When I've finally had enough (or how I finally got my house organized)

[mathnerd]

I love Mr. Mathnerd. Really, I do. But he's a borderline hoarder, and having all kinds of stuff lying around makes it really difficult for me to function. Even worse, clutter triggers major depression that my meds can't really touch. I find that when my environment is in chaos, I'm in chaos. I get to where I struggle to even do basic things like clean the kitchen and bathrooms. So I finally hit that proverbial wall. I cleaned the house. ALL of it. And then I painted a few rooms, stripping the hideous wallpaper downstairs. And it feels WONDERFUL.

Some "before" pictures:

The rec room:





Downstairs guest room



Upstairs guest room



Hallway upstairs



Hallway downstairs and laundry room (after I cleaned, but before wallpaper got stripped)





Mr. Mathnerd's office



Living room (which wasn't terrible, but still needed work)



After pictures in part two!

[mathnerd]

And what it looks like now!

[BookstoreEscapee]

Wow! Can you come do mine next?

[notalwaysright]

That's great! I also can feel my mood change if my place is messy. I don't get depressed, but I will just laze around the house. Instead of making a full meal, I'll snack, because the kitchen is a mess. That sort of thing. Also, I found that if I tidy right before going to bed, I fall asleep right away. This is the plus side of living in a very small apartment. I only have a tiny amount of space to clean.

[Sliceanddice]

You're totally opposite of me. Totally clean environments make me extremely uncomfortable I need a little chaos for comfort and calm.

[mathnerd]

Wow! Can you come do mine next?

I still have four of the five bedrooms two paint, two more bathrooms to strip wallpaper and paint, one of which also needs plumbing work that's going to involve ripping out and replacing the tile in the entire tub enclosure and possibly the sub-floor under the tub, the other of which needs some minor wall repair, and the outside of the house, which will involve a fair amount of stucco repair, along with sanding down and hopefully salvaging the wood siding on the front of the house (the sides and back are stucco, front is wood). Then the deck around the hot tub needs to be ripped out and replaced since it's an actual safety hazard, and maybe if we get around to it, getting the hot tub actually working again. Oh, and resurfacing the pool.

Did I mention my list is long? There's probably more that's minor enough I'm forgetting about it.

But thanks!

[mathnerd]

You're totally opposite of me. Totally clean environments make me extremely uncomfortable I need a little chaos for comfort and calm.

My life is chaos enough! But seriously, I need neat and tidy. Clutter and chaos stresses me out. Living with a borderline hoarder has been difficult. There's still two closets that are packed to the gills, but I can shut those doors. And the rest of the junk is contained and organized. I can live with that. Sorta. If I had my way I'd be getting rid of a LOT of stuff, but it's not my stuff, so organized as possible was my compromise.

[notalwaysright]

My life is chaos enough! But seriously, I need neat and tidy. Clutter and chaos stresses me out.

Well, I kind of agree with Slice, in that I don't like cold, super perfect rooms. Like, see all these rooms on Pinterest? To me personally, I would never want any of those rooms! No color (grey!) and everything is so... fake. Just too perfect.

I like tidy, but not perfect. Not 800 pillows on the couch so you can barely sit down. When I say messy, I mean dirty dishes, a layer of dust and cat fur, random clothes on the floor. And yes, my place has gotten that bad, really embarrassing.

[mathnerd]

Well, my house will never be Pinterest perfect! And as you can see, there are shades of orange and green throughout. That entry way is actually
A very pale green. The laundry room is a steel grey, but I ran out of the very light blue I was using, and had to improvise. I did all of this for no money at all by using paint that was in the garage, so I did what I could.

[notalwaysright]

Well, my house will never be Pinterest perfect!

But your house is real, not fake. I actually think this is why I dislike Pinterest so much! I always thought it was because of all the people who come to my work and show me their phone like "I found this on Pinterest and want to make it. Where is the stuff?" Now I realize I dislike how unrealistic it is.

Do you not like the orange? Because I love orange, and have painted it before. People either loved it or hated it, there was no in between. This was a house I lived in a few years ago... It was not normally that clean. I had to clear out a lot of stuff because it was for sale.

[Pixelated]

Congratulations! The differences are awesome!

The "before" photos look like my place right now ... although not quite as bad as mine. Got waaay too much going on to worry about cleaning at the moment (and thankfully there'll be no Christmas company) so I'm postponing it until the new year.

[BookstoreEscapee]

That's great! I also can feel my mood change if my place is messy. I don't get depressed, but I will just laze around the house. Instead of making a full meal, I'll snack, because the kitchen is a mess. That sort of thing.

That's about where I am right now. Though I did just make a big salad for dinner and another for lunch tomorrow, despite my cluttered counters.

I still have four of the five bedrooms two paint, two more bathrooms to strip wallpaper and paint, one of which also needs plumbing work that's going to involve ripping out and replacing the tile in the entire tub enclosure and possibly the sub-floor under the tub, the other of which needs some minor wall repair, and the outside of the house, which will involve a fair amount of stucco repair, along with sanding down and hopefully salvaging the wood siding on the front of the house (the sides and back are stucco, front is wood). Then the deck around the hot tub needs to be ripped out and replaced since it's an actual safety hazard, and maybe if we get around to it, getting the hot tub actually working again. Oh, and resurfacing the pool.

Did I mention my list is long? There's probably more that's minor enough I'm forgetting about it.

But thanks!

So....January?

[mathnerd]

But your house is real, not fake. I actually think this is why I dislike Pinterest so much! I always thought it was because of all the people who come to my work and show me their phone like "I found this on Pinterest and want to make it. Where is the stuff?" Now I realize I dislike how unrealistic it is.

Do you not like the orange? Because I love orange, and have painted it before. People either loved it or hated it, there was no in between. This was a house I lived in a few years ago... It was not normally that clean. I had to clear out a lot of stuff because it was for sale.

I like the orange I have in the kitchen and downstairs bathroom. The orange carpets are a different story. Part of the problem with them is that they needed to be replaced when Mr. Mathnerd bought the house in 1994. They are old and gross. Plus it's just too much. I want to put hardwood down, or a less expensive alternative like engineered hard wood. The house is 4200 square feet (or 4700...there are two sets of plans for the house that disagree with each other), so it's way out of my budget.

ETA: I like that orange too.

[mjr]

Mathnerd:

Have you considered teaching Mr. Mathnerd a "personal Kanban" system? Something like that might help him to "de-clutter" a bit himself, so you don't have to do it all.

It's a "visual" system, and you move tasks through stages. There are various ways to do it, and no one way is "correct", because it's generally about process improvement, and visualizing tasks.

[Racket_Man]

I should have taken "before and after" pictures of my house before GFs daughter and I started to clean/organize/de-clutter/toss out stuff/etc. and the now after me doing a lot of organizing of my stuff. There is still a bit of clutter but after Xmas that will disappear for the most part.