My home is a mess

Emm-in-a-pickle

Hi Messies, (wherever you may be....)
OK, I take it all back. About Man-Flu, etc. and telling Lurgie I don`t have time for it...
HopefulMS - I hope YOUR chicken stew works better than mine!

I was up & doing early today, despite a stuffy head & belly-gripes did my `must-do` list by 1pm, farmshop/delivered stuff to DD`s, (got soaked) got shopping out of car back home (got soaked), then had a coffee. I`m going to blame the coffee. Or I was in Denial till then....
Glossing over the gory details about gastro-intestinal matters, as a responsible and caring person I`ve had to phone in sick this afternoon, and I have to be 48 hours `clear` till I go to work again. Am sat here feeling gutted about leaving colleagues short-staffed, but trying to make the best of the bit of extra time at home, only it`s just not working, I`ve wrapped a few bits but my head isn`t in there.
The tree is up.
The fridge is full, caravan of Doom full of fruit & veg. , looks like a Harvest Vestival. Don`t want to think about food...not even toast, though I considered it.
OH is feeling `much better` & gone to bed early after more of the chicken stew.
(I chucked more stuff in it this morning) DS has just told me it`s even better tonight, and I should try some. No. One knows one`s own condition. I`ll have a cup of tea & go to bed. Tomorrow is another day.
Hope you`re all well & getting on with the necessaries.
Hope I will be tomorrow. x

snookey

Emm sorry to her your unwell. Rest and more rest needed not housework.Get well soon.
Oh what Id give to have my old daft dog back even if he did pee on everything. Lost count of the number of times I slipped in his puddles. Mind you we have a manic dog now ,a bit like me,lol.
Bearcub I too have paw prints along the window sills. You should see the colour of the water after cleaning our stair carpet.
Mother goes home in the morning. Its been nice but stressfull keeping her and oh from beating each other up. Both have to be right about everything.
All four cats were sitting with me last night as I had cat treats. Its really funny watching them glare at one another when waiting their turn.

Not much to wrap now . Dad has bought me a supply of meat for the next six months only problem will be making sure the chest freezer can fit it all in. Family will be eating strange combinations to make room.

Housework done today;
Kitchen floor,
washing,
bathroom scrubbed,
livingroom mopped and a tidy,
hall mopped,
stairs de haired.

New day tomorrow and new mess no doubt,lol

Night everyone and take care..

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all, havent been on here for ages! Been a bit of a week, like everyone I guess, charging around trying to get in the last bit of shopping, sorting Christmas Cards, visiting people, trying to get work finished off before the hols etc.

OH has been off work a lot this month, its so wet he cant get on with the job he is supposed to be doing. He is not very domesticated bless him but having him at home really helps, even if he just does things like dog walking or a bit of hoovering. The downside is of course that he is not earning any money while he is at home. No point in worrying about it though, just have to hope my careful financial planning sees us through!

Right, work to finish off this morning. DS2 woke me up at 3am saying that he had had a really bad dream and every time he closed his eyes it started again! So I ended up in bed with him for a bit and then I couldnt get back to sleep. Tired now (yawn).

Emm, get some rest, hope you are feeling better. And hugs to everyone else with lurgies, its the time of year for it I suppose. I am going to try and chill out now and enjoy the next few days rather than getting stressed about what needs to be done. Well thats the plan at least!

sonastin

My plans for having a beautifully clean and tidy house for christmas have been well & truly scuppered!

A couple of weeks ago, we got up at 4am to get the boat warm for a temperature-dependent task but despite our best efforts, it remained the wrong side of 5 degrees so we had to give up. I'd mentally postponed the job until spring but this unseasonally *warm* weather has prompted OH to try again. So Saturday will be spent prepping so that the workmen can come Sunday. I feel better because it means they can be paid for their efforts before christmas and it will get the job off the list which will keep OH happier. But it also means that I'm going to have to brave a$da on christmas eve afternoon, find time to bake cookies for my gran and grandma and aunt&uncle sometime either tonight or Sunday evening, probably wrap OH's presents christmas eve night and generally not get much time to relax until christmas morning! Oh, and I need to make some mince pies at some point for my mum to sample on christmas morning.

Luckily OH isn't bothered by christmas so he doesn't have that deadline of wanting things right by then so the only pressure is coming from me and if I'm too busy, I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

The good news is that, for the first time in 18 months, we have a complete floor throughout the house :jThe floorboards have been up in various places on the "building site" side of the house since we moved in but yesterday OH finished laying the new floor in what will be our living room. No more balancing floor joists for me! (although I still can't walk straight into the room - still have to do the usual jink around the gaping hole in the doorway even though its no longer there :rotfl:)

And my kitchen is, for the most part, still tidy :T

Fruball

Is anyone else wondering how on earth to get the house sorted in time for Xmas?

I am suffering really badly with anxiety, depression and SAD this winter and am on 4 types of meds which are making me tired (I was even before!) and now I am having a panic about how to get it all done. It is a big mess. I don't even know where to start

I only have this afternoon, tomorrow afternoon and sunday afternoon if I want it done by Xmas eve (wishful thinking)...

Anybody able to give me a step by step plan to get as much done as possible, please?

x

Buffythedebtslayer

Fruball wrote: »

Is anyone else wondering how on earth to get the house sorted in time for Xmas?

I am suffering really badly with anxiety, depression and SAD this winter and am on 4 types of meds which are making me tired (I was even before!) and now I am having a panic about how to get it all done. It is a big mess. I don't even know where to start

I only have this afternoon, tomorrow afternoon and sunday afternoon if I want it done by Xmas eve (wishful thinking)...

Anybody able to give me a step by step plan to get as much done as possible, please?

x

Oh Fruball I hear you!

I am utterly miserable about the house (and am generally quite miserable!)

It is mainly the puppies - who much as I love them make it difficult to move anything or leave anything so all kinds of !!!! gets piled up everywhere.

Today I woke up feeling dreadful, hot and yucky, I now have a headache but have essentially spent the day in bed sleeping.

Just had lunch so clearly feeling better.

I think I am going to have a bath and clear my head. I have roughly the same amount of time as you.

My first priority is my Christmas presents and my room, the guinea pigs. then the conservatory. the trouble is all this needs to happen at once plus stuff needs to go into the shed and out of the loft.

when my head is clearer I will be back with a plan.

Are you having visitors Christmas day/Eve? Is there one room that needs to be clear? can you do 10 mins pick up from there first?

xxxxx

Fruball

Buffythedebtslayer wrote: »

Oh Fruball I hear you!

I am utterly miserable about the house (and am generally quite miserable!)

It is mainly the puppies - who much as I love them make it difficult to move anything or leave anything so all kinds of !!!! gets piled up everywhere.

Today I woke up feeling dreadful, hot and yucky, I now have a headache but have essentially spent the day in bed sleeping.

Just had lunch so clearly feeling better.

I think I am going to have a bath and clear my head. I have roughly the same amount of time as you.

My first priority is my Christmas presents and my room, the guinea pigs. then the conservatory. the trouble is all this needs to happen at once plus stuff needs to go into the shed and out of the loft.

when my head is clearer I will be back with a plan.

Are you having visitors Christmas day/Eve? Is there one room that needs to be clear? can you do 10 mins pick up from there first?

xxxxx

Thanks for the reply.

DS(20) coming xmas day - he is a messy but he hates it that I am now as I didn't used to be :cool: So kitchen and living/dining room must be done.

Hall will take 30 mins tops.

Kids room needs doing as he is buying them a present which will need putting up in there straight away and I can't get in there at the moment Tempted to chuck all their stuff in black bags and bin it! At 6 and a half they should be able to sort it out a bit themselves :mad:

I will shut the door on my room No need for anyone to go in there!

Buffythedebtslayer

I had my bath.

I am supposed to be going out tonight.

ugh. really don't feel like it.

but I should cos I could do my last minute stuff tonight? or I could stay here and sort my room out at least.

decisions decisions.

sonastin

OK, here's the hard-line tough-talking get-you-ready-for-christmas list:
step 1: get your head out of the "christmas" bubble. it is only one day. don't put a false deadline on things that really aren't time related.
step 2: work out what actually is time-pressured out of the things you have to do. e.g. - wrap presents for the kids, defrost meat for the dinner, etc. Make sure you have time to do those.
step 3: work out what out of what's left is going to *spoil* christmas - be as selfish as you want to be here. If spending the day in a messy house is more embarrassing than giving the grown-ups presents wrapped in a tesco carrier bag, prioritise cleaning. Its your christmas too - anyone who isn't helping you out can lump it at this point. But if making them lump it would fill you with guilt and ruin YOUR christmas, well then you've figured out what is going to make you happy. Get on with it!
step 4: if you have spare time left over, fit in those other tasks that you feel like you ought to have done but in reality could really wait until boxing day. Or even next year. So its nice to get into a bed of clean sheets on christmas eve. but its nicer to actually get to bed on christmas eve. Start the new year with clean sheets instead. Go on, the procrastination won't kill you!

And lastly, if you feel like going out and having a knees up, do it. The rest of it really can wait. Have christmas on boxing day. Who's going to care? And if they do care, they can roll their sleeves up and help out a bit to give you the time to party. But if you don't want to go out don't force it. There's nothing worse at this time of year than *having* to enjoy yourself when you're really not feeling it!

Emm-in-a-pickle

Evening Messies.
Sonastin, you really are a wise one amongst us Messies. Your post was just what I needed today. Bless you and your OH and your floors.x
Buffy - ((HUGS)) Hope you decided to go out, & hope you are enjoying yourself. THEN take Sonastin`s Very Good Advice.
Fruball, ((HUGS)) to you - you can only do as much as you can do. Prioritise. As Sonastin wisely advises, YOUR priorities.
I have taken this advice too. I had little choice today as still feeling carppy most of the day. Everything I`ve done has been slow and puttering, haven`t been further than the dustbin, mostly sitting in one corner or another, dusting/clearing... little patches at a time. I`ve got LR windowsill clear & clean, mantlepiece likewise, and dresser.
Computer corner (also our telly/radio/cd/dvd player. `office` ) & surrounding shelves look a lot better, except if you look underneath or at the back...all done whilst sitting down feeling carppy earlier.
DGD is now in residence, since end of term this afternoon, so I let HER do the stuff she loves doing....she made herself a veggie spag bol, using up the tired ramiro peppers, tomatoes, a courgette and a sweet potato - I did the onion for her - and a whole garlic bulb - she chopped & roasted it, then zapped it into sauce. All I did was supervise & put the pasta on, then rinse the pasta. That`s DGD and DS fed tonight, and she`s bagsied the leftovers for tomorrow. And she`s not actually WEARING that much of it....must be Growing Up. (funny, it never happened with DS!) She`s also helped with loading/unloading & hanging up a WM load. STAR she is!

OH is better but `not right`. He fancied mash (frozen) grilled bacon & a POACHED EGG...
I can give a fair fist to cooking most things, but Poached Eggs are my most consistent failure. By failure I mean really, disaster. I tried again tonight. Feeling & saying `whatever...` One PERFECT egg! I am in shock. OH has gone off to bed to digest the miracle, I`m not even feeling hungry, but I`m seriously considering a bit of mash/bacon, and maybe seeing if I can re-create the egg thing - when nobody is looking!!
I can`t do my shift tomorrow as I`m not "48 hours clear". So I will potter at what I can do here and feel up to, and leave the rest.
Downstairs is acceptable, I have clean rugs to put down in LR, and apart from kitchen floor it`ll do. Upstairs is still chaos, nothing really urgent except pressies for household or to go next door, wrapping etc, but I really can`t get fussed about it. DGD has sweetly volunteered to help, but most of it`s hers that`s left now, so I`ll have to sort stuff before I take her up on her offer.
I`m just praying that OH is cured of the lurgie by the `miracle` poached egg, and that DS doesn`t re-trash the patches that I`ve cleared/cleaned in my potterings today.
I`m going to attempt another poached egg now, for ME!
Does that count as `me` time?