Housecleaning Emergency, need advice

[Treasuremapper]

I don't know if there is really such a thing as a housecleaning emergency, but it feels that way to me.

About six months ago, we moved into a beautiful new house. I love it. I love cleaning it, taking care of it, everything that seemed like a chore in the old house seems like a joy in the new house.

Well, about a month and a half ago I sustained an injury that required me to be in a wheelchair for about a month. I am now able to limp around, but only with plenty of ibuprofen.

During that month and a half that I was in a wheelchair and then barely able to walk, my dh had to take over ALL of the housecleaning and a lot of the childcare. I appreciate all he did.

The downside is that dh is very, very messy, and housecleaning is not his forte.

Here is what has me stumped. I have to do ongoing maintenance in the house, ie, make beds, empty trash, do laundry -- but at the same time, I have a huge backlog of having a very messy person clean and organize the house for over a month.

I don't know how to balance. I'm really puzzled about it, because I have never had a housecleaning situation this out of control.

Please give me your suggestions and ideas. Is there any strategy for handling a mess this huge?

[transformed]

flylady.com

Has info about emergency cleaning.

My house is always in a state of disaster.

[MissMommyNiceNice]

Maybe you can hire someone to come in and do one big swoop clean up and set things in order so they are easier for you to maintain. Obviously you're still having some repercussions from you accident, and this will make it easier and less stressful for you.

And yes, there is such a thing as a housecleaning emergency! Just think about what would happen if you dropped a 3 gallon plastic container full of freshly made sweet tea on your kitchen floor at 6:45 in the morning. I was half asleep and would def. qualify it as an emergency!

[Treasuremapper]

I looked at flylady.net and found her Crisis Cleaning 101, and I applied it, too. Thank you for a great suggestion! I am just stymied about how to do BOTH.

If it were you, would you skip daily routine maintenance until you rein the mess back in? For example, should I skip things like making the beds and focus my attention on reclaiming my home?

Or should I do the routine maintenance, ie, make the beds in a cluttered, chaotic room? It seems that if I skip the routine maintenance and clean and declutter one room, then the rooms I already cleaned will deteriorate, if that makes sense.

One rule I had was that the kids had two playrooms, their bedrooms, and our bedroom. Other than that, no toys, arts, or crafts were allowed anywhere in the house. Well, dh did not follow that rule because he didn't want to have to keep those rooms clean and inviting. So the kids moved on to the clean rooms. Should I clean the playrooms and reinstate the rules again? I'm so confused and overwhelmed.

[astrophe27]

It basically depends on how fast you want order back.

You could hire someone to come to it on one fell swoop.

You could skip daily chores and focus on deep cleaning rooms so you are done in a few weeks/months.

You could keep up daily chores and then assign one day to "deep clean" something and catch up in a few months/years.

A.

[brittneyscott]

I'd decide what daily cleaning HAD to be done and then let everything else go while I focused on the decluttering/deep cleaning that needed to be done. For me it would be laundry, dishes, and picking up the living rm. Other things like making beds could be ignored for now. I'd make sure the dishes and laundry were done daily and the living rm picked up. Then I'd pick one rm at a time to clean that day or for a couple of days. For me this would allow the whole house to be done in just a couple weeks at most.

[AngelBee]

For others who may need it:

http://www.flylady.net/pages/FlyingL...iscleaning.asp

[ledzepplon]

Originally Posted by astrophe27

You could hire someone to come to it on one fell swoop.

If you can afford it, this would be my choice!

[jocelyndale]

Originally Posted by Treasuremapper

One rule I had was that the kids had two playrooms, their bedrooms, and our bedroom. Other than that, no toys, arts, or crafts were allowed anywhere in the house. Well, dh did not follow that rule because he didn't want to have to keep those rooms clean and inviting. So the kids moved on to the clean rooms. Should I clean the playrooms and reinstate the rules again? I'm so confused and overwhelmed.

I'd clean the playrooms ASAP. If the kids are back on their usual routine, it will make your routine tasks + extra tasks easier to finish. Just get those rooms under control, then do an extra room or half a room a day + usual tasks.

And for this, I'd make incentives for your kids to help, if they're old enough. Their jobs don't have to be perfect. For example, if there's craft stuff in the dining room, have the kids take it to a playroom. It doesn't have to be put away, just taken to the right room. That'll make your job easier. If they do it (somewhat) willingly and without (too much) complaint, think up a good treat.

Of course, I can't even manage usual tasks right now. I'm a big ol' hypocrite. :

[Treasuremapper]

Thank you for taking my housecleaning emergency seriously. I found myself thinking of this board so much this afternoon as I squirted EO scented vinegar and sprinkled EO scented baking powder. I knew you would have some ideas for me.

All of the bedrooms and three of the bathrooms in our home are on the second floor. All of the more public spaces, including both playrooms and one bathroom, are on the first floor. I think I am going to combine your advice and do only the most basic maintenance on the upstairs until I get the first floor under control. Then I can continue to maintain the first floor and start tackling the upstairs.

I guess cleaning the playrooms, or at least one playroom, is the best plan. They are just so overwhelmingly bad that I cringe from them, because I fear it will take an entire day of hard, irritating labor just to sort the jumbled messes of toys. One of those playrooms is in our marriage bagua, and the other in our helpers bagua, so perhaps that's part of my problem.

Incredibly, we had a weekly house cleaner during this time. The way it worked was this: my dh would realize that the maid was coming, and he would frantically grab everything and stuff it into bins, regardless of category. Sometimes he was still stuffing items into bins while the maid was here, staying just a few rooms ahead of her!! Bless his heart, he tried to compensate for an entire week of havoc by one hour of wild stuffing. Then my children would go take the stuff out of the bins and toss the contents all over the floor after the maid had cleaned the house. Then I would gripe because there was no path for my wheelchair.

It seemed that the maid did not do that hot of a job, but she was here working constantly for four hours every week. I guess she was overwhelmed, too.

Because of the disorder, I am reluctant to hire someone until I can sort things out. It's too out of order, though at least the bathrooms and floors and such were cleaned thoroughly once a week. I think it would take a professional organizer to tackle this. Maybe I need to contact one of those Clean Sweep tv shows?

[sphinxie]

Sounds like the worst problem is disorganized clutter?

[Treasuremapper]

Yes, Sphinxie, I guess so, now that you put it that way. The worst problem is total disorganized stuff. Piles of kids laundry on the playroom floor, kids toys in the downstairs bathroom, that sort of thing. Plus, even though he has a personal walk in closet that is 16 feet long and 6 feet wide that is rich with shelves, drawers, and hanging space, dh appears to have taken over the downstairs hall closet with his own clothes, plus an entire cabinet in the utility room is packed with his personal belongings, including clothing, keys, papers, and sadly, hundreds of plastic bags. He has his own huge space, drawers and shelves that are almost empty, so I won't feel a twitch of guilt when I move that stuff out. I was not able to see this happening because I was in a wheelchair, and I could not get into those areas due to all the clutter.

OTOH, there is more. The maid was here a week ago, but yesterday I spent fifteen minutes cleaning Elmer's glue off the living room furniture and hardwood floors yesterday. I don't allow a four year old to have a huge bottle of Elmer's without a neat sheat under the project and close supervision.

I still cannot believe that things got so bad so fast and with a weekly maid service.

[Ruthla]

Since you've been injured, and I assume you're not 100% "all better" yet, my biggest advice is to take things slowly so you don't risk re-injuring yourself!

Maybe make "making beds" a 1X a week chore for now, instead of a daily chore?

Step one seems to be getting the kids' stuff under control so they don't continue to make further messes. If you can get just one playroom under control, they could play in there and leave the others alone, right? At least in theory.

I'd have them move all the arts and crafts stuff out of the rooms where they don't belong, so they're not tempted to use them innapropriately. Get those put away, or at least out of reach, ASAP. Then get to work organizing one playroom, with some sort of container for things that don't belong in there. Maybe you could put the kids to work putting things (from the playroom you're cleaning) into the right rooms- not necessarily the right places in those rooms, but at least in the right rooms.

Then when that playroom is finished, move onto the next room. There might be a few more things to put away into that playroom if the items are found when cleaning other rooms, but that shouldn't be too complicated if the room is already cleaned. Continue this process (which may take a few weeks, depending on how bad it actually is, and how much energy you have daily to deal with it) you re-institute daily and weekly routines to keep things neat and organized.

[b&c'smama]

Originally Posted by MissMommyNiceNice

Maybe you can hire someone to come in and do one big swoop clean up and set things in order so they are easier for you to maintain. Obviously you're still having some repercussions from you accident, and this will make it easier and less stressful for you.

If you can afford it this would definitely be the way I would go. Then you could start implementing flylady. If you don't want to pay for a professional company, (which can get pretty pricey) look on craigslist for a student or mom who is cleaning houses.

BTW- Ruthla is right you want to take it easy so you don't re-injure yourself!

[normajean]

If clutter is your issue I think I'd pull out the laundry baskets and fill them up with whatever doesn't belong in a given room. Clean that room, take one room for about an hour or so a day, and work my way through the house. Then I'd try to keep up with the day to day stuff in the meantime. As you get feeling better & better, it will probably get easier. Don't over do, the house will wait as much as you need it to.

[momto l&a]

Has anybody you know offered help should you need it? If so except and tell them exactly what you need done in your home.

Otherwise hire somebody.

You dont need to be slowing down your recover any.

[MOM2ANSLEY]

as for the piles of laundry......go to laundromat and wash it all at once, seperate it into baskets as you fold and have everyone put away ...or have a wash and fold service at laundromat do the laundry

as for the playroom.....donate as you clean......the less in your home, the less you have to keep reorganizing..........lol, if you could see my living room....looks like a toystore exploded, but dd's bedroom looks pretty good???

[Treasuremapper]

Oh my gosh -- a laundry-a-thon! You are a genius, MOM2ANSLEY! I have done those in the past, but that was years ago. I used a wash and fold service when we were moving, and it was prohibitively expensive. But a laundry a thon is just the ticket. Thank you -- I am off to google laundrymats.

[MOM2ANSLEY]

i remember, years ago when dh and i were dating.....well actually it hasn't changed much, mil's laundryroom...underbeds, wherever were cluttered with clothes, no one and I mean no one knew what was clean or dirty, always drove me crazy..... oh I have to add...make the beds lmao....our beds get made weekly when sheets are laundered....and then the comforters are not even put on right.....I would blame it on co-sleeping and the 6 blankets and 5 pillows and babyrail....but its pretty much always been that way

Sounds like you mostly have a clutter issue if you have kpt dishes done , trash emptied etc

if thats the case, organize and thin out at same time....and as for flylady...she pegged me.....i always get sidetracked,,, kitchen cabinets may be organized...but counters are cluttered again....had to clean out the whole cabinet just to get the tray I wanted to put dd's markers in....that tray previousley held ds's extra toothbrushes, thermometer, medicines, syringes etc...not exactly productive,,,I guess I suffer from housekeeping attention deficit disorder

[momof2boys1girl]

I am sorry he left so much work for you. Glad you are able to get up and around w out the wheel chair.
I would say it will take a few weeks to get it back to how you like it. Take is slowly and do one room at a time. Take day or 2 per room and get it back to how you had it. Or if you have the funds hire someone to come in and do a deep cleaning and you can handle the re-organization.