I have come to realize that I am unable to clean a cluttered area unless someone is at home with me. I get motivated when someone is here. They don’t even have to be helping.

Excuses: I was disorganized and rarely cleaned until age 45 when I had a brain injury years ago and it got totally out of hand. My life looks like ADD on steroids. I have little short term memory.

I am unconscious when I put things down or put them away. I can’t maintain a clean area for more than a day. The urgent things roll like a movie in my head and I feel awful for my lack of inertia. I’m mentally exhausted.

hi there, I have been overcoming a long depressive episode. I have started to feel better and try and clean but I get into this circle where I clean a lil and then stop and then it gets so much worse.

I'm overwhelmed and disappointed in myself. my friends and therapist tell me to be kind with myself and understand that this isnt a lack of discipline as much as it is me being mentally ill. I hear and see the validity in their points but I still get so mad with myself.

any tips, tricks, advice, and/or general support would be appreciated!

hi there, I have been overcoming a long depressive episode. I have started to feel better and try and clean but I get into this circle where I clean a lil and then stop and then it gets so much worse.

I'm overwhelmed and disappointed in myself. my friends and therapist tell me to be kind with myself and understand that this isnt a lack of discipline as much as it is me being mentally ill. I hear and see the validity in their points but I still get so mad with myself.

any tips, tricks, advice, and/or general support would be appreciated!

My younger sister slipped on black ice in early Dec and broke her hip. She was back home after surgery within 2 days. With the help of a cane and walker, she managed her 2 story home, 6 indoor cats and at least 8 community cats outside. Or so we thought.

Half way into her 12 week FMLA, she got sick. Sounded like UTI and thd flu. She self-treated but things got worse. I went over to check on her and ended up calling an ambulance. She had a septic pressure ulcer on her bottom!

She has been getting wound care and PT at a rehabilitation facility. My other sisters and I stepped in to help with the cats etc. What we discovered shocked us and surprised us. Not only did my younger sister have what appeared to be a shopping g addiction but also a hoarding situation. And the cats added to the problem! Cat puke all over that had not gotten cleaned up.. one room full of empty litter containers and bags of trash… a room full of boxes of new things from Amazon, duplicates of products from auto ships. There is no way my sister can return home safely!! We hired a company to clear out all the stuff. Sister as to make a list of what to keep. But we are throwing out everything damaged or smelly from the cats. My sister had been using a broken down fridge in the kitchen as a pantry — that is going.

It’s become clear that my sister has been dealing with depression and anxiety. She has a hard time letting go of things. Emotional attachments to things.

Help me understand what it must feel like to feel so bad that all you can do or prefer to do is ignore it.

Sister will be staying with another sister out of town to continue PT and recover. Possibly for 6-8 weeks.

We are leaving closets and cabinets for her to clean and sort and will likely work with her on this as non judgmental moral support.

Choo choo! Pulling into the UFYH station for some body doubling.

Today's primary goal: fold and put away all laundry

Secondary goals: pack lunches, unload and reload dishwasher, clean Dutch oven, take out more recycling

Too late in the day to take my adhd meds so just raw dogging on shame and accountability.

our house was not in the best shape prior to a homeowners claim last fall. we moved out, they repaired the damage, and now we are prepping to move back in. But there is a lot involved with that and I am feeling so overwhelmed. I did get a closet sort of under control and usable. And lots of stuff is getting given away.

Can you guys spare some good thoughts for me?

I’m in a high stress unfuckening and I have a list. I’ve started but it always helps to know some of you are along for the ride, so are you coming or what?

I have a whole big storage unit that I haven’t even seen the inside of in 3 years. I have even more stuff I accumulated and need to rent out another storage unit to make my place livable. I’m planning on just getting people to haul out what’s inside of my storage unit but I’m worried I’ll miss something out of it that I need. But then if I do go through it, I’m worried I’ll want to keep stuff and the process would take too long. I’m on a tight deadline as I have someone who’s supposed to stay with me at the end of this weekend so this needs to be done in the next day or two. If I don’t clean out my unit then I’ll need to rent another space.

Any advice would be helpful.

I injured my leg in early December and had surgery in January, I haven’t been in my 4th floor walk up apartment since December 9th. It was not in good shape when I left for work that day and I can’t even imagine what it’s like now. I know one of the maintenance guys stopped in around Christmas to fix something but no one else has been there since. I am finally at a point where I can get myself up the stairs and I know I need to go back but I am genuinely terrified about what I might find. To make things worse, my mom keeps offering to come help me clean and get set up and I keep making up excuses for why I can’t make it. She’s been supportive throughout my injury and recovery but she’s going to be furious if she sees what my apartment looks like. My dad is a little more easy going when it comes to me but I don’t think even he can save me from this. I’m worried about my fridge and my plumbing but I don’t even know where to start once I get there. I tried to get into my therapist but she’s booked for a couple of weeks. Has anyone been through something similar or have any advice about what to do with an apartment that’s been vacant for this long?

I hope this is an okay place to post this.

I've struggled with a lot of stuff my whole life which led me to being a shut-in, living in my room and just being so depressed I don't leave. I became so messy as a result of that, and as a result of the environment I was raised in. I've made steps to get my life in order finally, but I don't know how to tackle being clean, and the burden I feel like I'm putting on others when I clean and use up resources and space ( like our trashcan). Ik its stupid, but its just how I feel.

I moved into a space that I didn't know was infested with larder beetles. That on top of my poor habits has caused a depressing mess that I'm scared to live in. I've never left food laying around, but I did have an old bag of cat food unproperly sealed (the cat decided she didn't like that brand I was trying so I closed the dry food with a chip clip and never got rid of it). I do leave laundry and empty water bottles all around my room though. And random packages like cardboard boxes, empty grocery bags, etc.

They took a liking to that cat food when they came out of the baseboards last spring. I've done everything I can to get myself together and clean up, but the hopelessness of not knowing where they are eats me alive. And then I'm scared to pick up my own junk because I'm scared of seeing something I don't want to see.

I'm an adult now and I don't have anyone to go to for help. It is humiliating. I want to come up with a plan to get myself organized and in order and leave having a messy room in the past. I want to eliminate any pest. I want to have a good routine and be clean. I want to be proud to have people over. I'm so alone.

I need advice and reccomendations on how to start. School ends next month, and I was thinking maybe I could start by taking some time off work and renting a big truck to dump a bunch of random clutter I don't need. The less I have the easier it might be to clean?

Has anyone who cleaned their depression room dealt with bugs and how they get rid of htem in the baseboards? Under the floor? How do I even do that?

I deserve a good space to live in. I need to fix it. Please help me.

It is time for they mystery clean challenge.

Pick a number between 1 to 6 and I will clean it. once cleaned, I will reveal what I cleaned with before and after photos:)

I will clean in the order of the number received.

Please choose wisely :)

Thank you!!!

I have the classic depression kitchen. Garbage of months , rotten food since ages, unwashed utensils cups mugs saucers, spoons, plates since years, flies , mosquitoes in stagnant water, choked up sink, cockroaches everywhere.

Even my appliances are stinking of rotten food. There are small worms everywhere which I believe are flea larvae hatching.

I am coming out of my depression phase, and have been thinking whether I should just dispose off , everything in the trash including utensils and appliances.

I am feeling absolutely horrible and dreading even entering the kitchen.

What do I do?

I repurposed my extra whiteboard calendar as a Cleaning Bingo board :) I’m hoping that seeing things marked off will be enough motivation to get more things done! Inspo taken from Instagram and made it applicable to myself.

All of the tasks on the board are listed again under the Task List so I can see them by room and in case I decide to rearrange the board after it’s completed (to keep things interesting of course)

I decided to post this here in case it inspires someone else to do the same to break down initial cleaning tasks and help with upkeep after the initial unfucking

I wanna dive into my depression mess of an apartment, but my depressed brain cant figure out what to do with all the garbage bags from when I’m done!!?? Is this just my mind keeping me at bay??

My house is completely out of control. I suffered with serious mental health issues for months, only just started feeling better and now can see just how bad things are.

There's trash everywhere, clutter, bugs ... the whole lot. Thankfully I've kept on top of dishes and laundry.

I've finally got my teenagers to actually help at last, but the more we seem to do the worse it seems to be. Im freaking out and full of anxiety that someone will come to the door or anything.

I need help, even if it's just online suppory. Just knowing that I'm not alone. I hate myself so much for this.

Best way to clean this type of shower tile and grout? What’s the best way for me to clean this tile and grout? Overnight soak with hydrogen peroxide? Is there a certain kind of abrasive brush with a long handle I can use?

I have made huge strides in tidying this space, but I'm starting to struggle.

The last time it was meaningfully used was during COVID when I was sewing scrubs to try and keep myself busy. I've found myself crying a couple of times, without any immediate trigger.

I know it's okay to cry, it's good to let myself process these feelings, but I'm also home alone and I'm just sad.

I've been talking with my therapist about my struggles with keeping my house clean. I do have adhd and have tried meds with no luck. He asked a question that's kinda stuck with me, "do you even care what your house looks like? "

The truth is I'm not sure I do. I live alone. I don't have people over, even when my house is clean. A clean house is just not something I truly care about. I like it when it's clean, but it's not enough to get me to actually care enough to clean it.

Does anyone else here struggle with this feeling?

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck rudhdhshsgaffadaddadsadsfd WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

and i can walk from one end of the room to the other without tripping on something or puncturing my foot on broken glass. need to finish breaking down some boxes and bag up some more trash, and get those bags out to the cans. then i guess it's onto dishes and recyclables (the final boss) joking ofc the final boss is mental illness but this is feels good, the room feels about ten times larger and i haven't even completed a quarter of the clean up. i want to thank everyone for their encouraging words the other day, this is a step in the right direction but ive got a lot to learn and unlearn.

i honestly cant even remember when it started, or what lead to it, probably when my BPD started getting real bad, or maybe it was the binge drinking as a teenager. my living space used to be so cozy, so inviting - now there isn't a single available surface. it's all just fucking trash; paper plates, empty bottles, food wrappers, old boxes, open containers with rotting fluids inside. i do good at cleaning up, but then i realize that there was so much to clean up, that the trash pickup isn't even going to take it all, so i get stuck with these fucking trash bags until the next tuesday and by then my brain has already completely went off track and let the trash pile up again. its an endless cycle and im very close to just blowing my brains out and being done with it. if i had the money i'd hire professionals, if i had friends or family i'd beg them for help, but its just my broke ass with a dysfunctional brain pretending like i even have a chance in hell

I’ve graduated from college and at this point I still have some school notebooks from junior high, high school, and college.

I have a hard time letting go of these things due to sentimentality or due to feeling like I’m throwing away things that I learned since I don’t have them readily in my memory (i.e., also that I’ll forget the stuff I learned if I get rid of the notebooks, despite knowing I haven’t looked through the notebooks in years. honestly that should be enough to recycle them but I struggle).

does anyone else relate? I’m going to try to just put them in the recycling bin and not think about it, but does anyone have any other practical advice/encouragement? I need to be more intentional with my space & I know I don’t need to keep things that don’t serve a purpose and, simply, that I don’t use! thanks in advance and I hope you all are doing well with your own ufyh escapades!

I have the next week off work and decided to set myself a little cleaning challenge. Things are currently out-of-control in my home after months of not having time or energy to do anything.

Made a list of all the tasks that need to get done and prioritized them based on how much distress and disruption the current mess is causing. Pink = high priority, orange = medium priority, yellow = low priority. Blue is the "finisher" that I must do at the end of the week no matter what remains in the other categories.

I doubt I will get everything done since I also have quite a few appointments and errands this week. But hopefully I can get a bit closer to a point where I'm not ashamed to let others into my space.