Have GOT to get it together...HELP!!!

amother

Sun, Apr 29 2012, 2:50 am

How do I explain it...I feel overwhelmed by all the little daily things that need to be done each day. I work from home (babysitting) and then have my kids home all afternoon. By the time the evening comes arounda nd everyone is sleeping, I am BOMBED and no energy to do anything.

For example, every single morning, my kids room is a MESS!! They empty out bags of wipes, take off their sheets and their blankets and stuffed animals are all over the room. DItto for the shoes from the shoe drawer and dirty laundry. Plus, my baby is going thru a stage where he rips books. Sigh.

Should I add that my kids are 4, 3, and 2? And that we live in a small 2 bedroom Israeli apartment? And that I babysit from my living room? I feel like everything just piles up and it is just SO much to do everyday. And that's besides for the cooking and child care. I have someone who comes once a week to fold laundry and put it away. I have someone who comes 2x a week to clean. It's just not enough to be on top of the daily messes and I am going a little crazy. I have trued several laundry options, but none of them have stuck for long, because we generate SO much dirty laundry!! And the garbage...HELP!! There are so many dirty tissues and wipes and pieces of books and who knows what all over the place. I work so hard to keep at least the living room really clean, since that is where the kids spend most of their time adn where I babysit as well...but it is not enough.

My kitchen is so incredibly cluttered and it takes so much time to put everything away and I am having such a hard time with it. There are always dirty dishes and just...stuff! And that is before I start cooking or feeding my family. After my kids eat, it looks like a hurricane just hit. Now that it is warmer out, I have started to feed the kids on the porch, since it is less messy and more enjoyable.

Please, can someone please give me some tips to get my act together? I feel so lousy and overwhelmed and annoyed about my situation...

Sun, Apr 29 2012, 3:08 am

Obviously, I don't really know your situation, but a few pointers based on what you wrote - basically ideas to prevent a flying house at the end of the day.

Try to do what you can to stop your kids from making messes that overwhelm you. Try keeping the wipes and tissues high enough that they can't get at them, use sheet clips to make it harder for them to get the sheets off the beds, lock cabinets and drawers that you don't want them getting to.

Get bins for toys - you just dump them all in, and then the house looks neat.

Use paper dishes, and disposable pans as much as possible, so that you don't have to wash up as much.

Most importantly is a point that I've heard for years now - "Enjoy every minute". Yes taking care of a house/kids is hard/challenging/overwhelming, but remember to take a few minutes and shep nachas and enjoy the stages that your children are in, and kvell over their accomplishments, however naughty they may be.

Do what you can to make running the household easier for you so that you stay calm and happy.

Good luck!

gila-rina

Sun, Apr 29 2012, 3:28 am

First of all Hug

, please sit down with a cup of coffee, tea or whatever you might prefer and take a breather for a few minutes. Your plate is full. With 3 little kids and others to babysit, no wonder you feel overwhelmed.
I can think of a few things you might try to make your life easier: make clean up a game for your kids eg. "lets find something red, who sees something blue? ...", can you get up a bit earlier before they get a chance to make a mess? If its not possible to wash the dishes right away, soak them, so it goes easier later when you get to them. I pour only half a cup if a kid wants to drink, so that they finish right away and don't accidentally spill. Also, you might want to give smaller portion and refill if they want more food, that way they wont play with the food and make a mess. But overall, try to involve the kids in the dayly chores, I'm sure there are things even a two year old can help with.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
eta make a schedule what you're going to do each day for minutes after they are asleep eg. mending on Mon., filing paperwork Tue, organizing closet Wedn. 15 minutes doesn't sound as much, but you'd be surprised how much can be accomplished in that time.

chocolate chips

Sun, Apr 29 2012, 8:23 am

Put everything away. Out of reach and/or sight from your kids. Each kid can get one toy in their bed to play with in the morning.

Have a drawer set (like the ones ikea sell) with each drawer having a different toy. This way the kids can spill etc all you have to do is put the toys back in the container and the house is tidy.

Also take a warm drink and good book and a nice bath before you start to clean up and go to bed.

amother

Sun, May 06 2012, 2:28 am

Thank you everyone for your advice. I am bumping this up again b/c I could really use the chizzuk. I forgot to add that I am in the second trimester of my 4th pregnancy (B"H!!) and have been more tired than ever during a pregnancy. I wish that I could just "get my act together" and get this place in shape. But the problem is, as a previous poster mentioned, we have too much stuff!! I am planning on making a huge sale in the summer for all of our excess things, but in the meantime, I have nowhere to store it until the sale. We don't have set places for many things. Also, there isn't a lot of extra floor space for hampers, for example. I have a basket in the tiny laundry room in the back of the kitchen for the dirty laundry, but most members in my family just dump the clothes on the floor and I have to collect it all from under the beds, etc.

It is time for me to change over clothes from winter to summer, but is such a huge task that I feel overwhelmed just THINKING about it. I have clothes that my kids wore 2 winters ago that still fit them this year. SO when I put them away, I have to put them in the first box of clothes that they came from.

I so badly want to be organized, but unfortunately, it is in my genes to be disorganized. One of my parents had a HUGE issue with clutter...Even when I do organize something, it is so so so so hard for me to keep it up. I know that everyone says that rule #1 is to never put somethign down jsut anywhere - always put it back where it came from. Well, would you believe it if I told you that sometimes that is too hard for me? Many times, I am trying to clean up a room and have 3 kids trailing behind me and I can't keep walking to different rooms to put things away - they are in the way, or they need something, etc.

Am I crazy? Is there something wrong with me? Is the problem bigger than I think?

Please help me!!

curlyhead

Sun, May 06 2012, 4:12 am

I could so relate. First of all lower your expectations.

In regards to changing over the clothing (something I need to do also ) either choose one day to do it all - forget everything else and just focus on that or do one kids' clothing at a time. You could probably do one kids clothes in half an hour. Get a box and just pull out whatever is too small or wintery. Another day you could put the summer stuff in. I find sometimes these jobs seem bigger then they really are.