Untidy house = major stress

nearlyrich

I had to laugh at the EEEK room, I have one called the spare room must sort it before Christmas as we will have people staying and the bed settee won't fit at the moment LOL

mandrose

Back last year my friend was very depressed and upset as felt her house was out of control! We scheduled a weekend and I went round with my hoover & rubber gloves and we spent the days cleaning, chatting and laughing while singing along to some very loud music! By the Sunday evening her house was like a shiney new show home and we sat with a glass of wine celebrating how much fun cleaning had been!

It was such a success that we did the same to mine a few weeks later and now do a "spring clean" together every now again! Its always a very good excuse to crack open a bottle in the evening!

lizchris101

I know exactly how you feel as I've been there myself.

If you have any family or friends around set up a working day rota with them all. One week you can do the gardening in one house, next week the cleaning in another and so on.

If you can't get something like this going and you have a deeper problem than just not having vacuumed for a day or so (which for some people I know gives them a mini heart attack!) then you may need a better plan of action.

In order to help you feel as though you are achieving something I think it's important to do more than just think about putting stuff away and polishing. Split everything that needs to be done into groups and tackle each one at a time. For example, have a 'clothes' tidy - this may take a day or a week but make this your main focus until it's done. Use that time to not only catch up on all the washing and ironing (even better, take it to a laundrette or give it to friends and neighbours to do) then empty and sort through ALL the wardrobes and drawers in the house. Any unwanted clothes can then be passed on, turned into cleaning rags or given away. Once you have done this massive job you will feel as though you are movin forward. The only thing you then need to do is to keep on top of the washing and ironing by doing one load every day if you need to so that it doesn't build up.

Then move onto a different area - maybe a 'food' day where all your food cupboards, fridge, freezers etc are emptied and cleaned and sorted. You can get rid of out of date stuff, assess what you have left and plan to use all that stuff in your meals for the next few weeks in order to create more space. It also means that you can reward yourself by buying some lovely foodie treats to fill those empty shelves.

I know it can seem daunting but it is possible. I have teenage boys and a baby but I don't stress about a bit of dust and dirt - my philosophy is quite simple - I like to see the floor in every room at least once a week! I get rid of stuff I don't use so that I'm not cleaning it and I rope the kids into helping - even the 18 month old 'plays' with me every night by picking his toys up and throwing them into a box in the corner.

If any of that just sounds like too much then empty one quiet corner of the house - preferably where you sleep. Make your OWN space an absolute priority and get it clean, organised and lovely. It will give you a little oasis in a sea of madness that you can escape to but also use to recharge your batteries so that you can tackle everything else with renewed vigour.

Good luck with everything.

uolypool

I feel for you ,I really do.My house got to the stage of me wanting to walk out and never come back it was so messy:o:(.Some days I don't even have the energy to get down the stairs let alone run the hoover around. I struggled on for about a year of trying to do everything as I felt as I was the mum it was my job.I then got broncitus sp and the kids took over .I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in the end and the kids designed a rota between them all so the little energy I have was not wasted on housework.They all took on a main job each and a room each and just share the other jobs out as they need doing.One keeps on top of the washing and my daughter does the ironong in exchange for dance lessons twice a week.The older ones share the cooking between them and the younger ones load and unload the dishwasher etc.They are angels and have restored my sanity.:)

Chipps

Hi MissMotivation

I hope you don't mind if I pop in & 'borrow' some of your answers. Your original post describes pretty much how I feel at the moment with work & other stuff taking over & not having any time to catch up. I'm one step ahead, because the washing has been being done - but I have tons of clean washing sitting in piles in the conservatory... at least it doesn't smell, but doesn't look great either!!!

Really will have to start tackling things in small bites. Trouble is, when I get in I just don't much want to....

lou06

Hi
What works for me, like others say is write lots of little jobs on a piece of paper and put them in a hat/bowl and pick one and set the timer, once the job is done sit down with a coffee and read MSE for 5 minutes, then attempt to do another wee job - if you write the jobs on an A4 sheet too, it is also nice to tick them off.

Why not invite a couple of friends after dinner for a glass of wine, friends always bring a bottle, so it can be a cheap night in! I always make an extra effort to get the main rooms tidied or at least in some respectly state eg. kitchen, bathroom and livingroom done - bedroom doors are for closing!

My mum knows if I have been tidying if the kids bedroom doors are open when she visits lol "unfortauntely mine is never open, that were i've put all the clutter".

I'm subscribing because I need to get on top of the clutter, have been ebaying a bit of the kids clothes, and determined to sort out all the paperwork to put up in the attic, can't open the filing cabinet at the moment without struggling!

Life's too short to worry about mess x

bluebag

My mum always had the neatest cleanest house you could imagine, but you couldn't open a cupboard without a hard hat on and steel toe cap shoes.

Bennifred

I grit my teeth and chant "There's always time for a two-minute job" and then e.g. clear the draining board/load washing machine/gather magazines into piles/ whatever - whilst waiting for spuds to come to boil/kettle to boil/during adverts/before dashing out of the door to work. Sometimes there's even time for another "two-minute job" if I'm in the right mood...... it is amazing how much gets done in two minutes in our house!:D

recovering_spendaholic

I can just about keep on top of the downstairs rooms and the bathroom but my kids' rooms are horrendous and I have had to give up doing them as it was making me too stressed. I now leave them and it is up to them if they want them done or not because they have to do it. The one thing that really really depressses me is the washing and ironing. There are only three of us but I do three washloads a day every day, and I always have a mountain of stuff waiting to be washed. It is largely because kids wear about three different outfits a day and seem to be constantly mucky! I don't have a tumble dryer and take some of it to the launderette to be dried, but it is getting too expensive. It used to cost me about £5 a week but when I went on Monday it was £15:eek: If I had enough money I would pay to send it all out to be washed, dried and ironed!

I agree with those posters who recommend flylady - it is a great thread - I only dip in and out but it does help me enormously.

Westywoodpecker

I've mastered the art of cleaning our kitchen floor on my hands and knees, timed in one of the numerous add breaks on This Morning