Overwhelmed
My house is a mess. No, really, it's a disaster. There is stuff everywhere. Laundry piles, paper piles, book piles... lots of piles. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work there is to do? I look around and think "Why bother? It'll just be a huge mess again tomorrow". I need to get cleaning and get organized. So, I'm turning to you! What are your best cleaning tips? And how do you get and keep things organized? Any thoughts or ideas will be appreciated!
Also, I'm gonna take a tiny bloggin break. I've got to get Little Bug desensitized to his new shoes and some new school clothes. Sigh... this is gonna take a lot of time. New shoes are not a fun thing in this house. Screaming and crying till he pukes is usually what happens. But his old shoes are so small... sigh... and he has new sandals too. Heaven help me. It's a fairly time consuming process for us. Hopefully it will only take a few days. :S Anyway, I'll see ya on the flip side!
13 comments:
I admire you for deciding to do something about the house before it's condemned! Mine is in the same state as yours right now, so I'm not the best person to offer advice, I'm afraid! Don't go for too long - I'll miss you!
Ok, about the shoe sensitivity. BTDT with Justin. Go back to the store, and buy 3 more pairs of the same shoe in the next sizes up. It won't be as big of a change for him, and might help make those transitions faster. Good luck.
Organizing. HA. HA.
Oh. You're serious? Yeah, well, my biggest tip is to throw away. Purge, donate, and put into storage anything you can remotely live without. You will be amazed at how easily you can clean when there isn't as much to clean.
That said, I have way too much stuff. Even AFTER purging every season. WAY TOO MUCH. The toys! I think they are breeding...
Flylady.com
my sister loved this site and said it really helped, they send random e-mails that tell you what to do for the next ten minutes etc...clean hall closet, vaccum family room etc...
My only advice is start small, but begin. It's the getting overwhelmed ad ignoring it that is bigger problem.
Oh good luck. My only advice for keeping your house clean is to not invite your husband or kids to live with you... so helpful, I know.
Fly lady, shmly lady.
This is what I do when I get too much clutter. I get a couple boxes, or laundry baskets, and go around my house and empty everything into them. Then I take them into my bedroom, turn on an old movie, and go through them and put everything into piles (sorted by what room, or what closet, or what file they go into.)
Throw away as much as you can. If you haven't used it in 6 months, just throw it out. Go get some clear organizing containers, and organize your stuff and put it away neatly onto shelves.
Do it again in another 6 months because it adds up again.
Ah yes, right with you on the shoes and the clothes. For clothes, acquire older children or buy from the Thrift store [probably the later unless you're good at time travel]
Shoes - very tricky, much trickier than clothes. Far easier to work on the feet - foot massages or stroking seem to work better than traditional 'brushing' techniques for mine. Time consuming but worth the pay off if you can get those little toesies into the shoesies.
Alternatively put them all on hot wash and beat the hell out of them. Then you can tumble dry them with a few rocks, or one of those blue balls with the spikes, softens them down no end and quieter than the rocks.
Housework - empty a closet, preferably one that's central or in the hall. Give contents to the Thrift store. Now you have one empty cupboard. Achieve instant tidiness by hurling everything in the cupboard. [o.k. so maybe it's full again but all the clutter and mess is hidden]
Cleaning - take dust buster or hoover and whizz around the edges of each room as that's where 90% of the crap lurks.
Have a nice little break.
Cheers dears
hi melissa: awh, hope it eases for you soon. i stuck good mail in my mailbox last night for you. hope it makes ya smile.
i'll miss ya while you're gone, take care, kathleen
I hate it when we feel overwhelmed. Try not to let it get to you (easier said than done). I bought a book years ago called "The Sidetracked Home Executive"
Today they even have a web-site. http://www.shesintouch.com/ The book helped me a lot.
I hope things get better for you. I have enjoyed your blog so much and will miss it.
my house is one giant crap pile so I will be no help, but I'm gonna give you a couple of useless tips you should not try
Keep those giant gift bags and put like crap in them for fast pickup and pretty storage..my little pony mess in one, craft mess in another,dress up mess in yet another
then I throw assorted mess in those stackable box type things
these will work for a few weeks of mess relief but then you've made a bigger mess problem
then aloow yourself 30 minutes of blogging for every 10 things you throw away
or wear tinted glasses at all times so the mess looks blurry
yep this works for me, don't try it
will mess ya, I mean miss ya
I'm w/Tracey--throw away! Actually, I go overboard on this and realize two months later that maybe I did need the blender after all, and so I end up buying everything multiple times.
But clutter drives me I-N-S-A-N-E. So it's worth it to me.
Hurry back!
I finally had to make myself a chore chart, I felt so silly at first but I love it, just looking at it knowing I ONLY have to do 3 more things and I am done for the day is great! Also I assign rooms to a month to declutter. This month was the girls room so they could be organized for school. Next month it is the Kitchen.....the one I dread, I should give myself two months for that one haha! Good luck with everything!
I'm thinking of banning all gifts for birthdays and Christmas because with 6 kids, the crap quotient in this house metastasizes every time.
Whatever happened to getting money to put into a savings account? I'd prefer that to more lead based killer toys like Batman figures and Polly Pocket.
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