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"

I can normally make a difference by chipping away in installments. The house wasn't in a great state by yesterday so I used the first Reset session that released as a general tidy-up, then did a vacuum around which got the main living spaces back into functional order.

I haven't needed a deep declutter for a while, but a couple of years ago I cleared out the DCs' rooms for decorating which was somewhat of a mission. I broke that down into umpteen declutter sessions. Generally it's good to just deal with one chunk of space at a time such as a drawer or surface.

My clutter hotspots I tend to manage with baskets and they can be dealt with at about 15 mins per go.

Dana K White is good for decluttering strategies.

This thread was recommended on the decluttering thread. So just popping in to say hello before I forget

Hello!

I'm due a good end-of-term cleaning session. The combination of time and energy has been somewhat of a challenge for a while!

I feel like the whole term has been in catch-up mode after the previous dishwasher conked out at half-term. Plus general motivation floundering when 5 days a week, you're only experiencing the house in darkness.

I have done well at the habit of doing the dishwasher each day and setting the timer so it goes with whatever is in it rather than piling it up in clumps that then exceed capacity.

Hi @IncessantNameChanger , hope you find it useful! Still plugging away with the level 1s at the moment, although we have been doing a lot of decluttering and moving furniture around so things have been dusted and vacuumed in the course of that. I will probably do a slightly deeper bathroom clean at some point and clear the decks in the kitchen to make Christmas dinner prep as easy as possible (I don't have much space!). Might do the 40 minute reset session that was released the other week to just finish everything off.

I've had a good blitz today. Shifted a fair amount of laundry backlog with a 20 min session (I've slipped back to my usual basket fishing in recent weeks rather than putting away). Did a 40 min downstairs reset and a 30 min kitchen clean to give that a deeper clean.

Downstairs is now functionally clean.

I could do with attacking some clutter hotspots next which will make everything feel much better.

It's looked a bit scruffy for a while but it's pretty superficial, and not the deeper messiness that it used to get into before I started the guided cleans. And the thought of tackling them is much less stressful than it once was. I don't need "perfect" but better would be nice!

I'm still doing a wash ever day and trying to get it dry and put away. I never iron anything as with 4 kids that had to be dropped. It's hard with guests right now. Only ds mate staying until tomorrow but still you can't just hoover first thing like normal. I had my best mate round yesterday so we stayed in the kitchen to contain the washing up. I have stripped the beds so not on the right day really. Will be easier I hope after Christmas

My routine is out the window now until Christmas guests have gone. I tried to get all the washing done beforehand and bedding changed, but DP still had a basket full of hand wash items. That’ll have to wait until after they’ve left now as he won’t spin them so they’ll be dripping on the bathroom for days.

I set an interval timer for 5 min bursts to get around several clutter hotspots today which has made a few rooms look much better.

About to head out for the food shop... fortunately my notebook has a list from 2023 which will do the job of covering Christmas Dinner requirements. I'll fudge the rest. Meh, the shops are open by the 27th so I can top up from that point if needed
I'm not feeding the 5000... just ravenous teenagers as usual.

I'll chip away at another hour or two tomorrow, but I do feel like I've broken the back on the worst of the term-time build-up. I came perilously close to sorting DS's room, but he came back from his run after 2km. It's awkward getting in there without him in there. He's not too bad about generating mess, but his gaming chair delaminates flaky bits, and sometimes it just needs a reset every few weeks which is currently beyond his skill level.

Happy New Year!

I liked the structure of this week's Peace Restored reset. I definitely needed a general tidy-up and dealing with the lounge & kitchen. The room of choice was good chance to sort out various loose ends. That's one to come back to.

I must peel myself off the sofa and do a reset...

I've replayed the recent Peace Restored. Not done it "properly" due to time, but the atmosphere was lovely for doing vexing tasks on a dark night after being on my feet all day.

I now have a civilised lounge, hall, kitchen and d/s toilet which feels much nicer!

I'm looking forwards to lighter evenings creeping back. It's now twighlight when I get home but not fully dark, but the dark nights have put me in hibernate mode and made it harder to keep up with weekday maintainence.

I find it hard to do these in the dark too, I can clean the kitchen but that's it. I feel the need to see properly for everything else.

Yes, it's really not the same by electric lighting.

There's nothing like low sunlight to make you see how filthy the windows are though 😂

I quite like cleaning windows. It's one of those jobs that doesn't get undone quickly, and just makes the room look fresher.
I managed some window cleaning around Christmas.

I hate cleaning windows! I'm just terrible at it. They look worse afterwards. I've tried just using a microfibre cloth, or using different sprays, or water, and they always end up streaky. They're always covered in spit from the pets, too, so I have to do them.

I wash them with washing up liquid and squeegee/ karcher them, then polish with spray and a dry cloth. It gets the dirt off to begin with.

No pets to muck them up though!

DS would love a cat/ dog. DH is not enthused by the concept and I'm not risking the extra jobs and cleaning without a keen, enthused household.

Wise. I have four! Apart from all the slobber, they are pretty good, though. Not a patch on the mess DP makes.

Hey I've found my people!

I've dabbled in TOM for a few years but only just bought the app and I'm loving Rock the Housework! I've just finished the 20 laundry chat one and it was surprisingly productive.

I am trying to start afresh as it's Week 1 but only did the level ones on Monday 🙄Tuesday is usually manic and I am in the office today so not much chance of short bursts of cleaning (I find the broken down sessions quite useful for WFH as you can do a quick ten minutes here and there). I will try to do a short hallway session (I have no stairs!) when I get home and then tackle the kitchen on Thursday.

Yet another round of Peace Restored. I'm finding it a useful weekend catch-up session with a nice balance of focus and flexibility.

I remain as ever, woefully behind on laundry

Oh god the laundry. It's so much harder at the moment with crappy wet weather and I don't have a tumble dryer, so I'm constantly checking the line going "Is it damp or just cold?" I've forgotten what the internal doors look like without towels and jumpers draped over them to dry

Did a couple of the Level 1 Kitchen versions over the weekend which means I now have a nice clean salad drawer in the fridge and a clean hob/splashback. Also the new 15 minute bathroom clean which was surprisingly effective.

I need to pull my finger out and do my level 2s today. It's the hardest area for me as there's always people in my way!

Laundry is a nightmare and the worst homework job imo

I've done the well-timed Saturday Reset. I liked the proportions of the times on it, and the music was a nice mood. 20 mins was good for getting the kitchen back to civilised. Now the downstairs is good, I can concentrate on Mt Wash-more tomorrow. I'm sure there's a recent laundry session that I haven't done yet.

I did a 40 minute tidy yesterday followed by the Saturday reset which added up to 1 hr 40 which means the house is back in shape, thank goodness. I have to admit that I did very little during the week apart from dishwasher and the kitchen sides each day as had a lot of work on. It is so nice to know TOM rocks is there when you are ready to pick it back uk again! I am thinking of getting a quote for a cleaner once a month just to do bathrooms and kitchen though, that would help so much.

Today, I need to fold the mountain of clean washing so similar to you @BogRollBOGOF and do another dark load so DC have school uniform this week and wash kitchen floor as didn’t do that yesterday! Good luck. Will put a laundry TOM rocks on, then have about two hours work to do, followed by something fun so I can renew my spirit (flylady term!) for the working week.

A lot of laundry has gone through the system today. I've consolidated my backlog on putting away. At least I now have active wear in one IKEA bag, work wear in another and the smalls were sorted and put away.

I also have clean, dry and folded parkrun vests after they got a second wetting in a row. I just need to remember to take them back next week. As long as I don't have them for 13 months like I did nearly 6 years ago; I thought there was a risk of them going musty in the store locked up for a few weeks...

I also managed to get (ND) teen DS to make his own packed lunch ready for work experience in the morning. It's about the same work as just doing it anyway, but he needs to learn!

I saw the Saturday reset (one day late on the Sunday!) and thought about giving it a go, but couldn't be arsed in the end I did level ones both weekend days and two separate washloads of pants and socks so we are all decently covered again.

Also a one-off bathroom task of cleaning out the toothbrush holder which was absolutely minging. Took it apart, sprayed it with bleach and gave it a good scrub before properly drying it off and putting it back together. I was so inspired that I even cleaned the toothbrushes and the gunky bits inside the toothpaste caps.