How to prioritize when everything is needing attention?

[Releasethebreak]

I won't bore everyone with the details, but like so many people, my life has been fairly challenging during the past year under lockdown. I've ignored everything except my family, my work, and two other important priorities.

My house is a total mess and getting worse by the day. It's out of control and we can't find things easily anymore! I am behind with tidying, cleaning, laundry, gardening, life admin. I have put on weight and I've become very unfit. I have abandoned my hobbies which used to keep me sane.

Thankfully, the two other priorities have now resolved (a legal issue and supporting an old friend with cancer) and my work is starting to easing off for the summer so I now have time to turn my energy to everything else.

But where to start? I have always been really bad at prioritising and everything is urgent. Please don't laugh at me but I am after advice about how people schedule their day in detail to take care of all the competing priorities, both necessary and enjoyable.

Can anyone point me in the direction of any weekly schedules that include housekeeping, self care and hobbies? Do such things exist? Anyone willing to share their own?

Since you're familiar with flylady, you could just dip in for a few strategies to get you started.
Crisis cleaning, shiny sink, decluttering with three bags or boxes spring to mind (keep, throw, donate). Also the one hour clean once a week ( zoom around the whole house hoovering just the middles of the carpets, then with a duster, etc. Using a timer is there best tip I picked up from her - it stops me from getting distracted, or hyperfocussing on one thing.
Just pick and choose the bits that will help you get a handle on it, then maybe TOMM once you can see the woods for the trees.

I need help too. Feel overwhelmed by it. One thing a professional cleaner taught me was to start with the outside (patio or balcony) so that you aren't traipsing dust and dirt in every time you go outside to hang washing etc.
I also think that having clean windows gives a home an energy lift. Keeping the kitchen and bathrooms clean and tidy is a priority as they are high traffic areas. I know that having a cleaning 'caddy' of all it's together helps - so that you can go around with it tackling whole rooms without distractions. I need to get one of those. If someone cut off my WiFi I'd get a lot more done each day 🤣

I prioritise Kitchen (me) & Bathrooms (DH) for cleaning. Kids clean up after meals (10 &15)
I put 1x washing on every other day regardless... DH puts it out to dry... I fd & put away or DH does ironing.

Saturday or Sunday morning is cleaning day- everyone has jobs from hoovering to cleaning windows and dutsting.

Definitely start with TOMM. Boot camp if you need to. Don’t take on too much at once. Get the house in order again then once you’ve got a routine working for you you’ll feel ready to add in more. That’s how I always start anyway! I don’t feel like doing self care type stuff when the daily house tasks aren’t running smoothly.

Another vote for TOMM. We don't have kids so it's a little different but after a few weeks we didn't need the 30 mins a day because things were still clean. My mood has improved drastically since we started. When things finally get back to normal, we won't need to do a quick blitz when people are about to drop by unexpectedly.

I’ve tried TOMM and usually start the week well but I usually end up missing the same day every week when I have small DC all day and by the end of the week I’ve given up.

So I’m now trying cleaning in rotation but not to a strict schedule / or set number of minutes. Some productive days I will tackle two or three rooms and then other days none, but I’m not skipping rooms / areas completely.

I’m hoping like with TOMM when they come back around on the rotation it will be slightly easier as won’t have been too long since they were last cleaned.

Feeling very similar Releasethebreak. I have, just this week, started on the house cleaning - doing one room a day, but doing it properly, getting rid of stuff, cleaning from top to bottom including pulling out furniture. Some rooms are taking less than an hour, some more. The getting rid bit is cathartic - lots of clothes that are just plain scruffy - DH doesn't need 15 t shirts for doing gardening/decorating! I don't need scratched baking tins and 4 old frying pans and neither of us need 23 phone cables. It's certainly easier when the weather's good, doors and windows open to let the place have a good blow through.

reprehensibleme it sounds like you and I live in the same house

Oops posted too soon. Although I don't think I have any rooms that will take less than an hour - maybe the half landing

And thank you everyone for all of your very useful posts. I'm working ATM so don't have time to respond in detail right now but every single one is very helpful. Some really great tips in this thread, thank you, I am starting to feel a bit of enthusiasm rather then plain dread!

In your position, I would do one room at a time plus a load of laundry a day. To include drying, folding and putting away.

This. Concentrate on one room. The kitchen say. Get that clean tidy and working as you want it. Let the rest of the house go to pot. When you have that room sorted and as you want it then move onto another room... while keeping kitchen maintained. Your place didn't get messy all in one go you're not going to sort it all in one go. As my MIL said to me 'you can eat an elephant - one slice at a time'.

Thank you, I have a bit of a killer week at work and then I will read everyone's posts here again once or twice again over the weekend and start properly on Monday.

And sorry meant to say one room at a time plus laundry, if DH takes care of food side of things, sounds do-able.

Thanks everyone!

Good luck!

Thank you 😊