In need of motivation to stay OS

seafarers_wife

a good cleaner is worth their weight in gold. mine sacked me after the first time she cleaned for me as i asked her to wipe over the skirting boards, but they didnt need doing in her opinion!

the cleaners ive looked at will clean but wont sort out clutter and tidy away mess. so ive made a list of everything that needs doing other than the cleaning and i scratch it off bit by bit and try and follow the flylady thread to keep the house clean. basically i shoved all my clutter into the spare room in the big ikea blue bags and worked through it a bag at a time. im down to half a blue ikea bag, a bag of make up and toiletries, 1 washing basket full of cds, 3 washing baskets full of electrical stuff and 1 box of stuff that is DH's and is for him to sort out along with the electrical boxes when he is home. Ok there is also a few bags in the spare room and still in my room to sort out, but nothing like it was before.

that worked as we have not long moved house so everything was in the spare room and we unpacked from there, i have been ruthless with stuff being chucked or charity shopped though, half of what we moved ive actually got rid of now so even though the spare room is still a bit messy, the living room and kitchen have NO clutter and its easy for me to keep them clean. if i see clutter building, it gets chucked into a carrier bag and dumped in the spare room to get sorted through when i get a moment, so that means for the most part downstairs is always visitor friendly (just dont go upstairs yet please)

its also helped not having access to the loft so what we had stored in the loft in our old house, most of that has gone as it was being kept just in case and there was no need for it so bye bye lots of things.

i didnt bother with ebaying stuff even though i probably should have, i basically charity shopped everything i was getting rid of that was to good for the tip, just to get it out the way as otherwise i would still be wallowing in boxes.

it takes time to get things organised. we moved here in may and im still sorting out and its only really me as DH is away working so i dont even have the chaos of having kids to add to the mix yet, but im due in december so am very aware that i NEED the house to be totally organised by then so that I can work out a routine that suits me and baby and allows me to keep on top of housework.

artichoke

hi

I think part of my problem is too much stuff / finding hard to let go of stuff without selling it, and then not having time to list on ebay.. so it just sits there

eg i still have a box or 2 of baby stuff that i thought i should sell as they were quite expensive and we could do with the money- stuff like baby carriers - ergos and other such slings, washable nappies, a bedside cot still sits in our room...


But also the problem is that we don't have enough space in the house - it is a traditional terraced stone cottage - 2 small bedrooms upstairs (the box room is DH's office and the other room is shared by the kids) plus the attic converted to our bedroom.


So all the winter duvets are also sitting in our room waiting for winter...(ok that problem will soon be sorted out as it gets colder)

plus boxes of paperwork ( i don't have a dedicated office)

In the kids room - there is not enough storage space - they have bunk beds and a chest of drawers each, and a shared wardrobe - no floor space for anything else. We have to walk through this room to get to the stair for our bedroom. there is no room for a desk for the kids so their homework stuff sits in the kitchen on the surface along side my work papers. In the day i use the kitchen as my office and after school the kids use the kitchen table for homework.

The living room has boxes of toys as they don't fit in the kids room. There are toys they could get rid of though and i will work on that next weekend when DH is here.


We know we need more space and plan to build offices for me and DH in the garden but can't afford it yet....

Ok - today i will carry on and try and take some toys out of living room upstairs and put under kids bunk. That will make the living room look a bit better.

art

mummyroysof3

hope you dont mind me saying but it sounds like a good sort out of kids toys is needed and storage solutions to find. under bed, in bottom of wardrobe and on top of it are all good also a stack of boxes in 1 corner or something could work. maybe with the stuff thay need for homework could all be kept in a box which can then be tidied away easy when you need the table.

its an on going battle with 'stuff' when you have kids though isnt it?

artichoke

yes, - kids toys have overtaken our house ...

top of wardrobe is taken up with boxes of hand me down clothes waiting for them to fit them...

but there are old toys we could get rid of - but again i feel i need to sell some rather than send to charity shop...

We could put the money towards this years christmas ...

Right i think i am going to plan out a new routine where a few hours a week / evening time maybe are spent putting things on ebay.... I need DH to take the photos and upload them to the computer...

thanks everyone

art

JulieGeorgiana

When I needed more storage space I bought 8 x 45ltr boxes of eBay which fit prefectly under my sons double bed... it's unbelievable how much space that opens up because it's more storage then bags and odd boxes! We still have TWO empty ones!

Also I found a charity shop I really like, and instead of hording everything to sell 'eventually' I give it to them to make money for a good charity that I support. Big items like baby stuff I give to friends who can't afford everything, but say if it's still usable when they are finished I would like it back so I can choose where it goes! I cannot afford to do this, but having it cluttering the house is just too disheartening!

Another thing is I would take all your 'clutter' and bag it, if it was important then it wouldn't be clutter... place it all in one room so the other rooms look good and this one room (normally my room!) looks a state and I will work through it, but know I can get away to the livingroom when needed

I also agree with MummyEm I was talking to my DH about you last night, and when I went back to work after being off I re-allocated chores and expected much less of myself then when I was staying home all the time. You need to find a balance x

I am really glad you are feeling better today

valk_scot

I've got past the point of hanging on to things to sell, unless they're really worth some money. Take toys for example...unless they're rare or hardly used you could spend 20 minutes per toy cleaning it, photographing it, listing it, parcelling it and taking it to the post office. For what exactly? If you get £10 per toy then great, if it's £2 per toy you might start asking yourself if you could use that hour or six more productively elsewhere. I give toys to the school nursery and P1 classes, the mother & toddler group, the school fair, the Scout car boot sale collection, charity shop and very occasionally I put a few of the best on Ebay. Similarly clothes...school uniform bottoms are very welcome in our school for changing the littlies into after accidents, the rest of uniform goes to the school uniform exchange, other clothes get passed on, go to charity shop or used for rags.

My golden rule is when I'm having a clear out it gets touched ONCE ONLY, then triaged into the appropriate heap, bagged and dealt with asap. If I do the clear out on a Sunday for example I get Hubby to shove it all in the car and I deliver it first thing on Monday. No chance for second thoughts!

I've still got one heck of a lot of clutter because we all have hobbies, collections and a deep fondness for charity shop bargains. But at least it's mobile clutter, not silt.

Introuble28

I know how you feel!

Sometimes I find that everything is suddenly all out of control at once!

I usually take one day and just hit everything once. Standard cleaning, then cupboards and fridge, then paperwork and then s
tart the cooking.

This works for me but I guess everyone is different.

Good luck xx