Finally tidied downstairs but want advice on how to keep it that way..... PLEASE!!!

foxgloves

Make sure everything has a 'home' and put it back when you've finished with it. Keep a bag on the stairs where you can pop things to go up (or down!) but once it's approaching full, deal with it. I just use a nice jute bag I got free, not one of those expensive but lovely wicker stair baskets. Try & have a rule that you won't waste time handling something more than once. If you have to move a load of clutter to sit down, you've picked them up so now put them away.....if you put them somewhere else, you'll still have them to tidy up later. Don't hoard stuff that you're unlikely to use. It's much easier to keep a tidy house clean. Moving loads of stuff to be able to clean underneath means that cleaning, which is tedious at the best of times, takes twice as long.

Broomstick

I've been following American Flylady in a minimal way for about ten years - can't make sense of the Flylady thread on MSE which seems much too scary and so far removed from the original I couldn't recognise it, but maybe that's just me. American Flylady (for all her americanisms ) is much easier to choose the workable bits from, I think and doesn't leave me feeling hopeless if I don't do everything. I've never got into things like 'Zone cleaning' and I ignore all the stuff about clothes, exercise and meal-planning .

Rachbc's version is very similar to ours except my children are older teens. Each DS is responsible for his room and they know, through years of practice, how to keep that clean. DS1 is responsible for the shower room. I keep my bedroom tidy and the bathroom clean but DS2 sometimes helps with that - he did it this week.

Get the children to help - even toddlers can be given a damp cloth and asked to wipe finger prints off doors etc (they will be their marks at their height anyway!). Just make sure they keep away from plug sockets. If you have a vacuum cleaner with a stick (can't think of the proper word!) reduce the length of it down to child-sized. Doing it like this, both of my sons could vacuum a room well enough at 4 yrs old. Children can clean wash basins too with a bit of soap, water and a cloth, or the bath when they're in it. It's just a game but they are really helping. Same with tidying up. The tiniest children can help with this, especially if you make it routine.

I try to stay on top of the clothes washing, drying and ironing. Little and often, especially if you line dry because the weather is so unpredictable.

I, too, keep the fridge clean and empty enough to cope with the next week's shop when it arrives (or in our case, veggiebox delivery).

We leave the kitchen washed up, wiped and put away by bedtime. In our house DS1 does it three days a week, DS2 does it three days a week and I do it on Sundays. (I do all the cooking atm.) Try to leave the sink empty and shiny through the day - even if the washing up is piled up to one side.

We try to leave the rest of the house tidy at night.

I feather dust regularly - sometimes daily. It only takes minutes and it really does work in terms of leaving things looking shiny. I dust skirting boards and the edges of the flagstone floors too - saves on floor cleaning!

We have three recycling boxes - one of which I use for paper and I try to make sure that that is at least half-full every week (I'm paper decluttering with avengeance and, by focussing on filling the box by bin day, it feels more positive than trying to look at the gigantic amounts of decluttering I still have to do indoors!) I have a paper shredding mountain and when I'm feeling virtuous I try to do 15 minutes shredding each day as well.

I'm trying to do a 15 minute declutter of one area every day and do a trip to the dump and/or the charity shop once a week, however small the amount of stuff is. I try to keep focussing on the flow of 'stuff' out of the house. Every little bit helps. I try to keep the 'stuff' coming in to the absolute minimum which fits with reducing spending anyway.

Just keeping going with the trend in the right direction ie more out than in, you will see things improving eventually, that's what I'm finding.

rachbc

Broomstick - I totally agree about getting kids helping - little ones think its fun, big ones learn important life skills. I got frustrated with my 4 yo dd the other day as she wouldn't come down to get her pjs on - went up and she had tidied her own room all by herself and re-arranged all her bits and bob on the windowsill.

I find fl on here confusing and intimidating - but justed at the original and its actually fairly similar to what I am already doing - leave it tidy at night and just do stuff as you go!

VJsmum

Broomstick - i am exhausted just reading your post

10 minute tidies help a lot. yesterday i did 10 mins in each room, it was amazing what i had achieved in an hour.

MaggieBaking

It helps having things to tidy into... A basket on the stairs for stuff to take upstairs when you're going. A junk drawer or box in the lounge for the odds and sods that never seem to have a home.. .Anything you know is normally a problem make a solution - keys and handbags lying around? Make some hooks in the entrance way. Trainers and shoes - instigate a strict, come home put them in a certain place. Anyone who doesn't as soon as you spot it make them get up and move it, or tell them you will leave them outside the back door for the rain and the spiders (and then do it!)

Lazy_Liz

Definatly train your kids, we three had to dry up after dinner, later stack and empty dishwasher as required, clean our rooms and each had a weekly job to do, cleaning the bathroom, polishing the brasses and somthing else I can't remeber were our weekly jobs, plus of course anything else we were asked to do. During the school holidays we had a job a day, vacuuming, dusting etc. Wish I had kids now, my nephews fill the coal buckets, make their own packed lunches and the eldest cooks tea once a week (he's 13). Mind you my sister is so organised it makes me look like a bag lady.

Tidying round before going to bed is great, it removes the OMG what a mess feeling the next morning. So much easier to star the day with a clean slate.

CH27

Never go upstairs empty handed. There is always something to put away.

Wipe the kitchen surfaces over after dinner/supper so the kitchen is clean & ready for morning.

Broomstick

VJsmum wrote: »

Broomstick - i am exhausted just reading your post

Nooooo. Please don't say I've turned into one of those scary-Flylady-super-angel-people.

There's no danger of that. I'm sorry my post was rather long, but I hadn't really taken stock of how far we'd travelled on the house cleaning journey so I was thinking aloud a bit too much.

If I wake up to a house that's presentably clean, tidy and put away, then I reckon I'm not doing more than an hour a day keeping on top of it all and making significant but small inroads into reducing the stuff we no longer want or need.

Cooking is not too hard in a clean kitchen (courtesy of the DSs) and with minimal shopping, simple meals and meal-planning sorted. Washing, drying, ironing and putting away clothes is not too hard when you don't have too many clothes(!).

Like other people have said, tidy as you go, have a place for things, do little jobs as they crop up. Seems to work OK.

pleasedelete

Mics_chick wrote: »

This made me howl with laughter :rotfl: The idea that I would need advice on how to keep my bush trimmed is a hoot

Should I edit the title or just think "pubes" and leave it as it is

696 viewers so far . 18 posts. I think a fair few people read the thread expecting something a little unusual!!!!

For those wanting that advice my sister swears by a nasal hair trimmer!

Mics_chick

Broomstick wrote: »

Cooking is not too hard in a clean kitchen (courtesy of the DSs) and with minimal shopping, simple meals and meal-planning sorted. Washing, drying, ironing and putting away clothes is not too hard when you don't have too many clothes(!).

What sort of simple meals do you cook then?