If your house has ever got seriously out of order … and you have managed to get it back under control …

[Scatteredthoughts522]

Can you please help and advise? This question is for people whose houses have got really bad in certain areas - not hoarder level but I can imagine it getting that way if I don’t intervene now - but who have managed to rein it back in… .

I am facing a situation where I need to get back on top of my large six bedroom house. The ground floor is just about ok. I can invite people in. Apart from the utility and garage which are in a bit of a state.

The upper floors, apart from the bathrooms, are a disaster though and getting worse. And I hate this feeling of not being on top of it!

My physical fitness is limited atm following an accident, a bout of depression, and another health condition, so I can’t physically do a lot in one go. I am not young either!

What is required is a major all hands to the deck clear out of stuff before I can deep clean but realistically atm I don’t have the capacity for either.

So my question is … has anyone honestly managed to get back on top of things by doing two hours focused decluttering and organising a day?

Is it possible? Or am I whistling in the wind? The reason I ask is that I have a cleaner for two hours a week but can’t afford any more help atm. I work for four hours a day so thought of doing one hour before work and one hour after work until it gets done.

Thanks for any thoughts. I am at my wit’s end with it all and desperately need to be back in control.

No harm in giving yourself a day off. It can be mentally draining as well as physically.

I really let my house and garden go after SH died 5 years ago. This year I am slowly getting it back in order. My "plan", which seems to be working, is to do "something" everyday.

Sometimes it's filling one bag with rubbish from the garden, or clearing out one drawer, sometimes it's spending all day gardening or painting, sometimes it's somewhere in between.

Well done op!

I’d definitely have a weekend day off, I think it’s a slow and steady approach.

Anglo collections have been my saviour. You just book online and leave clothes and small household items in labelled bin bags outside your front door. So easy. They give to charity although aren’t a charity themselves but at least you know your stuff has a chance at a new life without the hassle of listing on FB etc. it says they cover most of the uk.

Yes I think I will! Thank you. Like a diet, it’s got to be sustainable,

I think this is an excellent plan as it bypasses the over-thinking and goes straight to “doing”. It also presumably adapts to that day’s energy levels.

I am sticking to one room at a time atm but if I flounder one day and need a change doing something is much better than doing nothing.

My friend owns a skip company. I assume he operates the same as most others.

Basically, he has to pay massive amounts to send stuff to landfill.

So, every item in the yard gets sorted and if possible recycled or sold. It’s a key part of his business operating model. They don’t just launch the whole skip into landfill.

This revelation made me much happier that, when the time comes, I will take a couple of days off work, book a skip and just fill it!!

I know you need to pace yourself, but could you also ‘book’ your kids for a weekend in a few weeks time and have a ‘super boost’ few days where they just help sling it all in a skip for you?!?

I’ve just read your latest post too - that split of time sounds perfect!!!! You are 6 hours further ahead than you were and that’s nearly a whole working day. That’s a great achievement.

Sounds daft but I’d be motivated by a total
time tracker so literally blocks on a piece of paper on the fridge and I’d colour one in for every hour.

After say 40 hours (a full working week) plan a nice treat as a reward.

That way you physically see every single hour as contributing to a much bigger picture to keep you going.

This sounds like a pretty good way of doing it to me.
Of course the packing it up and taking it out is going to be part of the time counted. Of course you are going to take a day off from it, or you'll go doolally.
Stop beating yourself up, you are doing a great job. If you are struggling, you are allowed to tweak our change it so it suits you. A routine that makes you feel like you are losing is not the routine for you! It has to be one that you are comfortable with.
Here endeth the lesson 😊

Thank you very much for the encouragement FusionChefGeoff and SecretSquid

I really appreciate it

and for the advice about the skip FusionChefGeoff which is really good to know!

I am still quite daunted by the task ahead so it’s great to have this advice and to know that others think you are on the right track ifyswim.

I have already started a time-tracker in my weekly planner but I hadn’t thought of instigating a reward so I will definitely do that! Thanks again! Great idea!

Just about to start today’s morning power hour earlier than usual as have a visitor coming this afternoon so I want to get it done first.

Btw if anyone else on this thread is decluttering atm, pls feel free to report how you are getting on. It will be good to share the ups and downs… .

This thread inspired me op!! So thanks for starting !

I’ve been slowly chipping away last few months but not huge progress - so I’ve been doing a drawer a night and it’s been amazing 3 charity bags went off today from my weeks work!

kids and my wardrobes all looking neat and tidy and can see all the clothes

I’m tackling the toys tonight!!

Fupoffyagrasshole
brilliant to read your post!
How did it go with the toys last night?

It is incredible what just a bit of consistency can produce!

Having said that, I only managed 2 hours - including getting out of house - x four days straight last week, but I am still very pleased because starting is always the hardest bit and compared to zero that’s a big achievement for me. It’s not a bad thing to start small or realistically. All set to get back to it tomorrow.

toys went well!! I have a pile of teddies here and trying to go through with my 5 year old and choose some to go to another child 🤭a fun task as she jus LOVES all of them

Very well done Fupoffyagrasshole
soft toys are tough candidates for eviction!

Strongly suggest putting them out of sight until the while process is complete or they have a habit of muscling their way back in 😀

Hahaha yes ! I’m taking the kids away for the week for Easter break a few of the teddies are going to my niece

the rest we’ve agreed to part with will be gone

6 months time she’ll be like - omg where’s sheepy 😂

I tackled my Room of Doom a few years ago in lots of 30 minute bursts. The motivation was redecorating, and it involved a lot of clearing out of outgrown toys and turning the room into a more grown-up space.

I use a lot of different strategies.

My favourite for a general overwhelm situation is using sports interval timers, spend 2 minutes focusing on the most obvious theme, rest for 30 seconds and work out the next theme.

Mirroring, using other people or videos /podcasts of others doing/ talking about the same thing helps me focus.

I've found that properly stored clutter is often the oldest and easier to deal with. The top of a heap is more likely to be recent.

My current "project" (over-glamourising a bit here) is working through the build-up of stuff since Christmas. It's not so much decluttering as tidying and rehoming, but it's a similar mental process, just less disposal.

I have a 5 bed house (3 of us live here full time) start with going into each room and binning everything that needs to be binned! Then take out everything to take to charity shop/clothes bank.
find a clothes bank close by (the big metal ones in random car parks and take stuff regularly)
if you live in a high foot traffic area (ie passers by) put outside for free (I get rid of sooooo much stuff this way)
declutter declutter declutter is the best way to start x

We've been getting loads of stuff done in the house as not been able to afford to do anything for the past 20 years; stuff has just been bagged up and dumped where we can because we got the loung diner decorated plus new carpet then nearly straightaway a brand new bathroom.
My son's bedroom and the hall/stairs is next week.
So I have stuff everywhere but reading this I decided to at least get rid of one bag of rubbish as I don't need bank statements from 2009. I'm about half way through that and as I ended up putting loads of books in the car I've taken some more to Tesco's book swap today and the floor of the back seat is now clear.
No idea where i'm going to put the stuff from my son's room......but it's good reading that others are working through stuff too; thanks for the thread @Scatteredthoughts522 you're doing great!

Thank you for these latest replies

Great that you have found this thread helpful Judellie and that you are jettisoning so much stuff! I envy you your new bathroom 😀

It sounds like our circumstances are quite similar. We had to put a pause on our renovation after the pandemic as everything had gone up in price. Hence everything not having a home initially.

Good luck for the second half 💪

Thank you for this helpful advice @houseofisms

Can I ask a question please?

How do you get past the three people living in your house in order to declutter regularly?

I know it sounds like a silly question but my dh often works from home and I find it hard to get stuff done when he is here.

Thank you for these helpful tips.

I will definitely look at sports interval times when I’m struggling!

I definitely know what you mean about the layers! My drawers , cupboards and wardrobes (ie last layer) are quite tidy, empty and organised, but out of date in terms of what they are storing now; it’s all the stuff floating about that is the issue!

Also, I am so relieved to hear that I am not the only one still clearing up clutter accumulated at Christmas as I am desperately ashamed of this!

Btw, I am finding the “TOMM rocks” guided cleans absolutely invaluable as a body doubling type technique, and find the subscription of £3.99 per month worth it for those alone.

Hope you are having a lovely Easter holiday
Fupoffyagrasshole

And wishing everyone on this thread the same!

I didn’t get quite so much done last week as we had friends passing through town, who didn’t stay with us thankfully, but I had to switch my focus to cleaning downstairs, especially some windows and floors, and tidying up the garden, cooking for them, and showing them some tourist spots.

What I was happy about though is that I got straight back to decluttering the day after they left whereas I would normally allow the flow to be interrupted ifyswim 😬. So I managed 3 days of 2 hrs decluttering a day which isn’t bad in the circumstances. And I got rid of it all at the recycling tip this morning.

I did. But only one hour a day. I started with the garage so I had somewhere to dump stuff, then worked round the house roughly a room a day. Took about two weeks but it's never got so bad since. Nothing was sold on - that's a delaying tactic - it either stayed, was given to a charity shop or taken to the recycling centre.

When the house was visually sorted then I started on cupboards.