My house is a disaster! Where do I start cleaning. I look at it and am so overwhelmed!?

Question

I have 3 kids...and a messy husband. And we have stuff everywhere. I'm so tired of it! I need major organization and cleanliness. It's driving me nuts. Any tips on how or where to begin? I want to paint and give the house a fresh new look, but I don't want to work around messes and make it even worse. I'm not starting until I get everything straightened.

Answer 1

Go to this website:
www.flylady.net

Trust me, I know exactly how you feel. I struggled for a very long time like this with two kids and myself. I found Flylady's book and it worked a miracle. She has you start with a clean shiny sink and you baby-step your way to a clean house. "You can do anything for 15 minutes" is her saying, and it's TRUE! Good Luck to you, maybe this will work for you like it has for millions of others! : )

Answer 2

This is a tough situation. Simply saying "eat the elephant one bite at a time" isn't going to be very reassuring for you. My advice is to:
1. get rid of trash first - everywhere
2. get rid of clutter that you don't need (store it or trash it). Start in the rooms you use most (i.e. kitchen, living area)
3. look at what's left and determine how you need to organize it (will you need storage containers, etc?)
4. then begin to put the less-often used stuff in places like closets, etc, where you can still get to them. Don't worry about doing it nicely yet, just get it there. You can come back and make it neater later.
5. Now what's left is the stuff you use a lot. This should be readily accessible, but organized into neatness.
6. Once the house "looks" neat, then CLEAN it, PAINT it, whatever you want.
7. After that, then you can go back to the closets and boxes and reorganize the stuff you don't use often. During this phase, you'll probably realize that you can probably get rid of a few more things.

Your husband and children will be the problem. They will have to be on board or you'll get nowhere.

Answer 3

Start by teaching your husband and your children not to be pigs.

1. Have a family meeting, turn off TV and Radio for the duration of the project:
"Operation-Dirt-Attack"
2. Discuss the things that make the house dirty or messy...ask each person to "admit" to at least 3 faults.
3. Have each person choose something they CAN do to make things better everyday.
4. Make a list for each person, (or a drawing for small kids) of what they will do daily...even if it is a tiny thing like "I will windex the mirrors"
4. Set the plan in action, have daily or weekly meeting until you have reached a certain level of consistency.

Keep the complex jobs for you and uour husband...you organize the paperwork, bills, etc in binders, he can organize thae garage by weeding out old paints, trash, or old spray cans...and he can be the car cleaning person.

He can organize videos and CD's...he can organise a toolkit for the house...

The kids, depending on age can do a lot, fill or empty the dryer, fill laundry pails, sort toys, change their own bed linens, some kids actually love to vaccuum or water plants....

soon enough...you will have some order...and your husband and your children may slightly complain...but deep down, they will also RESPECT their environment and be glad to have LEARNED how to take care of a home, something that is very important for life!!! Remind the kids...this is a skill you will need to be a "grown-up" !!!

Answer 4

Well first thing to do is start one room at a time, that will help you from becoming to overwhelmed and just want to give up. Start by making three areas, keep, (donate or yard sale area), and last trash area. Have each of the kids help you with there rooms, if there is an overabundance of toys, etc., get rid of what they do not use anymore. A great way to keep the house organized after you do each room is to have a basket for each family member they put there stuff in it and then take it to there rooms and put it away. Also if your husband likes to leave his stuff laying everywhere after this, tell him the Salvation Army is always looking for great merchandise to sell in the thrift shop, or whatever thrift shop you have in the area. If you find his stuff laying about give him a day to pick it up, if he did not do this, he didnt want it anyway. Make sure you have plenty of places to store stuff such as plastic bins, rolling carts, etc..
Those will help a great deal. Hope these tips help some.

Answer 5

I would just dig in!!! Start with the clutter. Don't be a packrat, throw away unused items. I would buy 3 "toy buckets" and have the kids fill them with what they want to keep, the rest could be donated or stored in boxes somewhere else, or even have a yard sale, I don't know what to tell you about the messy husband since I haven't been able to conquer that one myself. lol I take on his mess!!

Once you have "junk" out of one room at a time, then start with basic cleaning and vacuuming, involve the kids if they are old enough so that they may take an interest in keeping it nice along with you. You may find as well, that baskets, shelving, even egg crates can be helpful in organizing a mess.
Finally, Good Luck, I've been there and know exactly how you feel.

Answer 6

Have a realistic goal of attacking one room in the house each weekend. First get out trash bags and purge the room of everything that you don't need or haven't used in a year. Once that is done, then be creative and find ways to organize what's left. Being messy is easy when things are unorganized, but once that is done. Then the room can be painted and decorated. Then each weekend you and your family can tackle another room. It may take awhile, but come spring time - you'll have a much cleaner house and you'll be happier for it. Good luck.

Answer 7

I think that you will have to rally your team there and be methodical in your cleaning/organization. First, inform your family of the new clean house concept -- everyone has to get on board! Then, I would tackle the house room by room. I think that it helps to run through the rooms and remove anything that doesn't belong there (IE: I have a hairbrush in the kitchen -- that should be removed to the other room where it belongs). Then, top to bottom -- attack each room by itself. Doing so gives you concrete goals: "finish this room, then break for lunch" or "you can go outside and play after you finish your room". That's how I would start. Don't give up. Good luck.

Answer 8

Have you seen Flylady.net? She has set up a totally free website with a babystep approach to getting your house and life back in order. It won't be overnight, but she really does help conquer the madness. The idea is that you create little routines throughout the day to help you regain control. Once your routines are in place, you start tackling the stuff that has built up in different areas of your home (or zones), but only 15 minutes at a time, so you're not overwhelmed. One of flylady's favorite mottos is "You can do anything for 15 minutes." Good luck!

Answer 9

Whenever I have a huge mess in my house, I start in the living room. Work on one room at a time. First, anything that doesn't belong in the living room, take it to the room it does belong in. Don't worry about putting it exactly where it belongs in that room, just leave it in there. You will be cleaning that room later. Next, I go through the room I'm working on and if there is anything that needs to be thrown away, do that. Just do each room like that, one at a time and it goes by really fast! I always clean that way. Also, clutter on tables and furniture make a room look messier than it really is. So, by getting rid of extra stuff on tables and such, makes your room look cleaner automatically. Hope this helps!

Answer 10

Just take it 1 room at a time. If there are items that you haven't used in a while sell them in a garage sale, or donate them to a charity. Just start sorting items and don't get discouraged if it takes awhile.
Once you get it cleaned maybe you can buy some baskets or totes to organize the childrens toys and make sure they put 1 thing away before taking something else out. Build shelves or closet organizers.

Answer 11

It cannot be done without cooperation from the husband and rules for the kids to be enforced about cleaning up and picking up after themselves. When you can get this pick a room, any room, and begin your cleaning with several hefty bags. No way to organize anythiing unless you're willing to toss out stuff not needed. You've just accumulated more stuff than your house will hold. Reduce what you have, organize what must be kept and clean, clean, clean.