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’m surprised at how quickly I can get things done!

I shall conquer the Lego trunk!

I've got a "Lego zone" in an otherwise awkward corner of limited use which hadn't been dealt with some time. I swear it's been an unusually cobwebby autumn... anyway, the loose Lego has been rounded up and area cleaned/ dusted, but I could do with a bit of a sort out despite the job's Forth Bridge nature.
15 mins should be survivable shouldn't it???

That depends if you are a fellow scooper and dumper or one of those over-achievers who separate by colour and size?

I'm both 😂

There is a large trunk for scooping and dumping in the name of sanity.

There is also a 9 drawer Really Useful stack for sorting, otherwise the small stuff trickles through hidden by half-disintegrated models and random big stuff.

Roughly once a year I do a big sort into the drawers by shape so that DS can find more specific pieces and pick his interest up again.
We've got:
Blocks
Flats
Base plates
Angles
Vehicles
People/ animals/ accessories
Panels
Large random
Small random

If I find myself overthinking, it goes in another box to dump back in the trunk. Ditto for complex models. I'll only take apart simple stuff.

Sorting by colour is an abomination 😂
DS looks for function, plus it becomes a monotonous mass to look for so it wouldn't work well for him.

It's a fairly workable method for a few hours work per year, but no way would I attempt to sort every micro piece! I know my limits!

My 15 minutes is done. Plus as I've done it in the corner, the drawers can stay out for the next round.

Oh, impressive - if not a little intimidating 😁

I love the festive drops. Had a merry time wrapping presents today - perfect.

We are putting up the tree on Saturday. But that is a team effort and a level of chaos that won't be corralled by a podcast. It's kind of a cling on and hope for the best affair where I try to protect the most fragile ornaments in the stampede. Drink Asti, hope for the best.

Just used a 30m declutter session to tackle a ridiculous pinch point cupboard in our bedroom. I found a (clean - still in wrapping) toilet seat at the back!!???🤷 But no festive duvet, which was my ulterior motive.

I'm going to do a bedroom clean and hope to find it in a box under the bed. Wish me luck. Might need to run this clean twice 😁

Bedrooms remain my nemesis!

The kitchen is also my nemisis. Only ever 36 hours away from armegeddon no matter how much you think you mastered it!

Dishwasher round one in progress. I can't seem to pace it evenly, but some days generate more washing up than others.

At least you can shut the door on the bedroom and pretend it isn't there.

36 hours from Armageddon sounds about right! A few run-off-your-feet days or stinking cold days and the kitchen is groaning under neglect.

We have an open plan lounge/kitchen/dining room and so it's not very forgiving if you are not on the ball.

Kitchen reclaimed from Armegeddon 😂

Started with a bitesize clean to fill the dishwasher, originally planning to pre-rinse and do a quick hour then a second load. This is where I tend to part from my good intentions and not get round to the second load. I ended up finishing the pre-washed load by hand using the washing up session which was pretty easy as it was 60% clean and just a couple of pans needed to go back in. I then set the second load off. I didn't aim to "finish" it as I want to get a deeper clean in.

Also made use of the decorating the tree session to deal with the outdoor lights.

Unusally productive for a Sunday and means I won't be starting Monday in chaos.

Glad I've found you! I'm just finding my feet but loving the guided cleans!

I've just finished the belated fridge clean. It's a job that always feels risky ever since I dropped a fridge shelf once - glass, soapy water, washing up gloves and a touch of ground-in clumsiness is a terrible combo - and it smashed to smitherines. Fortunately it all went without a hitch.

I'm going to do the big Kitchen after dinner tonight, which includes a much needed kickboard clean and I'll use the time that Gemma has for the fridge in it to clean the small appliances instead.

I've done the new deep clean of the kitchen. It's been a good while since I've done more than spot-cleaning things like the cupboard doors.

I need to be in-law clean for the weekend, so I'm now happy that I'm just a hot spot declutter and dreamy kitchen clean away from it being up to standard.

I've also used today's spare room clean. Perfectly timed as I was going to use last years today anyway.
I played it twice as there was a bit of random stuff to re-home and some re-arranging to do so did it as a declutter and a clean. I don't need to pay much attention to that room for a while now...

Some of the old perennial laundry done too.

I think I need to do a multi-room clean tomorrow, then again later in the week. The Christmas decorations need to go up too. They're out, and I'm going for a bit by bit approach rather than a big blitz.

Never got around to the big Kitchen clean. I think a motivating in-law klaxon might have spurred me in to action but I did my duty in the summer. Best of luck @BogRollBOGOF, when is D day?

Saturday. Since Rock the Housework launched, it hasn't felt like such a panicked frenzy.

There is the argument of why clean to that standard and go through that stress, but it is useful to feel pressured into a deeper clean a few times a year 😂

I don't know what it is with the spiders this year, but we seems to have an abundance of really spindly spiders who leave little tatty cobwebs behind that make things look like it's longer since I cleaned than reality.

What a lovely chat. I really like RTH but haven’t used it lately as we had a building project at home and it was all about builders dust fire fighting for a while. I am looking forward to Gemma telling me what to do again from tomorrow. I want to dive in a do everything but I know that I get a bit miffed and then don’t clean for a while after so I’m going to start with the living room clean and maybe a declutter in the spare room which is holding all the no-longer-wanted-by-children stuff. I’ll report back tomorrow.

Not long then @BogRollBOGOF I'm the same inasmuch as I like a good deadline to work towards. We haven't had any spiders, like at all, isn't that weird? I'm pretty sure that's a word-for-word statement from Arachnophobia, so I'm a bit concerned that's not entirely a good thing 😬😁

Best of luck with the post works clean @Readingtheworld We had an extension done about two years ago and it took a collosal amount of work to shift the dust. Don't hit it with a fancy hepa hoover, they're to useless for that and the filter gives up the ghost, you need something robust to start with, like a Henry.

I did a calm upstairs and downstairs clean. I have an actual sweat on but I think this is more to do with these enormous heat generating headphones I use that make me feel like I've stepped out of a sauna over the hour.

We had a major- moving walls type project some years back, and living with rubble is so draining on top of regular housekeeping. Ours was DIY so it took a long, long time. The end result is worth it now!
We got an industrial vacuum that lived in the garage, but was a beast to lug around.

I love my stick vacuum. No faffing with cables and it's easy to slot away. It was always obvious that I'd vacuumed before that as grappling with cables and squeezing it in the cupboard was always a final step too far after.

I've done a general scurryfunging today. Plan to do some short de-clutter/ tidies tomorrow to really neaten things up, and another multi-room to bring it all together on Friday

Did you manage to make any progress with the declutter?

I've been a bit slack today. I was about to hit an enormous pile of ironing but I opted in to a Octopus energy saving session, so it will have to wait until after dinner and my wrapping presents session I had planned for today was kiboshed by dh who decided to wfh.

The kids all start breaking up from school tomorrow, which marks the start of things getting busier in the run up to Xmas here and shifting over to tick-over with housework.

Urrrgghhh I hate building work - ours overran massively and was still going on by the time I came home from hospital with our newborn twins. It was supposed to have been finished six months before they hadn't even finished the plastering!! DP said "not to worry, my mate Dave's a great plasterer, he can finish it for us when we next go on holiday" - I think we can all see where this is heading, the DTs are almost 9 and it's still not done...

(I have bitten the bullet long ago and just patched over the worst bits myself/ made good where I can/ used cheap and cheerful ways round it!)

I'm still plodding on with a general declutter, it is taking FOREVER and many, many bags have headed to the charity shop. I'm hoping to head into 2024 with much less 'stuff'

I ended up with a child off school so delayed my house work restart by a day. I got on with it yesterday and it was really great! How Gemma makes housework doable and enjoyable I just don’t know. I also filled and took two bags to the charity and filled the bin for collection so an extra win. Kids break up after lunch time today so going to do a clean before going to collect them. During the holidays I’d like to get them started with some of the kids cleans. In reality I’m not sure how this will go 😆

9....years?! @LadyAmeliaSmallhope 😬😬

I'm a bit of a sod for ignoring the clutter until it become a real mess - I just find it hard to motivate myself tidy stuff that is essentially hidden away to start with. The loft is a real state - maybe 2024 might be the year I pull it back from the brink? I won't hold my breath.

On the upside, the house is beginning to shape up nicely ready for the influx of Christmas guests. I think my car needs a bit of attention - think I'll get to that this afternoon. I'm sure there was a guided clean for that, hopefully it has migrated over?

There is a nice 20 min car clean. It's good because that's one of those jobs that blows up in my head into being a bigger deal than it really is, and 20 mins makes it managable.

I have a nice IL-Clean house. Did a 30 min scurryfunge, and a couple of the short bitesize/ quick reset cleans to polish off having paced myself doing the bulk of it through the week.
No rage-cleaning involved, and I haven't done rage cleaning since Rock the Housework launched, because it just feels so much more managable now.

And when the mess returns early next week. I won't have failed and I won't be burned out. I can just play an appropriate clean and get on with it.

Nine years indeed @FourTeaFallOut !! Honestly, if he'd just been up front/ realistic at the beginning and said that Dave could probably do it at some point but we should look for someone else anyway, it would have been done years ago it's a shame as the areas which needed tiling now have water damage. I've patched as best I can - used sealant tape, stick on tiles etc - just in case Dave did come back and do it, but it's not looking likely after all this time!

Do you vacuum your car properly and everything @BogRollBOGOF?! I litter pick out of mine, tidy the boot, vacuum the worst of it... but must admit that I hand it over to the valet company when I occasionally not nearly often enough want it cleaned properly...