Keeping house like my mum

msgnomey

paperwork is my downfall, I am so lazy I always 'put it there to see to it later' one of the oranisational book I read a lot has the first habit as being proactive, one day I'll do things BEFORE they become urgent!!

Patchwork_Quilt

I have a theory that people with tidy houses have awful cupboards and vice versa. There's only so much time.

However, I do agree with Pastures New that generally, we have so much more stuff than our parents. Where does it come from? I have enough for yet another charity bag this evening and we've got three bits of furniture waiting to be Freecycled.

Never mind. One cupboard at a time

London_Town

This is a very interesting thread and I'm relieved to see that I'm not alone! My Dad is 79 and has un-emptied tea chests in the garage from a house move in 1967. I don't look forward to going through all his stuff when we eventually lose him.

Because of this, I've always tried to be organised and clutter free. However, "tried" is the definately the word and I struggle with this issue greatly. I've moved house twice in the last three years and have carried dusty carrier bags of all my paperwork each time. They never got sorted and as one bag filled or split, I'd get new ones. Of course, whenever I needed a bank statement or MOT, I was always in a tizz trying to find it.

A few months ago I did a "Controlling Stress" course at work and it really made me think about what stresses me. I was ashamed to realise that I create most of my own stress through things like being disorganised.

My suggestion, is to get somebody else to go through your paperwork with you. Choose carefully, as you need to trust them with your private stuff, but they need to be detached enough to challenge and encourage you. I did this with my partner who doesn't live with me. It worked brilliantly as my awful carrier bags were emptied over my living room floor for a whole weekend. We had to work through them to reclaim the space and my partner made up lots of sub folders for me to place in box files.

Now, I can find anything quickly and am not stressed by such a stupid thing. Also, I'll maintain it because it's easy once it's all in place. As paperwork comes into my home, it goes into a tray in my spare room. Once a week I'll read it and it either gets filed, shredded or recycled as necessary.

maryb

We have big cellars in our house. You can imagine what they are like. I can never face moving house so I will have to stay here till they carry me out feet first

My poor children when that happens!!

WASHER

I'm a self confessed neat freak, I won't hoard stuff, if it needs to go into loft for whatever reason, other than in my children memory boxes, then it goes to charity.

I agree with Pastures, we have far more stuff nowadays, it doesn't make us happy, it causes stress in my opinion, so we have decided to give alot of the stuff to charity, tvs from my childrens bedrooms (unable to get freeview on them, and I'm not buying boxes), the Sky + box will go when the contract ends shortly and we will watch tv via freeview. We as a family are short of time because of all the gadgets we have, so we are getting rid.

My mother is a very tidy person and dare I say I take after her on the home front things.

One thing reading this thread, is paperwork some of you keep going on about, I don't understand unless you have a business, what paperwork can't you keep on top of, I open the post, bin the envelope, pay the bill online bank and file the hardcopy, it takes less than 5 mins intotal a day for the post. I go through my filing cabinet once a year and shred everything over 12 months old other than life insurance/mortgage papers/inland revenue/bank statement/salary slips, but the ironing on the other hand is a totally different matter, I hate ironing and will only do wee bits as and when needed, my ironing cupboard is the only untidy cupboard in the house, I really wish I could get motivated to get it done, its in there for so long before i get round to it, my children outgrow some of the clothes and of course I don't know that until I've ironed them and put them into the wardrobe and my wee boy comes downstairs in 3/4 jeans which are meant to full length.

tori.k

Patchwork_Quilt wrote: »

I have a theory that people with tidy houses have awful cupboards and vice versa. There's only so much time.

However, I do agree with Pastures New that generally, we have so much more stuff than our parents. Where does it come from? I have enough for yet another charity bag this evening and we've got three bits of furniture waiting to be Freecycled.

Never mind. One cupboard at a time

In my case my MOTHER, she been de-cluttering her house for years and it all ends up at mine :rolleyes: "as you will never know when this might come in handy", she even started giving me her friends cast off's too.
Dont want to put her off to much tho as im still hoping her Le Creuset pan set might turn up one day (wishful thinking)

bonsibabe

I love this thread!! My mothers house is spick and span, nothing out of place and mine looks like helmand province on a bad day! But then again I have young children lolol. Thats my excuse and I am sticking to it. But I am vowing that I will be more organised by this year's end if it kills me! I am planning to start with the DVDs - my OH has a nasty habit of watching a DVD and leaving the disc lying around, thenmoaning he cant find it!!! So he is going away with his dad soon and I'm blitzing the DVDs when he is gone. Anything damaged is getting binned and the ones we no longer watch are going on play dot com to be sold to make some money towards christmas!

[Deleted User]

our children probably think our house is very neat but it is a constant struggle. Most of my cupbards are full to bursting

I keep the paperwork file in good condition and there is also a little book of essential details for my dh like the enegy companies and so on. My kitchen is ok, if very full, as I home make everything

I have a huge stockcupboard, after all I was raised in the post war years and remember the ration books but have forced myself psychologically to start running it down. I have been doing that for a couple of weeks now and will probably finish in spring. tbh I am looking forward to that time

I have too much stuff and that is the nub of the problem, I mean who on earth needs all the candles that I stashed and the bathroom toiletries. I haven`t bought anything apart from toothpaste, for a while now but it is still going to take ages to run them down

I can`t wait for my grandchildren to get old enough to start crafting because I have held onto things for them, so they will free up a good 6 shelves in time

It is never ending

LameWolf

WASHER wrote: »

One thing reading this thread, is paperwork some of you keep going on about, I don't understand unless you have a business, what paperwork can't you keep on top of, I open the post, bin the envelope, pay the bill online bank and file the hardcopy, it takes less than 5 mins intotal a day for the post. I go through my filing cabinet once a year and shred everything over 12 months old other than life insurance/mortgage papers/inland revenue/bank statement/salary slips

I can only speak for myself here, obviously, but my situation is that the files are difficult for me to get to. I am disabled, and have difficulty lifting a full A4 box; also, the room where they're kept also houses the following:
a) crate of Dungeons & Dragons figures for painting plus acrylic paints and other accoutrements for this task.
b) two crates full of jars of HM jam.
c) crate of various coloured wax for making candles.
d) large carrier bag containing spare bags of flour, sugar etc that won't fit in kitchen cupboards.
e) paper carrier full of harvested lavender for making lavender bags.
f) box of turfed-out stuff awaiting transport to charity shop.
g) 11 bottles of HM elderflower wine

All of the above are on the floor, making access to the files even more impossible.

Now I am NOT for an instant saying that this is a GOOD excuse. It isn't.

*SIGH* I need one of these:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/round_tuit :rotfl:

billy858

I hate clutter! I am also another one of those neat freaks which makes life really difficult when you are in the process of doing up a house. I try to make allowances for my familys belongings but I often joke that if my husband stands still for too long he will get thrown out!
The way I see it I just dont do stuff. I'm not materialistic and prefer doing things to having things. I expect most people can admit that if they are away from their home or on holiday there are not many material items they would genuinely miss.
And yes, having less stuff makes it soooooo much easier to keep the house clean.