How often do you have to do each room thoroughly to keep it free from clutter...

[CountessDracula]

I work pretty much full time, have a cleaner two mornings a week who cleans and tidies but still I get clutter building up

DD is away next week staying at GPs for the first week of the hols so I have a window of opportunity in the early evenings to sort each room out. I really don't want to spend my evenings/weekends doing this in a haphazard way but going forward I want to get rid of piles of shit everywhere

So I have a vague plan to do one room once a week (we have a 4 bed house with open plan downstairs and 2 baths)

Would this be enough
or should I do two a week?

All I need to do is declutter, file things that need filing, put things away in otehr rooms that have made their way into the wrong ones etc and chuck out crap. I reckon if I can get it all up to scratch next week then maintaining should be easy but how much do I have to do?

Otherwise I am just going to have to increase the cleaner to daily and train her to do it as it is driving me insane

oh and pls any tips really welcome

Not sure I can help but it sounds like we have a similar sort of house. I have 2 children (22 months and 3 weeks.)

During both pregnancies we decluttered our house ruthlessly and redecorated most rooms one at a time. We "managed" these "projects" by having a to-do list on the fridge and each week chose which jobs to tackle in the evenings (e.g. sort box of paperwork, varnish chairs) and which jobs to do at the weekend (e.g. hoover behind furniture in a bedroom, paint room.) Once you get one room sorted it spurs you on to do the rest.

Now we have a decluttered house. We permanently have a charity shop bag which we put things in and then drop it off when it gets full. We have a small cupboard each with a place to put pending paperwork so it doesnt hang around. Every morning the upstairs is left tidy and every evening the downstairs is left tiday. I am a bit OCD about stuff lying around though and I get very down if the house is dirty/untidy. So its self preservation!

Good luck

One room once a week is the way flylady suggest you declutter. You build a basic daily routine which includes washing etc and then each week work on one room of the house decluttering and doing a 'proper' clean of that room. Once you've been round the house then the next month is easier and it is then easier to maintain.

i work full time too, but on Friday evening afdter the children have gone to bed i do a one hour (Strictly no longer) one room tidy up..usually with black bin bag in hand to chuck anything like old papers, broken toys whatever in. Even if it's only 1 cupboard i tidy up it helps.

once every couple of months I gut the childrens playroom...and throw anything that is broken out. Anything that they no longer play with because its too young for them, goes into a box. If they hav't asked for it after a month it goes to the charity shop.

We have no clutter really

two little hotspots only

but that is the joy of being married to someone who has mild OCD