An update - people in the house over multiple days

I can't tell you exactly what led to our turning point. (Setbacks have happened, but still it's been consistently better). We give other kids rides all the time, which makes use keep the car cleaner. That helped.

The kids have each had a friend over in the last month for the first time in years. I went from afraid to have the door or curtains open at night to ok over the last year. I hope my highlights and this win give you a reason to hope or smile or be glad that a couple kids are in a cleaner house for 2025.

Cleaning beforehand was still tense and stressful, but manageable. My room and the dining room and garage have suffered to hide stuff, but we're net ahead. Family has been over or just popped in multiple times and sat down to chat in a reasonable living room. Yeah...that's weird for us. Also, my brother and sister know how I was struggling and we're supporting each other (without really talking about it, but it's not a secret that my dining room is a shitshow)

Last night I folded and we put away 7 massive loads of laundry, including 4 that were stashed in my room on my bed. Because we decluttered, there's a home for all the towels and bulky sweatshirts and people have stopped throwing things that don't fit back into the laundry. Also, I didn't step foot in the laundry room yesterday. Kids flipped their own loads while I folded the backlog and we watched TV together.

We shut down the kitchen last night,tidied the living room,got very full trash to the curb, and didn't let ourselves undo the good we did.

What's bad - Garage, basement, attic (mostly empty, but we haven't touched what's up there in years),dining room (still better than a year ago), my room (better than it was 24 hours ago). Backlog of trash bags and recycling in garage will go into the bins today - we missed a trash day.

What's great - you could open almost any drawer in my house and I wouldn't be ashamed. The cabinets and closets are better, so we are using them. We can find things, we can put things away.

The fridge is fairly tidy. The kitchen sink is clean and the floor is mopped. My son's room isn't sparkling, but he can have people over and changed his own bunk bed sheets yesterday. I decluttered the guest bath and scrubbed it Monday. Our closets are working storage spaces.

It helped me to pick an odd color trash bag (ours were the clear blue recycle bags) and start filling them with donations. The first time, my mom drove it to donate. Around covid, I put everything good out as a free garage sale, that took 4-5 loads down to 1/2 a truck bed. I have a dozen bags in the garage, ready for my next trip and my kids grab one when they are cleaning their drawers out.

We were also fighting a lot over kitchens and bedrooms - I'd get us unburied, be exhausted after work and cleaning, and someone would decide to make an omelet or stirfry that dirtied a sink full of dishes and messed up every surface and the floor or throw 12 days of stuff all over a bedroom in 2 days. I'm not even joking, there were a few that made me cry.

For food, we started a weekly meal delivery service and are wasting less, buying way less, and coming out about even on cost since we're also eating at home more. It's helped a lot in the kitchen. I purged a lot of kitchen stuff and bought a cheap bakers rack/microwave stand last year, everything left fits better.. we use all our little appliances more. My kids regularly make iced tea for the family.

I hope we keep heading this way in 2025. Warmest wishes to all of you ❤️