Rock The Housework Chat

[BogRollBOGOF]

www.rockthehousework.co.uk/

Anyone else rocking the housework?

My housekeeping was always somewhat chaotic, and since these were launched, my house is far more functional and a podcast away from actually looking rather orderly, even at short notice.

I tend to pick what I need each day rather than following the tradtitonal TOMM, but do refer back to that to help get some jobs done if they're in danger of being neglected.

I think my most used tracks are the "Calm Laundry Put Away" the "Bitesize Bathroom Blitz" and the "Quick Kitchen Turnaround"

The TOMM lite sessions are good, especially the hallway one. I don’t have stairs and I struggle to spend thirty minutes basically tidying shoes and coats so 15 minutes is much more realistic for me. I did the Lazy House Reset on Saturday and it did make a difference, but I do prefer the more prescriptive “Do 3 minutes of tidying, then 2 minutes of surface cleaning etc” rather than “Do five minutes of whatever needs doing in the kitchen”

@SydneyCarton I'm the same to be honest I was surprised with the lazy house one when I got to the bathroom and she's like "5 mins in the bathroom" 😂 I'm standing like but what to I do 🤣

[Mentally replays 5min Bathroom Blitz in her head]

I'm nearly well trained these days 😂

I've done a good old Disco Declutter (or three) to tackle the conservatory and clean it down and liberate it from the forces of dessicated insect deposits. I've hidden some much-loved but old and bulky toys in the playhouse. While the DCs haven't played with them in years, I'm sure there would be protests if I cleared out straight away.

It needed doing anyway, but also I've got the space clear and clean for dealing with packing for holiday... camping edition...

The general state of things is good. We've already had a long weekend so got things civilised for that and I've turned the laundry round today. Warm dry weather always helps with that!

I've been doing endless loads of laundry since we got back from holiday on Friday (only four days! Why so much??), grateful for the warmer weather so it's drying quite fast. Did a few of the TOMM Lite sessions to go over kitchen and bedrooms.

Does anyone else feel they're doing more tidying than actual cleaning? I get the whole "can't clean clutter" thing, but I feel I'm just moving piles of stuff around into slighter neater piles while dust builds up......

It's tidying that's my constant bugbear.
It's good that the range of tidying sessions has increased. I find stuff gets "stuck" easily and I go blind to it rapidly.

I need to crank into action. We're back off holiday and while the house was in a reasonable state, we've got visitors coming and I need to deal with the spare bed.

At least we used the launderette the night before coming back

And the laundry theme continues. Admittedly I wasn't on the ball with it last week with having visitors.

I've been going through the battle of getting DS2 to identify outgrown clothes and put some recent clothes away.

At least it will be easier with more space freed up.

DS2's wardrobe is harder than DS1's as DS1's stuff tends to naturally migrate in that direction then get stuck as things stop being pulled out to be worn.

The rest of the house is OK.

I just wish it was washing line weather.

You're kinder than me @BogRollBOGOF I just make sweeping decisions about what's going! If it's something that I know they really like I will ask them first but they do have lots of stuff (my MiL loves buying them clothes!) and I can't keep it all. I know what you mean about hand me downs, although my youngest is a boy with two older sisters so there's a natural stopping point for most of it!

Laundry-wise I did a big folding session while I got through a couple of episodes of Sons of Anarchy on Friday, so need to keep the momentum going. One of DPs mates came round last week and he (DP, not the mate!) panic-cleaned the bathroom (my nemesis) so I need to build on that and carry on with little and often to keep it under control. Might try the new post-school run clean tomorrow and Wednesday as I'll have a bit of time before starting work.

I just did the level 1s and the living room today. It really helps me to know what to do and where to start

I'm definitely better at finding where to start now than I was pre- Tom Rocks rather than hitting overwhelm.

Shifting laundry was a good move today.
I've noticed that it often stacks at changes of season as I don't reach for the jumper/ shirts and seasonal clothes can get stuck in the corners when they slip out of use.
When I have caught up, I do feel more together for a little while as I can find what's needed.
As ever, consistency is a battle!

I had a good general clean blitz last week so most of the house just needs some regular maintainence cleaning/ tidying.

I've also found DS2's second blazer languishing at the bottom of a clean laundry bag. Hopefully the creases will drop out in the next couple of days.
I do not trust myself with a blazer and an iron!

I went to wash the DCs' uniform today. They're out of synch due to different start dates. DS2 didn't have any in his laundry basket... nor on the floor. It was all nearly folded in his drawer which means that either he's become really good at secretly doing laundry and folding Kondo style, or he's not looked in his drawer and realised that he doesn't have to wear the same shirt and trousers daily 🙈🤢😂
He assures me that he has changed his pants and he definitely has changed his socks.

In other news, a multi-room reset (can't remember which) and the general floor clean has got the downstairs looking rather dapper.

Well done @BogRollBOGOF for the multi room reset and general floor clean. It would be very helpful if DS has indeed started to do laundry!! 😊🤞How old is he?

I have been trying to delegate more. I have become the go to parent for all things domestic over the last 10 years but as I am now back at my very almost full time job now after the summer holidays, at the weekend every member of the household got a small chore to do, so much better!!

I now need to try and keep up with TOMM now I am back at work. I get in drained but last week managed to do L1 cleans about three times on the week listening to Tomm Rocks and did the level 2 lite cleans. This may be the way to go with the odd 75 minute house reset thrown in on a weekend now and again. Anyone help with motivation ideas? I could do some of L1 before work and some after. That might help. Any advice/ experience gratefully appreciated!! Thanks. Keep going with it, everyone! Little and often is so much better than it building up. 🫧🧼💪

There are some split cleans to wrap around the day. I haven't tried those. They'll probably be in their normal room sections of the vault.

DS is 11 and his executive function isn't great. I know that like his brother, he's dyslexic. I do wonder if there's ADHD in the mix too as he can struggle with some things more than his brother who also has autism.and dyspraxia.
We're several years in to training to use the dishwasher... progress is verrrry slow.
I certainly find that ADHD friendly strategies work for me and standard NT advice doesn't.

Let's just say that one day in science I was concentrating so hard on the need to concentrate, that I missed the detail about how to heat ethanol over the bunsen burner (or not to!) and ended up creating a fireball that burned the desk...

I've been on the Teenage Bedroom tidy and clean sessions on top of usual maintainence in the kitchen and bathroom. It's been a while since it had a thorough clean out and one hour later, it's all fresh and civilised in there!

I did the fifteen minute TOMM lite bathroom session on Sunday and it was remarkably trauma free 🤣 Some major decluttering needs to happen this side of Christmas though.

Today I played an episode but just ignored what she said - having her voice in my eye was sufficient for the particular job I needed to do!

I do that quite often. My logical order and Gemma's logical order can often differ, but just putting on a themed clean gets me into action.

Some of them I lipsync the instructions

I think it puts me in the zone and also I like the "5 more minutes" type stuff to keep me going.

I've done the 75 min Reset today
I feel very smug now!

Stress-free visitors today 😁
I did a bitesize declutter to spend 15 mins putting random stuff away and 35 mins scurryfunge session to take care of the cleaning.

I washed the vacuum filter a couple of days ago and annoyingly it wasn't fully dry so the vacuum refused to work, but having already done the scurryfunge on Friday too, the floors weren't too bad.

The visit had been deferred and about 10 days ago I had done the deep kitchen clean so was still feeling the benefits of that, and had also used the clutter busters dealing with the stray bits that get stuck in the lounge and hall. I pulled everything off the offending surfaces, put it in a hula hoop to contain it, cleaned the surface then rehomed the items to the appropriate place.

So much less stressy than the pre-TOM Rocks days! Both more strategic and efficient at getting round the house, and it doesn't tend to build up so deeply in the first place.

I'm completely off track. Don't know where to start again. Am at home tomorrow so plan to do hall day, but the house is a mess. @BogRollBOGOF , I found your posts here very motivational a while back. Will catch up the thread today as I fell off it months ago, but thanks for continuing to post.
Will try to check in more frequently.

It's a never ending battle isn't it!
Gemma makes me feel better about the inevitability of it all being undone though. It's not a job that you do once and then it's finished for ages, it's continous, but falling behind isn't failing.

Naturally I'm in the post-guest slump again. Had a well-earned break on Monday, blinked and well, life has happened 🤷‍♀️😂

45 minute ‘get ready for the weekend’ completed on Friday. A quick clean of kitchen, living room and bedroom plus a bit of laundry. Really good and means I only do 15 minutes each day of L1s over the weekend plus a quick tidy up.

It's my first week of TOMM and I'm very glad I started it as we've been out most of weekend due to DS sports. Usually house would be a disaster without the marathon Saturday clean. Keen to join thread to keep me motivated for next week.

Welcome in!

Today's drop "30 minute rescue" looks good. I like a concise multi-room session.

I got on top of laundry mountain yesterday, and even DS (with much whinging) dealt with his pile. At least there shouldn't be too many panics over pairs of school socks this week...