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Original poster

Secrets of Naturally Tidy People

130 replies

Seabird · 07/08/2005 20:24

Calling all naturally tidy people - pleease give me some tips! My house is always such a mess. It seems to me that this is inevitable with 2 under-2s, but everyone else's houses always seem to be tidy. How do they do it????

The children are at my mum's this weekend and I spent 3 hours blitzing the kitchen but I know that within minutes of their return it will be back to its usual state. My sitting room is full of piles of papers to deal with, mail order catalogues I'm intending to find time to look through etc - what does everyone else do with these? (Look at them immediately they arrive? If I tidy them into a pile I never find them again.)

The weird things is that when I worked as a lawyer my office was always immaculate! (I'm now a SAHM.)

Do I need a System??

I will be sooo grateful if anyone can help!

OP posts:
jane313 · 07/08/2005 20:57

I only have one washing basket as I never do ironing (excpet for weddings andd funerals). My house is soooo tiny that I have to keep on top of it else we would disappear

Original poster
Seabird · 07/08/2005 20:58

hondadream (4mo) ds's wardrobe is 3 tesco carrier bags in the sitting room as it's too far to go up to his room to get him dressed .

OP posts:
dinny · 07/08/2005 20:59

I'm naturally a tidy person and get quite stressed if the place is too messy. You just have to be ruthless and chuck stuff out all the time and never hoard junk. And break cleaning down into 10 min jobs. ie. the Sunday Times - Monday morning I'll chuck out the bits I know we won't read over the next week.

how boring do I sound?

HondaDream · 07/08/2005 21:00

And odd socks what do you do with them?

jane313 · 07/08/2005 21:01

I keep odd socks cos often the other one turns up in a duvet or pillow case

Original poster
Seabird · 07/08/2005 21:01

I make dh throw out the sunday times on sunday night! (I KNOW I won't get time to look at it in the week) It's much easier to be ruthless with his stuff than my own

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jamiesam · 07/08/2005 21:02

Seabird

If going cold turkey on your paperwork is too hard, try my system.

We have one 'in tray' in the hall for all post that needs something doing with it - dh magazines so he knows they've arrived, bills etc. When it starts to take on a life of it's own, we sort through it while the oven cooks a ready made dinner! (Oh, and I only recently learned how brilliant direct debit is - I always used to religiously wait for the red bill to appear before sending off my cheque (hangover from being a poor student - 20 yrs ago!!). Now of course, bills come through 'ready paid' and I don't know why I keep them... Does anyone else know why I keep my old bills? )

We have a magazine rack in the living room and anything that doesn't fit in it gets thrown out, or has to displace something else to paper recycyling bin.

Get a paper recycling bin - for a couple of weeks, I felt like I wasn't REALLY throwing things out - I could retrieve them if I remembered or needed them. Have rooted through it once for something I desperately wished I hadn't thrown out, otherwise, I didn't need what was in there.

Have a cupboard/shelf for catalogues. Ensures that they don't build up to unreasonable proportions and that you throw out old catalogue when you put new one in (ish!)

Not that my house is dead tidy or anything, but that all helps a bit.

Hattie05 · 07/08/2005 21:02

It is true, tidy people wish they were messy.

When me and dp were childfree and both at work fulltime, it was fine, two plates and two cups to wash up at the end of the day, and tv turned off! Quick dust and hoover once a week and all was hunky dory!

Phew, throw a two year old into the occasion and me and dp working from home makes it a whole different ball game.

After a stressful few months with us all on top of each other, the first thing i had to do was 'train' myself not to get so uptight with mess. That has worked and i've chilled out now. Basically i just forced myself to not mind the finger prints on the tv, the cups not in the dishwasher, the ironing pile not yet ironed etc.

But some of my tips are.

First thing in morning, empty dishwasher, washing machine on.
Open post and all goes out of sight upstairs on my desk, which i then sort out once a week, pay bills, file stuff or shred it.
At some point during the day i will do a couple of housey type tasks such as clean windows/dust everywhere and empty bins/clean sofa's .... then i devote the rest of the time to dd otherwise i'm in danger of cleaning allll day!!
After dinner i get dd to help tidy all toys away and generally clean any muck that is around, then hoover.
Whilst dd baths, i clean the shower and rest of the bathtime.
Then she's in bed and i put my feet up knowing there is no mess!!

jane313 · 07/08/2005 21:02

Yes I am itching to throw out my dhs football programmes, hes never going to look at them again!

HondaDream · 07/08/2005 21:02

I keep them in the vain hope I will find a pair and as soon as I bin them miraculously the other one appears.

dinny · 07/08/2005 21:06

God, I don't wish I was messy. Love our place looking all beautiful and tranquil....which it does, for about 5 minutes a fortnight.

Caligula · 07/08/2005 21:37

Odd socks - I have a socks bag and we have a sock audit every couple of weeks. Half the socks in the bag get paired off.

WideWebWitch · 07/08/2005 21:39

Just opened this thread and just need to post a emoticion at seeing the words 'sock audit' ooh, makes me all faint!

Caligula · 07/08/2005 21:42

ha ha ha - I deliberately put that phrase in!!! Knew it would freak some people out!

jane313 · 07/08/2005 21:43

I'm visualising you with a clipboard and speadsheet

Gillian76 · 07/08/2005 21:45

So Caligula, you give flylady the thumbs up? Anyone else?

Original poster
Seabird · 07/08/2005 21:51

come tuesday dd & I shall be feather dustering, me with ds tucked under one arm!

Now that phrase "sock audit" makes me feel all motivated! (I am a very anal untidy person, an unhappy combination.)

OP posts:
Gillian76 · 07/08/2005 21:53

You know seabird, I think that's why I am so frustrated. I didn't realise it was possible to be anal and untidy!

Caligula · 07/08/2005 21:53

No, no clipboard - though DS might like that!

Just rows and rows of socks. Greys, blacks, blues, etc...

I unsubscribed from Flylady as her e-mails and platitudes were doing my head in, but the principle was good and made me set up rotas on my outlook. So on Mondays, it pings up with "polish wooden furniture" (OK, it does it on Fridays and says "4 days overdue"... but you know what I mean. It means that my wooden furniture actually does get polished occasionally, as opposed to never.)

Original poster
Seabird · 07/08/2005 21:55

Ooh I'd better go and have a bath before bed I'll never sleep otherwise, too over-excited at the prospect of my new tidy life (which will begin when I get home from the spa I'm spending my birthday at tomorrow. Well maybe...

OP posts:
Original poster
Seabird · 07/08/2005 21:58

actually, thinking about it gillian76 I think maybe anal and untidy isn't such a weird combination - it means whenever I start tidying I end up filing tupperware in height order. I think this is what flylady refers to as being sidetracked

OP posts:
Caligula · 07/08/2005 21:59

That was me six months ago Seabird. Now I just throw all the tupperware in the bin and have a blissfully empty cupboard and nowhere to store food.

Pixiefish · 07/08/2005 22:10

I have a policy of only touching a piece of paper once. I action it straight away- either into the recycling bin or deal with it.

I also tidy as I go, take cup to kitchen and put in dishwasher as soon as I've finished for example. I clean the bathroom as soon as I get out of the bath. Tidy dd's toys during the day as part of play.

I also never keep things that I don't use. Clothes that I haven't worn within the last year get put in attic or charity bin.

jane313 · 07/08/2005 22:12

ooh action it, sounds very professional!

moondog · 07/08/2005 22:14

Discard,pass on and recycle. Maintain the momentum ruthlessly.
I have two homes to maintain,one in Monte Carlo (nah,only joking,in Kurdistan actually) and one in Wales. Just had a big clean up tomnight on the eve of leaving Blighty as I couldn't bear to return to chaos in a month.

I agree with getting rid of catalogues asap. Also regularly go through kids' stuff and pass on. They grow out of it frighteningly fast.

Most importantly.......buy very little.