I sometimes struggle to keep on top of the housework because is seems like as fast as I’m cleaning or tidying, someone else is dirtying and dumping!
Everyone has their own jobs to do in the house but I’m having trouble getting the message through that if you’re finished with something, put it away or in the bin.
If I’m honest though, it’s not just the kids. I’m just as guilty of leaving things lying around or not throwing things out when I should.
A quick look around now, shows me some sweet wrappers that Miss Frugal left when she went to school this morning, some tissues that Master Frugal has just dumped after blowing his nose a million times (I know, YUCK), an envelope from a letter I’ve put away, a snapped bobble and some receipts – and that’s just the living room chaos from today!
But I do have a solution – not for getting the kids to tidy up after themselves as I’ve not discovered the secret for that yet.
My solution is a quick way to get rid of all this rubbish and have a de-clutter at the same time.
It’s something I’ve carried on and kind of adapted from when I used to do ‘flylady’ a good few years ago and it really does work in all sorts of ways.
I’m sure it had a fancy name and proper rules on Flylady but I just call it a carrier bag de-clutter and the only rule is that you fill a carrier bag with 30 things that you want to go in the bin (or recycle). I’d recommend that you always stop at 30 or you could go all day and then it’s not a quick thing that you’re happy to do regularly.
I’ve just had a quick whizz around the living room and cleared all of the mess I mentioned above which took me to about ten things in my bag, I sorted our a vase on my windowsill that had been stuffed with a few things and then moved on to the drawer we keep our hair things in. After I did that I had about five things left to take me up to thirty so I had a quick look at our kitchen noticeboard and got rid of some out of date tickets and vouchers.
Thirty things gone in less than five minutes!
(And you don’t have to use a carrier bag – you just need something you can put your rubbish in and then tip in to the bin.)
