HELP. Where do I start - for anyone who used to live in a tip and is now reasonably organised, please advise.

[Austinhead]

OK, So i've found this forum after looking around on the net for ideas about how to sort out and organised my home.

Little bit of background, but won't bore you with the details......

I'm a stay at home mum (made redudant last year). I have a partner who works from home all the time. I have 3 kids, dd @ 6yr, ds1 @ (almost) 4yr and ds2 @ 4 months. I also have a dog who is 9 months and MAD, 2 cats and 2 guinea pigs.

Firstly I would like to say that i'm not looking for a show home. At the moment my home is a mess, it's not completely disgusting and dirty so it could be a lot worse, but it could also be a lot better. We have a lot of "stuff" lying around, some of which I don't know where to put, and some I do - it's just not been put there. I can spend an hour cleaning and tidying a room, and within 10mins it's a complete shit tip again courtesy of my kids - i'm sure i'm not alone with that problem

I've tried the flylady thing, and whilst i like the idea, it's too much, and too impractical to spend time checking my emails all the time. I've joined the slattens thread and will try to post a list.

I suppose I would like some advice on where to start, how do i start getting my house in order without completely neglecting something else ?. I would also like to know how often people do certain things, hoover round, do the washing, change bedding e.t.c. Do you have a checklist for things everyday ? How do you get your OH's doing stuff ?? (I tried a list, he said he would forget to look at it) Where do you put all the kids toys ??. My eldest 2 share a room, and I had a pretty good sort out but they still have so much stuff. I have the trofast storage from Ikea which works well, except for the big things - where do you put the big toys ??.

Anyway, sorry, rand over, I'd be very interested in any advice, and from hearing from anyone who has turned things around.

Thanks in advance .

I would start with cupboards, with doors. Cupboards with shelves and drawers. Storage boxes. Labels. Different sized boxes, some with lids, some without.

Everything needs to have a home and needs to go back into it's home whenever it's finished with. It's the only way.

IF the children want to keep their cupboards messy you might say that that is up to them but you wont be able to see the mess because it will behind the cupboard door.

I pick a floor of the house every three days and vac it and try and put as much away as I can in an hour.

The rest of the week I just pile into the ironing and clean the kitchen and bathrooms very well once a week.

Except the dining room which gets vac'ed and mopped daily as DS is weaning and drops food then picks it up and eats it again

But start with boxes, fill them with stuff - take it to the tip or the charity shop. Repeat mercilously.

You can generally get rid of 75% of your stuff and not miss it! Start with your wardrobe - it's wonderfully cathartic.

i generaaly stack everything that isnt in the correct place in one place ie the bed. then find a home from there. if you need bixes go and buy them but i use the bed so i have to complete it else i cant go to bed. usually once a month takes between 2 and 3 hours!

Ok I've not read anything except OP so sorry if what I suggest has already been done.

I am definatly a been there done that person so here's how I sorted it.

DAY 1

Start one room at a time and put everything on the floor in boxes/bags and pile them up. Do this around the whole house (unless you know where they live in which case put them in their "home")
Then hoover/mop floors, clean any newly found surfaces.

DAY 2

Again start in one room and go through bags one a time and have a keep/store/throw bags/boxes. You sort your things out into these and then do as you decided. If you were gonna throw it out when you first saw it throw it - dont put it away again thinking that you'll use it eventually.
The store bags/boxes go into loft/shed/etc the keep bags can either be sorted again and put away or put to one side till you've finished house is up to you.
Do as much as you feel like/can do each day but dont worry if you've not done much just do it the next day.
If you put your "keep" bags to one side then sorting them out is also included in this "day"

this part took me nearly a month

DAY 3 (or whatever day you're on once you've finished tha bags)

Clean any newly found surfaces
Go shopping for more storage (or use freecycle)
Make yourself a list of things you need to do regularly and decide how often you need to do them.

DAY 4 - ENJOY

Daily things I do

Hoover, brush, wipe down the sides in the kitchen, empty cat boxes, put dishwasher on, go through each room and pick up stuff that isn't where its meant to be and return to correct room (then next morning I actually put them away)

Weekly things I do

Washing, clean oven tops, sort DD's toys

Montly's

Clean each room top to bottom.

HTH and isn't too long winded.

'Do it when you see it' is the best advice I've ever had.

Don't step over stuff. Pick it up.

If it needs wiping, wipe it etc etc.

This has helped me enormously.

I will prob say the same as the above posters...
Get more storage if possible. Then stick ds2 in a sling and go from room to room. Assuming you have time without ds1...?
I do half an hour in each room, just sort stuff into piles; rubbish (be brutal), give back to people, charity shop, piles for other rooms. Do the half hour then stop even if you haven't finished, have tea, feed baby whatever you need to do then move on. This way you get some done and don't get bogged down in one place. Its based on Flylady but tbh I don't have time to come on here and write lists and stick to shining my sink or whatever.
Then vacuum every other day or so, I only mop once a week but have no pets or garden... Change bed sheets and towels weekly. Put on a wash a day, make sure I've washed up before I go to bed...It was hard to get into the routine, and I only have one dd, so it may not just fall into place, but you will get there, and life is easier with less stuff!!
Best of luck with it

Good post LuckySalem!
And good point Bubble99.
Follow those ideas and you'll be sorted!

I am on the slatterns thread too because I'm rubbish at getting round to housework

I've just started a new plan, which is to clean out each room once each week. So far it's working ok. I also wash dishes, vacuum, do laundry and clean the kitchen surfaces every day, and mop once a week.

The first thing I think you should do is de-clutter - it will make cleaning much easier.

Definitely de-clutter so that things have places to live, otherwise the place is never tidy enough to clean. Start with one piece of furniture/cupboard and bin or recycle anything you don't use/need/like.

I try and sort through a couple of places each week - eg. this week I did 2 kitchen cupboards and my bedside cabinet, this week I'm planning to sort out the bookcase in my bedroom.
I also have a crate in the living room that anything child related gets tidied into so that the floor stays clear and I can actually clean.

How often I do things
Friday night the sheets and towels/bathmat etc get changed over.
Every night we tidy the kitchen - if I'm knackered then the actual cleaning waits until the morning.
Every other day I sweep the kitchen floor.
We do one load of washing a day and then extra as required but that stops it getting out of hand.
The only rooms that get hoovered more than once a week are the hall and living room, everywhere else is once a week.
I dust the whole house once a week.

I also TRY to do one job per day that doesn't need doing very often - for example cleaning the insides of some windows, going round and wiping the paintwork, cleaning the inside of the oven, hoovering behind the sofa etc. Means that the day to day cleaning is much quicker because you aren't trying to get into the corners all the time.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, it's certainly given me some ideas on where to get started.
Can I also ask how much you guys tend to be at home ?. I seem to be running around with the kids most days apart from Wed and Thurs when ds1 is in nursery, but then I use those days for if I need to go shopping or pick up birthday presents, visit relatives e.t.c.

How long would you say you spend each day on housework ??

Thanks again

I'm currently trying to reform from being totally messy and disorganised into someone with a reasonably clean and tidy home.

I also liked the idea of fly-lady, but the specifics didn't match what I needed to do.

What I took away from it was setting myself missions and allowing myself to do 15 minutes here and there to chip away at each problem at a pace that suited me and my family life.

What I have done is to create my own mission list divided into zones. I have gone through each room in my house with all the things that have been bugging me - such as clutter on the dressing table, things needing throwing away in the wardrobe - etc. etc. to cover the whole house.

I have then created a table with three columns which is on my kitchen cupboard. The column on the left hand side is "job to do". The middle column is "progress made" and the right hand column is "done". Whenever I spend a little time (even if only a couple of minutes), I add a tick to the middle column. Once the job is completely done, I have the satisfaction of ticking the right hand column.

This has worked brilliantly for me because I have in black and white exactly what needs to be done. I allow myself to just do a bit at a time rather than having to set aside ages at a time to each task, and even if I've only done a little bit each day, I have proof of my progress in black and white.

Having done these things, I make sure they are maintained every day, so for example, if I have cleared an area and a couple of bits of clutter get onto it, I make sure they are put away before I go to bed before it becomes a "problem area" again.

As to how long I spend on housework per day - sometimes a few minutes, sometimes a few hours. I am a SAHM with a very active toddler so I tend to play it by ear.

HTH

I'm on mat leave, DS is 6 months old. We are generally at home all day on a Monday and a Friday. I generally have one whole day out a week seeing friends or family, and DS and I go to groups/classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. In comparison to some I am probably at home more of the time.
The trick is to do even just a little bit each day, one load of washing and a 20 minute tidy up is the least I let myself do otherwise it mounts up.
The best thing ever in terms of timesaving is the internet - I order one big shop weekly, it takes me about 40 minutes to sit down and plan a menu and then place the order rather than 2 hours or more to get DS ready to go out, get to supermarket, go round it etc. I also use Amazon for most presents and get things gift wrapped and delivered direct to the person (me and DH are prime members so the deliveries are free) which saves trips to the shops and the hassle of wrapping and hand delivering things. I reckon I save myself hours and hours every month by doing this.

I'm home all the time but only spend about 1 hour 2 hours top on housework. DD takes up all my time otherwise.

definitely agree with bubble99, do it as you see it. if you see a mucky surface, just grab a baby wipe and quickly whizz over it. and put everything back "where it lives" as my ds would say. he is 3 and is incredibly good at putting all his things exactly where they are supposed to be. also, with kids less is more. go through all their toys and be ruthless about what they actually play with. if you dont want to get rid then store in roofspace and rotate every so often. and ask people not to buy toys as gifts and explain why. i find that having a good morning routine is the best defence against messiness. like putting a wash on when you get up, washing dishes as soon as you finish breakfast and wiping surfaces, hanging the washing as soon as its dried. emptying cat litter, cleaning guinea pigs, lifting dog poo. once all that is done you can set different days for different tasks, ie bathrooms, windows, dusting, hoovering, ironing. i hope this helps

This is a great thread . I'm going to steal lots of these tips. I desperately need to tidy up my act & get on top of the housework & need a good kick up the derriere! Need to try to get my house on the market to sell asap and at the moment I'm too embarrased to let even friends & family see it , let alone estate agents & prospective buyers. Thanks everyone.

I shouldn't be offering advice on here because my house is usually in a state of total disorder and I'm in the process of baby-stepping (Flylady) and de-cluttering.

However, I'm trying to progress and so far the things that work are:

(1) have adequate storage for books/clothes/toys etc but then keep your (and everyone else's) possessions in line with the storage available .. ie ... new book in = old book out, new pair of shoes in = old pair of shoes out, and clear out toys regularly every six months and give them away ....

(2) Work with a timer - you can do a suprising amount in 15 mins and the prospect of that short time cleaning isn't too overwhelming - plus it stops housework expanding to fit the time available syndrome

(3) Delegate!!! Example = my 5 yr old distributes loo rolls around the house (she does need reminding), sorts socks, empties the dishwasher, clears empty plates off dining table and helps me put away shopping and arranges fruit in fruit bowl. Make bed-making a weekly family activity every Saturday or Sunday. In our house, we all make each bed together. No skivers allowed.

(4) Don't sit down to watch TV every night until the toys are put away, the table is cleared and the dishes are done, the washing has been folded/put away and the clothes for tomorrow have been put out (OK so I don't do manage this every night but I'm getting better!!).

(5) Develop a weekly/monthly/yearly routine. That avoids wasting time thinking about "what shall I tackle nex?t" - you know because it's a habit and it relieves stress because you know every room/task will get done eventually (I'm still working on this too).

(6) Ring-fence precious "time off" for yourself!! If you don't do this - housework will fill your time - you'll get depressed and you won't want to do either ...

If anyone has tips about incorporating ironing in to a routine, I'd be grateful, because that's the thing that rarely gets done here and I hate rifling through piles of dried and wrinkly washing in the morning ...