My home is a mess

dingdongsaving

Hi All
I'm partial to a spot of targeted organising, and do like MK for inspiration, but since having our second little one I am back to the tidy one side of the room while a little monkey is scattering toys on the other side of the room days!!!!!
All of our things have a 'home' and we're not struggling for space/organisation there, and our son is amazingly organised for an 8 year old...but the 2 year old is not so much of a tidy-upper as a scatterer!!!!
Love reading along and confirming it's not just us that struggle with the 'real life' element of mess and am glad to see this thread being revived!

springdreams

mothernerd have you offered the bits of furniture you don't want on freecycle / freegle?

I had a double bed that had a small stain on it from a spilt drink that the charity shop would therefore not take. I offered it on freecycle, and a lovely young girl who had just moved into her own studio flat came round to fetch it. She was not bothered by the small stain.

mothernerd

Well I have had a productive day. Cleared a small patch of the yard, covered it with weed suppressant fabric and filled two large veg bags (1m x 0.5 m x 0'5 m) with soil and hm compost (stored in two old dustbins but packed in small quantities in rubble sacks). Took 2 hours and very hot and bothered but that bit is how I want it to be - couldn't do much last year as I was on crutches for months and wasn't allowed to bend below waist level until March.

My plastic boxes are well under control. Mostly takeaway boxes - my son's and then used to collect a batch stored in mum's utility room (ex outside loo which was re-purposed to take the washing machine and the excess loo and kitchen rolls). I reuse them for my own hm ready meals - cook in a 10 l pan then portion up. I now have three slightly different types. They are making them thinner all the time so newer ones crack if dropped.

I can still only stand for so long so when I have been making an effort to clean the kitchen, I have sitting down jobs that I can do in between. Son's curry containers tend to stain if I don't find them and rinse straight away (sometimes he thinks he is helping by leaving them floating in cold greasy water if I have left something soaking to come back to later). So several times I have sat and sorted then chucked the worst of whichever I have more of and put the others back in their cupboard.

Mine only fall out when the exceed their shelf. If I put them on the one above they can slip off as that is where the handles for the top cupboards are. This kitchen was done 12 years ago and isn't finished.:o

I had a hysterectomy then and was doing necessary work on my house (previous kitchen was 16 years old and only the sink top and one cupboard were left) and doing up my dad's to sell. I put together the units one by one after finishing work at 7pm. Two days before I went into hospital the plumber came to plumb in the wm and dishwasher. He got his cousin's bf to come and scribe one of the worktops and put up the wall cupboards. Plumbing was done whilst I was in hospital.

During my recuperation I did the handles for the base cupboards. I had a little stool I could sit on so I could load and unload the wm and dishwasher and put things in the td (only allowed to peg out one t-shirt at a time so td was quicker) and also did the handles on the cupboards. Drilled the holes, went to rest for a few minutes then came back to attach a handle. Again I did one or two a day.

When I went back to work, things got very busy. Applied to clean a building society and ended up doing three (when I told the woman I would be interested in a second one, I meant as an alternative to the first not as well as). One was in such a state that they gave me 3 hours a day six days a week to get it back in shape. Our vicar recommended me to a another minister so I cleaned an hour a day at 2 churches before the first building society job at 8.30 am. Managed to cut back when I started a degree but was doing 70 hour weeks for a while (+ the decorating at dad's).

So one way and another this kitchen (have also lived at a different address for 8 years) never got it's handles on top cupboards or plinths, the worktops either side of the kitchen are not attached to the cupboards or walls. Finally have the money to pay for the things I can't do myself but still need to do as much as possible myself. DS1 came a couple of weeks ago and helped me turn his old bed into shelves under the stairs so I have moved a lot of things over (again needed everything to be above waist height after my op).

I have done a few things over the past few weeks but there is so much to do. I try to stay positive by focusing on what I have done rather than what still needs doing (or I would just huddle whimpering under the bed clothes).

*Robin*

So glad to see this thread has been revived! :T

My home is still messy; there's always something more important to do..

Catslovelycats

I hoovered the lounge last night. Cats track through cat litter from the conservatory (despite using mats and blankets around their tray) and generally seem to carry bits in with them!
Brother was due round (hence my hoovering) but he didn't want to come in.
Wasted hoover? Not at all. I've still got a tidy carpet - even though it's already picking up bits!

mothernerd

I hunted down the 'tiggies' last night - little bits you stick in the cupboard sides to hold up shelves - I have three spare shelves I cannibalised from my old kitchen (mostly rotten) and if I can adjust the spacings, I hope to get all my herbs and spices inside the cupboards nearest the stove.

I have found homes for several large kitchen things - a cake tin, largest roasting pan with 2 other nesting inside and the mixing bowl. If I can sort a few more bits I may be able to clean my worktops. Also found two pieces suitable for making plinths - the diy store didn't have strips to match either my floor or my units so I bought stick on vinyl floor tiles and will use what I have as a base. One drawer front and one bit that used to brace the back of a wardrobe fit two of the spaces (run is broken by white goods) and an old radiator shelf looks good for some of the remaining gaps.

Emm-in-a-pickle

Not only my home, but my pc is a mess too. I typed a long post yesterday and it disappeared, DS is running a temp disc on it for now but going to fix things properly soon - and that itself is going to mean more mess, wires, cobwebs/dust buffaloes exposed...

Emm-in-a-pickle

OK, that worked!

At least I can post, but can`t listen to i-player so have R4 on my wind-up radio. They don`t call me a Luddite for nothing you know!

Pets have many ways of contributing to a messy house. I used to post here about my dear old Dafty-dog, shedding hair and increasingly troubled by incontinence, but we sadly lost her (in her sleep) some time ago.
We adopted a small dog who needed a home, the little Lily-dog. Never having had a small dog, it`s easy to overfeed and the vet had us put her on a diet, no treats, except raw carrot. I had no idea that she`d enjoy her carrot so much, chomping it on the woolly rug in front of the fire, and how much mess she could make with it, there`s lots of bits of orange carrot deep in the pile, as well as the odd chunk she`s left, which you only find with bare feet, like stray bits of lego.

gilly1964

I am still messy too :rotfl:

Baileys_Babe

I'm still a mess too, this thread was always such a comforting place to be, supporting each other through the ups and downs.