Rescue Me from My Home, Lol

De-cluttering will make the biggest impact, but something else I do is have the kids help.

Both kids clear away their plates after eating, putting trash in trash and plate utensils in dishwasher. My 4 year old wipes down the table and my 6 year old unloads the dishwasher every day after school. The kids are responsible for keeping their toys picked up (I have to help my 4 year old a bit). They can also run the shark around for a quick floor sweep. Older kids can do dishes and laundry.

Long time Fan of "Flying" I am a FlyLady convert...check her out at flylady.com ....you can not clean clutter.....and "Fly" stands for Finally Loving Yourself....
I cannot say enough Good things about the healthy habits that have just become life style via FlyLady.
She is awesome...she had me hooked at : feeling like you are living in CHAOS? ( Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) !!! = )

You've already posted "SO WHAT HAPPENED?", but I just wanted to add what I started a few years ago. This method helps me feel no so stressed out by all the housework.

Since laundry seems to be never ending I do two loads of laundry per day during the week. We are usually so busy on the weekend I normally don't even attempt it.

Each day I add a couple of chores to "Laundry"
Mondays - Clean up from the weekend & Vacuum
Tuesdays - Bathrooms
Wednesday - Clean Floors & Vacuum
Thursday - Dust
Fridays - whatever needs attention

Good Luck!!

YARD SALE! to declutter with a big o sign too! I would ask neighbors to join in so more people will come. Laundry take a day and do it all then do a load a day to keep caught up. Every night after kids are in bed go around and tidey up a bit to keep your piece of mind and maybe only deep clean one a month. I try to run the vaccum weekly and scrub the kitchen floor weekly. I do the bathrooms while the younger kids are in the shower or bathtub. I also found the clothes while in the bathroom while they are in the shower or tub. This seems to work out great. My husband has one chore that is solely his mine in the bathrooms and his is the dishes. He does them every day and keeps them put away and out of our sink. Other house hold chores we share or do together to make it go quicker. Some have resorted to a cleaning lady, but with a good system you can tackle anything. :) If you dont' want to or feel that you can't then I would look for some outside help.

Flylady.net has everything you need! De-clutter but skip the yard sale - total waste of time and money. I know people who saved things, spruced them up, spent a lot of time setting up and advertising and made next to nothing and then still had to get rid of everything. Just throw away that which is totally unusable and pack up the rest and donate it - freecycle, Big Brother/Big Sister, Goodwill, Salvation Army, whatever is in your area. Just put it in your car and GO!

Flylady is THE best place for this - your house will be in decent shape and you'll have your life back in no time. Good luck and get cracking!

I don't know how old your kids are, but I have taught my kids (1 and 4) to pick up after themselves. I do have to remind them, and sometimes help them, but they are good at picking things up when done with them. That helps with straightening up.
With laundry I usually try to put a load in the washer when I get up in the morning before work and then I put it in the dryer before I leave (hanging up anything that would wrinkle), that way when I get home I just need to do a wrinkle release cycle and fold it and put it away. I usually get dinner started and then fold and put away the laundry.

With the kitchen I usually put dirty dishes right in the dishwasher and make sure everything is put away at the end of the night.

With cleaning I dust and vacuum every 2-3 days so it is not overwhelming.
I think just doing a little each day so that it doesn't seem out of control

I hear you on that! Although I don't spend alot of time on the net. Have you tried to set up a schedule for you to keep track? That should work. For example: do laundry every Sunday and get it over with. Deep clean your house every Monday and just keep up with it, I don'nt know if you have children but also get them involved. My kid's are in charge of their bedroom's and then I go in and check under their bed's and if I find anything I pull it all out and tell them to "re-organize" their room until it's done the way it's supposed to be. I myself am a "neat-clean" freak, I like thing's to be neatly organized and clean. Now as for the laundry, I do it everyday, wether it's a small or bug load, I figured it's better to get it done and over with. Now is the perfect time to finish up all of your Spring cleaning which I have been doing for the past two day's lol! But believe me, once you get it all done with you will feel like you have accomplished alot! It's worth it to get it all done so that you may enjoy doing other fun activities! Good Luck! And happy cleaning!
P.S..I also find that blasting your favorite music in the background will help too! Also look at it as a "work-out" lol!

Decluttering is always good. Those big storage totes go on sale every once in a while, so do the five drawer carts. Make a chore wheel that has your 2 teens and you for house work. Make a tiny chore wheel for your 3 year old with little stuff or just ask him to pick up his toys when yall start doing your chores. When I was growing up the chore chart worked the best. It broke down vacuuming the main rooms (living, dining), sweeping/mopping, laundry (folding, if you don't want to do all of it), dishes, etc.
The chore wheel is like a visual to help with those babysteps. No one can say they didn't know because it will be right there on the fridge.. or you can make a chart with Monday through Sunday and who does what each day and just keep it that way as a routine (instead of turning the chore wheel)

I am feeling the same way lately. I am home all day and can't keep it picked up anymore. My five year old comes home and brings a new stack of pics and papers every day. I have to go through those. Then he pulls out games and draws pictures and they're all over the house. So cute I don't dare throw them away for a few days incase he asks for them. I have the bulletin board full and some on the fridge. Our dog sheds her light colored hair on our green carpet and it is so noticeable. It gets under the furniture and on the furniture. I spend a lot of time vacuuming. I wish I could just have someone come in here and show me ways to store things better. I have decided to de clutter also. I do this every couple months. Right now I have big trash bags in the room with the camper bedding in it until we go there to put it in. The kitchen table is full of all little things we can't even sit there some nights. Not that bad but I don't know where to put those things. Once it's all cleaned I'm good but I've let a few baskets of laundry pile up and i don't feel like getting to them. Other days I fly right through it. Hang in there. Maybe we could swap houses for a day and see if we can get something done for each other. lol

You're on the right track with de-cluttering! It's easier to keep your house on track if you have less stuff to keep track of. If you haven't used it in the past 12 months, probably you don't need it! We moved a few months ago, and before we did, we had a huge yard sale. We asked ourselves, "Do we love this enough to pack it up and move it?" and if the answer was no, then out to the yard sale it went. We made over $900 at our yard sale! Do the same thing with clothing - have you worn it in the past 12 months? If not, sell it or give it to Goodwill. Why have all this stuff in your closet that you have to wash, iron, hang up, etc, that you never wear and maybe don't even like? Do your kids NEED more than 10 outfits? (Probably not!) Once you've pared down, you will find that you have no more clutter and you also have only a few laundry baskets full of laundry, and not giant mountains! LOL

Also, I don't know how old your kids are, but if they are 5 and over, THEY can do the laundry! My girls are 5 and 8 and I have taught them to sort the laundry, put it in the machine, measure the soap, and turn on the machine. Then when it stops, they put everything in the dryer. I have them fold laundry as well, although I limit that to underwear, socks and towels because I'm kind of laundry-obsessed and it makes me crazy when other people fold the laundry "wrong." (Yeah, I know... ;)

So, de-clutter, and enlist help! That's my advice! Good luck!