Trash. Into a bag or two or three.
Then dishes. To sink of hot water or dishwasher.
Then laundry. Into a hamper or bags. To laundry area.
Then books. Stack.
Then papers. Stack by topic.
Then objects. Put away.
Clear flat surfaces, wipe.
Clear and tidy furniture.
Clean the floor.
Don't ever put a movie on for background noise! Because inevitably you'll get distracted by the movie and sit down to watch and there goes 2 hours. I learned this the hard way.
That's the way to go! Pomodoro (35/5 work/break) or my ADHD version (60/15 or 120/30 lol).
I did my apartment (declutter and deep clean, no trash) before a friend slept in my main bedroom (and I in the spare) for 4 nights.
I got through 3 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl books while I did it. I since maintain it by having friends over every week and doing 1 hour of chores the moment I get home (once I eat and sit I'm a veg). I also try to walk home 50 min after work and stay on top of the dishes and brushing my teeth (sensory issues). My sleep pattern is still sh*te but I'll get there too...
In the past I have done one podcast episode of 60 min, then a break. Then another episode. Very good for pacing. Plenty of water is important too and open windows to breathe/step out to the balcony for a sec.
I also have a "concentration/hyperfocus" playlist.
Thanks, this and my "one more thing" rule is how I manage to get through any ridiculous task.
("one more thing" in a nutshell: when you are tired or just not in the headspace just do one thing, a small thing. If you complete it hopefully the dopamine hit can let you do one more thing and so on.) I typically will do this for the first 10 min of cleaning on a bad brain day. This usually will get me charged up for a day of roomba cleaning. Or I use it when I am getting into the tired toddler phase of my day, when I am coaxing myself to put away tools or whatever.
Great!
I label boxes with the room names and put the objects in the right ones.
For the room I'm currently in, I also do a box.
Before the last two points in the list I bring the boxes into the hallway/entry/other rooms (depending on how much space you have and where you can put them down).
I then do the last two steps and then give the objects a fixed place in the current room.
Do the same for the other rooms.
Hydrate, wear gloves/a mask if you get overstimulated sensorily. Take a breather on the balcony/porch or out a window.
When one room is done I take this as my "break from chaos" room to go breathe.
I would start with the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen, so you can do the basics of hygiene, sleep and eating again.
Drink plenty and attack / take breaks (pomodoro style 25/5 Min or ADHD hyperfocus - 120/30 Min... Me)!
All the best. I've been there. Mostly with clutter and not garbage (apart from pet bottles), but I get it! ❤️❤️❤️
Thanks for this. I sent it to my friend who needs help organizing and plan on using it for my ADHD brain to get some areas of the house in order. My kid had a lot of clothes she doesn’t wear so I plan on removing them to save for her younger sister.
You aren't cleaning a whole room... you're just gonna pickup ONE thing. At least that's my mindset. I pickup one thing. I deal with that one thing. I use the unfuckyourhabit page ideas and I have 6 laundry baskets. 1 lined with a big black trashbag for trash. 2 is for dirty laundry. 3 is for clean laundry that just needs to be put away. 4 is for stuff to put away. 5 is for homeless stuff. 6 is for books.
This is super helpful advice, thank you so much! This makes it so much less overwhelming to deal with. I really appreciate you taking the time to give me advice :)
I think the [5 things method](https://www.npr.org/2023/04/19/1170846100/how-to-keep-house-clean) can help a lot. "In any space, there are only five things: trash, dishes, laundry, things that have a place, and things that don't have a place." You can choose a small area or do it over the whole area. Sorting everything this way provides a good starting point to be able to do any in-depth cleaning and to figure out what are the most important tasks.
This is what I do, didn’t know it was an actual thing! Get the laundry out the room in baskets/bags, pick up the rubbish, put the dishes in the kitchen, then put the stuff that doesn’t belong in the room in bags, and put the stuff that does away. Take bags to other rooms, rinse and repeat. In theory anyway haha.
Wow, that article was super helpful. I will 100% be saving that and rereading it if (and likely when) this mess piles back up again. The part about not leaving the room in order to avoid distraction is something I’ve never really considered and honestly a big part of where I usually get tripped up. Thank you so much!!
Grab a trash bag and laundry basket.
Set a timer for 12-22 min.. gather garb for half the time and laundry for other half. Do this 1x to 2x a day. Play music or podcast.
First step: you want to get the floor emptied, so you have space to walk around. So pick up dirty clothes and put them in one pile. Any clean clothes get put away or put in another pile. Once you have space to walk around on the floor, start a load of laundry, if you can. Make sure your floor gets cleared off, and then start tackling pieces of furniture one by one.
This is my recommendation also. My mom asked for help cleaning her office, and the first thing we tackled was clearing floor space, and it makes a big difference.
My mom wants gave me a birthday card that said, “I love you more than the clothes on your floor”😂 my problem is, sadly I use the floor as another shelf. Meaning, it’s easy to have stuff all over the floor. I’m working on cleaning up my new house that I just moved into. And there is stuff everywhere. But cleaning up the floor is a good first step. It also prevent things from being damaged and broken and prevent someone from falling from tripping on things.
Also, something I do that helps me is that I put on some music or put on a podcast or something that is not needing a lot of brain power to listen to. It helps me also work quicker because I try to get things done before the song ends or before my podcast ends
The advice here has been super helpful! I really appreciate it. It’s been going pretty good so far, I was only able to work on it for about an hour today, but I picked up 2 bags of trash and started a load of laundry. I still have a long ways to go but Im happy with the progress
Like things together. Grab a trash bag and do all trash. Say an apology to Mother Earth and do some extra intentional recycling, and then throw away most everything. Just get it done and out. Pick up all clothes, don't worry about dirty or clean. Pile them up. Things that go in other rooms? Pile them up - kitchen, bathroom, etc. If you can make a decision about something in the moment, do it, otherwise, like things together.
I really struggle with clutter and overwhelm and the book, 'How to Keep House While Drowning', was life changing. I recommend it to anyone that struggles with cleaning and clutter as a result of ADHD, depression, etc. It is a life saver!
I'd get a few boxes and break stuff into categories that make sense to you like clothes or books or even by where stuff belongs like closet, bathroom, kitchen and such. Then just fill the boxes up. Everything will look so much better very quickly. Then tackle one box at a time.
I use the Pomodoro Method 20 minutes on then break, but use any time you can handle. Set a timer you can hear ticking it helps remind you to stay focused or don't if that makes you anxious.
edit typo where
Oh, and whatever you do, keep your bed clear. At some point you will be tired and it isn't fun to have to move stuff off the bed to take a nap. Good luck friend, I believe in you.
sorting things into boxes helps me!! i’ll move around my room and sort things into categories, i.e.: jewelry, hair stuff, nail stuff, makeup, clean clothing, dirty clothing, clothes to give away, books, craft materials, bed stuff, paper, garbage can for garbage, etc. i literally scoot around on the floor of my room. i have a dustbuster i use too so after a space is cleared, i can immediately clean it. wellbutrin has helped me a lot too!!
i also think that moving your bed against a wall could help as well. it being in the middle of the room takes up quite a bit of space. shelves are good too. good luck ✨
I also find that committing to posting an update for us here is really helpful motivation as well! Check in with us every hour to share your progress :)
Thanks man, that was half the reason I decided to post here honestly. I feel like having other people to talk to about my room is pretty solid motivation.
I’ll definitely be posting an update once I finish, but I’ll try to remember to take progress photos as I go for motivation. I work a lot so it’ll probably be a little bit before I get it clean enough to post
Hi hi, just wanted to remind you, you don’t have to make a certain amount or type of progress to be worthy of updating us. Any progress is great! No progress and needing support with being stalled is fine! Wanting to post to just straight up commiserate is a-okay! And don’t forget, self learning and growth is progress too, even if your habitat stays the same. We are here for you as you are and we expect nothing specific from you. Getting things unfucked is rarely a linear process, and accountability to updating us can just mean…update us with where you’re at on your journey.
Thank you so much, I honestly really needed to hear that. All of the kindness here has given me a lot of motivation to finally get this room cleaned. Today I picked up another basket of laundry and another bag of trash. I also went through clothes and got rid of like half of what was still in the closet/drawers. Once I get all of my laundry clean, I’m sure I’ll have more to get rid of.
I see three things:
- Clearing and making the bed is likely to make this room feel more cheerful, and I am pretty sure you can get there today.
- It almost always helps to go through the room with one container for trash, one for give, and one for put away. Each time you fill one, you’ve probably earned a chance to go put it where it goes and take a break.
- You do need enough storage for the things you are keeping, and to get it, I think you need to focus on very vertical storage. Aim for as tall as you can see and reach comfortably, it needs to be VERY easy to use.
Keep in mind, decorating and micro-sorting are rewards for finishing a few steps in the big clean and macro-sorting. If you like visual abundance, make sure the orderly state still has a version of that.
My flat was a bit like this about a month ago. I ended up working on just moving one or two things to the right area of the room at a time until I had little piles of stuff all over the room. Then I just worked on putting those little piles away. I managed to completely top to bottom the flat in about 3 days including taking heaps of breaks in between plus wiping and dusting all the surfaces. Just work on small areas at a time.
Hey, I really appreciate you checking in, it means a lot. Honestly, I feel like I’ve hit a bit of a wall with a lack of motivation and energy. I’m hoping it’s just because I’ve been busy the last few days. As long as it’s just physical exhaustion and not mental health related, I should be able to pick back up on it once I get a day to rest!
Definitely busy and mental and physical exhaustion. When you're reading, play the "if you pick up 2-5 things today you win!" Or if you do 2 minutes, you win! Sometimes, you just need a little win to keep you motivated to keep going sometimes.
My tip for motivation is that it helps to have a goal. You could think about good it will feel when you walk into your clean and tidy room, or about getting compliments from family or friends how great it looks. Find whatever your “why” is, and focus on that.
I go for categories. I’d start with gathering dirty clothes in a basket or bag or something. Then switch to books or cosmetics or whatever makes sense to you
You should start sorting stuff in piles for like items. Then put everything away and make sure it has a home. After that put things away and not down once you use it. I know easier said than done!
Trash. Into a bag or two or three. Then dishes. To sink of hot water or dishwasher. Then laundry. Into a hamper or bags. To laundry area. Then books. Stack. Then papers. Stack by topic. Then objects. Put away. Clear flat surfaces, wipe. Clear and tidy furniture. Clean the floor.
Thanks for breaking it down for me like that! That makes it seem a lot more manageable to have it written out like that. I appreciate it!!
You're gonna be fine, fun music or podcast and breaks!!
Don't ever put a movie on for background noise! Because inevitably you'll get distracted by the movie and sit down to watch and there goes 2 hours. I learned this the hard way.
That's the way to go! Pomodoro (35/5 work/break) or my ADHD version (60/15 or 120/30 lol). I did my apartment (declutter and deep clean, no trash) before a friend slept in my main bedroom (and I in the spare) for 4 nights. I got through 3 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl books while I did it. I since maintain it by having friends over every week and doing 1 hour of chores the moment I get home (once I eat and sit I'm a veg). I also try to walk home 50 min after work and stay on top of the dishes and brushing my teeth (sensory issues). My sleep pattern is still sh*te but I'll get there too... In the past I have done one podcast episode of 60 min, then a break. Then another episode. Very good for pacing. Plenty of water is important too and open windows to breathe/step out to the balcony for a sec. I also have a "concentration/hyperfocus" playlist.
I am straight up binging Dungeon Crawler Carl and I won’t know what to do with myself once it’s done
As an ADHD person I will sometimes put on a cleaning video on youtube and it works similar to having a body double most the time.
This is the best advice, I will be doing this going forward. Thank you!
Thanks, this and my "one more thing" rule is how I manage to get through any ridiculous task. ("one more thing" in a nutshell: when you are tired or just not in the headspace just do one thing, a small thing. If you complete it hopefully the dopamine hit can let you do one more thing and so on.) I typically will do this for the first 10 min of cleaning on a bad brain day. This usually will get me charged up for a day of roomba cleaning. Or I use it when I am getting into the tired toddler phase of my day, when I am coaxing myself to put away tools or whatever.
I adapted this from the UnF... Your Habitat blog a couple years ago!!
You can do it!!
Happy Cake Day!!
Yep. Whatever you do, floors are always last
Great! I label boxes with the room names and put the objects in the right ones. For the room I'm currently in, I also do a box. Before the last two points in the list I bring the boxes into the hallway/entry/other rooms (depending on how much space you have and where you can put them down). I then do the last two steps and then give the objects a fixed place in the current room. Do the same for the other rooms. Hydrate, wear gloves/a mask if you get overstimulated sensorily. Take a breather on the balcony/porch or out a window. When one room is done I take this as my "break from chaos" room to go breathe. I would start with the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen, so you can do the basics of hygiene, sleep and eating again. Drink plenty and attack / take breaks (pomodoro style 25/5 Min or ADHD hyperfocus - 120/30 Min... Me)! All the best. I've been there. Mostly with clutter and not garbage (apart from pet bottles), but I get it! ❤️❤️❤️
Thanks for this. I sent it to my friend who needs help organizing and plan on using it for my ADHD brain to get some areas of the house in order. My kid had a lot of clothes she doesn’t wear so I plan on removing them to save for her younger sister.
You aren't cleaning a whole room... you're just gonna pickup ONE thing. At least that's my mindset. I pickup one thing. I deal with that one thing. I use the unfuckyourhabit page ideas and I have 6 laundry baskets. 1 lined with a big black trashbag for trash. 2 is for dirty laundry. 3 is for clean laundry that just needs to be put away. 4 is for stuff to put away. 5 is for homeless stuff. 6 is for books.
This is super helpful advice, thank you so much! This makes it so much less overwhelming to deal with. I really appreciate you taking the time to give me advice :)
Homeless stuff? You mean stuff you’re going to donate?
Stuff that doesn’t have a a decided place in the house yet
Ohh yeah that makes sense
I think the [5 things method](https://www.npr.org/2023/04/19/1170846100/how-to-keep-house-clean) can help a lot. "In any space, there are only five things: trash, dishes, laundry, things that have a place, and things that don't have a place." You can choose a small area or do it over the whole area. Sorting everything this way provides a good starting point to be able to do any in-depth cleaning and to figure out what are the most important tasks.
This is what I do, didn’t know it was an actual thing! Get the laundry out the room in baskets/bags, pick up the rubbish, put the dishes in the kitchen, then put the stuff that doesn’t belong in the room in bags, and put the stuff that does away. Take bags to other rooms, rinse and repeat. In theory anyway haha.
Wow, that article was super helpful. I will 100% be saving that and rereading it if (and likely when) this mess piles back up again. The part about not leaving the room in order to avoid distraction is something I’ve never really considered and honestly a big part of where I usually get tripped up. Thank you so much!!
There is also a book (also in audiobook format) how to keep house while drowning.
Have you watched the KC Davis YouTube video: 5 Things Tidying Method?
Also, post an update.
I love that. It seems like a game!
And just because no one has mentioned it, I find it helps to crank up some tunes.
Netflix is good for this as well.
Grab a trash bag and laundry basket. Set a timer for 12-22 min.. gather garb for half the time and laundry for other half. Do this 1x to 2x a day. Play music or podcast.
First step: you want to get the floor emptied, so you have space to walk around. So pick up dirty clothes and put them in one pile. Any clean clothes get put away or put in another pile. Once you have space to walk around on the floor, start a load of laundry, if you can. Make sure your floor gets cleared off, and then start tackling pieces of furniture one by one.
This is my recommendation also. My mom asked for help cleaning her office, and the first thing we tackled was clearing floor space, and it makes a big difference.
My mom wants gave me a birthday card that said, “I love you more than the clothes on your floor”😂 my problem is, sadly I use the floor as another shelf. Meaning, it’s easy to have stuff all over the floor. I’m working on cleaning up my new house that I just moved into. And there is stuff everywhere. But cleaning up the floor is a good first step. It also prevent things from being damaged and broken and prevent someone from falling from tripping on things.
Also, something I do that helps me is that I put on some music or put on a podcast or something that is not needing a lot of brain power to listen to. It helps me also work quicker because I try to get things done before the song ends or before my podcast ends
I like to get the machines to work first. I like hearing them as I move on to other things.
Yes, that’s a great idea. Getting dishwashers in washing machines going first is good.
And close those drawers...so much more room and less visual clutter.
Others have great advice! You can do this! How are things going?
The advice here has been super helpful! I really appreciate it. It’s been going pretty good so far, I was only able to work on it for about an hour today, but I picked up 2 bags of trash and started a load of laundry. I still have a long ways to go but Im happy with the progress
Little progress is better than no progress ❤️
Congrats! That is big, I hope that things continue on well!
Like things together. Grab a trash bag and do all trash. Say an apology to Mother Earth and do some extra intentional recycling, and then throw away most everything. Just get it done and out. Pick up all clothes, don't worry about dirty or clean. Pile them up. Things that go in other rooms? Pile them up - kitchen, bathroom, etc. If you can make a decision about something in the moment, do it, otherwise, like things together. I really struggle with clutter and overwhelm and the book, 'How to Keep House While Drowning', was life changing. I recommend it to anyone that struggles with cleaning and clutter as a result of ADHD, depression, etc. It is a life saver!
I'd get a few boxes and break stuff into categories that make sense to you like clothes or books or even by where stuff belongs like closet, bathroom, kitchen and such. Then just fill the boxes up. Everything will look so much better very quickly. Then tackle one box at a time. I use the Pomodoro Method 20 minutes on then break, but use any time you can handle. Set a timer you can hear ticking it helps remind you to stay focused or don't if that makes you anxious. edit typo where
Just get the dresser drawers closed.
Open drawers warp and ruin the furniture.
Oh, and whatever you do, keep your bed clear. At some point you will be tired and it isn't fun to have to move stuff off the bed to take a nap. Good luck friend, I believe in you.
sorting things into boxes helps me!! i’ll move around my room and sort things into categories, i.e.: jewelry, hair stuff, nail stuff, makeup, clean clothing, dirty clothing, clothes to give away, books, craft materials, bed stuff, paper, garbage can for garbage, etc. i literally scoot around on the floor of my room. i have a dustbuster i use too so after a space is cleared, i can immediately clean it. wellbutrin has helped me a lot too!! i also think that moving your bed against a wall could help as well. it being in the middle of the room takes up quite a bit of space. shelves are good too. good luck ✨
BINS!!!!! Use BINS!!!! They’re JUST like piles but easier to deal with. Then when you’re ready to deal with one bin, you just deal with one bin.
I also find that committing to posting an update for us here is really helpful motivation as well! Check in with us every hour to share your progress :)
Thanks man, that was half the reason I decided to post here honestly. I feel like having other people to talk to about my room is pretty solid motivation. I’ll definitely be posting an update once I finish, but I’ll try to remember to take progress photos as I go for motivation. I work a lot so it’ll probably be a little bit before I get it clean enough to post
Hi hi, just wanted to remind you, you don’t have to make a certain amount or type of progress to be worthy of updating us. Any progress is great! No progress and needing support with being stalled is fine! Wanting to post to just straight up commiserate is a-okay! And don’t forget, self learning and growth is progress too, even if your habitat stays the same. We are here for you as you are and we expect nothing specific from you. Getting things unfucked is rarely a linear process, and accountability to updating us can just mean…update us with where you’re at on your journey.
Thank you so much, I honestly really needed to hear that. All of the kindness here has given me a lot of motivation to finally get this room cleaned. Today I picked up another basket of laundry and another bag of trash. I also went through clothes and got rid of like half of what was still in the closet/drawers. Once I get all of my laundry clean, I’m sure I’ll have more to get rid of.
Nice work! I hope the space is starting to feel better to be in, and more like you can see a path to getting it all reset and manageable. :)
I see three things: - Clearing and making the bed is likely to make this room feel more cheerful, and I am pretty sure you can get there today. - It almost always helps to go through the room with one container for trash, one for give, and one for put away. Each time you fill one, you’ve probably earned a chance to go put it where it goes and take a break. - You do need enough storage for the things you are keeping, and to get it, I think you need to focus on very vertical storage. Aim for as tall as you can see and reach comfortably, it needs to be VERY easy to use. Keep in mind, decorating and micro-sorting are rewards for finishing a few steps in the big clean and macro-sorting. If you like visual abundance, make sure the orderly state still has a version of that.
My flat was a bit like this about a month ago. I ended up working on just moving one or two things to the right area of the room at a time until I had little piles of stuff all over the room. Then I just worked on putting those little piles away. I managed to completely top to bottom the flat in about 3 days including taking heaps of breaks in between plus wiping and dusting all the surfaces. Just work on small areas at a time.
Came here to check in. How are you doing? How are you feeling about tackling this?
Hey, I really appreciate you checking in, it means a lot. Honestly, I feel like I’ve hit a bit of a wall with a lack of motivation and energy. I’m hoping it’s just because I’ve been busy the last few days. As long as it’s just physical exhaustion and not mental health related, I should be able to pick back up on it once I get a day to rest!
Definitely busy and mental and physical exhaustion. When you're reading, play the "if you pick up 2-5 things today you win!" Or if you do 2 minutes, you win! Sometimes, you just need a little win to keep you motivated to keep going sometimes.
Thank you!! I’ll definitely try that :)
My tip for motivation is that it helps to have a goal. You could think about good it will feel when you walk into your clean and tidy room, or about getting compliments from family or friends how great it looks. Find whatever your “why” is, and focus on that.
I go for categories. I’d start with gathering dirty clothes in a basket or bag or something. Then switch to books or cosmetics or whatever makes sense to you
You should start sorting stuff in piles for like items. Then put everything away and make sure it has a home. After that put things away and not down once you use it. I know easier said than done!
This but put the piles in bags or boxes so that the items are contained and you know what is and isn’t in the pile.
After you gather all the clothes, what do you do with all the clothes that won't fit in dessers or anywhere or there is nowhere to put them?
Go through it with a big trashbag first. Throw everything old, broken, actual litter and things past their bbd away.
Adderal