Thanks for the thread Astrid. I'm sitting here surrounded by an absolute bombsite of a house and have absolutely no idea where to start it is THAT BAD!!! So instead of biting the bullet and doing something, anything, I'm sitting here browsing BB while the kids are napping, LOL!!!
Every single room is a complete mess. I even ran out of bibs for DS yesterday so he ended up wearing DD's. DH wasn't overly impressed.
So where do you start when your house is in such a mess??
Gosh it's hard sometimes isn't it? Even when you do clean it lasts such a short while.
I start with the bits that people can see first..jic heaven forbid that someone pops over! So that's usually the kitchen (plus I hate having a dirty kitchen..makes me feel like a bad mum for some reason!) then the lounge, hallway, rooms etc.
I find it impossible to keep on top the housework, but I am starting to accept this. If the kids are fed, played with, showered and cuddled- then that's the main thing. But is has taken me a long time to accept this.
i need to have at least one place of zen in the house at any given time, so i usually start with our room. i make the bed, put the dirty clothes in the basket (we have one in our room, laundry and DDs room), make the bed and ensure that there is no clutter (thanks Oprah Winfrey 'sleep well' episode! ).
After that i tend to go to DDs room (she rarely likes to play in her room when we are home....rather drags whatever she is playing out into the lounge). so i make her bed, throw her toys in their respective tubs (she has one for her dollies and dressups, one for her duplo, and one for her music toys). i put her books back and organise in her play corner some toys (ie i set up a tea party, or music station or dolly in her cot etc etc). That way when she does go in she tends to head for that and plays with that because it seems new and exciting, rather than ripping through the tubs and cupboards...
then i will do a quick tidy of the lounge (ie pick up cushions that have been strewn and blankets to hang back over the couch). also do a bit of dusting of coffee table etc etc, putting away of DVDs/CDs and most importantly, i put on some music!! i always love to have music playing when i am cleaning.
The kitchen i rarely have to do (thanks DH!). but i do do the mopping and sweeping. so i usually would then tackle that (by this stage DD is usually in her room checking out the display LOL!). to quicken the wet floor process (if DD is particularly bored), i grab out a large towel and towel dry the excess moisture so that i dont have paw and kid prints all over the white tiles...white tiles i tell ya...
then i clean the bathroom...pop in the toilet cleaner first, then tackle all the benches and glass while i wait for the cleaner in the shower to dig up the soap. do the shower thang, and last but not least the toilet.
usually i can get this all done by lunchtime...but i reckon only because DH has done the dishes before he leaves for work.
we only do laundry on Wednesdays and Saturdays (had to insitute a rule as DH was a daily washer and it drove me bonkers hanging out and bringing in dribs and drabs LOL!).
vacuuming is also only a twice a week thing too.
Thinking back to Astrids OP, I tend to find myself in this situation about once a fortnight. I work full time so if I miss a weekend or housework I can very quickly find myself in a mess. Or its like that when we come home from holidays - you know the feeling - house full of dirty washing, stuff to be put in the shed, things to be returned to the pantry...
I try to scour the surface of the mess in waves. I might do a sweep for dirty washing. Then do a sweep for "return to the bedroom" stuff, another for "return to pantry" and so on. I may or may not actually put the stuff "away" once its returned to its room/home (ie: "the return to bedroom" stuff may be dumped on our bed, waiting for me) but I find this method a good one when you have small kids and might not be able to devote large slabs of time to a problem. So while the boys are eating a sandwitch I might do a sweep and take things up to our room, and by the time I have done that and dumped stuff on our bed they are finished and I can clean up their mess before putting on another load of washing while they play outside. Then while they are in the early stages of a game and not yet killing eachother, I can start something more time intensive, like cleaning the fridge. And so on.
Yep, I do those "sweeps" too Rory... I might pass through the living area and gather up everything for a particular room eg the Boys room.. and with an armful just dump it in there. Then while I am in there i might gather up everything for the laundry... and take that stuff there... and then when I'm in the laundry i might take all the stuff that needs to go into the kitchen... all kinda like a chain reaction... the domino fall approach to tidying up!
No really? The superficial stuff -
pick up all the toys and dump them in a toy basket.
Put all the dishers in one pile so the rest of the bench/house is free of them.
Put all the washing in another pile in the laundry (shut the laundry door)
Anything that looks messy but doesn't have a place, in spare room (and shut the door).
Then I start to tackle the piles, put a load of dishes on, put a load of washing on, start to sort things.
Some things I even put in a 'you deal with this' basket for dh. Don't always know what all those cables mean or where they go.
I just feel so much more positive about cleaning and putting away if I tidy the house first.
ETA: Oh and I keep motivation up by rewarding myself (learned that off my mum) - Do the dishes, earn a cuppa. Do the washing, earn a short break on BB. Sweep the floor, another cuppa.
Oh and Astrid: take solace: Personally i find some merit in letting a house get TOTALLY out of control.... when you do finally get around to cleaning it it feels SOOOO good! If it was clean all the time it wouldn't be half as pleasurable.
Roryrory - yep do the sweep thing here as well. Normally the sweep for dirty clothes, then dirty dishes, then obvious rubbish/recycling, books on bookshelves etc. The problem is sometimes I get distracted part way through.
I struggle with the lounge room the most, as it just gets messier throughout the day with the kids. So often I wont start on it till late in the arvo so that when DH gets home he can take the kids outside with him so I can finish off.
Registered User
Radiate out from there.
Don't always know what all those cables mean or where they go.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks