Does anyone want to help me sort my house out? Not physically! Just need a kick up the arse, its getting me down...

[DisenchantedPlusBump]

We have DC3 arriving at Christmas and I just need to sort my house out.

I just don't know where to start.

Whenever Ive done so in the past everything just gets 'hidden away' rather than genuinely sorted and its pissing me off.

I don't want to have to deal with 3 kids under 4 in this environment!

Its not filthy or anything just cluttered and too much clothes everywhere

Really would appreciate help

I want to be proud of my home!

De-clutter one area at a time....one cupboard, or under the bed, or the bit beside the sofa where everything gets stuffed

do it as a team with your DH, settle down to it of an evening - IMO de-cluttering and having kids around DO NOT MIX.

Oh and be ruthless, chuck things out! My tip is to have much, much less stuff. Minimalise...I know it's hard with kids but if you start off with almost nothing in the room it is much easier to keep tidy!

And I really hate to sound like Anthea Turner here, but we have got lots of baskets around on top of kitchen units, cupboards, bookshelves and it makes the place look alot neater, eg we have a basket for our brushes, sun-cream, keys, general bits and bobs and it's all in one place rather than left all over.

I can also recommend built-in shelving. Uses up all your space well and gives maximum storage.

Can you tell I have struggled with this issue!!!

Just sort through everything one bit at a time, just spend maybe an hour a day de-cluttering. Put all unwanted stuff on freecycle, so you dont even need to leave the house and all your stuff would go to a good home.

The less stuff you have, the easier it will be for you to keep on top of things

The main issue is the clothes TBH, theres just too many of them.

But now I know this baby is a girl I can get rid of all the 'younger' boys stuff.

Freecycle is a good idea.

Thanks.

Welcome to my life!!
I'm glad you started this thread - I need help too - I'm drowning and find I'm tidying away all the time ( that is shoving things in places they don't fit )
We have 3 DC and we have our house on the market although, thankfully, no one actually wants to look round at the moment!
DD2 pulls things out of the cupboards i can't keep closed with child locks and elastic bands and I can never find anything. So many things keep getting shoved away out of sight and I am so demoralised i don't know where to start. Currently too tired in the venings to do much - any child involved ideas to declutter?

child involved ideas for de-cluttering - sorry, not from me! And I only have one child!!! I will watch with interest for any ideas, though

I know evenings are a bad time and it's when we're most tired. But if you have a DP/DH I really can say that doing it together does halve the work and the effort and I've even found it a nice time to talk to DH - normally he'd be up on the PC or something!

My MIL is a teacher actully so off for the summer and my DH is at home for a few weeks too so now is the ideal time for her to take them out for the day and us to get this done!

I'm another one who struggles with this ... I'm going through a huge de-clutter currently ...so I feel yr pain

There is a flylady thread here that you could join (or just look at the website itself). It's full of awful folksy nonsense but if you can ignore that, then the underlying principles are sound: allocate zones - tackle 15 mins only per day etc. Little and often. (If you join the site they send you a million e-mails a day so better to follow one here.)

Agree with HonoriaG that getting your storage sorted is the way to go. Make sure everything has a place and then it's not such a pain to tidy up and you don't find yourself moving junk from one room to the next (I'm a fraud because I'm still moving stuff around but bit by bit the amount is decreasing)

Recently, I have been using my available storage to limit the amount of stuff I have ie each member of our household has one chest of drawers and one wardrobe for clothes. (Plus we have one spare wardrobe for coats, gloves, hats & specialist sports wear.) Therefore, if someone has the temerity to buy a new jumper and their wardrobe is full, they have to get rid of something old before it will fit in.

Likewise dd has new toy for birthday and tox box and shelf are full - an old one has to go out.

So new toy/article of clothing/DVD comes in = a matching one has to go OUT.

Also, get rid of anything old, superfluous or anything that you feel you should keep but don't really like. For example, I'd been holding on to a really good quality tablecloth I'd inherited and I was stuck on it being "too good to chuck". Then it finally fell victim to a recent purge and it felt disproportionately good not to have it staring up at me every time I opened a certain drawer. Ridiculous but true what a difference small steps like this can make. Be careful though, decluttering can get addictive ....

Good luck.

I occasionally do a bit of a de-clutter with dd (nearly 5 yrs) but you have to have the patience of a saint and it takes twice as long but better than nowt:

Start with one room. Get three boxes. Mark 1st "charity", 2nd "bin" and third "keep" (you could have another "recycle" or whatever suits). Put boxes on floor. Go through heap of nearest clutter and pick up an item. Give it to a child and ask it to put it in appropriate box. They quite enjoy running back and forth doing this. Then you actually deal with the boxes later when dc in bed.

Another method: swap with a girl-friend (has to be someone you are at ease with - don't mind them looking through your underwear drawer!) You go to their house for one or two days and help them declutter and then they come to you. Or you each look after one another's children while you get on with it alone.

sorry - declutter - ING

Been there too....
Take a step back and look around....review the storage you have and think about what you need and where you can fit it.

I echo the "everything has to have a place" and would add that in order to keep on top of clutter you have to de-clutter regularly and ensure that everything is put back in its allocated place.

Once you have thought storage and mentally given homes to things then tackle it one room at a time. Do not tackle more than one room simultaniously as the entire job becomes too big. If you cope with it in chunks ie I will sort out the living room today then it becomes achievable and motivates you to do the rest...

Good luck - you can do it...

Another idea - although it can get expensive - get baby-sitter in on three successive Saturday mornings and you and dh spend three hours decluttering. Plan your strategy the night before and have all equipment ready (plus prepared snacks/activities for children, ring-fence time, and don't let anything distract you. It's the last thing you want to do at 8.30 am on Sat morning but you'll feel great by lunch time!

God I wish I would follow my own advice a bit more ...

dclutter is my target for the hols! i like this thread!
i'm doing 30 minutes every day, and i hope that by september i'll be able to see what colour the carpet is in every room!

(well, that's a slight exaggeration, but not much)

i'm using the 'bin' 'charity' 'keep' approach. i do let the dcs help with their stuff - but tbh it mostly involves them spreading everything they own all over the house and then not finishing the job, so it all going back again.
we're doing books and videos/dvds first, only because it's so simple - clothes are going to have to wait, althoughit's tempting to get rid early for space's sake!

my 'charity' box is divided into two btw - get rid of to charity shop instantly, and keep for next NCT sale...

always promised myself i'd do a car-boot though, so may end up with a fourth pile this hols...

freecycle gives me a headache - it always looks so complicated...