Support for Organizing and Cleaning Your Home

Hi everybody!

I am having a huge problem because I am a huge packrat and have no time as a single mom, employee and student to keep my house in order.

I have subscribed to the cool e-mails from http://www.flylady.net . This site encourages Baby Steps and doing things in 15 minute chunks.

Wanna support each other in having an organized and clean home?

Hrm... what happens if both the second and third option apply? I'll elaborate...

My home will never make the cover of Better Homes and Gardens. It's not overly stylish and it's not superclean. There are dustbunnies under the sofa, the area rug badly needs a good deep cleaning, the dining room table is in a near-perpetual state of disarray, three of my closets look like bomb sites when you open the doors, and there's frequently dust on my bookshelves.

BUT... my home is cozy and peaceful, and it's not just me who thinks so. Guests in my home tend to loosen up, relax and visibly de-stress. Even my mother (who I know checks out my housecleaning skills even though she tries to be subtle about it) once passed out on the couch and when she woke up and apologized, said that she always feels so relaxed when she's here.

Now granted, this could be just because I don't have children and I do have very friendly and laid-back cats, one of whom purrs at the drop of a hat and another who likes to greet new people. Or maybe having a cozy home isn't about matching the drapes with the furniture and having the hardwood floors polished?

I don't know why, exactly, but my apartment does seem to be a little private sanctuary -- even if it'll never get into a glossy home fashion magazine. :)

Perhaps I should have put 4 choices in the Poll! :)

scarlette i'm with you

while i have toys EVERYWHERE, they're pushed into a corner pile several times during the day. my friends tasha and kim will stop in at lunch and take naps on my couch, from time to time. there's mail everywhere that needs going thru. i always have a candle of some sort going, so it smells yummy, there's comforters and a quilt laid out so anyone that comes over can snuggle up under one.

i guess what i'm saying is, while very liveable, yeah, no cover of a magazine. i try my best to stay on top of things and not get behind and being able to stay home helps but the MS tends to make me tired more quickly that normal so i have to rest alot, lol.

plus, i LOVE LOVE LOVE throwing stuff away. omg, can't do it enough. and i'm the world's worst to give my clothes to friends if i haven't worn them in over a year.

i'd love hearing others ideas on how to expeditiously keep up with housework.

I require a clean and organized environment to function well. If things are too disorderly, I feel extremely uncomfortable. Add to this a big family and having clear roles is a MUST MUST MUST. If we did not have specific chores and times to do them then I am sure it would take no time for children's services to come get my kids and the EPA to declare a hazard zone.

I am not a packrat though and I'm sure that helps. LOL I'm practically the opposite of a packrat. Over the years, I've thrown away many an important thing/document because I did not see the value in it at the time only to discover later someone really needed it. Not good.

At any rate, each person in my home as a set of responsibilities to be performed daily. Each Saturday (usually, but often we switch to Sundays), we clean the house from top to bottom without fail. I don't mean straighten... I mean clean and scrub. Laundry is only done on the weekends. I do the laundry from Friday to Sunday evening. If a child (or anyone ;)) does not get their laundry to the basement in time, then they have to do without. We all have more than enough clothes to allow for a once a week laundry fest.

I go to the grocery only once a week. Each Saturday (although this can change to Sunday too sometimes), I sit down and create a menu for the week. This menu describes what I will make for dinner each night and includes the main course and the side dishes (we don't do dessert). I then create the grocery list off of the menu. I post the menu for the week in the kitchen so that everyone can come and complain about the meals daily ;). Seriously, this saves me time (TONS AND TONS OF IT) and money.

Well, I'm utterly disorganized. My house is always chaos ~ but totally, totally livable. Comfortable, warm, relaxing and I always look forward to going home.

But, I am a packrat, I've NEVER purged stuff from even back in HS and college. I cart around boxes which I refuse to throw away or reorganize. LOL. I'm constantly shuffling my things from one room to another to do renovation work.

Constantly.

Which means the mess just sort of migrates from one room to another.

Someday, this house will be all painted, re-floored and there won't be anything major I need to do, in which case, those boxes sitting stagnant for too long will REALLY grate on my nerves and I will, therefore, have no choice but to go through them.

I'm sure there are some interesting treasures in there. I just don't remember. LOL.

I'll probably end up selling the stuff on eBay worth anything that doesn't fit into my life now. But, I suspect it may be another 15-20 years before I get around to that.

As for recipies. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA. No, I never plan my life out like that. Wish I could. I'm JEALOUS!
~phosphorescent

Littleowl, thank you for starting this thread. This is definitely a very overwhelming problem for me.

When I was married, my husband was military and very organized and energetic. Since he's gone, it all falls on me.

I have been working on weekends for the past 3 months to clean out cabinets and drawers and closets. But, feel I am getting nowhere.

I have psoriatic arthritis, a demanding job and haven't done a very good job teaching my children how to do their part around here. I admit that it was easier for me to do it than to get them to help. Oh, they will when I make them, but they don't just jump in an chip in without asking.

I am a packrat. I tend to save everything. On top of that, I get LOADS of junkmail that I know I should go through immediately everyday and pitch, but I don't. It always piles up. My kitchen table top hasn't been seen completely uncovered in months. Over a year ago, I bought a bill payers desk so that I could have a place to store my mail, rather than on the kitchen table, and haven't even put it together yet. :rolleyes:

I move stuff from one room to the other. Right now, the bedrooms are the worst rooms. Especially my own. I own way too many shoes and need to get rid of 2/3 of them. I am sick of tripping over them.

My closets have been cleaned out, but I could probably stand to get rid of more stuff.

I either need more or bigger bookshelves or need to get rid of some books. They seem to be everywhere. I can't seem to part with my children's books even though they haven't read them in years. I'd like to pass them down to my grandchildren. Am afraid of storing them in my garage because it gets damp in there and besides, my garage is a huge storage dump already!

My daughter has a very tiny bedroom and wayyyyyy too many toys. She is 11 and just beginning to take more interest in clothing than in toys, but she is not willing to give up anything at all yet. Once I gave some of her stuff away to Goodwill, but she cried for days afterward and still reminds me how much I hurt her feelings by giving her things away. :(

I am really embarrassed about my house and stopped entertaining guests long ago. I had to clean it up really well last June when I let Polly from ageless come in on our way to St. Louis. But, that about killed me.

My physical health is my biggest problem. I am so exhausted by the time I get home from work that I can barely function. That leaves weekends to get everything done.

Thanks for starting this thread and I have joined that Flylady group. I'll take all the help I can get. My mission is to get this house under control before Remi arrives.

I would love it if someone would recommend me for that Extreme Makeover Home edition show. :p I seriously am at the point where I need someone to come help me and I'd be very willing to turn it over to them.

A couple of months ago I bought I rolling set of colorful drawers and I still haven't set THAT up.:rolleyes:

Originally posted by fos4snt
Well, I'm utterly disorganized. My house is always chaos ~ but totally, totally livable. Comfortable, warm, relaxing and I always look forward to going home.

But, I am a packrat, I've NEVER purged stuff from even back in HS and college. I cart around boxes which I refuse to throw away or reorganize. LOL. I'm constantly shuffling my things from one room to another to do renovation work.

Constantly.

Which means the mess just sort of migrates from one room to another.

fossy, much of what u said i really relate to ...in the one bedroom i rent, i have all the stuff, or most of the stuff, i used to cram into one apartment...so u can just imagine how messy it can look...i organize my room as much as i could but i'm sure that in some manical perferctionist's eyes, my room would be some utter mess....LOL...after my sister passed away, i still have all her stuff...i drag them wherever i go...i really should try to get rid of them...i've been thinking about getting rid of things and just throw things away to be more organized...this is one trait inconsistent w/ a mathematician as i often think that i am...

p.s. i can't throw away alot of my things...does that make me a packrat? :(

Boy oh boy.....

Well, I used to be Mrs. Clean....I used to spend three hours each day cleaning the house and doing laundry before sitting down at my desk to work. The house was perfect, and people would even comment "how to you keep your house so clean?". I vacuumed the entire house every single day, made all the beds every single day, did ALL the laundry every single day...

And then, about the past 3 years or so, I have slacked off immensely. I cannot seem to get myself in gear. I have what I call "cleaning bursts" where I freak out and clean everything....and swear to myself Im going to keep it that way...and then a month or so later, everything is a disaster again. I will revert to my old "3-hour a day" schedule for a couple months at a time, and then slip back down into the...abyss??

My kids are SPOILED, and do not pick up after themselves the way they should. We used to all eat at the table together every night, but that doesn't even happen any more. I make dinner, and they end up eating in the living room, one of the two dining areas, or pretty much where-ever they want. I will find their dishes all over the house.

I know that I need to get myself back on track, but I need a serious SHOVE from someone. There has to be a happy medium between spending three hours a day cleaning house..and this mess I have created now.

I am trying to pick one small thing to accomplish each day (i.e. a closet, a set of cabinets, shelves) to do every day. I pick something really small, so that at the end of the day I can actually have it finished and not consider it a "failure".

I figure at this rate...I should have my house all in order some time around 2007. LOL

Hmmm... well, I guess it really isn't THAT bad if we're ALL raising our kids like that. In a bunch of years, they're going to sit around talking about how all their parents had 'cleaning cycles' much like the menstral cycle.

My kids have two names for me. Mom and "shhhh.. she lost her L." (Melanie minus the L is Meanie LOL)

Every couple months I completely freak out about the house and act like a drill sargent! Running around hurling toys into their room, screaming at them to CLEAN THIS MESS UP... Toys: TOY BOX, Clothes: HAMPER, Cover: BED, Shoes: CLOSET.... NOWNOWNOW.

But then... I slack. And the house gets messy. And while their room is clean for all of TEN MINUTES before Tornado and Hurricane are unleashed upon the room, it's a nice 10 minutes. LOL.

~phosphorescent

Originally posted by fos4snt
Hmmm... well, I guess it really isn't THAT bad if we're ALL raising our kids like that. In a bunch of years, they're going to sit around talking about how all their parents had 'cleaning cycles' much like the menstral cycle.

My kids have two names for me. Mom and "shhhh.. she lost her L." (Melanie minus the L is Meanie LOL)

Every couple months I completely freak out about the house and act like a drill sargent! Running around hurling toys into their room, screaming at them to CLEAN THIS MESS UP... Toys: TOY BOX, Clothes: HAMPER, Cover: BED, Shoes: CLOSET.... NOWNOWNOW.

But then... I slack. And the house gets messy. And while their room is clean for all of TEN MINUTES before Tornado and Hurricane are unleashed upon the room, it's a nice 10 minutes. LOL.

~phosphorescent fossy, u cracked me up :D LOL ahhahah...that was pretty funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! btw, your kids are pretty clever about the losing L thing...some keen observation of words...smart kids u got there... :)

EDIT: u sound so much like my aunt there....she could care less about a messy house which i can now come to appreciate greatly...ppl in her life always come first...i think that's important to a child's self-esteem...still they got to have some discipline...so i think it's great that u try to teach them about the importance of cleanilness even if it were just 10 mintues :)...

My motto is "Your kids won't look back on their childhood and remember if the kitchen floor is washed; but they WILL remember if you had time to spend with them"
Saying that, my kids are all useless, they drop their coats shoes bags etc wherever they happen to be, they take glasses and plates to their romms, never to be seen again ( and I'm down to 5 forks,goodness knows where theyve all gone, everyone claims never to have touched them, as usual)
Every so often I despair at myself and the mess we're living in, and scream at everyone for a day, but they pretty much ignore me, and they make mess faster than Streff and I can tidy it, so it's a losing battle.
Streff's parents house is ultra tidy and clean, I don't think he likes the chaos we live in:(

OMG..that happens to me! I had my family over for dinner, opened the drawer and had four friggin forks! FOUR!

This will sound horrible, but I have also lost bowls. Where do they go?

And I do the freak out and run around telling everyone to clean because we live in a sty thing...and I think they have caught on that if they just ignore me for a while, it will pass.

Kids..gotta love em....

Originally posted by MrsHedgeHog
I keep a stocked supply of disposable goods. Whenever the kids have a party, I hang onto everything for emergency situations. I usually have big stacks of napkins, plates, etc. with a huge variety of designs that I keep in a rubbermaid container. I've recently run out of stuff so I'll have to replenish that supply before I forget but hey, it works!

I do the exact same thing. Speaking of lost bowls.... we once ran so low on spoons, later to be discovered in my son's bedroom with other gross old dishes, that I would joke that someone in the house might have picked up a heroin habit...

This thread is awesome... love to hear all of these stories, because I can relate!

My house is very comfortable and I love it. I have lots of plants and an aquarium... watching the fish is really relaxing.

When I was married and my daughter was little, I was much more organized than I am now. I do the basics everday, like dishes and straightening things, trying to put things back in their place. I try to be organized, but I tend to put things in boxes and baskets then either put them in the spare bedroom, out in the garage or in the basement.

I usually have a garage sale every year, so this is the time when I go through things very thoroughly and throw a bunch of stuff away.

My daughter has always been a packrat and clutterbug. I always ask her to clean her room, pick up, etc. Her idea of cleaning is taking all her clothes, papers, makeup, books, etc. and piling them 3 feet high in the closet or under the bed. Usually, about two times per year, when she is away at her Dad's, I just get fed up and do a thorough cleaning of her room and throw away stuff. I really enjoy that. However, I have a hard time throwing stuff away, because I always think, she may need this or she may need that.... same goes for my stuff. A huge problem I have had has been with her staining the carpet with her makeup because she sits on the floor in front of a big mirror. I recently gave her a mat to put down on the floor and am hoping that will work.

Sometimes when I finally get around to throwing something out, I wonder why I kept it so long.:)

Oh, and our laundry... I don't know how in the world two people can manufacture so much dirty laundry so fast! It's amazing. In the past, I always did my daughter's laundry. I would put it in her room neat and folded and it would end up in the floor mixed around with dirty clothes and all the other stuff. So, I told her to start doing her own laundry. What did she do? Not wash her clothes! She just wore the same dirty ones over and over.:rolleyes: She is just now starting to take interest in doing her own laundry. Thank goodness!

Because of it being just the two of us most of the time, we don't eat at the table. We eat in other rooms. I am sorry this ever started because my daugher has the whole bowl, spoon, plate, glass, etc. going on all the time in her room. One thing that really puts me through the roof is when she pours a huge glass of milk and takes one drink and leaves it out in her room! It is nothing to go in her room and find several glasses, cans or bottles... I recently got my carpets cleaned and am now steering her to the table for meals, much to her dismay...

Just in the last 6 months or so, she has started helping a lot more and will actually do the chores I ask her to do without too much grumbling. Sometimes, I get the "I'm not your housemaid" or something to that effect.

Originally posted by 1love
Just in the last 6 months or so, she has started helping a lot more and will actually do the chores I ask her to do without too much grumbling. Sometimes, I get the "I'm not your housemaid" or something to that effect.

LOL this made me chuckle... once my oldest daughter said to me, when she was younger... maybe 10ish, "mom you only had kids so that you would have slaves around to help you". Ummm yea thats right baby... you are here to serve :rolleyes:

When my youngest daughter was 4, she had a darling little table and chairs set. It had a complete tea service. We had a room on the first floor that we kept the kids toys in. My sister came over during naptime to visit with me and found me on the floor in the toy room. I was setting up the table for tea. She said, "Please tell me its tea time." I had to confess that she had just missed me dressing the dolls too.

Sad I know...

this is a great thread... i can totally relate to what everyone is saying there although i don't have any children...but i can just imagine what it would be like to have them and the horror upon discovering utensils missing LOL...can't live w/ them, can't live w/o them LOL...

i often feel like an oddball...as i come to discover just recently, we're in fact more similar than different...nice :p