Last night I went to a parents meeting for the homeschooling group that is a bit farther away… the theme for the night was organization and for some that was more about homeschooling and how to organize time and priorities etc.. for others it was about other things like cleaning the house…
When we bought this place 5 years ago I thought it was big… I had only lived in apartments and small spaces before so in relation to what I was used to, it is big… but now our family is bigger and the space is definitely small and it is cluttered and it is just not working as well for our family as I would have hoped… If we could move one day, I hope it would be sooner than later but for now we just need to stay put and deal with it for a while more…
But going back to organization… a while back I had a great routine going for a bit, I would wake up, I would make breakfast and clean the kitchen, I would put things away and sweep and wash the floors and do a quick clean up of the bathroom etc and the house felt tidy and presentable with minimal work every day…I have a feeling that there are many people that do this with no problem but it took/takes a lot of effort for me to have that routine… then something happened and the routine went out the window and the house went back to being a mess and needing the weekend to clean up… I hate this though… I would love the weekend to be family time, not clean up time…
I hate cleaning, I have never been tidy, but I also know that I hate being in a messy house… and when things are tidy and clean it reflects on my mood and on my energy… it is like a vicious cycle and I see that I need to get back into that routine again…I need to start decluttering again so that we have less stuff and everything has a place. We are no where near that yet.
So please… tell me!
How do you do it? What is your routine? Where does your motivation come from? Do you care if housework is done or not? How do you deal with a smaller space where everything doesn’t have a place?
Give me your tips!
I’m not a natural cleaner either. I’ve tried to do FlyLady routines where you do a little each day but the over the top cheeriness of the program gets to me. I finally broke down and shelled out the money to have a person come in twice a month to deep clean. It is worth it for me to avoid the guilt of feeling like I should be cleaning or hating the house after not cleaning.
the fact is that most of us life with more stuff than we need. First you need to do a real deep clean to get back to the basics even if it is cluttered put it in stacks, then everyday until it is in order yo need to grab a laundry basket and fill it with stuff that can be thrown away and donated… Put a box in your car and take all the donated item out there… Then when your driving around one day drop it off and know it will go to a good cause and get the tax receipt. If you do one small basket a day until you feel you can breathe again getting back to your normal kitchen, pickup, make beds routine will be a sinch! I am moving again this week and my new goal is to cut down our stuff… by 25%
I live in a house that is on the small side for my family. It gets cluttered really easily, which definitely affects my mood. I have a few chores that I do sometime each day as a minimum requirement to keep from becoming overwhelmed–dishes, laundry, wipe counters, and sweep. Other chores tend to go a bit longer than they should. Every so often I go on a cleaning rampage, because I feel yucky.
I’d like to come back to this but I’m going to clean up first…
Wow, you pretty much described my thoughts on keeping a clean house! It really helps me to have a place for everything to go but knowing we’ll be moving again has made me really resist making or buying the right furniture. I don’t want to be stuck selling or moving it so I keep making do and as a result there are many “piles” in our house. I’m a filer so it drives me batty some times.
I don’t have any advice to offer but I understand where you’re coming from!
Ah, piles, I know them well! Considering I am in babyproofing mode because Zoe has started crawling, the house is pretty organized (clean is a relative term, I think!). I have learned that everything needs a ‘place’ or a home,and that things look alot tidier when ‘stuff’ is behind closed doors, though I suppose that is sort of cheating. I have some advice which may or may not work for you: try to do dishes as soon as they are dirtied or set up a time every day that you do all the dishes (if you pile them up neatly it actually looks better than if they are scattered everywhere, which sounds silly, but it works!); taking the time to make beds actually makes me feel better when I crawl into it at night and it also does make rooms look tidier (just pulling the comforter over the bed can be a quick job); I clean the bathroom as the babies take their baths; when DH takes the kids out, I take the time to do the laundry or at least empty the baskets all over the house and dump them near the washing machine. I have become a little terrified of becoming overwhelmed with stuff so I have been making a real effort to get rid of the ‘stuff’. It does feel really really good doesn’t it? I know that was long winded but I hope it helps!
Salut!
Je nettoie mes comptoir après chaque repas, de cette façon j’ai l’impression que la cuisine est propre! J’essaie de garder le lavage à un niveau raisonnable et je demande de l’aide à mon chum régulièrement. Comme les autres, réduires le ‘Stuffs’ aide beaucoup. Ça en fait moins qui traîne et moins à déménager.