New house, new start. Tips please!

[surreygirl1987]

We are moving into a new house, significantly larger than anything we've lived in before. It's me, my husband, my 3 year old and 1 year old. I've always been an untidy person and have never prioritised household chores. However, I don't want my children growing up like that, and I want to live in a house I can be proud of rather than ashamed of.

My husband and I work fulltime in busy jobs. That leaves us with little time for cleaning and organising (probably will hire a cleaner at some point when we can afford to). However, as we are moving house, we see it as an opportunity to start over from scratch, and start as we mean to go on. It's a newish build, very modern and sleek. If we can get things organised and set up from the start, it will surely be so much easier to maintain.

I'm scared of messing up though, and see this as our big opportunity. Please offer me tips on how to move into our new house in an organised way, to set everything up in a way that will be easiest to maintain? I've dipped in and out of Marie Kondo, and have read bits on Flylady but I would love some advice from people who have moved house and gone from being messy to being clean, tidy and organised. My husband is naturally more tidy than me, which is helpful. I'm more the issue than him, but neither of us know how to get things organised really and set up the house so it runs smoothly. It's quite jumbled and chaotic at the moment.

I know decluttering is an important first step (something I'm bad at but will give it a really good go!)... what else??

Thanks in advance!

I have The Organised Mum Method app, which is very good though I don’t use it as much as I should. Regular adherents swear by it, and you can customise the cleaning rota. There’s also a TOMM community on Facebook, which is helpful and encouraging.

Check out the books by Dana K White. Really useful stuff about the different layers of cleaning. Decluttering is so so important - properly seeing your house as a container for your life, and filling it according to how much space you have (as opposed to unthinkingly having possessions and trying to find space for them all). Avoiding ‘procrasticlutter’.

Wash dishes every day. Do a laundry load every day. Leave the kitchen clean and tidy every night. Accept there is no final destination to a tidy house, just an endless (often boring) journey. Motivate yourself by inviting people round regularly. Care less - so many other things are more important.

I’ve had a lifelong struggle with this, and a recent awakening was the realisation that almost every account I’ve read of female adult ADHD could have been written by me. Check it out. I’m on FB groups for both housework and ADHD, and I suspect there’s a huge overlap. I’m still struggling, but the shame and self-blame has reduced.

Good luck, and remember that enjoying your lovely children comes before housework. If you’re working FT too your life is incredibly busy!

Some good advice on here already. To add I'd say;
Everything has to have a 'home', nothing is left out to be 'tidied later'
No one sits down in the evening until the chores are done
Train your kids now to put away their toys (make it a game /play loud music while it's being done)
Set an alarm to do 10 minutes of chores eg folding /putting away washing, you'll be amazed at how much you can do in that time
Have shallow baskets in the cupboards to group stuff together eg herbs and spices, much easier to keep cupboards tidy
Hope it all works out well for you and congratulations on your new home

1. Don't take the clutter with you when you move.
2. Have a place to store everything.
3. When something has come to the end of its useful life/outgrown- get rid.
4. Don't put things DOWN. Put them AWAY.

1. You don't need 'stuff'.
2. Everything needs to have a place. So when you are done with it put it back.

My tips include:

• Always make beds immediately after getting up
• Have a cleaning schedule where you plan the big jobs, vacuum, mopping, windows, washing bedding etc. Figure out daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly tasks
• Everything has its place. I can't stress this enough
• If you haven't worn or used something in a year and it had no value time to donate it
• Don't buy fast fashion brands and instead invest in more expensive pieces (e.g. 1 shirt not 10 cheap ones)
• Wipe down kitchen benches every night
• Get the kids involved (age appropriate), set the standard early

Be realistic too about what works for your family. For organisation ideas, there's lots on instagram, I started an account just to follow organisation influencers lol.

Good luck. My new house is 1000 times untidier than my last house.
@MrsMoastyToasty has given excellent advice there. We brought far too much clutter and rubbish with us.

We don't have a useable loft here so there's stuff EVERYWHERE! I'm embarrassed when anyone comes to the house.

• don't rush packing like I did. Start early so you're not caught out by a moving date which is what happened to us
• be ruthless with what you need to cull
• pack things into 'rooms' boxes so things end up the right place first time
• be careful where you put fixings for furniture if you take anything down. Our toddler wandered off with some of ours and months later we still can't find them so can't put things away properly
• don't think 'I'll deal with that later' because you probably won't
• if you have loft/storage space, get the stuff in there immediately to get it out of the way. If you want it all in plastic boxes for example, do it before you move so it can be stored correctly immediately
• never keep things on the stairs intending to taken them up later. Do it immediately or it will become a dumping ground
• Remember the mantra 'a place for everything, and everything in its place'
• as you find things to get rid of do it immediately rather than putting to one side to do in bulk (such as freecycling or ebaying)
• make sure you're in the right frame of mind if you're starting a clear out day. I've found I need to really want to get rid of things to do the best job. Don't start on a day you're feeling sentimental
• don't buy ANYTHING new before you move, it makes things a lot worse when you get to the new house to find it doesn't suit/fit etc. we bought a lot of 'bargains' for our massive new house that turned out not to be so massive after all

I was never a messy untidy person until I lived for years with someone who was. I've become as bad as they were and my current DP is worse than I am. Having a bigger house means more places to put crap down that you'll never move. Be thorough and consistent with your new rules. Ours is a full renovation so we'll be living in mess for years. I already can't wait for it to be finished so I can implement the new rules. I don't want my kids growing up thinking mess is normal and ok.

Color code everything.

Thanks so much! Some excellent advice here. I forgot to mention that we are currently renting so there is likely to be some overlap... which will give us the opportunity to hopefully move in less frantically, and give us a chance to organise at least some things in advance..

I have got addicted to A Slob Comes Clean, a blogger called Nony who gradually sorted out her overfull house and severe messiness. My house is so much nicer, and actually managing to co consistently stay that way!

The main take aways for me are:

1. Daily non-negotiables. Nony has a daily checklist, and then certain days diverse on certain tasks. I now have a daily alarm on my phone, a little before bedtime, reminding me to check the state of the house. I finish the washing up, error surfaces, and walk round the house putting everything in its place. Then I can wake up to a clean slate each morning.
2. Declutter until you have an amount of stuff that's manageable, all has its place, and doesn't get in the way of cleaning. When you declutter, do it a little at a time, so if you're interrupted you don't leave a bigger mess than when you started.

The YouTuber Clutterbug has some interesting ideas on organisational styles, which I'm planning to try out.

So many typos!

"Certain days focuses on certain tasks"
"Wipe surfaces"

Haha see someone above has already recommended Dana K White - AKA Nony the slob blogger . I do have some ADHD traits so that might be why she's such a good fit for me.

To add to good advice already given:

• Think about where you will use things and store there - in a way that is easy to put away
• baskets inside cupboards probably easiest
• get lots of closed/built in storage & aim for clear surfaces, clear floors
• have a couple of baskets (eg kitchen, living room, stairs) to put ‘stray’ items in and return to proper place daily ’

@languagelover96

Color code everything.

What do you colour code?

I find TOMM or my own version of it helpful.

Definitely declutter and then declutter more. I started asking myself if my house burnt down would I buy something again when I’m deciding what to keep. Look at something and decide if you are going to keep it rather than should I get rid of it.

Great tips on here already.
For the decluttering, i saw a good tip on YouTube. (The Minimal Mum).

Aim to declutter so each drawer/cupboard is at most half full. this would be hard for me but means putting things away is easy. She went through a cluttered clothes drawer and donated about half of what was in there. The idea was you imagine you are packing for a week's holiday - what would you keep? Non seasonal stuff is kept in storage somewhere else. I love this idea. If you have time cos of the overlap, you could do one drawer/ small space each day.

Then follow a daily morning and evening routine (15 mins each?)

Do 1 - 3 clutter checks/ hotspot tidying each day (Flylady).

You will see a big difference.

Oh great stuff. The tip about making sure every drawer etc is only half full is so smart. It makes so much sense!! Will definitely do that.

My main issue is time... mornings are chaos trying to get my 1 year old and 3 year old out the house by 7:20am, then when we get home at around 6:15pm it's time with the children, bath, bed etc. Admittedly I do have time after the kidsbare in bed (7:45/8pm) but that is invariably spent showering, doing work (teacher so marking etc), sorting out life admin etc. No more time at weekends either as always have the children. But as a poster has mentioned, I guess I have to get them involved in the tidying and cleaning as well. And if good systems are already in place when we move in, it will be so much easier to stick to them!!

Robot Hoover! Put it on a timer to go off after you've left the house in the morning. Before you head out do a quick run round to tidy up any thing it might choke on. Forces you to keep the floors clear, and the daily clean makes a huge difference in keeping things looking tidy.

That is such a great idea!!!

On time, I also like the 30 second rule. As in, will this job take less than 30 seconds - do it immediately and don't put it off. You'll be surprised how quickly you'll become used to putting things away correctly straight after use.

Young kids weirdly can find these types of jobs fun. My favourite tool is, "I bet you can't put all your toys away in 5 minutes..." or "let's have a race and see who can do the most..." If you can find a game in it that your kids like, it can work as a learning tool.

I would say also think carefully about putting lots of stuff in the loft. Most people put stuff there to die. Suitcases/Christmas decorations fine, random stuff you 'might need' not so much.

Many thanks!! We actually don't have much loft space as it's a three storey house so just a small loft area. There is a garage with eaves storage though so will have to be careful what we put in there.
30 second rule a great idea!
Really looking forward to starting over in a new place.

30 sec rule is also good for cleaning spots/marks as you see them. I have a cleaning spray & a minky/ecloth out in kitchen all the time so this helps, also keep a set of all cleaning products, cloths, dusters etc upstairs for that reason too - so it’s all close at hand