My home is overrun... again..

[confustication]

Somehow, while I've been busy working (many many many hours a week), my house has gone from comfortable to cluttered. I'm overwhelmed by even choosing a place to start!

My husband 'cleaned the kitchen' this morning, but it's still cluttered and not what I want it to be (as in, hidden behind his huge box of soda, I see the toe of a pair of little kid pajamas sticking out.)

My living room is just over run with toys.

My laundry area is in the bathroom- and really, it's just complete madness in there.

My bedroom is lost under the mountain of clean laundry.

I don't have to be back to work until Friday, so between now and then, I need to effect a change significant enough that my husband will be able to stay on top of things without my having to micromanage.

Help? Suggestions?

I really don't want o hire a cleaning service- but even if I did, I'd need to clean up a bit before I could....

[zoebird]

when working way too many hours, i think it is important to make sure tht you have adequate and regular rest and then also space for comfortable work.

anything that will recharge you, so that you can do a small chore as you go--such as folding laundry and making sure it gets put away. just doing that creates a much cleaner space for you.

then, as you go along an you find the rhythm between WOH and rest and tidying, you can add in the cleaning to the mix to make it more systematic.

also, i define rest as anything that seems to "fill your well"--going for a walk with the family, reading stories together, having a hot bath, whatever. so, rest can be active in a way too. but something that you find personally enriching that allows you to move out of the 'work space' and into the 'home space' and also then give you the energy to do a little bit of cleaning each day (tidying really), and then cleaning when you are home on the weekend (in such a way that you aren't doing it all weekend).

it will, at least, cut your cleaning time and also reduce your stress. when i come home to a messy house (and why DH doesn't tidy up before i come home is beyond me!).

[clutterwarrior]

Originally Posted by confustication

My living room is just over run with toys.

All I can suggest here is getting rid of some toys so there are less to overrun the place...and believe me I need to do this too!

Originally Posted by confustication

My laundry area is in the bathroom- and really, it's just complete madness in there.

Mine is also in the bathroom, I feel your pain! We have to take washing out of the bath to have a bath, so it is not ideal. However we have a shower in a separate room so everyone usually has showers. Sorry not much help!

Originally Posted by confustication

My bedroom is lost under the mountain of clean laundry.

This one I have got under control as what I do is always take things straight from the clothesline and put away in drawers or hang up. I never dry clothes in the tumble dryer...which means no crumpled (shrunk) clothes sitting in the dryer, and no baskets of washing waiting to be put away.

[confustication]

I was out yesterday, and my husband tackled the laundry! Yay!

I want to remove some of the toys in the living room, but there really is no where else to put them- the boys' room is under construction (they are still in our room, both under 2) so I need to find a solution to save my sanity. At the same time, we've had an open storage system as DS 1 has some delays and enabling him to see toys and get them himself has been pretty important.

*sigh* balance


At least my husband realized that I needed some help- he has a much higher clutter tolerance than I do, so sometimes he doesn't understand why I feel overrun.