Disorganised Chaos!

[Jodee]

Help! I am starting to sink under the mess and muddle that I call my house. It's not that my house is dirty (not by my standards anyway) - I am managing to keep on top of the housework, (apart from dusting)in fact I probably spend too much time cleaning and hoovering, when my son is asleep - I think it's important to spend quality time with him when he is awake, not cleaning the house. I don't want to get into a debate about how much help we get from our partners with the housework (my husband does all his own ironing, so he is a complete saint in my eyes).
To get to the point - I can't get to grips with the other stuff, particularly paperwork. I'm one of those 'just in case' people - for example, some rubbishy circular will come through the letterbox and I will put it to one side, just in case. The same goes for bank statements, till receipts, those mini statements you get from the hole-in-the-wall... the list goes on. My bedside cabinet is piled high with stuff, mainly because the drawers are already stuffed full! My husband is getting irritated with me now as my stuff is starting to encroach onto his side of the bedroom and he is threatening to get a black sack and chuck every piece of paper lying around into it.
Things started to go from bad to worse when ds was born 16 months ago; I would really like to get on top of this thing before no 2 comes along, which is nearly in the pipeline.
There was another thread about mess and untidiness and someone mentioned a site called LifeCoachingAcademy.com which sounded like it would be helpful, but it is under construction.
Please tell me I am not the only one like this, and any help would be very gratefully received, before I completely turn into my mother, who is 100 times worse (in fact my husband won't even let me take my ds round to her house, she has to come to us!)

If you seriously want a life coach and money is the only thing that's stopping you, it doesn't have to. Most coaches (myself included) have a number of clients whom they coach for free or for whatever the client can afford. We do this to build up our experience, spread the word about coaching and help as many people as possible. If anybody wants to know more about this then feel free to get in touch with me on [email protected]

This thread has made me feel so guilty about my house that I've decluttered two big cupboards this evening and removed nine bags of jumble/rubbish/attic items. So why wouldn't the stuff that's staying all go neatly back into the newly sanitised cupboards?????

As for cooking, it's the opposite of creative for me. I resent the time spent making something that has disappeared twenty minutes later. I don't mind 'occasion' cooking but day to day stuff wears me down. If I could afford one person to help me in the house, it would be a cook, not a cleaner!

This thread has really made me think about getting myself together particularly with a new job beginning of September. 3 weeks to count down and I am determined to be Ms. organised whilst doing something about the 'exhausted look'!
Croppy, I've taken your comments about stocking the freezer to heart and realise we actually need a bigger freezer! I love cooking, so whilst I am at home this is no big deal but we all have times when we just need to grab something from the freezer! Furthermore, like others on this thread I find feeding people a pleasure so it certainly seems the way to go.

As far as being exhausted is concerned I ordered supplements off the internet yesterday... something else I must use more regularly. Endless minutes pondering over which product to buy, trailing from shop to shop...what a waste of time! I like shopping with girlfriends or daughter, the kind that involves a leisurely lunch in a stylish place but I hate everyday necessity shopping! Tigermoth, sunglasses and lippy always a must but I do look kind of idiotic in the rain like this... might get my eyelashes tinted though... and book that hair appointment!!

Thanks Harrysmum. I'll see if plums and blackberries/apples work the same.

Anyone any other ideas of what I can do with a glut of plums and blackberries - apart from the obvious pies and crumbles...yum!....I'll be fat as a house soon but as I pregnant I'll be fat as a house soon any way so this seems a good excuse to sample some of my own cooking!

Hi Hmonty, my favourite plum recipe, that is perfect for lying on sofa in evening accompanied by oodles of cream, custard or ice cream is:

Nigellas Baked Spiced Aromatic Plums,

I make a huge batch, and they freeze brilliantly, so I put in various pots, 'just me' size and dinner party size etc. Her recipe serves 6-8:

1kg plums 300 ml red wine 2 bay leaves half tsp ground cinnamon 2 cloves 1 star anise seeds from 4 cardamon pods * 200g honey

Oven gas 3/160c

Choose a baking dish that will fit the plums, halved, in one layer. I use a big lasagne dish.

Cut the plums in half, take out stones and put in dish, cut side down.

Put all the other ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour over the plums, cover dish tightly with either a lid or foil and bake for about 1 hour (or until tender).

Keep the fruit in fridge for up to 3 days, reheat gently on the hob.

It makes a yummy smell in the kitchen and is gorgeous! Cant wait for my plums this year. I saw that Waitrose had a plum jam recipe card out, will try and remember to pick it up.

This is a great thread. Really interesting to see how everyone organises and prioritises their lives. I err toward the Croppy & Bells school of organisation. I deal with all incoming post on the day. Our local authority has just introduced new recycling objectives so we have bags for paper which all fliers, envelopes etc get put straight into. I file everything: bank statements, credit card bills, salary slips etc and keep records going back 3 years. If I haven't got time to file immediately I put the papers in a filing tray in a cabinet to do asap. I also keep a file of the local takeaways and services, which I empty about once a year and that solves the problem of not wanting to throw away potentially useful local information.
I hate the house being messy, so keep on top of everything as best I can. Never leave any room empty handed (although still battling with dh on this one). Good fairly cheap storage solutions, which look quite attractive are lidded baskets. We use these for toys and I also have them in my bedroom for the vast amount of pots of potions and lotions I have accumulated over the years. I do have a cleaner for 3 hours a week, which is a huge luxury as far as I am concerned.
I also make big effort to maintain pre-child appearance. If anyone is short of cash and wants regular hair-cuts - offer to be a hair model at your local salon. I did this all the way through university and never had a duff cut. The trainee is always supervised and you don't have to go for wild and wacky. You are usually not charged for this and you can just give the trainee a couple of quid as a tip.

Aaahhh Bugsy - a soul mate!

Can report I have tidied kids rooms this morning and put away mountains of clothes. DD has had clothes moved out of the way so she can't put on 6 pairs of pants a day and change her outfit 4 or 5 times!

I'm going to start using the airing cupboard, sheets can go in there instead of on my bedroom floor where they usually are!

Will do my room tomorrow (need to pace myself), can report kitchen is tidy (been 3 days now).

I'm battling against feeling inadequate....I'm not disorganised, but would love to have 6 weeks' worth of food in the freezer! My brain doesn't usually work more than a week in advance. I also think Nigel Slater is great and refuse to have a microwave for fear I will get sucked into the cycle of ready meals, although you then can't panic defrost anything when you get home from work and find there's nothing to eat. Am quite good on chucking stuff, especially as this is the first time I'm living in a house (as opposed to a flat, where you can never store anything), although not great on throwing out clothes - must try harder. Dh is completely useless on this front - calls all tidying up pottering and gets really annoyed when I 'potter' in the room with the telly as it prevents him from relaxing... When child no.3 comes along, I will definitely, definitely demand a cleaner - even if it means I have to starve(although what will that do to what will undoubtedly be my haggard appearance?)
Only tip I can think of is glass fronted cupboards (obviously not at child height) as you have to keep them tidy because people can see in, but you don't have to dust inside.
I do think energy is the key, but then if you have children that can be pretty elusive.

You're right about energy Sid. Croppy and Bugsy, where do you get your energy from? Is it because you're young and fit (I'm old and try to stay fit by going to the gym 3 times a week but I find exercising tiring as well!) I can't afford a cleaner as I have a large garden so have a gardener instead. This helps my husband more than me though as he would do the mowing, etc not me if we didn't have one. I think it's about mental energy more than physical and by the time I've dealt with DD's and DH's emotional needs, the energy for housework has dissipated completely. I can only admire the organised people here but will never be able to invite any of you round as I would die of shame.

I too have the Clutter problem.....however my solution was an Au Pair to do everything else while I tackled the paper mountains!

There's a website I once found devoted to this whole subject - it US, so terribly worthy in a Martha Stewart sort of way, but definitely still worth a visit, with a few useful downloads...

organizedhome.com/

Incidently, Croppy, you must be the Martha Stewart of the UK, have you thought of writing a few books??

Tee hee Motherofone - was wondering when someone would mention the dreaded "M" word. I see no need to turn myself into a national hate figure as I am quite happy just being a local one thankyou!!.

Croppy, I think I've sussed your real name... You are in fact Nigella the Goddess, are you not? All that talk of chicken stock and friends wafting in for dinner!!

Motherfone, I just checked out your link, and have come straight back out of it. The first page talks about-how to get organized now, for christmas. ahhhhhhhhh!

Acorns, that's the answer! Since yesterday evening I have earned 55 of them.That's £55.00 to you.

Acorns are the units of money used by my local LETS scheme. I have just hired out a batch of retro clothing (took just 30 minutes of my time) and I can now swap my Acorns for other services in the LETS directory. I have already spoken to a woman offering house cleaning services(with references). And there's special occasion cooking on offer as well.

MIL and Fil are due to visit in a few months. Guess who won't be doing a mammoth spring clean this time around!

Christmas! But it's not the 24th December yet....

As for chicken stock.....Good old chicken oxo has to do for me!

Really must learn to cook properly one day.

Tigermoth,
Can you remember the name of the thread where LETS was discussed? I can't find it and I'd be interested to check if there's a local scheme...

Thanks

Hmonty, it is called 'The LETS scheme. Have you tried it? Does it work?' - and it is under the topic called 'Other'- look under 'T' not 'L'.

Now you've got me interested, as I am a good gardener and could do with a brick-layer!!!! I just did a search on the web and the site came up as www.letslinkuk.org

Not sure if surrey has any entries, will read on!

My son has his christening on Sunday and I have been busy cleaning and even painted the downstairs toilet and hall and landing. I feel really good, Im de-cluttering and everything is looking clean, tidy, spacious and spells lovely (not that it smelt horrible just smells bleachy clean now). My MIL gave me some Flash with bleach which is brilliant, allowing effortless cleaning. I will always have some in my cupboard from now on and it is so quick just to give everything a quick wipe over. My husband now thinks Im housewife of the year.

Croppy, are you busy in your holidays????????, hee hee. Anything that contains bleach is very theraputic, as I feel that it has been blasted and is hopefully clean. Although, the dirt etc that I have to cope with on the lino is a bit different to most!! Like a husband who walked from the backdoor to the kitchen window where the phone is and left dirty great size 9 Nora wellie Prints all over my lino and carpet (Half kitchen in lino other half in carpet) Who then wondered why I had gone a funny red colour and was spouting forth various expletives!! I do like my Dyson, I quite like to see what has been removed from the floor. Or another one, a collie bitch who thought she was having pups, and nested behind the couch in the kitchen and refused to come out unless it was for food, this is the second time this has happened and she pinches all the kids toys that make a noise and Lucy's dolls. In fact she still takes dolly to bed with her at night when she is shut in her shed, but she sneaks into the house in all states, clean, moderately dirty and then as if she has had a bath in cow . Never mind her hormones were a bit haywire for a while, silly dog even had milk!, theres me with the rubber gloves on giving her hormone tablets to stop the flow of milk. The things we do eh

aah, so sad - did your collie look bigger as well? Hmm, wonder why women don't have phantom pregnancies?!

Glad to hear from you Tigger, the F&M must have been keeping you very busy. Have you got 6 weeks worth of food prepared in your freezer?

Does anyone have any recycling tips? About the only things I bother to recycle at the moment are bottles, magazines and clothes - but I do feel guilty about not making much effort. Does anyone have separate bins for various items? It was bin day today and I'm disgusted at the amount of rubbish we produce week after week. I don't have a car so I'd have to do it bit by bit walking to the recycling point - any tips from all you super organised people?

Do you have a garden? - since we got ours and got a compost bin our rubbish creation has reduced - all sorts of things go in, tea bags, egg boxes, egg shells etc, not just vegetable waste. Another hint is to crush all tins and plastic bottles so that the volume of rubbish you create is lessened. (Hint for the bottles, take lid off plastic bottle, crush it as small as poss and then put lid back on so it doesn't 'uncrumple')