The perfect housewife???

Hi everyone!

Just lately I've been watching my 'The Perfect Housewife' DVDs when Daisy wakes me at 5am to feed and I can't go back to sleep because she's awake and ready to start her day! These dvds involve Anthea Turner teaching messy people how to be the perfect housewife. I have been in great need of inspiration and motivation in sorting out my own home. Since we found out a baby would be living in our house, we planned and prepared for her arrival. The house slowly filled with 'stuff'. Initially, everything went in the nursery and that was fine, but once she arrived, Daisy slowly took over the house! She has baby things in most rooms, which is fine, because they are needed, but everywhere looks cluttered because of the things I already had. The baby stuff has to stay, so my things have to go. I am a terrible hoarder and I find it hard to let things go, particularly sentimental memories. I am getting better as you know, but there are specific dumping grounds within our home which I want to sort and stop dumping!

The kitchen table - a have a fruit basket, s&p and table mats that should live here. In reality there is normally folded laundry waiting to go upstairs and a mountain of papers/post. I find it hard to carry laundry up during the day because I need to take Daisy with me, so I'm sorting this while she is asleep now.

The kitchen worktops - I need the kettle, toaster, bread bin, microwave, utensil pot, tea, coffee and sugar pots, steam steriliser and mixer out all of the time. In reality, the longest worktop is a dumping ground for what ever I have put there and not put away.

The utility room - because this room is not a 'living' space, I tend to put anything and everything that does not have a home in there. It is constantly a mess! One corner houses my carboot pile, which hopefully will be reduced in a couple of weeks time. My beautiful worktops (handmade) are covered in ironing and more papers and the rest is junk and my sewing stuff.

The problem is that I don't put things straight away when I've used them and I seriously lack storage in this house. Our house is quite large, it's a four bedroomed detached 1970s built house with a huge drive and garage. The garage is full because my husband is a self-employed builder and needs to store expensive power tools securely. My washing machine, chest freezer and old fridge freezer are in there too. When I've sorted the utility room, the washing machine can be moved into it's space. The decluttering needs to continue to get more stuff off the worktops. The paperwork needs sorting and then dealing with as and when it happens - I find this hard. I am getting there... the last few days I have been throwing away things I have saved to do craft projects, because realistically I have Daisy to care for and I don't have the time. I would rather play with Daisy than make something to entertain myself and then creating more stuff to find a home for. On Sunday, I emptied two large drawers, which meant I could store fabric in there. I have decided that the best way forward is to do the necessary household task daily and obviously Daisy's routine, but when Daisy's asleep, I will tackle one small job a day and keep that area tidy from then on. My bathrooms are clean, ours and Daisy's bedrooms are clean and tidy too. Charlotte is in her newly decorated bedroom (Ashley's old room) and still has stuff in her old room. Hopefully a carboot will sort that and we can start work in the now spare room. This will be a guest room incase Alice comes to stay, but very minimal in furniture because I would like a sewing room! Then the utility room can become a laundry room! You see I have a plan but it's going to take time. My job is to declutter so I can tidy easier and then clean better - it makes perfect sense. OHs job is to create a space for me to house my sewing stuff. Charlotte's job is to empty her old room. It all sounds simple, but we are all so tired all of the time. Charlotte has a long day at work, travelling to Northampton. My OH works six days a week and gets woken every night by Daisy, and me... I should get off this laptop and declutter!!!

So am I the perfect housewife?... no, probably not ever, but I would love to be a good one, with a clean and tidy house, home cooked meals everyday and freshly baked bread and cakes. Then I will be free to  have some me time - learning to sew.

Are you the perfect housewife?

Thanks for reading,

Mandy x