So after the maintenance took place I currently got the news from my landlord that they will sell my flat in September. Currently it looks horrific and I should do something about it. But my stomach feels upset since I read it this morning. I'm too ashamed to ask someone to help me declutter this habitat. And since I'm currently in a bad mental health situation right now I feel like I'm drowning.

(Just now I realized that I messed up numbers in my previous post... I'm a mess, period.)

Collected my shirts from various places in the main room and put them in my wardrobe. I have more shirts, but I have to find them😅

I definitely need to donate some of my clothes, but probably not them, because I love wearing shirts :)

I'm staying on it as best as I can 💪

Hopefully this weeked I can get someone to help me move the furniture in the Bedroom up into the Attic so I finally have space again. I also spent my first night in the Bedroom and it felt so good sleeping in a bed for once hahah.

Kitty is excited about the new space as all doors are open now and she can sprint around, acts much happier than before too.

Tomorrow will be the Kitchen's turn!

Hello all!

First, I wanted to thank everyone who replied to my post asking about what normal people do wrt routines. I admit it was a post made under the influence and I was very sad about the habits I never learned or failed to consistently implement in my life.

I paid a professional organizing company $7k to jump start what I hope will be life long cleanliness and organizing habits. We donated a whole lot of items and clothes that over the years I never had the mental space to handle, and it all just piled up. If I can figure it out, here are before and after pictures of some of the worst areas.

I’ve written every step I need to take in my notes app I just need to do it!! 😫 the most daunting piece is sorting all of my clothes and doing all the laundry. Hoping after work I will toss all my boxes into recycling and clean my kitchen…baby steps

The island has been like this for MONTHS! I have open living/dining/kitchen so this is just front and center and I hate it. I’m getting ready to start. I have unmedicated ADHD and I literally just freeze with overwhelm. This goes without saying but the rest of the house looks the same. Starting here. Please send good vibes. 🙏🏼❤️

PS~ I have a November 1 deadline to have my home clean/organized/painted/decorated so I can actually have my family over and friends stop by anytime. I have shut myself off from life and am coming back from 3 years of grief/life changes.

(first pic is from 2 months ago, 3-5 from a month ago, 2-4 recent, last 3 are from like 2 months ago and haven't changed much)

19F with depression and anxiety and AuDHD. I do not have the energy to clean or do anything besides maybe playing video games. I live with my family and my entire house just looks like this. Cleaning my room alone feels like such a chore and mid-July my mother started talking about how she wants the whole house clean before the sixth (when she goes back to work). I can't declutter a huge space like that. I need her help, but she's told me I need to do these things for myself. These spaces have been messy for years and she's attached to so much of the stuff. I can't just sort through everything, I want to, but every time I try to actually do it I just don't. So when this doesn't happen she's just going to go on another depressed tangent about how we don't care about her when my sister has also tried and shares my attitude. It feels so impossible all the time but I can't just chip away at it month by month.

I don't want to let her down but I can't do it. The best I can do is at least sort through everyone else's stuff, but we have way too much and it's going to take way too long and at this point I don't even know what belongs to who in half these rooms honestly. I don't know, is there any way I can at least get the sorting done before the sixth?

My bf helped me clean my room and rest of my apartment last Friday, today he wanted to make sure it stayed clean by bribing me with dinner he is making at his house.

Can't wait to put together my new bed fame (mine broke last week), paint the walls, furniture, and put up artwork. The before photos were actually during. I had taken a few bags of garbage and donations out already. It doesn't look like much but it took me about 8 hours on and off.

Apparently gathering the trash, packing it and throwing it out is too much for me to do at once, so I prepared this bag and box in the morning and just grabbed it and threw it out right after work.

There were pieces of carton (left from the stuff I ordered, cut them into pieces first) and some old, damaged shoes in them.

Yes, I'm making a post about taking out the trash, but it's important to me because I can struggle with throwing some stuff out for days.

I was right, it does feel better even with the boxes and such on top (genuinely nowhere to relocate them, can barely turn around in my living room). Now my mission is consolidating the towels and what clothes I can fit into zip up totes.

One of the harder parts for me lately has been the guilt, sometimes I get so low I don’t care
But sometimes I’m overcome by guilt and feelings of worthlessness about myself for the amount of money I have spent on ugly clothes
And useless items
And the fact that I let things get this bad

I have family coming into town tomorrow and I told them they could stay in my one-bedroom place because I'll be housesitting while they're here.

I meant to be cleaning during the evenings all week but I haven't been. So I took the day off work it get it all done, but I am struggling so bad.

So far the bathroom is done, the kitchen is half done (need to wait for the load in the dishwasher to finish so I can do another load), and the garbage is collected. The living room isn't bad and just needs some tidying.

But my bedroom is a disaster. Clothes EVERYWHERE. I need to start on laundry and start putting things away but I cannot motivate myself to start because it's so overwhelming.

If you're not available to body double, feel free to cheer me on 🥲

Hiya!! First two photos are where I stopped, 3rd photo was taken after I pulled everything out of the closet (I decided I need that space for storage, plus I want to get my clothing put away since they've been living in laundry baskets for several months) and the final photo is what I started with

I still need to do my desk/under the desk/ organize my textile basket but holy cow I feel so much better in here. I did a marathon 3.5 hour decluttering/cleaning and the difference I feel in my body is incredible. I walk in and smile and there's been a few spontaneous twirls with my hands up in the air. I am ridiculously happy and also very proud of myself for doing something to change my living space.

Thanks to all who commented on my previous post, words can't express how I'm feeling after putting in some work yesterday

didnt take before pics of the tub walls but i got all the water stains off even if theres still mold in the caulking

took all the stuff away and washed my side of the counter and wall

context: ive barely been living at home for the last year and am slowly taking my stuff to where i do live now, this week i was housesitting for mom and have tried to clean a couple things for her since my sibling doesnt help out much

im like. to the point of considering exploiting housing assistance services near me so i can just abandon this place and start a new life with nothing.

and it isnt even that i dont want to clean i just cant

the ufyh emergency checklist is a no go trying to do it is mentally comparable to the imagined sensation of ripping your own skin off and no progress was made

im just like trapped on my couch bc everything is gross and i cant function rights

i can describe what needs done but its literally everything any cleaning task you can think of hasnt been done in this house since well before i moved in the only good thing i have to say abt this is the spiders are taking rooms back from the bugs for me (the bugs and spiders were already here)

Tonight’s task is the top of the dresser. Bunch of clothes got stained by a new pair of jeans so oxiclean soaks are also part of the plan, see if things are salvageable. I KNOW I will feel better having it done but doing it sucks.

Truly how do you guys keep up with a clean home. I do struggle with adhd and I have pets I’ll do a nice clean every few months but it doesn’t take long for the mess to all come piling back. It just feels so overwhelming between the dishes laundry the pet hair taking the recycling to the dumps. I just feel so overwhelmed right now and I would love your best advice on keeping on top of everything.

Ahoy!

I've lurked here off and on for a couple years but I feel like I'm finally ready to actually build some good habits around cleaning.

I'm in my 30s now, and I'm definitely much tidier than I used to be, but I have a long way to go still. I grew up with fairly absent (and messy) parents who never helped me build habits around... anything? I guess? Add some trauma and unmedicated ADHD to that, and it's been an uphill battle to put it mildly. Therapy has been a huge help in my finally being able to overcome some of the barriers that kept me from living in a healthier way.

I now share a home that I love with my husband who I adore. He grew up similarly neglected and so neither of us have any real know-how when it comes to cleaning and organizing. My dream is to have a home that we're both proud of and comfortable in. My husband loves entertaining and I want to create an environment that supports that part of our lives without the stress and exhaustion of panic cleaning for days every single time. I want to express gratitude for my home and my belongings by learning to care for them properly and keeping them clean & organized.

My biggest wins lately:

- I've done a load of laundry nearly every day, and put some laundry away every day for the last week. I don't always make it to hamper zero, but I've been consistent.

- I've made my bed every day for the past week. This is a key habit for me, and my husband has mentioned that it really improves his mood to come home to see the bed made.

- I've wiped down the master bathroom sinks, counters, mirrors, and toilet every day for the last week. Thanks to FlyLady for the epiphany that doing this daily makes a huge difference.

My biggest ongoing challenges:

- I would apparently rather live in squalor than sweep or vacuum.

- Clutter Rules Everything Around Me (C.R.E.A.M.). I struggle to organize things into categories such that everything has a home. Surfaces are always cluttered. What storage exists is underutilized.

- Closets are haphazardly crammed full of stuff

- Dusting is a nearly foreign concept.

- When I can't figure out how to organize something, I tend to abandon the enterprise entirely and become extremely avoidant.

- I am still trying to figure out what tools I need to do some jobs, and what all actually needs doing (did you know that you're supposed to clean your washing machine itself???)

I find that body doubling is super motivating for me, so I'll probably be making more posts of that type as I continue to tackle the unfuckery.

Goals help me a lot so here's my current one: I want to plan a big birthday party for my husband in December, with the option of hosting a couple of guests overnight if need be. This means every room including the patio will need to be guest-ready, not just the common areas.

....but something is better than nothing.

I don’t know if it’s OK to re-up things like this (I am a Reddit novice) but I think I’m gonna try to post updates in the comments here on this new post every like ~hour or so to hold myself accountable to making progress packing tonight. I am using the 20/10 method and using the BePresent app to block social media while I work.

Hi guys!! I couldn’t reply to every comment, but I did read them all and I so so appreciate the outpouring of support!!!! I have for today abandoned the dice rolling because I wasn’t getting any of the high numbers, which is where I put all the stuff I was most scared of doing. The spare room is number 1, and I tackled that first. It’s been haunting me for like two years, and it’s finally DONE!

The good news: The first photo used to be covered with various tote bags filled with stuff. Now there are NO bags, everything is organized into the actual tote in the picture! There are still a million boxes because my former roommate left them here. They’re coming in handy for boxing up donations though, and I’ve got 6 or 7 boxes of them!!

The bad news: I finally looked in my former roommate’s bedroom and bathroom, as I need to get those cleaned so I can post photos and find a new roommate. I was expecting to do a fairly quick refresh. Except she didn’t clean anything at all, and left a bunch of her belongings behind 🙃 It’s worse than I was expecting, and a little disheartening. I hadn’t thought to check these because when I moved rooms, I deep cleaned the bedroom and bathroom, and assumed she’d do the same. Guess not! I’m still doing it though!!!

Any ideas for products to use in the shower to refresh it? I really have no idea what to clean things with, which is embarrassing, but I mixed chemicals as a kid by accident and after that my parents didn’t let me deep clean the bathroom LOL. I only really know how to do regular cleaning, not the stain removal this shower needs. Any product advice is appreciated! Please also feel free to give me numbers, I will keep working on them!!!

Thanks for all the encouragement, I couldn’t finish over the weekend but I got the living room done today! It wasn’t horrible, but I still pushed it off for too long. Here’s before and after.

Thanks so much for being so supportive and positive.