I have found the perfect housecleaning motivation.

[KidsHappen]

That Hoarders show is amazing. Much more effective that Fly Lady. I am about half way through the first season and I have yet to come to house that was as bad as my mothers. Anyhow, I watch an episode and then complete a cleaning project. I have watched several shows now and I am on a role because this scares me to death. I know that there is a genetic component to mental health issues and my mother was bi-polar just like me. Until I was about 13 our house was always clutter free and clean. My mother did have some stuff but it was always neatly organized, marked and stored in the garage or an empty bedroom. Then she left my father and I don't know that she ever cleaned or decluttered again after than. I have always been exactly the opposite, a place for everything and everything in it's place kind of person. If we haven't used it in the last six months, we don't need it and out it goes. But the older I get the harder I find it is to manage everything. A single day of house cleaning is liable to lay me up for a week. I would love to have a professional service some to my house for a day and help get me started. Even better, I would love for my brother and all of my children come at one time and help me whip things into shape. But given that there is very little chance of that happening, this show is the next best thing. I am so glad that you guys mentioned it. If you are looking for a little motivation, I highly suggest a couple episodes of this.

[sagira]

I need to watch that show. Since I was a child, I never saw the point of cleaning/organizing, and now my house looks like a disaster and whenever people come over to visit it seems they feel an itch to compulsively start cleaning :confused:

 

Even my MIL and FIL, whose house is not immaculate, but still fairly messy by neat freaks' standard, came over last weekend when we were not home and started cleaning.

 

Even though it's a chore for me to put things away and both dh and I throw stuff wherever and fill up empty tables, I hate stuff on the floor. The kids don't. I am exhausted just telling them to clean it up all the time. I'm 6 months pregnant and can't keep up. I have a home birth coming up, and the house is so dirty, messy and disorganized, I don't know how we're going to get done. It's overwhelming. And people get worse as they get older? Yikes! :001_huh::glare:

[Carrie12345]

It's definitely been a motivation for me!

 

My house is always moderately cluttered, and I've pretty much made peace with that, but I've had one area that's been *shamefully* neglected for a very long time, and that's my loft. The railing is sheetrocked in, so you can't see it from below, and the only other room upstairs is the master bed/bath. Since I don't typically invite people into my bedroom, it's been way too easy to just chuck stuff into the loft!

 

This morning, I launched an attack. I think I'm about 25% done. I spent the whole time feeling like a camera crew should have been hovering over me. Particularly when I realized how many egg cartons I've been busy accumulating for "something". :001_huh:

[Annie]

I love watching that show with my husband because I can be pretty much assured he will throw at least one or two things away.

 

Annie, who is married to a man who can't seem to find it in himself to throw out his high school math homework

[Nestof3]

After watching two episodes last week, I have been purging and cleaning something every day. John took the boys camping Sat. night, and I ended up cleaning out the closet and the computer box (the one with manuals, backup cds, etc.)

 

Before that, found pdf files for as many manuals as I could for appliances and things we own and downloaded them to my computer. I got rid of a foot-tall pile of papers -- which is a big deal when you live in a small house. :)

 

 

That Hoarders show is amazing. Much more effective that Fly Lady. I am about half way through the first season and I have yet to come to house that was as bad as my mothers. Anyhow, I watch an episode and then complete a cleaning project. I have watched several shows now and I am on a role because this scares me to death. I know that there is a genetic component to mental health issues and my mother was bi-polar just like me. Until I was about 13 our house was always clutter free and clean. My mother did have some stuff but it was always neatly organized, marked and stored in the garage or an empty bedroom. Then she left my father and I don't know that she ever cleaned or decluttered again after than. I have always been exactly the opposite, a place for everything and everything in it's place kind of person. If we haven't used it in the last six months, we don't need it and out it goes. But the older I get the harder I find it is to manage everything. A single day of house cleaning is liable to lay me up for a week. I would love to have a professional service some to my house for a day and help get me started. Even better, I would love for my brother and all of my children come at one time and help me whip things into shape. But given that there is very little chance of that happening, this show is the next best thing. I am so glad that you guys mentioned it. If you are looking for a little motivation, I highly suggest a couple episodes of this.

[misidawnrn]

I have been watching that on Netflix too, now that I got a new computer and the speakers work on it! I am not a hoarder and would love to be more organized. I do not have a problem throwing anything away. My DH on the other hand....:glare:. I finally have banished him and his junk to the garage. When we first met and started dating, I almost called it off when I saw his house. You couldn't even see the kitchen table and the living room was just piles of papers. (Not nearly as bad as "hoarders" but still yucky!)

 

His girls' room was so disgusting that they had moved to the 3rd bedroom and you couldn't walk in that either. Well, "Mrs. gotta fix everyone's problems" AKA...me, stayed, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned some more, purged, burned and tossed so much stuff. Thankfully DH didn't have a problem with it. I don't think that he is really a hoarder, it is just that he has never had to clean anything in his life. His mom cleaned his room until he went to college, even then doing his laundry when he came home, he got married in his 20's, and his first wife was a pig (I have seen her house now...ick!) and then when he got a divorce in his 30's and was single for the next 10 years, he has a housekeeper come in just to do his laundry and kitchen. (I should have kept her when we got married:lol:) Now he has me.

 

When I turned the dining room into the schoolroom, all of his papers for his business had to go to the garage and that is where he works so AMAZINGLY it is all on a shelf in neat piles. When I cleaned his girls' room to make a room for my DD when we got married we filled up 3 dumpsters in the alley (big huge dumpsters!), took 2 loads to the Salvation Army and one to the dump (because there were no more dumpsters to fill in our alley!) I literaly scooped up spiderwebs with a fork like spaghetti, that were under piles and piles of clothes that were too small for his teen age daughters. They had a cow about me throwing away clothes from when they were like 5 but I don't care. It was literally down to me cleaning or me leaving....DH picked me cleaning. The girls have gotten over it.

Our house is now nice and although too small with probably a little too much stuff in it, I am not embarrased to have visitors.

 

A little funny....our preacher came over once after I had cleaned the house and said..."I have never seen a miracle but this comes as close as they get!":lol:

OK, off to watch another episode so I can throw more stuff away! hehehehe

eta: My mom is a hoarder...like the show. I absolutely will not go to her house/trailer. It is dangerous and unsanitary and I will not let my kids be around that. I also remember not being able to have friends over from embarrassment. yuck!

Edited November 8, 2010 by misidawnrn
added

[Plucky]

Yes, it is an awesome tool. It helps me to keep rational about throwing even more out.

[2cents]

We love that show! It is totally motivating. I think I'm living next to a hoarder. His 'life' is spilling out onto the front porch in a big way. Other neighbors in the know report he has stuff piled to the ceiling in the house and a little pathway that he uses. It is bizarro and we're all wondering what will become of this situation. He is a grumpy/unpredictable guy so people avoid him. The Association always has issues with him.

[Jen in PA]

A couple of times a month I watch an episode of How Clean Is Your House? on YouTube and end up very motivated to clean for a few days!

[scmama]

YEP for me to this is very motivating!! I watch an episode and then I get moving cleaning something! :)

[RanchGirl]

great idea, I am going to set the DVR for this show!

[nukeswife]

That Hoarders show is amazing. Much more effective that Fly Lady. I am about half way through the first season and I have yet to come to house that was as bad as my mothers. Anyhow, I watch an episode and then complete a cleaning project. I have watched several shows now and I am on a role because this scares me to death. I know that there is a genetic component to mental health issues and my mother was bi-polar just like me. Until I was about 13 our house was always clutter free and clean. My mother did have some stuff but it was always neatly organized, marked and stored in the garage or an empty bedroom. Then she left my father and I don't know that she ever cleaned or decluttered again after than. I have always been exactly the opposite, a place for everything and everything in it's place kind of person. If we haven't used it in the last six months, we don't need it and out it goes. But the older I get the harder I find it is to manage everything. A single day of house cleaning is liable to lay me up for a week. I would love to have a professional service some to my house for a day and help get me started. Even better, I would love for my brother and all of my children come at one time and help me whip things into shape. But given that there is very little chance of that happening, this show is the next best thing. I am so glad that you guys mentioned it. If you are looking for a little motivation, I highly suggest a couple episodes of this.

 

LOL, I haven't watched the actual "Hoarders" show, but I saw the CSI episode which featured one and that was enough for me to start a massive purge of our house.