Help, my house is a mess

[mamaofthebeartribe]

I really need some tips and advice on my home.
I have 5 children so there is a lot of 'stuff' my husband has ADHD so can struggle when the house is untidy but I am struggling with keeping it clutter free.
I don't even know where to start. I feel like my days are endless tidying and asking the children to tidy up. I want to just throw everything in a skip!

Any advice is greatly appreciated on anything you do in your own home to keep it simple and clutter free.

(Probably a pointless task by the time the summer holiday starts but il give anything a go)

It might help if you declutter first.
Then do a rota on the wall, if any of the children are old enough give them jobs, one empties the dishwasher, one puts the rubbish out, one polishes ect. X

Maybe also get the children a memory box each and let them keep a few sentimental bits in there otherwise for the charity, unless it's toys they're playing with. X

Nope she doesn't and she hasn't had grandchildren round for 7 years and also has never worked. So yes her house is immaculate. You know when you just having a bad day anyway, then the kids were like, wow this and wow that. Then I came home to my house which we rent and it's one of those if you bought it you'd have to gut it everything needs redoing, it's not dirty just old. And I thought, this place is a mess. Four more days till they are on summer holidays so I'm going to focus on their things while they are not here.

I'll have a look into it. Since lockdown they've not allowed vans into our tip and having 5 kids my husband drives a van! They've seemed to have kept this up, probably in the hope people will order a skip from the council instead. So I'll have to rope my dad into taking some stuff.
It's getting there and I've had some great advice from many of you which has helped me pull my finger out. I didn't think I'd have any replies so thanks all 😁😁😁

I may get one of those big family whiteboard signs you see advertised. Where each child has a space. They do chores to earn pocket money atm but a nice visual on what is their job for that day will do great.

There’s a really nice decluttering thread on here with the aim of getting rid of one thing a day, although once you start it’s hard to stop!

Decluttering thread

A good tip from here is to ask yourself “If this thing got lost or broken, would I buy it again?” when deciding whether to keep something. If the answer’s no, you can probably get rid. I’ve found that quite helpful with toys when deciding what to bin.

Regarding what PP said: its best to declutter and minimize your own stuff first before tackling kids toys and books. That already will be a big help.

I love looking in my wardrobe and drawers which now have space and only clothes and shoes that I really like, are comfortable and flattering.

Next do easy rooms like the bathroom/kitchen. Many of us keep way too many utensils, saucepans and cooking dishes.

Look at all the random make up/shampoo/moisturiser samples etc and ask yourself if you're really going to use them. If the answer is yes, stop buying more until they're all gone.

Finally, work out how many clothes and shoes your DC need and reduce it to that. Only keep the best as hand me downs.

Finally, with toys, it depends on ages. I did an initial clear out of things I knew were never used (party bag/happy meal trinkets). Then for other toys I roped the DC in and we sorted them together. E.g. thanks to MIL giving us DH'S enormous collection of little cars we had well over 300!

I got them all out and split them into categories. The DC found it very easy just to select about 60 that they love and play with.

Ditto with soft toys, lego etc. And books! We had dozens of science/dinosaur/space type books. When laid out together we chose which ones we wanted to keep and which were "duplicates" or unnecessary

When I found things overwhelming, I'd look in a room and be blind to the mess, but also aware. So I started taking photos from the doorway, 4 or 5 round the room and tidy / work from each photo. Only took a few mins each, and I'd take a break in between each one.

Made my life so much easier and helped me to see the comparisons.

I was up for an hour before the kids woke this morning and it was lovely to do all mopping/washing machine on etc before they were up. Clothes were out on the line before I went on the school run.
And it was lovely just to have that early hour to myself.
My kitchen is probably the worst space. It's so small. So every kitchen 'hack' for storage would be beneficial. I'll Google it see what i come up with.

Before storage look at minimalising.

If you don't use it - get rid
If you do use it - ask yourself what you would use if you didn't have it? If the answer comes quickly and easily then it can go.

There's a limit to the number of saucepans, frying pans, chopping boards, knives etc etc than you need (and indeed can use at any one time).

We had 3 frying pans but 95% of the time just used 1, our favourite. So the other 2 went.

Be realistic about how much tuperware you need, whether you really need all the gadgets etc.

Good luck it really makes life easier

We had a set toy section / corner in the house. Each lunch time we ie the dc and i tidied. Same before going out.
They pretended to clean and wipe whilst i did a quick wipe.
I did any additional housework when they were asleep. Also i rotated toys so that new ones came out every so often and hid others away.
I also tidied ( or drank gin ) when dh did the start of bedtime. Little amd often , routine and systems .

Ps i also mostly did meal prep first thing am . I cdnt seem.to a makwe a meal when eveyone tired and likely to be cranky at end of the day .

Two full bin bags from the kids rooms have been cleared this morning and a shopping bag full of books for the charity shop!
First day of the summer holidays here so I'm actually really pleased. The kids have got stuck in aswel and their rooms are much clearer, especially the book shelves. (We love books here so it's probably our biggest hoard)

Husband is home from work so I'm going to plough on with as much as possible while the weather still cooler!

Well done OP. Thanks for the update too

"A slob comes clean" podcast has been very useful for me, and was recommended on another thread. It's also on YouTube but I haven't watched those as yet. Great work so far OP!