Feeling overwhelmed with house stuff - any tips please?

[Littlemiss74]

I’ve spent all day cleaning, decluttering etc and in this heat it wasn’t fun.
i work 4 days, dh 5 & have 2 dc’s 12 & 15, 4 bed semi.
The house always feels a mess & I feel like I’m constantly tidying up & it never gets any better. We are lucky to have a cleaner for 2 hours once a fortnight which helps. Today as I was tidying up i noticed how dirt has built in places eg skirting boards, walls in places, round light switches & then all the various shelves that never get round to dusting etc. We have mostly wooden or tiled floors which never seem to be really clean but it seems more hidden than carpet. Then there are the bathrooms, tiles, shower limescale build up etc.Everywhere just looks a bit tired & shabby. It is a 1960’s house so it it a bit tired in places.
The other day I visited a friend who has a 6 mth old & her house was spotless. It was styled Mrs Hinch kind of style, her kitchen floor & surfaces were white and spotless! Everything was tidy & there wasn’t piles of stuff everywhere. It felt so relaxing, I would like that but how do you do it? With busy lives, work etc I don’t want to spend all weekend cleaning! DH does help alot but it just never feels properly clean.
Just after some tips please as I’m feeling really overwhelmed. I have adhd too so find it hard to be organised & stick to routines. Is the the only way to become minimalist?

I'd like help too. You're not alone.

If you have ADHD, then the Rock the Housework guided cleans might be helpful (https://www.rockthehousework.co.uk/). There's one for all kinds of things, so you just put headphones in and do what you're told. I can get the whole house looking great in less than an hour even when it's been neglected if I just follow along (otherwise I spend a lot of time dithering). Some of them do go at a fair pace but there are more relaxed ones. I generally do one every day, depending on what needs to be done and what state the house is in. Crisis clean ones or downstairs/upstairs catch-up are good.

We try to carve out time either before dinner or after dinner to do 30 mins of house 'reset', so either DH takes kids or I do while the other blitzes. Then once kids are in bed I might do a quick after-dinner clean if I didn't do it beforehand and then the house is usually in a nice state to spend the evening in.

Personally for the annoying stuff like skirting boards and limescale, I would pay for your cleaner to come for a one-off deep clean that you repeat a few times a year that tackles the stuff that doesn't get done or need to be done weekly/fortnightly.

Oh and the biggest help to deal with piles of stuff: make sure everything has a home. Stuff piles up when it doesn't have anywhere to go. If stuff has a home then it's easy to quickly put away at the end of a day or whenever, but if you don't really know where it should go or have easily accessible storage for it, then it just gets moved around from hotspot to hotspot (our stairs are a disaster for this!).

Having less stuff is key so cleaning is literally cleaning surfaces not having to tidy away or move stuff around.

Yes, get more minimalist.

Put anything left lying around in communal spaces into a name -labelled box. If they’ve lost something, tell them to look in their box. Decant the boxes into appropriate rooms/spaces/cupboards regularly.

Consider getting a deep cleaning service in to quote. Walk around the house with them & point out your concerns before you take them on.

It’s important you inculcate into the kids the habit of putting stuff away. I can hear my mother’s voice in my head saying “put it back where you got it from.”
As a child my mum & dad ran a tight ship; a place for everything and everything in its place. We were an organised family. No stress looking for stuff in a hurry.

Get rid of stuff. You’ve probably got too much of everything. If there’s too much furniture which stops you getting in to clean in corners, against walls, along skirting, behind the telly, under the beds, tops of wardrobes, review your needs, move furniture around or get rid.

If you’re getting dirty marks around light switches, if handles are tacky, that dirt has come from somewhere so encourage more hand washing. Use napkins or kitchen paper for sticky fingers at meal times.

My ideas are tip of the iceberg. It’s hard work at first but if you keep at it, in the end it becomes second nature and you can enjoy your surroundings a bit more.

Look at TOMM. A big part of it is deep cleaning a different room on rotation for maximum of 30 mins a week. Our house if far from perfect but yes, keep ditching stuff.

I have adhd and really struggle. I heartily recommend Dana K White - A Slob Comes Comes. She has loads of videos on YouTube, hundreds of episodes of her podcast, but I also have her two books on Audible which are invaluable.

She's a real advocate of a 5 minute tidy, and NOT pulling everything out to declutter. She has definitely changed my attitude to my home and stopped me feeling completely overwhelmed!

The question is does the build up of dust bother you on all the days that wasn't today? I get like this when premenstrual, extremely agitated about the state of the house and then feel better (and lazier) a week later.

I have ADHD, thank goodness DH is a minimalist and will help me deal with my "stuff" when there is too much my overwhelm is horrific.

All of these ideas!

I hired a skip one weekend and literally managed to fill it with things no longer used including some bits of furniture we no longer wanted.

When people knew I was binning stuff I managed to get rid of a few things as they took them, eg 2 bikes and a car full of toys.

I also found a service that picks up unwanted items, mainly clothes, and got rid of 8 non bags that ways.

Also a deep clean twice a year.

Unfortunately once things are tidy and clean it is a bit of effort to keep them that way. Every time you come home (esp the kids) things have to be taken out of bags and put away. Also it's worth spending 15 mins a day tidying and another 15 on basic cleaning eg wiping around a bathroom and vacuuming a couple of rooms.

Hth

I live in a 2 bedroom massionette and couldn't understand why I could never keep it clean. I went on a minimalist rampage. I kept only what I needed or really loved. The difference has been massive. My home is now clean and easy to manage.

We do a ten minute tidy up at 7pm, the kids join in too so toys get put away, teen takes stuff up to their room including clothes that need hanging up. It helps a bit.

I use the organised mum method

My cleaners left cleaning in Covid and I have not found one since- an agency came and was going to charge nearly £40 an hour but the pre ious charged £20 an hour.
I can't get back to before the cleaning broke me with their magic. I used to manage without one - I lniw don't know how. Did it