anybody started their spring clean yet?....

embb

melt71 wrote:

I've been trying to do that so far but the problem is, the loft is now completely full with stuff to sell at car boots. He keeps stuff for the sake of it and has aquired quite a lot of 'stuff' over the years! lol Then there's my daughter....I've removed at least 5 binbags full of toys and bits out of her room since xmas, that's not counting the stuff I've thrown away or freecycled! I hardly ever buy her toys for this very reason but they still pile up :mad:

I get the feeling that I will be like Rikki, still doing it by next spring!

Ok, here's what I'd do

Get stuff out of loft and take it to car boot sale
Sort out bedroom 1 take rubbish to tip/recycling - bag up anything for next car boot, put it in loft
Same for the other bedrooms
that way you get your rooms clear and the car boot stuff is packed away nicely in the loft for next time

Kids toys, here's where you have to be ruthless, anything not played with for over 6 months either chuck or recycle/sell etc, but do it when she's not around lol

As for OH's stuff - tell him to either sort it or you'll do it and go for the bin bags - the look of horror on his face will have you smiling for days. If he hasn't sorted it after a week........ do it! He can't say he wasn't warned

Pink.

Hi melt,

Some of the threads in the how to declutter and organise your home collection might give you some more ideas.

Also for more inspiration and motivation the Flylady weekly threads are a great place to begin. Current Flylady thread

For anyone else thinking of starting spring cleaning last years thread might give you some ideas: What Exactly Is A Spring Clean?


Pink

belfastgirl23

I always worry that by clearing out my rubbish I'm leaving him more room to accumulate his rubbish I do think you should try to engineer situations where his stuff gets in HIS way - eg you might not be able to put away his clothes cos you can't get past it?? Anything that causes him more work is good! Unfortunately you can't tell him it's a problem (based on my own experiences) you have to ensure that he FEELS the problem. And if you're trying to tidy up around it then he isn't feeling it properly (bear in mind men feel it about 50% later than women in my view). Unfortunately you might have to accept that you have to let it get worse before it gets better

Might also be worth enlisting a trusted friend or relative to comment on it in front of him??

Good luck and tell us how you get on.

Plum_Pie

I feel off the Fly-wagon a while back and let everything slide. Now I'm moving to a new flat (on the 9th). Last weekend, I bagged up lots of stuff for recycling/ the charity shops. Lovely and organised I thought.

Then my landlady rang me yesterday to say that she wants to show my flat today (she'd previously said she show it from next week). My landlady has been very sympathetic to me in the past and she is running a business...

So I did my whole spring clean last night after work.

5 hours of cleaning! I worked so hard I had the windows wide open the entire time and was boiling hot even in a t-shirt! My back hurts! I have housemaids knee! I can't even remember what colour my microfibre cloth was when I bought it!

I slept like the dead and was an hour late for work. :eek:

I'm going out for dinner tonight though. I cannot face another moment of work in my kitchen, even if it is so clean I could eat my dinner off the floor behind the fridge.

Iowa_Lot

I thought Id wait until spring

Peem

My springs aren't dirty!!!:D

GardenMillie

I have started the spring cleaning with a deep clean in both the bathroom and the kitchen. I also read an article on de-cluttering which I try to keep up with throughout the year. If you have lot's of extra toys maybe a local church with creche or mother and toddler group would appreciate them.

You can also get some great tips on the Oprah website re: clutterbuddies when friends come round and help each other out - it's always easier if there's two of you, especially if you're sorting out clothes, shoes and handbags!

Ex-Spendaholic

First of all forget the cleaning for the time being. You need to get rid of the clutter before you even contemplate the cleaning. Believe me once you have a completely clutter free home your house will usually look clean anyway. It's amazing what open space and clear surfaces can do.

Tackle a room at a time. Go in with a range of binbags or boxes, label them if necessary. Anything that hasn't been used in 6 months (unless it's seasonal) say goodbye to it. Have a bag/box for each of the following:

To sell - put in anything you think you could sell onebay, carboots, amazon etc

To donate - anything that you could give to a charity shop/freecycle/church/friends/family

To bin - anything that doesn't fit into the above categories

You will be amazed at the amount of stuff you will be able to get rid of. I have no clutter in my home as I continually get rid of it in the above ways. My OH is the biggest hoarder ever so he can be a problem. My solution is putting it in bin bags and putting it in his car or the garage. :rotfl: He loves me for it really.

Once you have got rid of all the unnecessary stuff you'll then be ready to clean. It's much easier to vacuum, polish, dust etc when there is nothing sitting in the way.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

vivw_2

The trouble I find with decluttering is that we both have several hobbies that take up space and are both avid readers so have loads of books.....if I cleared all that out we'd have nothing to do
Then of course there's all my OS equipment in the kitchen and his OS toold etc in the garage.......HELP!!!!!!

melt71

Ok thanks for all of your replies and links to other threads. I'm getting there! My problem is 3 fold;

I hate clutter and my OH has a lot of it! We are planning to go through all of his stuff this weekend when he gets home, so the bedroom should be organised by then.

Since his shift patterns changed before xmas he's been off every weekend and I've not been having my weekly cleans - I have an open plan house and it's pointless cleaning one room as the dust seems to move around the house. It HAS to be done in one fell swoop. I now work pretty much full time and at the moment we only see each other at weekends so we've been doing the absolute minimum (dishes, bit of hoovering, tidying etc) but the house always looks haggered! This will change soon so I'm not too worried.

Thirdly we have a dog. As you can see from my avatar, she's cute but she's messy! She creates 2 loads of washing a week (all of her blankets and bedding) and when she shakes her head she gets 'dog goz' on the walls!!!!!!!!! We only decorated in Sept and it looks a mess already

Anyway, I'm getting there I've done about 7 or 8 hours worth of clearing out and cleaning this week. I'm determined to get it sorted. I hate living in a pig sty!

Thanks again for all your tips