Anyone have suggestions on keeping my home clean/organized?

[mommytobug]

Please dont say fly lady. She drives me nuts with all the emails. I used to be so organized. Fast forward to dh, dd, and animals and I feel like i never get anywhere. I want a clean home, but a lived in home. I need to get off my butt and get things organized. Does anyone have suggestions for the organizationally challenged??? HELP! I have been selling and donating like crazy. My dream is a smaller home with less stuff. My, how our dreams change.

 

[Robmom]

I'm subscribing because I would like to know too!

 

[tonilea]

Subscribing. Have you read the "Messie" books?

 

[teresajoy]

Please dont say fly lady. She drives me nuts with all the emails. I used to be so organized. Fast forward to dh, dd, and animals and I feel like i never get anywhere. I want a clean home, but a lived in home. I need to get off my butt and get things organized. Does anyone have suggestions for the organizationally challenged??? HELP! I have been selling and donating like crazy. My dream is a smaller home with less stuff. My, how our dreams change.

I can't stand the Flylady! UGGH! I emailed her once suggesting that she let her followers know that they shouldn't push their views on everyone. (IE: forwarding every email she sent them!) I received a reply of "No, if you have problems with someone, deal with it yourself." To which I replied that I had talked to the people about it, and told them I wasn't interested in the flylady. Anyway, it got really weird, with her helper, Kelly? I think, emailing me telling me that I obviously had some severe relationship problems. I had only sent the two emails at this point too! I again restated how I had talked to these people about my non interest. (I know a few flybabies, and they were all the same with sending stuff and constantly talking about it!) I had been subscribed to flylady before, it didn't work for me, so I unsubscribed. The flylady sent an email saying that she just hoped that one day I would be able to deal with my situation and then come back to flylady. Another email from me telling her I'd found a different method I liked better. She then sent another email to me saying that she thought that she would write a little essay about not overpowering people with the flylady views. I thanked her, and thought it was done. Then, I got several emails from Kelly berating me and telling me how unappreciative of the flylady I was, how I really needed to work on my relationships.....W E I R D!!! She just wouldn't quit! I told her that the flylady had worked it out, so I didn't see why she was emailing me. Kelly emailed me again several times restating the same things, until I finally sent her an email telling her to stop harassing me! It was one of the strangest things!

Sorry to hijack the thread like that, but that was a few years ago, and it still weirds me out!

I have gone to the Messie's website, and I like that method much better. That said, I am not an organized person, and have to actively work on it and force myself to stay organized at all. So, any ideas anyone can throw out there would be great!!!!

OP, it sounds like you are really on the right track allready!!!


ETA: I actually have a very close relationship with the people that were sending me the emails! It was almost like someone with a new religion and they just have to tell everyone about it! I'm glad it worked for them, but it just wasn't my style!

 

[DreaGirl]

I was having the same problem as you! I found a website, not sure if I can post it here or not. Anyway, it is called motivated moms, I'm sure if you search, you can find it. It has really helped. I have been using it for 3 weeks and we saw a difference in the first few days.

HTH!

 

[raysnkaysmom]

I wanna know too!! I went to my future sister in laws house this weekend...and seeing her wonderful home and Disney collection motivated me...for now

I know right now, Kohls has these great containers on clearance for less than 2 bucks... they have 2-4 compartments... perfect sized for pens/crayons.. or as I was thinking....little Polly Pocket stuff... LOL

But...keep me posted too.. I'm gonna check out the sites ya'll mentioned

 

[portia9]

This is what I have realised. No system will magically get your house clean and organised, you actually have to do the work.

What I have done and it is working pretty well is writing down what needs to be done and how many times a week and how long it should take. Then I wrote down what to do on what day. That way I could decide if I wanted to do a lot on a couple of days or a little most days. Only you know your schedule and what your standards are so to customise your own plan is better than following someone else's.

Yvette

 

[jennifer293]

I have learned that lots of prayer, patience, and GOODWILL gets me through the day!!! I am recovering and have been recovering for a while from a nasty laceration to my leg (got hit by a dune buggy at a parade..you may have heard about it on CNN)..anyway so it is still hard for me to get up and down the stairs quite well. I did get up those stairs the other day and I stepped on a little piece of something in the kids room and I jumped up and came down on the injured leg and I let my inner "crazy person" out and I told the oldest to go get the box of trash bags and we went through all the toys and my clothes closet and I took 6 HUGE bags of stuff to Goodwill.

I am the only one who does anything around here, so I figure if I have to clean it up that at any given point if I feel necessary I can bag it up and give it away!!!

 

[danicaw]

Thank you for starting this thread.
I have been grumpy about the state of my house and the lack of time to get it in shape and get anything else done.

I would love to be able to have someone drop by and not be scrambling to tidy up before they arrive.
Thanks for the motivation.

 

[tjlovespooh]

I'd love to know how to get organized too!
I always see those organizing shows on TV. All the neat little organizing furniture systems they use to keep all the craft, bills, kids toys, etc all nice and neat would be a dream! I always use our lack of spending funds as my excuse for why the house always seems to be in disarray - I suppose sitting here just now typing instead of organizing is the real culprit But hey - why do today what you can put off till tomorrow, right

 

[pumpkin5156]

Enlist the help of your DH and kid(s). I don't buy the whole husband saying, "I bring home the bacon so I don't have to do anything." That doesn't fly in our home. DH is responsible for his clothes, shoes, etc. Granted, I do it 50% for him if it's been a busy week or whatever. My son is only one, so no help there. But if your kids are older, they should all have daily chores/responsibilites.

A PP mentioned containers and I highly agree. Big Lots and Wal Mart have great deals. I use mine for clothes my son has grown out of, decorations for each season (Fall, Christmas, etc.) all wrapping supplies, craft supplies.

We have "days." Laundry day. Cleaning day. Grocery day. Lists help a lot. Post Its are my best friend.

And if you don't have the space for it, huck it. I donate at least once a month to our church or salvation army. For every new pair of shoes or shirt, an old pair of shoes or shirt goes out. It's a great way to make a little extra money by having a garage sale every 2 to 3 months

Good luck and have fun getting organized!

 

[portia9]

Something else that has worked for me is that I bought some folders for all the paperwork that comes home from school/church/ preschool/activities. We have a lot of paperwork with 4 kids So I have a school folder, a church and after school activities folder and then my older 2 boys have their own folder. When notes come home from school I file them into the school folder and when I fill them out I put them in the boys folders so they can take it to school. It has helped keeping everything together. I put their homework books and readers in that file too and I no longer have to look around for them.

 

[i3utterfli82]

Have you seen this?

http://www.motivatedmoms.com/order.html

 

[teresajoy]

This is what I have realised. No system will magically get your house clean and organised, you actually have to do the work.


Yvette

MAN!!! Now you tell me!!!

 

[grlpwrd]

I like motivatedmoms.com , but it didn't get to the root of my problems.

I am a member of www.organizedhome.com and I am making progress. My 16yo cleans better than I do (lol) so I am also learning from her.

GL!

 

[katdocnorf]

My biggest problem is everyone else. I clean and clean... I started in one room got it completed done then went in the next the next day and finished it and then low and behold the first room is now trashed again. DH and DSS piles mail on the Dining Room table and on the back of the Love Seat (It is closest to the front door) and the majority of it is junk mail. I tell them you can tell it is junk mail. THROW IT AWAY. Bills go in the bill bucket for me to go through. But they still continue. And it is that way with everything. No one cleans up after themselves. They all expect some magic fairy to come clean up or something. I can never seem to get anywhere with cleaning for this reason. Like I said by the time I get through with the 2nd room it is time to go back to the first again, so therefore I never get any further and after a few days of this I give up.

 

[Gillian]

My biggest problem is everyone else. I clean and clean... I started in one room got it completed done then went in the next the next day and finished it and then low and behold the first room is now trashed again. DH and DSS piles mail on the Dining Room table and on the back of the Love Seat (It is closest to the front door) and the majority of it is junk mail. I tell them you can tell it is junk mail. THROW IT AWAY. Bills go in the bill bucket for me to go through. But they still continue. And it is that way with everything. No one cleans up after themselves. They all expect some magic fairy to come clean up or something. I can never seem to get anywhere with cleaning for this reason. Like I said by the time I get through with the 2nd room it is time to go back to the first again, so therefore I never get any further and after a few days of this I give up.

I hate to say this, but no method is going to help you get your DH & DSS to be more neat. Either you talk to DH & get him on board with sorting his junk, or you just have to find a way to deal with it. Sorry about that.

Also, as long as you clean up after them, they'll never do it themselves. I'm sure some parents of teens have advice on dealing with that!! For my 7 yo & 4 year old I just throw away their toys or turn off the Tivo and hide the remote control.

You do sound like a person who could benefit from a few of the flylady things. it seems like your house is basically ok and you could do some of the drills to help with the mail sorting and stuff. Maybe DH might even find it fun. But the emails sure are annoying! choose the digest instead of individual emails.

Good luck!