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!'

Did you press the plus bottom to the right when you put your custom thing in? I didn't and couldn't understand why it didn't save, until I twigged you have to press the plus and then save!

Thanks that worked!

Downloaded the app to give me more motivation as I’ve spent cold hard cash on it.

Finished all level 1 and made some good progress on level 2 yesterday.

Did bugger all today.
Fortunately the hall is reasonably tidy and I hovered the stairs yesterday when I did the bedrooms, so I can roll the rest on to next week.

I didn't do anything much yesterday either!
Kitchen day here today and there is a lot more than 30min worth to do... I've done about 20mins cleaning some cupboard fronts this morning. Will try to do some more later, if I cba after level 1s!

I didn't do sitting room day yesterday because we were having a carpet and three rugs shampooed so the furniture was all over the place all day. Still a constructive day though, even if it wasn't me who cleaned them!

Kitchen today. There's not much that needs doing, to be honest; a quick run over the hob and fridge, and I haven't done the skirting boards yet but there are barely any in there anyway. I might go back over the sitting room as well, even though I wasn't bothered about leaving it till next week.

I'm really starting to see the benefits of the method.

As well as booking the chimney sweep soon, I need to get the outside of the windows washed and the gutters cleaned. And we BADLY need to paint every single room and all the woodwork shudder

Last week, cleaning the inside of the microwave took me like 10 mins of proper scrubbing (it had been a while), so I'm excited (what a life I lead) to see how much I can shave off! I think it'll just need a very quick wipe.

Someone is coming to clean the hob and oven tomorrow and I'm torn between being utterly ashamed of how rank they are and excited about the result!

I need to arrange to get our carpets shampooed. Combination of a baby who is now a toddler, a dog, and a cat who was ill for a while and hurled everywhere have meant they have very suspicious stains on them that no amount of me scrubbing seems to fix. Did they come out nicely, @UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername?

@UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername that's great you are starting to seeing results of the method - how long have you been doing it?

[quote freezerdinners]@UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername that's great you are starting to seeing results of the method - how long have you been doing it?[/quote]
I'm on week 3.

@SylvanasWindrunner, yes, it made quite a different, and most importantly, DD's room which was peed in by a cat now smells fresh and un-catted, which is quite a relief! The sitting room rug didn't fare quite as well, but I suspect having an oatmeal coloured deep pile rug in front of an open fire was a plan doomed to failure from the start.

I am fine with the hoovering and washing. However I do need help with the deeper cleaning. I work weekdays and most weeknights I am out driving dcs to a sport.

I really only have the Sat and Sun
for a deeper clean eg the 30 to 40 mins talked about. I already do bathrooms on these days. If I added in 30 mins of windows, skirting etc in a room each week, it seems very little. At the moment, I do all windows every few months, but find dust pockets, cobwebs in various rooms, despite hoovering weekly and clearing clutter. I declutter rooms in Spring and Autumn.

Could anyone suggest anything? At the moment I am leaning towards doing something in a room for 30 mins Sat and Sun and just hoping it all adds up over time. I exercise at the weekend too, bake do a shop and spend time with dcs. I don't want to get bogged down with cleaning but would like a routine where it is all reasonable.

I don't know what to suggest @user1471554720, you're doing what I was doing before trying this. I've not been doing this long enough to tell you if it's better or not! But what I've been doing my 30 min (or some of it) at 6am when I would usually drink coffee and wish Peppa pig would go away! It'll be interesting to see this weekend whether I need to do much.

I've got a question, what do others do when the days plan gets derailed by another job. Eg It's kitchen day today but I've just spent 30 min plus tidying kids rooms. Now I know that's tidying not cleaning isn't it 😭 but I am not sure I can face kitchen on top. Equally I can't leave that mess. I did do 20min in there this morning but you see my point... Ps kids are 6 & 4 so can't fully do on their own but did help me tidy.

I am a little ashamed to say that some of the jobs here (window cleaning, skirting boards) I simply never do slattern)

@user1471554720 I think anything you can do is good. So you might not have time to do windows or hoover the crevices on sofa on living room day but you can run the hoover quickly round the living room and wipe down the table or something. Focus more on what you can manage do than what you can't, is probably a helpful way to look at it. And finding ways to integrate cleaning into other stuff - like when I go for a wee, I spray some bathroom cleaner on something before I sit down, do my pee, and then rinse the spray away and wash my hands. It doesn't take much more time than just peeing.

Skirting boards and stuff are usually on an 8-week Friday focus anyway. Windows I think you can easily get away with not doing tbh. So focus on what's important - for me it's clean surfaces and floors and not too much clutter. I can deal with slightly grubby skirting boards or finger marks on my windows because they don't bother me, but dirty floors or crap all over the sides does bother me so in a priority list of what I can manage, that stuff is always top.

@Indecisivelurcher

I don't know what to suggest *@user1471554720*, you're doing what I was doing before trying this. I've not been doing this long enough to tell you if it's better or not! But what I've been doing my 30 min (or some of it) at 6am when I would usually drink coffee and wish Peppa pig would go away! It'll be interesting to see this weekend whether I need to do much.

I've got a question, what do others do when the days plan gets derailed by another job. Eg It's kitchen day today but I've just spent 30 min plus tidying kids rooms. Now I know that's tidying not cleaning isn't it 😭 but I am not sure I can face kitchen on top. Equally I can't leave that mess. I did do 20min in there this morning but you see my point... Ps kids are 6 & 4 so can't fully do on their own but did help me tidy.

I'd just do the most heinous stuff in kitchen, basically surfaces and floors, and then sack off any minor stuff like crumbs in toaster and inside of microwave etc and just worry about those next week.

I think I've moved fairly regularly so always did a big clean/redec at that point!
Not planning on moving now so need to get my act together.
OP your advice is really good, thank you

I started trying to pre-clean my oven for the oven man tomorrow lest we become the worst he's ever seen, then realised I cannot be arsed so now I'm watching TV with a Twirl

Oo twirl - good move

Friday focus is master bedroom. I hoovered on hall and landing day so I'm going to concentrate on guest bedroom as we have visitors this weekend. Also lots of kitchen items I rolled over from yesterday!

Master bedroom day here too. I'm going to tackle the wardrobe of doom today I think. If you don't hear from me by the end of the day, send in reinforcements ...

DH kept the house nice and clean while I was away, so I was able to get up today after a cuddle with DD (it was the first time I'd ever left her overnight!) and just stick the slow cooker on and do some level 1 bits like laundry and a quick wipe of sink and toilet. Going to have a coffee and do some work and then prepare for bedroom focus. DH is off work again today and DD is at nursery so he'll be getting roped in to help

How long is the Friday focus supposed to be? Still 30 minutes.

It's master bedroom day here too. Since we lost the spare room to another baby our bedroom has become the dumping room which has started to eek out into the hallway (which I skipped on Wednesday!) so I'll be tackling both today.

I have to say it is more an effort to declutter or put things in the loft than actually clean!

Yep, 30 mins!

Decluttering is the worst. It's so good when it's done, but actually trying to figure out where stuff should go or package it all away sensibly, I find really hard and get distracted a lot. I think clutter is most of our problem, really, because when there isn't any it's quite easy to keep clean. But the bedroom has stuff shoved in every nook and cranny so I might spend longer than 30 mins in there today just to actually sort it out once and for all.

I'm focussing on all three bedrooms today. Really all I have to do is dust the tops of wardrobes though, everything else is done.

I'm going to put up some autumn decorations in the sitting room and dining room too.

And I need to clean the hob, which I was supposed to do yesterday but didn't because I was catching up on Wednesday. Bit of a mess, this week, really The kitchen has been mainly clean and tidy for a full three weeks now, though, for the first time in my life, so I'm very happy!

For now I have to sit still and MN, though, because I have two four month old kittens having a big purry snuggle on my left arm. Such bliss

Oh, and we're both taking next week off work so we're going to get on with sealing the garage floor and painting the walls, then we're putting a gym in there. And he's finally going to help me put up a load of pictures on the walls that have been waiting since we moved in, over a year ago. I can't wait!

I've got an hour to myself this morning so whilst I'm not doing the OMM, I am going to try to be super productive for that hour and declutter/tidy. DH struggles to get rid of anything which is a nightmare. He has so much STUFF

I bought some hard wall picture hooks and can now put up pictures myself!

Ooh lovely! I love getting new pictures up. I just bought a collection of really lovely British nature postcards that I had intended to send to my DM but I liked them so much I sent her one and then have put the rest of them up on the wall in the hall!

Lots of banging and scrubbing noises coming from the kitchen! Intrigued to see what oven will look like at the end of it all. I took before pics but they are really minging so I won't disgust you all!