The Organised Mum Method

[SylvanasWindrunner]

Is anyone doing this/just started?

We just started this week and oh my goodness, our house is clean! Someone could turn up unexpectedly and I could let them in and not die of shame!

Even toddler DD came downstairs today and said 'Oh, it's clean here!'

I’ve followed Gemma for years.
It’s amazing.

I'm a little bit inconsistent with it (which entirely defeats the point) but when I'm on it, it's amazing. Quite often there aren't even 30 mins of tasks to do!

I'm in my second week of it and loving it. It's so restful, knowing that you just need to do what's on the list and then stop, and that that dust you noticed on the bathroom shelves will be tackled on Thursday (or whenever; my days aren't the same as Gemma's).

I don't stick to the timings though, because I'm not used enough to the whole thing yet so I'm a bit slow. And if a room gets finished too quickly, I'll sometimes get sucked into doing Friday Focus jobs instead of just the weekly stuff. I think that'll stop once I've done a full round of friday focus; at the moment, there are things that are screamingly obviously in need of tackling, but once they've been done once, they won't scream at me as much.

DH is enjoying it too (not that he's doing any of it!) because there's so much more time to do the one-off stuff like converting the garage into a gym

I think it's great but we have a dilapidated, rambling house and most days I still have to spend at least an hour. It is an amazing system though.

I found Gem years ago, it really works, the routine of it all is helpful and that you are not slaving away for hours on a weekend. You can divide it up into smaller 10 or 15 min bursts too.

I do slightly different days to her set ones just due to life. Monday is kitchen in this house as the children empty bins on a Monday anyway. We have set days for bin emptying, it is my top tip. Never get too full. Ds1 does recycling, Ds2 does kitchen bin. On Thursday they empty the bins again and depending on whose bin collection day it is, they put it out and bring it back in later.

I think it would take me longer than the allotted times on my own (especially as we've just started and some stuff requires some enthusiastic and prolonged scrubbing right now!), but I just do the level 1 stuff during the day when I can and any of the 30-min stuff that's easy to do while doing other bits/looking after DD, and then DH and I do the proper 30-min stuff when he finishes work.

Actually looking forward to a weekend where we don't have to spend about five hours making the house habitable and catching up/ascending laundry mountain.

I'm doing Bootcamp 😞Really looking forward to getting to the point of just the daily jobs! The house is already noticeably better and more relaxing to be in, I wish I'd found TOMM before now

Oh and I brought a spray mop and I am in love with it.

*bought

I never bothered with bootcamp, which is why I'm doing things a bit oddly now. It'll all work out in the end, though.

I'm really looking forward to not feeling the need to do a massive clean before putting up christmas, because it'll all be ticking over nicely by then. I always feel I need to, never do it, or not properly at least. The tree will look much prettier if I know that behind the (giant, hard-to-move corner) couch isn't full of cat hair

I couldn't get this to work for me!

I think I need to tackle the clutter and get better organised.

It takes far longer than 30 mins to get everything done here and level 1 jobs also take far far longer than she suggests.

I think what's helped for me is thinking about the level 1 stuff as just a really quick go around and stopping myself from going down the rabbit hole with it. So the hoovering - I just do a really quick whizz around, it takes no more than about 3-4 mins doing the hall, stairs, kitchen, lounge. Because I'm doing a bit every day, there's not much to hoover anyway so you don't have to be thorough about it.

Bathroom is literally just a wipe round toilet after I go for a pee at some point and a wipe of the sink. Beds is just pulling back duvets. The time-consuming thing is the laundry I think - at least the putting it away bit. But we don't iron so we just have to fold and put away and two of us do that usually as part of the 30-min section at the end of the day, so it's not so bad.

@noshiforever that's why I'm doing the Bootcamp! Decluttering bit by bit, thoroughly cleaning as I go 😊It's taking ages but I know each bit is clean and sorted and then just needs a little bit of work to keep tidy. I do 30 minutes and then have a coffee ☕️ If I'm still keen to carry on (it does get quite addictive) then I do another 30 minutes... The advice to bag up and deal with the bags immediately really helps, you can see that you have achieved something then. I put charity bags straight into my car until I have a chance to drop them off then I revel in the clean space (usually about a 2' square but!!)

I've just about finished boot camp downstairs, but will need to start upstairs next week. I'm budgeting at least two weeks per room but plan to do the level one stuff every day downstairs plus the Friday focus.

My kind neighbour is doing tip runs to the recycling centre for me - another one tomorrow - and says he'll keep doing them until we're clear. I can't thank him enough!

I am so pleased to have found this method. It's really working for me.

I decluttered a lot when we moved house and I don't let it build up, so I'm happy with the level we have. More or less; there's a bookcase full of knickknacks and family photos in the dining room that I grumble at for the entire 15 minutes it takes to empty it completely, dust it, and put it back together. But all the knickknacks are memories of places we've been and it's the only place we have photos so it all has to stay.

I find level 1 hoovering a doddle because we're in a bungalow; having to hoover stairs daily would have me running for the hills. The daily bathroom cleaning is very, very superficial - my goal is 'no visible stains'. And as for the kitchen, everything just gets chucked in the dishwasher as soon as it's used. The dishwasher is run every night whether it's full or not (it usually is, and it makes a huge difference to how smoothly things run if I do it that way) and I empty it first thing in the morning (because I'm the only one capable of functioning that early!). And we don't own anything that isn't dishwasher safe.

I don't iron either. I stick a load in the machine every morning after emptying the dishwasher (even if there isn't a full load; if I leave half a load there till the next day, it invariably morphs into three loads), transfer it into the dryer around lunchtime (unless it's one of the rare Irish days with sunshine; also, this only works because I'm working from home) and we all pile onto DH's and my bed just before the kids' bedtime and fold it while we chat about our days. It's an easy and pleasant routine.

It was sitting room and dining room for me today. It's a bit of a pain; there's a lot of stuff that gathers dust, and at the moment, a lot of spiders in the ceiling corners. Loads of stuff on the walls needing dusting, and the whole cable-spaghetti mess behind the tv stand, which attracts ALL the dust bunnies (though I think I might make that a level 3, it's just such a pain). I think it's my least favourite day. And I've just realised I missed a bit. But I'll catch that tomorrow, because it's my sitting room and dining room focus friday. Oh joy

I do very similar and have stolen the Friday focus from this method. Not much of a fan of the Facebook group but I think that’s just down to my expectations. I was expecting it to be more of people updating what they’ve done and still have to do each day. It’s probably a more interesting group how it is but I used to love the list makers threads on here

It was kitchen day for us today. Cleaned the cutlery drawer for the first time in God knows how long became clear very soon that we should have done it a long time ago! Mopped, wiped cupboard fronts, cleaned inside of microwave, wiped down hobs and surfaces, cleaned sink.

DH cleaned the fridge (and randomly found his watch in there which must have fallen off when he was rooting about in it at lunchtime ) and windows, sorted out some washing and then hoovered (and DD helped with her mini Henry).

Got someone coming to clean oven next week and have bought oven liners to attempt to stop it getting into the state it is now again!

Gosh, yes, I'd forgotten about the cutlery drawer and I know it's a bit crumby. Must do that next kitchen day.

My dad used to find his car keys in the fridge regularly.

Oven liners are the business. Actually that's another thing I forgot to clean yesterday. Oops. I'll have to adjust my list.

I'd like to be more on top of my house and see this method mentioned regularly on MN but I just don't really understand how it could work for me.

I have 2 small DC and a 3rd on the way and a large, very untidy house. No real assistance from DH. Every day is a battle with toys, clothes, dishes etc, just the basic detritus of life. I never get round to cleaning anything so we have a cleaner but she has to work around the mess.

Is that what the bootcamp is for? I have done some decluttering in the past, could do more but there's only so much I can get rid of... Until I get rid of DH and the DC I just can't work out how to manage it all!

I got the app recently. It is useful with being able to customise it, roll over to next day etc. I like the timer and playlists too. I would like a method of dividing up some of the kitchen tasks so they appeared every other week, or once a month.

I was thinking about the app - is it worth it? If you don't use the app what do you do?

Is there a printable list somewhere?

The website has printable stuff:
https://www.theorganisedmum.blog/free-printables/

I stuck them on the fridge so I could refer to them (and DH couldn't claim he didn't know what he should be doing )

I haven't really used the app but I might try it as I think you can customise the jobs and there's a few bits I want to add to do with the animals.

@CrasterKipper I have four children and a big house and it’s not always easy. My level two jobs take me 40-50 minutes rather than the 30 she says. I could stop after 30 but I feel like I’m always playing catch up that way. I try to have a tidy up every night and do the cleaning regardless of the mess. So I’ll still dust and still hoover even if it means I have to chuck everything into the sofa to do so. It is true that the longer you do it the cleaner everything gets but you do have to stick to it for that to happen!

I don’t use the app or the printouts but then I don’t follow Tomm proper. Mine is so ingrained in me from having done it for years that I do it from memory then check the Facebook group or blog for what the Friday focus is. She freely says it is just what she needed to do in her house at the time so it’s fully adaptable to your house and your needs eg I don’t do my windows or cutlery drawer every week but there are other things I do do that aren’t on her lists. The main thing is that you don’t spend hours and hours cleaning but do enough every week to keep it ticking over which over time adds up to it being cleaner overall