I've got a day off tomorrow. Hoorah!!!!! Sadly have no choice but to clean and need a kick up the butt for houseworky motivation.

[bauble99]

I need to do some housework (believe me, this aint' no cosmetic exercise )......Booooo!
Elijah will be with me and he's frightened of the hoover. He's only heard it four times in the ten months since he's been born
OK. I need a schedule. Two bedroom flat (no stairs) loo is mingin' at the moment (all boys, yuk!) bathroom ditto and kitchen floor.... Mr Bubble will take the big Bubble boys to school at 8.45am, which leaves me 6 hours before I have to collect them in the afternoon.
Is there anyone who is good at time organisation/allocation? If I'm left to my own devices I'll wuss out and go back to bed with Elijah/drink coffee all morning and read etc. and then hate myself in the afternoon as I'm rummaging through the mess for the babywipes.
If I get some pressure from any of you, I'll do it as I know that mnet and the plooter sees everything.

Oh yes, take a box with you as you clean and place things which don't belong in that room in box. Then you just have to run around the house once!

Also load washer tonight so all you have to do is to switch on.

Honest promise. Will monitor you whilst at work and being really really jealous that you are getting all of your cleaning done

Don't forget to wear rubber gloves. Otherwise the whole prospect is so shiveringly disgusting that you won't even start. IMO, anyway.

Oh, forgot to add, whilst en route to school, get a bottle of wine; place in fridge; once finished said tasks, chill and enjoy whilst looking at your reflection in bathroom. Cos's it's the only place you will ahve peace. Cheers

Life does seem sweeter in a clean/tidy home, doesn't it? I may be having a Stepfordy Wives moment, but I'm now feeling motivated to get on with it tomorrow.

Do you think tying a mop onto the crawling baby's PJ's is a step too far???

Messy is OK. Dirty and messy is bad.

J cloths under his knees vg idea though.

Chocolate is my motivation tonight!!! Now just have to clean highchair, put labels on last few pressies and hoover. Will maybe clean bathroom tomorrow. Thanks to whoever it was who suggested cleaning the light switches tonight, I did those and the doors too.

PMSL at "check under cushions for nonsense" from ML!

Bubble, my love, we are kindred spirits. You are welcome to my house without notice at any time because I know you will understand

I would ring Greenacres (cleaning franchise in NZ) hand them the cash and go out.

But seriously - start with the bathrooms, then pile everything onto the beds and dust and vacuum. Then you will have to tidy that stuff away to get into bed - which will provide motivation for you.

Do the kitchen next so that you have to do it before you have a sandwich for lunch.

Eat lunch in the living room - this will motivate you to tidy and clean the living room.

Then have a cup of tea.

Then go back to the bedrooms so you can get to bed.

Never leave a room empty handed.

But, MI. That's the thing. Even if I had a cleaner he/she would have to spend ages tidying up to even get to the bits that need cleaning.

My ds trod on a coco pop recently, he hasn't eating them for about 4 months, we don't have any, and promptly ate it. Disssssssgusting. It's not that bad in my house, but it's not good. I couldn't have people turnign up unexpectedly as sadly, people think that you have to be superwoman and mum at the same time. It's absolutely impossible. I sometimes get really down about it. But DH doesn't do sod all. he tries at the weekends but then says he can't do 2 things at once, look after DS and do housework. Even if he does, he only tidys, doesn't clean properly.Argggggggggggh, this is one of my biggest 'i feel like a walking failure ones'.

Aha! Mr Bubble has a habit of wiping things, surfaces, kitchen table, whatever... when he's distracted, on the 'phone etc.

Must ask friends/relatives to 'phone with long and weary sagas when he's in the kitchen. Sorted!

Bauble, this wouldn't be an attempt at creating a bit of, erm, ambience at home would it .

Oooooooooooh, young MAN!

Sorry, am in a strange mood...

for anyone who wants to let us know if they are also having a cleaning mission today :)

I feel all cleansed after reading marsy's post and I am not even at home

Thankyou, thankyou and thankyou again to all of you who gave me the requested and much needed kick up the butt.

I started at 5am as Elijah had a completely unsettled night. I got so much done in the first couple of hours before the bigger Bubble boys woke up. I listened to The World Service and heard the funny little medley of tunes they play before R4 kicks in.

Seven loads of washing later (I've even hand-washed the woolly things that have been languishing at the bottom of the 'laundry basket', AKA the floor ) and my home is clean. Hoovering was difficult as Elijah kept following me around, crying, and I needed to stop to let him 'rescue me' from the hoover-beast.

I'm truly embarrassed at the mundane-ness of this post, but whatever floats your boat, eh?!

Really good suggestion to start in a room/s least appealing to hang out in. Thanks.

Marsy I had you in mind as I binned all of the junk and dealt with the 'nonsense' congealed into and stuffed under the sofa. The power of mnet, eh?

Now planning to take Thursday as a day-off, so I can fine tune, attack the bookshelves and the Oven of Doom.

I also caught myself procrastinating this morning, I found a freebie property paper and decided that I had to find a house for Chicagomum. The virtual power of UCM soon sorted that out though.

Well done you!

You did better than me lol!

So... where are we looking for this house for Chicagomum then? I thought she was all sorted?

[very proud of bauble emoticon]

Very proud of you, Bubble!

Can you come and do mine now as have been advised to take it easy by the doctor You seem to have a knack for it (I'll post you a key so you can let yourself in if you will insist on starting at 5am though, and if you could wear headphones to listen to you radio, that'd be much appreciated)

now this thread is bumping itself.....weird!!!!!!!

South West London/Middx borders. £400k ish. I found her a four bedroomed (and interesting looking) house in Hampton, walkable to the train station (travel links into Waterloo essential)and near to schools.

Much more interesting than cleaning behind The Cooker of Doom. Note.. not inside The Cooker of Doom. See earlier post. [Procrastinatey emoticon]

Munker. [attend to your own limescaley] emoticon.

Oh, go on. Just come and clean the cooker. You'll have a real taste for doing it, I bet

bauble we are currently ignoring hinker who should be in bed sleeping, cos she REALLY NEEDS HER SLEEP SO GO TO BED AND STOP LURKING WOMAN!!!!!!!!!!! (obviously the shouting wasn't at you bauble my gorgeous!)

btw.... the scarf is still looking lovely and drawing crowds!

Well done! Just keep out of the house until the 25th and it'll still be clean for Christmas!