It's all too much - need advice on where to start :(

trolleyrun

Well, OP and others, you have inspired me today! I've done the dishes, swept the kitchen floor and even cleaned the floor! I have a hate/hate relationship with mops, but found some floor wipes in the back of a cupboard and used those. I'll have to get some more of those Not very MSE but I don't care. The floor looked lovely and clean - until the mutt walked in with her muddy paws *sigh*

However, thank you all for the inspiration

metherer

Hello all, and especially to thelittlestranger. :hello:

Some great advice on this thread, so thanks all. I think all I would add is to think of either
a) something that would make tidying up that bit more enjoyable or
b) something to look forward to as a treat for if you get the house to the state you want it in.
c) both of the above is also allowed!

For me, it was a). I hate, with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, folding and putting away clean laundry. I watch The Big Bang Theory, and loved the folding gadget Sheldon Cooper has, so I trawled fleabay and bought one of my own.



Yes, it is daft, but yes it works. Sunday night I got 3 laundry baskets full of clothes folded and put away.

Linda32

metherer wrote: »

b) something to look forward to as a treat for if you get the house to the state you want it in.

My boss admits she is OTT but she makes sure certain things are perfect before she leaves the house, so that no matter what sort of a carp day she has had a work (and trust me she has some carp days, think council inspections and CQC) she knows she can return to a perfect relaxed home.

CherryPie

Had to come back and see how you were doing, sounds like you're tackling it a bit at a time and reaping the rewards! Well done you.


I tackled the pile on the sofa, reduced it so it's now a smaller pile on the table! Lol


I wouldn't like a home that doesn't look like it's lived in, but just a wee bit tidier would be nice! Off to do a 10 minute tidy up session!

Wellyboots6

Only just caught up on your thread, but it definitely rings true with me too!

So glad you are getting stuck in to things and feeling positive. Gives us all inspiration I think!

I am similar in that I get overwhelmed easily. My issue is not so much cleaning, but I get overwhelmed with paperwork. I won't open my post for weeks, and when the pile finally slides off the shelf I either move it or prop it up! I also clean to avoid dealing with the pile of post!

I have a dog, and tiled floors. Makes cleaning easier in one way as I can mop mud up, but also means any hairs or fluff are very visible. I spend so long obsessing over my floors that other areas of the house get neglected. Noticed some awful black mould in the sink the other day, but I obviously hadn't spotted it growing as it wasn't within mopping eyeline!

The doing things in small chunks really does work. I have started now catching myself wasting time, such as standing around waiting for the kettle to boil, and make myself do something useful in that time. Even if it is just putting away clean cutlery. Or if I go upstairs for a wee then I think if there is anything I need to bring down on my way back down.

Keep going and thanks for the inspiration

smeeinnit

Hi OP, I do feel for you, its great to see things are looking up for you :beer:

My house pretty much ground to a halt because of all the "stuff" we had accumulated, a lot of it really was just because we couldn't be bothered to deal with it, put it off for "another time" which never came, so two of us in a three bed house ended up with several spare rooms, and most of the used rooms, that were totally overflowing and depressing because of all the carp.

To break the chain we tackled the garage first, where a lot of stuff eventually found its way to. It was useless as a functional garage and you couldn't get much further than the door. We did take drastic action and emptied the garage in a day, took 3 full car loads to the tip, cleaned and swept all the insects (dead and alive!) out of the garage, reassembled all the shelving and put back all the things we were keeping in a logical order, hung things that could be hung on walls and doors creating more space, moved all the tools/garden stuff/decorating stuff etc that were hanging about in the house to the garage. The difference was amazing! It means all the things that should be in the garage were in the garage, my utility returned to being a utility and not an overflow of the garage, things are put back when finished with. It does take some discipline and we probably wouldn't have cleared the garage piece by piece, however it does mean all the other carp in the house can be dealt with a bit at a time now we have broken the cycle.

We recently renovated one of the spare bedrooms - the largest bedroom - and moved into it and its now so clutter free I definitely want to keep it that way! I have introduced just a couple of ornaments, but I certainly don't want back the old bedroom overflowing with clothes in various states of cleanliness and wear. I hate putting laundry away too which makes no sense as I love washing it!

Anyway, the changes we made have been over quite some months and for us the big initial push gave us the motivation to then chip away at the rest. We've still got a way to go, and this approach might not work for everyone, but the impact for us has been huge. Quickly doing things in the ad break - I do this - brilliant idea!

Hope you can keep us updated with your progress OP, take care