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"

Can someone please explain what you are signing up to. What's a guided clean? Is it a live session?

😁 sure. It doesn't help that at the beginning of the thread you could just sign up to rockthehousework and you'd be away but since then it's become an add-on to the The Organised Mum Method app.

The guided cleans are pre-recorded audio sessions that is set either to pre-set music or you can use your own now and it breaks down a whole job - deep clean the kitchen, declutter a wardrobe, wrap presents, clean the whole house top to bottom.- into composite timed tasks - and jollys you along. Some people use it alongside the TOMM method but others just use it with a pick and mix approach.

If you find it hard to start a task/ get distracted/ like to know how much time you are working with/ or like me, and just need to find a route around an internal monologue that is just whinging about the housework you are doing - then it is helpful to make housework less of a pita.

Yes, I found it @BogRollBOGOF it was hidden in the original sessions. Well done getting things lovely in time for your guests. Hope everything is going smoothly.

How busy can Dave be? It must be really frustrating watching things get damaged while you wait. Hope it gets sorted for you sooner rather than later. We have a few diy jobs that are part done and they are the most frustrating to keep tidying and cleaning because it never feels like you can step back and get that ta-da moment.

My car needs a clean out. It's never an appealing job but with a damp north-facing drive which gets no sun Oct-Apr, it's really, really unappealing over the winter!

At one point my children had navy-blue school socks. After the winter lockdown in 2021, I was cleaning out the car and found a grey-green furry thing. I realised that it had originally been a school sock until it had been allowed to fester and mutate in a very lightly used car over the winter months. I caught it with a rubber glove and binned it just in case it had evolved teeth 😂

The house is still pretty tidy post-visitors, so my plan is a short multi-room session to keep on top of it and keep it nice.

Traditionally, I'd still be a burned out wreck and would do nothing until Wednesday before despairing that it was already a shit-tip again. But I'm not burned out, and can purposefully do something in a pretty tidy house to keep it better.

Later in the week, I'll give upstairs some love. Upstairs is my weak spot.

Today I was cleaning to the boot camp bedroom clean as our bedroom was used as the catch all spot during the building work. I I’d a good sort but got distracted moving some furniture 😩. I was listening on a speaker as the DC were around and deliberately play up if I have head phones on. My DD asked me what game I was playing as I was racing around doing as much as poss in each section. I haven’t been successful at involving them in the child cleans yet. Any of you done this? Im n the spare room now whilst the dinner cooks. It is nearly ready for Xmas guests, I have filled four bags for the charity shop From its contents this week, so very pleased.

My 9yo was like a kid possessed with the bedroom clean and I had my 14yo do one of the duo kitchen cleans with me and that went pretty well too. But I suspect your kids are a lot littler and I'm not sure how that would go down - but I'm curious to know if you give it a go. My poor dsis is trying to deep clean her kitchen today while her toddler undoes the work behind her. I wish she lived closer so I could help.

I did, okay - it was really geeky - the Christmas dinner clean last night after a regular meal. It left heaps of time so I was doing laundry in the gaps but now I feel like I'm prepped for the carnage clean-up plan after feeding nine on Monday.

I wish mine would engage with the guided cleans. They don't like Gemma's voice 🙄 I do use that kind of strategy with them, but coaching through personally has no time/ effort saving like a recorded clean.

Limbering up for the big Christmas clean. The bones of it are clean and tidy but a week of the kids being off school/ friends around have taken a toll. And I feel that compulsion to make everything just-so. We still have a lot of food prep to do so the kitchen is a fools errand right now but the rest is on the hit list.

I've washed both the washable rugs and now the duvet is going in. This would never work if it wasn't 14 actual degrees outside 😲

Just finished wrapping the presents with the guided wrapping. Going to do the deep bedroom clean for my bedroom and then the calm upstairs clean for the rest.

My plans tomorrow include a multi-room clean to restore downstairs (still mostly fine through the past week), finishing wrapping (got the back broken on it already) and preparing some of the veg. I've not cooked Christmas dinner for more than 5 before so if I ease up pressure in the kitchen, that will be a good thing.

Did the food shopping tonight and that's all sorted. Finished my tree off today; that's been a bit slow motion in installments.

It's mostly feeling together now. I try and be realistic and stick to the basics and not add excessive stress on.

And done!

Including parboiling the potatoes and parsnips, and peeling the carrots. I've not done that in advance before, but there's over double the usual amount, so that's an hour less to do tomorrow.

The downstairs was all refreshed to visitor standard with an hour of scurryfunging and some bitesize sessions. I had a leisurely morning then something spontaneous popped up for the afternoon so it's been a busy evening but not stressy.

Merry Christmas!

We didn't parboil the spuds but we are peeled and ready to roll. Everything is just-so - used a 25 minute clean to refresh, then the Christmas Eve guided clean to get things right. I was shattered by the time I went to bed but we went visiting and had visitors and played board games - so, a great day and not all work.

I am the first one up. So I can take twenty minutes or so to enjoy the quiet before the games begin. Dh is on cooking and I am on clean up crew, which I am increasingly beginning to enjoy after six months of doing rth. Don't tell anyone

Hope everyone has a lovely day.

I totally Rocked Christmas 😁

Being my future friend really paid off with the tidy kitchen and an hour of veg-prep behind me. Set the dishwasher off on auto in the morning and off again on a timer gathering about 60% of a load of the last of the food prep. I had visitors which used all plates, but all that was good to go. The only tidying before they came was gathering wrappings and a quick wizz with the vacuum, so that was easy. The only glitch with dinner was veg taking longer than expected to cook, but it was all nicely done and tasted good and we all had a great afternoon/ evening.

The diswasher was well-used again to break the back of dinner and it's been a relaxing chill-out day here with very little devesatation to clear up before more visitors come later in the week.

It's been the best Christmas that I've had in years. It was brilliant having company over, and low-stress. I even gained an extra 4 days earlier which added zero bother.

The guided cleans getting through deep cleaning in mid-December, and keeping up with the multi/ shorter sessions really paid off and no rage-cleans were involved.

No rage cleans 😂 yeah, I totally relate to that. I'm really reaping the benefit at this time of year with people dropping in left, right and centre and feeling calm that the house is tidy to begin with and not sweating the mess that follows because it's easy to get on top of afterwards. I'm a convert.

I keep telling my friends and family about it - I'm not crowbarring it in to conversation, only when someone mentions the thankless cleaning tasks - and they think I'm mad as I explain that you put headphones on and mostly just do as you are told and everything becomes infinitely easier. Maybe it's the way I sell it? 🤣

I've found that there's two types of people, the "Wow! That's genius!!!" and the "why on earth would you need someone to tell you how to clean???"

I do know a few "Wow! That's genius!!!" types.

I also have a lot of neurodiverse friends I'm amazed that I sucessfully made it down the aisle at my wedding as all 4 bridesmaids were dyspraxic or dyslexic... actually there's a great photo of me tripping at the church threshold 😂

Pleased to see the new Twixtmas tidy dropping. I used the Boxing Day one throughout the year as a 10 min tidy was so handy.

That's the thing, I can now spend 10 mins doing that purposefully and see a benefit and know that I completed A Thing. Doing it of my own accord means it's not a completed job unless I trigger into 3 hours of hyperfocus, and it's too hard to do in a little and often way to keep on top of.

I did the whole New Year's clean after a couple of lazy days. We have a family tradition, or yearly vague threat, that if the house is a mess on NYD then it will remain a mess for the rest of the year. And despite knowing that it's a nonsense - I still feel compelled not to let the previous good work fall into a pit when there a whole year on the line!

I've been back Scurryfunging again today for visitors. 35 mins and all sorted in good time, no stress again.

It does help that the DCs have tipped past playing with lots of random stuff, but it's still being simple to maintain.

Has anyone found a way to play the rock the housework cleans on Alexa/Google home? I'd like to have it playing so can be heard anywhere, and by dh as well as me! (If using it alone I just stick my headphones on). I have the TOMM subscription, not the Patreon one though.

Happy New Year Everyone!!

So, the house is a bit upended after all the celebrating last night. I see a living room bootcamp dropped today and I like the idea of hitting the ground running so will get to it the moment the hangover relents...any minute now.

Hope you all had a good one!

Sorry @Dropthedonkey I have no idea. If you get it nailed though, that sounds like a great way to do a multi-person clean.

@Dropthedonkey I just connect my phone to Alexa via Bluetooth and listen that way.

Thanks projectsgalore 👍 I can't see how to do that, but I'll get my teenager into it!

Is anyone else doing the messy bootcamp cleans this week?. I'm a day behind because I didn't get to the bedroom one until today. So tomorrow I'll do the hallways but because my hall is just a gesture, I'll take the opportunity to gut one of the kids bedrooms too.

Still in holiday limbo here. DH back in work today. DCs back to school on Monday.

I would say I'm being lazy, but I have just spent the last few hours doing some tedious adulting so should give myself some kudos for that!

We are slowly emerging from the limbo, two kids went back today and one is back tomorrow. Thankfully all three schools decided on an early break up-early return. Our decorations are mostly away - I used the decorations down cast - but I haven't got the mettle to do the outside ones yet - Thank you storm Hank.

I think there really isn't enough adulting kudos! Well done 😁

We are about to hit a mini birthday season in our family, three birthdays in less than two weeks, including one kids birthday I need to get organised this afternoon and one get-together meal for my dm, that I'll do here.

After a few days of slump, I'm getting back into things with some short sessions.

Done a 15 min declutter in my room which has been neglected for a while and catching up on laundry. The school shirts need switching over to dry now and all sorted for Monday. #winningatlife 😂