Keeping on top of housework when you're ill or in other times of crisis?

Penelope_Penguin

sp1987 wrote: »

I know someone who has a cleaner in weekly. They are so 'ashamed' of her seeing mess that they do a quick whip round before she comes, two adults and two adult children. 'Tidy up for the cleaner' the daughter says, lol.

Of course you tidy for the cleaner - they're employed to clean, not tidy

Spendless wrote: »

I remembered that Gingham Ribbon asked for help on organising a house some time ago and then later came back and said what had worked, which I thought was a fab idea. In her case her problems were due to illness so some things may not be relevant, but I thought her response telling peopel what she found helpful might be. (reply #37)

Thank you for that - I'm going to slightly alter the title of Gingham's thread, and add this thread to that one

emg

Primrose wrote: »

In fact, this has got me thinking about how those darned TV ads waste our precious time I'm going to start a new thread on small quick things to do during the Advertising breaks to try and help us all concentrate our minds and get more organised !

please do! there used to be a thread on forums of the original flylady site called (I think) three minute missions. I took lots of ideas from there.

lostinrates

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Of course you tidy for the cleaner - they're employed to clean, not tidy

I can't agree more with this. DH's family used to employ someone for two hours a week and then complain when she couldn't get the WHOLE place done in those two hours....she just ''tidied stuff''. They looked at me like I was an alien hen I pointed out she can't clean through stuff....


I'm not adverse to having a cleaner myself in the future, but I would NOT expect him/her to guess what stuff out is for/where it should go. Tidy and clean is not the same thing.....and actually the tidy bit is the hardest bit for me...I enjoy getting things clean...its the sorting out I hate!

easytiger-gb

when I had my little girl, I had quite a rough time and emergency cesear; my midwife told me as long as your kitchen and bathroom are clean. don't worry about anything else. Must be right, yeah?

EllieA_3

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Of course you tidy for the cleaner - they're employed to clean, not tidy



Thank you for that - I'm going to slightly alter the title of Gingham's thread, and add this thread to that one

haha and in there lies my problem .... i'd need to find the floors for the cleaner to hoover, and find the bookcases for her/him to dust... sigh!

Ok here we go 9:30pm at night im knackered having not been home long and haven't even had my tea yet.

Ok so what i have done!

Sent the kids (age 9 and 11) upstairs to tidy there rooms as i noticed on the fly ladys that it says to declutter and hoover.

They both have laminant so i guess mopping is the same thing but in order to mop it i have to find it.. and you've got to be kidding if you think im tiding up there mess just to mop. So i'll get them to tidy then they can mop it themselves! (i can just imagine their faces when i drop that bombshell on them :rotfl:)

The asda order i ordered the other day arrived, disaster!!!! had to give the deliveryman 15 items back which i did not order and where not even on my order!!

5 items where missing which he refunded me for straight away and the rest ... well... 1 box of smashed eggs, 1 bag of mushed courgettes, 1 bag of really out of date parsnips that looked like shriveled up witches fingers, 1 butternut squash charged at 1kg .. it wieghed 500g (smallest butternut i ever did see) and a bag of popped crisps.

So then had to spend 15 mins on the phone complaining and getting a refund, bonus is as i only got 2 of the packs of mince i bought on 3 for £10 they let me have the 2 packs for free and they refunded my delivery as well as the other missing and mushed up items, which suppose isn't bad seeing as about 1/2 eggs survived, the butternut is usable as are some of the courgettes and parsnips.

Phew ... still im knackered and still haven't have my tea...

i'm hopping over to fly ladys to see if i can get a hall pass to get out of the rest of my list.

Penelope_Penguin

easytiger-gb wrote: »

when I had my little girl, I had quite a rough time and emergency cesear; my midwife told me as long as your kitchen and bathroom are clean. don't worry about anything else. Must be right, yeah?

After my emergency C-section (nearly 16 years ago) my midwife advised me not to irom or hoover for 3 months (or forever, if I was to follow her example :rotfl: )

Penelope_Penguin

EllieA wrote: »

haha and in there lies my problem .... i'd need to find the floors for the cleaner to hoover, and find the bookcases for her/him to dust... sigh!

Therin lies the rub It appears that you don;t need Flylady just yet, you need the Declutter thread It's long been my belief that you can;t tidy clutter, you just move it around. Get rid and then you'll find the cleaning so much easier

EllieA_3

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Therin lies the rub It appears that you don;t need Flylady just yet, you need the Declutter thread It's long been my belief that you can;t tidy clutter, you just move it around. Get rid and then you'll find the cleaning so much easier

but but but ... love all my stuff!!! even the old envelop's from bills on the mantlepeice.

I know im a terrible horder and i have too tiny a house for so much stuff.

Spendless

EllieA wrote: »

but but but ... love all my stuff!!! even the old envelop's from bills on the mantlepeice.

I know im a terrible horder and i have too tiny a house for so much stuff.

ha, ha, ha. I agree with pen-pen then. I did wonder if clutter was your issue, but refrained from asking, didn't want to assume too much. If you are the hoarder, is your OH? You need someone without emotional attachment to sling it out, unless you can manage to overcome it. I'm fine until it gets to bookcases. OTOH I quite easily slung out the glass microwave plate from an old no longer made that size microwave that my husband was hoarding cos he 'thought he could use it to put meat on when we have a bbq :huh: (we have plenty of large plates for this purpose) and the minute he told me not to throw some tatty cushions away cos they'd come in for something, I made sure they went immediately.

GreyQueen

EllieA, I feel your pain. I am (at the very least) a second generation hoarder. My Mum in a chronic case. We have a family catchphrase ; MBU. Stands for Might Be Useful. Almost anything from an envelope, to a wine cork, to a spare chair can be a MBU. Mum has cupboards she daren't open and craft equipment like knitting machines (3 of them) which haven't been touched in 25 years + but which cannot go..... They live in an small 3 bed terrace and it's a constant source of stress.

I think you tend to either follow or go the opposite way to your upbringing. I always had a bit of a fight with Mum when I was tidying up as a nipper; she'd frisk the wastebin the check I wasn't letting MBUs get away!

I'm a grown up woman in middle age with a tiny flat but I still have to fight with the MBUs. Y'see I do crafts, I garden, and I'm very into re-using and avoiding waste. Add those traits together and expose them to packaging waste and almost nothing can get off the premises! It takes me 6 weeks to fill a black sack.

I use some strategies which might be of interest to the gang; if nothing else they might raise a smile.

1. Try to keep a reasonable inventory of jamjars and egg cartons and offer the excess on Freecycle. They always go quickly and they are then MBU in someone else's live and I haven't committed the 8th deadly sin of WASTE.

2. Limit myself to no more than 100 old envelopes at at time, to be stored in a folder. Above this, slit them open and make into scratch pads for rough notes at home and at the office.

3. Understand that I have 3 foodstores within 5 minutes walk, 5 within 10 minutes walk, and a dozen within a 2 mile bike ride. They have food. I have money. We can come to an arrangement and I won't need to stockpile any more tinned tomatoes under the bed.

4. Accept that I have enough clothes to not do laundry for 2 months (barring underwear) and that if I buy any more, it's want not need.

5. Accepting that not every single plastic food tray has to go to the allotment to have seeds sown in it. I do not have enough seeds.

6. Remembering that the lottie shed is only 6 x 8 feet and is not a doorway into another dimension. And that if it chucks it down, there must be room to at least stand in it for shelter.

7. Reluctantly accepting that bits of ribbon less than 2cm long will probably never be used and can GO.

8. Recalling to mind Mr Trebus of TV notoriety and several real life people (some in my very city) who have been trapped in their homes by things like collapsed piles of newpapers. People die of hoarding.

9. Remembering that my excess is someone else's need and if I let it go, it's a good thing and will make me happy, too.

10. Recalling that, insofar as I know, I only have one life and do I really want to spend it like a packrat in her nest, pawing thru my treasures? Insert Gollum voice; (which I do very well, incidentally) "My preciousssss!!!!!!"

Above all, keep smiling. It'll make people worried about what you're up to. :rotfl: