How to clean an overwhelming mess?

Question

My room is fill with stuff.
I have kinda neglected cleaning since my dad left us.
Now I'm in high school, with friends, but can't have any over because of the mess.
My mom works WAY too much to clean, when she's home she needs the rest.
I want to surprise her by cleaning the house.
But I have no idea where to start....
My house is filled with boxes, and things laying around.
I'm trying to move my dad's old stuff out, and just bought a shed.
The main issue is that I have no room to put anything right now.
Also I'm getting a puppy in a few weeks so my room needs to be spotless!
Please help me!!!!

-Lizz

Answer 1

I would suggest that the first thing you need to do is have you Dad get his stuff. If he can't or won't do that, donate it or throw it away. Then start with one type of cleaning, for example, start with all the clothes. After you have dealt with those move on the something else like the garbage. If you haven't used it in the last 6 months, donate it or throw it away. Good luck

Answer 2

That's so nice of you to want to help out your mom. I would start by taking a serious look at the things around your house, and if there are things you guys have not used in a while or will not use anymore, like your dad's things, and your mom gives you the o.k, have a yard sale! You would be surprised by how much money you can make at a yard sale. Do that for about 2 weeks in a row, and whatever does not sale should go to the thrift store. Make sure you get a reciept from the thrift store, and give them to your mom because those donations are tax deductible. Then, start with one room at a time, and don't move onto the next until you are done with what you started with. The kitchen is an easy start, just clean the dishes and try to find spots for everything. If you need extra storage, use your money from the yard sale to buy a few cute bins from wal-mart or a dollar store. Then move onto laundry, and while you have all the clothes in clothes baskets waiting to be washed, vacuum the floors. As soon as the clothes come out of the dryer, hang them up! Don't let them sit in the baskets. One room at a time, and if it takes all day for one room, then that's alright.

Answer 3

There are all kinds of places that take donations--GoodWill, missions, Purplse Heart, the Salvation Army. I'm not sure where to tell you to look for them all in one place in the phone book, but maybe if you did a yellowpages.com search on the web you'd find them all lumped together for your community. Don't put your dad's stuff in the shed--donate it. Anything you give to a charity can be used in your Mom's incomes taxes next year as a deduction. Just start picking at the mess. In your room, sort out your stuff by what you use, what can be donated and what can be trashed--make 3 piles. If you haven't used something in the last 6 months, move it out. Also, a lot of landfills (dumps) have what is called a swap shop where you can take your unused stuff and maybe somebody else can use it. It's free. Make it a practice to pick up your room every night. Each family member should have their own dirty clothes basket and the laundry should be done regularly. You could do that--the towels and stuff. Hang up or put away your clothes. Get some baskets for magazines, papers and mail. Don't let dishes, food, food wrappers and stuff like that to pile up in the kitchen or any where else in the house. Run the dishwasher and take out the trash regularly. Just pick things up--a place for everything and everything in it's place. Vacuum, sweep and dust--including the sofa, etc., and keep that stuff fluffed up. Pick up after yourself and clean the bathrooms once or twice a week. Just pick at it and soon you'll have it done. You should be very proud of yourself for wanting to give your Mom a hand. Don't throw out any papers or mail without Mom's okay. Good luck. Get some Swiffer dusters and mops if you can afford it. Just plain water and a little dish soap in a bucket and a couple of clothes, one for wet and one to dry or polish with are a good start. Don't put a lot of "junk" in your new shed.

Answer 4

Oh dear...

Okay, first start by getting your Dad's stuff in storage. That will help declutter the place right there.

Do one room at a time. Start with your room. Get 3 containers: 1 for stuff you want to keep, one for stuff you want to throw away or otherwise get rid of, and one for stuff you're not sure of so you want to store it. Get the storage stuff stored, and the dispose-of stuff out of the house.

Next, get a bucket of soapy water and a cleaning rag. Or better still, use Lysol: That is a very good disinfectant and cleaner. Move your furniture out and wash the wall down, along with your furniture. Then move it back. Repeat until everything has been washed and vacuumed. Expect to have to change your water a time or two: Dust collects when not watched.

Once you have that done, put back the stuff you've decided you want to keep. And make sure to keep things in their place when you're not using them.

Repeat with the rest of the house, one room at a time.

If you have curtains or blinds, you might want to take down the curtains and wash them in a gentle cycle. For your blinds, put them in a tub with Lysol or bleach while you clean your windows. If you don't have Windex, vinegar is just as good or better.

This is a project that will take several days, so don't fret if it seems to be going slow.

Good luck!

Answer 5

Get three cheap laundry baskets - the plastic kind from the dollar store. Start at the door and work in a clockwise fashion around the room. In one basket put things you absolutely must keep (be very selective) in the second basket put everything that anyone could possibly use (these go to charity). in the third basket put things that are torn, worn beyond use or otherwise useless (these go to the garbage). Dispose of the contents of the baskets and you will have the room under control. This circle system takes a wall at a time and breaks an unmanageable mess down into manageable bites. Remember, a man in England ate a Harley Davidson motorcycle...it took him a year, one bit at a time, but it really happened! Good for you for wanting to help your momn, chaos in our surroundings makes chaos in our emotional life even harder to bear. Blessings,

Answer 6

Pick a room and start there. Seperate everything into piles....clean clothes, dirty clothes, stuff to throw away, stuff to donate. And start to get rid of all the junk you don't need. If you can't find a good place for it in the house, get rid of it or sell it on ebay. When you start to have some order in the room, give it a good clean. Then start on the next room. It will take some time to do a whole house, but it you do it in stages, it won't seem so overwhelming. Good luck!

Answer 7

Start donating stuff to Goodwill, the Salvation Army, or any thrift store nearby. Or just put it out to the curb or have a yard sale, then whatever is left over ditch it in a dumpster.

Then once that's done start dusting, organizing what's left over or that you wanted to keep around. Vacuum, wash dishes, open up some windows and air that place out.

In the long run though, if they are your friends it won't matter so much about what your place has in it or how it looks, it's about their friendship and liking you for YOU.

Answer 8

the main thing is to start small make a list and take your time so you don't become over whelm and chuck the whole thing.
taking up the dirty clothes and putting things in the proper place will eliminated some of the clutter and then throw out things that you haven't use in a year or so and most important of all get some good house cleaning music with fast beats that makes you want to move.

Answer 9

You need to basically do what they do on the show "Clean Sweep." Start by gathering similar items or items that go together, and putting them to the side (where there's space). After you've done that, get rid of things that you know you'll absolutely never use again. Then, you may need to take a trip to the store to buy some plastic storage bins - store similar items in these bins; ex: all art supplies in one bin, all cleaning supplies in another, etc.

Hopefully this helps! Good luck!

Answer 10

Start by doing one room at a time...toss out broken, unneeded stuff...useful unwanted stuff goes into a yard sale pile or donation box...once you clear that out...organize the things you want to keep. Once you get started, it's not too hard, and you will be amazed at the difference if you work on the project just one hour a day