshipped and worship them there!

tidy clean peopl ime have a place for everything and are ruthless declutterers.

Vintage Gardenia - roffle - your house sounds very like mine. I've tried flylady a couple of times & it has helped me - always 'fall of the wago' but currently trying again (on step 2)
Essence of flylady is:

• do things in small, manageable chunks. set timer for 15 mins and declutter one area. Then do the same thing for the next 365 days
• things don't have to be done perfectly - just done. I tend to put things off as they'll take too long to do 'properly'. Actually, doing them a bit is better than not at all
• focusing on a room a week
• getting little routines in place so that things happen 'automatically' every day (eg I do now clean the toilet & sink everyday. Nothing major, but it's an automatic part of my morning routine

Come & join us on LisaRose's link

You do really need to give flylady a go, start on the flybabies thread first. Even if you just pick up a few habits it will help. Also, you just HAVE to declutter, i am trying to, loads still to get rid of, but every bit helps, i am getting there slowly.

Even if you never get sorted you know you're not the only one.

does the toilet REALLY need cleaining every day ?

i thought i was doing OK just doing it twice a week !

VintageGardenia, I never knew I had a younger sister!

I started writing some stuff but have just realised what I need to do right now is get off my bottom and tidy something - anything - right now

Well well well all the slatterns come creeping out from where the woodlice live eh? Delighted to see you all.

I can hear the advice & know what I have to do.

1. Purchase filing cabinet, sort papers, continue to place new papers in appropriate file.

2. Throw out old toys, clothes, half-used kits, handbags, ends of candle, etc.

3. Establish routine - daily (loo, etc), weekly (hoover? etc). Refer to Flylady for regular advice.

4. Through 1, 2 and 3 home will be gloriously transformed and I will be creative and calm in superbly clear atmos. All around me will benefit.

or go on How Clean Is Your House and be humiliated by Kim and Aggie!!!!!

Seriously though declutter then think about cleaning and get the family to join in.

Hey Vintage, are you really me in disguise??

Ok - bottom line........if I were you VintageGardenia and if things were really chronic I would get in cleaner to blitz house and do massive clean/declutter and then take it from there and establish your routine. When things are disaster it all seems overwhelming. Good luck.

Do one room a week - start with the living room, move the furniture, hoover, dust, tidy. Then next week do your bedroom (in the meantime keeping living room tidy at least) etc. It's the sheer volume of work putting you off. Re toilets: get some BLU tablets thingeys and chuck them in the cistern, they keep it clean (and you can't see any stains when it's all blue)