Hey all! While I don't consider myself an expert in organization by any means, I just finished sending this huge text blob to a friend who asked about organization advice, and I figured I'd also post it here in case it helps anyone!
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I feel this! If I can give unsolicited advice because I'm currently going through this as when my mom's dad died she gave up on house management period and it all got really bad, cleaning has 2 parts, 'moping the spilt water', and 'fixing the tap', in other words root-cause never let it get that bad in the first place, and cleaning what's already messy. I recommend flipping back and forth between them.
Pick any room, or if it's so bad it might have to be a section of a room, and get out 3 big garbage bags, 'garbage', 'donate', and 'to sort'. The first 2 are self-explanatory, and the latter means if you find something in the kitchen that goes upstairs, don't put it upstairs right now as that'll break your momentum, just put it in the 'to sort' bag, and when you're done cleaning x space, dump out the 'to sort' bag and start putting those things in place.
Donations go en masse to value village or salvation army or some such place that will take it all in one go, I tried before to sort the donations, when I see this cousin next I'll give them this, oh x y z had a baby recently so this'll go to them, no I just forget and it just stays in my house and I hate it, so I get rid it all at once like I do the garbage.
As for fixing the tap, this is not a good enough solution yet but what I did was pick up boxes from my grocery store (they give them out free), and gave each box a name. Real examples for me are 'books to keep' 'books to donate' 'winter clothes' 'summer clothes' 'trading cards' 'electronics and their boxes and manuals'. As I sort, just put it in the appropriate box, if not garbage or donate. If something doesn't have a category, get a new box for it, or if you're unsure of what category something is, get an 'unsure' box. Currently I wake up to a room full of ugly boxes haha, but aside from it looking bad I breathe easier knowing at least I know where everything is. Lol I had a food snack box at at a point, it's a box on the floor of the kitchen with my food snacks that I go through at least once a day. I didn't know where to put that shit so it was better than nothing! My long-term gameplan is buy drawers, bins, sorters, carts, etc, a permanent place for these items but for now it's an effective and 0 cost solution.
Other tips include investing in a great vacuum cleaner that you expect to have a lifespan of least 3 years, I highly recommend one with a rod so you don't have to bend down all the time, bagless so you can avoid that hassle, and includes a crevice and upholstery brush/tool, for all those different situations. I'd recommend the canister type with a rod, so you lift them and effortlessly get spider webs in ceiling corners, or behind furniture, as opposed to standing types. Get a good brand but don't pay full price, my mom got one at value village, and also there are great deals on the facebook marketplace and craigslist.
Other tip is get black garbage bags, cut them up, staple together, and place them over super cluttered areas of the house in an out of sight, out of mind approach. I know that sounds crazy but hear me out. It's obviously temporary, but the point is treat it like levels in a video game. You only see one at a time, and you can't see lv 2 until you finish lv 1. It removes distractions and simplifies the space as a temporary solution, focus only on what's not currently covered, and is an obvious reminder to get to cleaning that house area. Think it looks bad? What's underneath is worse! So it's also motivation to get to those areas. I can't thoroughly clean all the rooms I frequently visit in a day meanwhile the clutter stresses me out, but I can (and did) cover all the problem areas in a day with the garbage bags, so that now mess isn't in my peripheral and isn't triggering me.
When my mom's dad died I also had some severe depression of my own, so this system I developed over a year as the family recovered. I started with only a garbage bag, and every day when I got downstairs to a messy family room I picked up the first thing I saw that was obviously garbage, and that was all the cleaning I did for that day (and could handle). Empty envelope, rubber band, pen cap, receipt, whatever, first thing. 1 bag, 1 room, 1 item, every day. As time went on I grew stronger and did more in a day and added complexity (such as with adding the donate and to sort bags). My point is if any of this seems overwhelming, well crawling is better than staying still if that's all you can manage, but make sure to crawl! Just move, take some action, no matter how tiny!
Good luck!
Submitted January 20, 2019 at 09:30PM by hox_blastien http://bit.ly/2T5jS5l
