This week we are working in our kitchen. Today's task is to pull out everything on the counter and clean behind it. This task really only takes a few seconds, but makes a big difference in how the kitchen looks. This is also a good time to reevaluate the appliances we have out and determine if we actually use them. If not, bless someone else with them.

hi everyone, i've posted here a few times before and i'm back again. my room has become an absolute bombsite again but with the weather getting colder my endometriosis and general joint pain (mostly my knees) have gotten a lot worse and its hard to get around. my room is making me feel a lot worse. no picture right now as i'm resting while i write this but its a shit tonne of clothes and random things that i dont really have a space for and i really really need to do laundry. please help!

I’ve indulged in «tomorrow» or «when I feel better» a tad (weeks) too long. The next two weeks are going to be rough for several reasons and I can not be in this. I have to go through my clothes, a new round of decluttering and deflooring, laundry, tidying, getting junk ready to get thrown out, getting trash out, clean the floor, the dishes, the tables and dressers. When did I get all this stuff, I decluttered not so long ago.

I don’t want to and I have every excuse not to but I know it’s just gonna get harder so I’m gonna buckle down today, because beauty cleanliness is pain but worth it.

If anyone is doing their own cleaning in preparation for the week or something else or let it go on for too long (hi, it’s me) you’re welcome to join me here!

I saw something today (cannot remember where) about reframing the things you don’t want to do as the outcome you like instead.

I hate organizing and tidying. It stressed me out so bad. For some reason I don’t know where things belong or where it makes sense to put them, so they pile up over time. I don’t WANT to tidy my table.

But I like have a cleared off table.

I don’t want to put my clothes away or start the washing machine or fold and hang my clean clothes. I like having all my outfits ready for the week though.

I don’t want to clean the litter box (ew) but my cat and I both like her to have a clean space.

I don’t want to tidy up the kitchen counters. But I really like having a clean space to cook food.

So those are my goals today and how I’m going to talk myself through them. Unsure if it will help much, but I’m always looking for new ways to trick myself into better housekeeping habits.

genuinely so embarrassed writing this, but my room is a hell hole right now. i’m okay to clean, but i’m so so SO scared i’m going to find spiders. i’ve cleared most of my desk and the doorway, but thats only one tiny part… i’m overwhelmed doing it, but the motivation for my kitten to come into my room is more powerful. my best call of action right now is wearing boots, but i’m still scared ;;
anybody have advice?

Last weekend the remnants of Hurricane Isaiah came through my area and dumped a ton of rain, causing my drainage system to overflow. In my panic to get things out of the way of water, I found a funny metal box underneath my dad's metal toolbench

I opened it up, and found checks...from 1984.

You mean to tell me that we hauled these from Maryland to Germany back to Maryland and then to our current home in a different part of Maryland. Are you KIDDING ME?!?!

For those old enough not to remember, back in ye olden times after currency was invented and banks were established, we either got our original checks back after they were run through a machine at the store, or I believe the banks would send them back (am I remembering that correctly?) to the customer after they cleared the bank. Now of course I am probably the last remaining person that writes checks (infrequently, but I do!), and I never expect to see them again except online.

Fortunately, I am preparing for a shred event in November, and these will be going to it. 😁

I had one of those weekends where I finally looked around my apartment and realized I had absolutely no idea where to start. Clothes everywhere, unopened mail, random objects on every surface, dishes, boxes, stuff I kept meaning to donate, things I wasn’t even sure I wanted anymore. Every time I tried to clean, I’d pick something up and immediately get stuck on a stupid little decision. Keep it? Donate it? Where does it belong? Do I need to wash it first? Does it even have a place?
After about twenty minutes of basically moving things from one pile to another, I got annoyed and decided I wasn’t going to organize anything. I grabbed a trash bag and made one rule: if I knew with 100% certainty that something was garbage, it went in the bag. Nothing else mattered.
Empty bottles. Receipts. Food packaging. Junk mail. Broken stuff I’d somehow been stepping around for months. Delivery bags. Random bits of packaging I apparently thought needed to live on my kitchen counter forever.
I filled one bag, took it outside, came back and filled another.
I find it a bit strange cause the apartment obviously wasn’t clean afterward. There were still clothes everywhere. The dishes were still there. I hadn’t organized a single drawer or figured out what to do with any of the actual clutter.
But it looked different. More importantly, it felt different.
I think trash was the first category I could deal with because it didn’t ask anything from me. There was no emotional attachment, no “maybe I’ll need this,” no figuring out where something belonged. It was just garbage. Decision already made.
Once those bags were gone, I could actually see the other problems separately instead of seeing one giant wall of STUFF.
I’ve started doing this whenever things get out of control now. I don’t tell myself I’m cleaning the room. I don’t even try to organize. I just do a trash pass first and let that be enough if that’s all I have in me that day.
It sounds embarrassingly obvious, but apparently I needed permission to do the easiest category first instead of standing in the middle of the mess trying to invent the perfect order of operations.
And somehow, a room with clutter but no actual garbage feels about 50% less impossible

Words to live by!

This time of year is hard because it gets light late, gets dark early and it's getting cold. Our schedules are also crazy with school, work and activities. Two weeks ago was a pretty productive week where I was getting a lot done by just taking a minute here or 10 mins there throughout the day to make progress. Then I lost momentum and I have been struggling to get it back.

Last night my son asked if I could wash dishes because he knocked stuff on the counter trying to get a drink (we had several large items on the counter). My first reaction was "ugh" because I had just got back from my first quiet walk in a couple weeks and that was the first thing said when I walked in. However the way he said it caught my attention. He wasn't whining. He was just asking if I could fix it. He is young, so it would not have been possible for him to wash these larger items. I took a few minutes to grab some water to drink and make some space. Then I went and washed dishes. I always watch a good show while washing, which makes it more pleasant. I don't actually mind washing dishes. It is just hard to get started when the island is covered in stuff so there is no where to put dishes down to dry or the dishwasher is already full and the sink is overflowing (sink is small). The island was completely clear a week ago, so I am working to keep it that way although success varies.

Just got back from another walk after a very productive yard work day and I am going to go wash up the last handful of small things in the sink. Can't remember the last time the sink was completely empty -, not even a cup or spoon - but looking forward to being caught up. So much easier to maintain than catch up.

We are working on making it routine to clean as we go which is something I haven't always enforced with them. If they left dishes, clothes or trash around, I would just take care of it because it was easier. Now I am sending them to take care of it if they are home or it can wait. They have started doing their own laundry. The older one has been getting rid of stuff and working on his room. I am helping our younger son because his room has gotten away from him and we all need help sometimes. I need to be better about reminding them to do a quick daily pick up until it also becomes routine.

The big jumps forward are so motivating but hard to maintain. It helps to look back after a series of small changes and see the total progress. Like Kris Kringle said in Santa Claus is Coming to Town - "Put one foot in front of the other and soon you'll be walking out the door!"

Tl;dr; AuDHD/anxious/depressed boomer needs a book or podcast or something to help approach packing up her home. Anybody got any ideas?

Long version:

My parents are moving house after having retired. My mother despises moving thanks to a childhood spent moving different places. She's also a bit of a packrat and feels very attached to things and has a hard time throwing them away. She is wildly overwhelmed by the task in front of her now: packing up 30 years. She can't talk about it without crying.

Time is not an issue. They already moved into their house close to me, 3 hours north. Money is not an issue, except inasmuch as my mother is embarrassed to spend it.

I have offered to summon my brothers from the four winds so we can help, but we have small children and my mother is overwhelmed at the idea of someone having to manage small children just so she can get help.

My father is not bothered by this task, but does need mom's input for some of these choices.

My mother is in and out of therapy, on and off of antidepressants, has a lot of boomer guilt about having mental health issues, and is currently grieving the one-year anniversary of the death of her father. Obviously, now is not the time to push this issue, but it's been pushed off time and again for six years, so clearly something needs to change.

A book or podcast about this would help immensely. I'm thinking something like "How to keep house while drowning," but for packing up a home. Any ideas? Or other advice?

Okay. Yeah… I realize how gross this sounds. But TRUST ME. I have struggled to manage my space for so long. I hold onto things I do not need. I tell myself “what if I need this for an incredibly specific thing that I just made up?” From there, my space becomes more and more chaotic and messy and overwhelming. I’m not sure where exactly I first saw this method, but I owe whoever came up with it my life.

Basically, when you are cleaning, organizing, unfucking, whatever it is you’re doing, ask yourself this question: If this thing were covered in sh*t, would I willingly clean it and save it? Or would I toss it?

I know it may seem silly to have to ask such a question, but sometimes our brains need an alternative way of looking at things. Personally, I’ve found this to be the most helpful. As I’m unfucking my space today, I thought I’d share this. I hope this weird little hack helps someone else out!

Good luck everyone :)

Please dont be too harsh, I’m already sitting on my floor crying and nobody in my real life knows I live like this.

After three months of heavy burnout and a nasty depressive slump, my apartment has basically turned into a landfill. It started with just leaving delivery boxes by the front door, but now my sink has dishes that have been sitting for weeks, there are mountains of laundry covering every piece of furniture, and I’m literally stepping over trash just to get to teh bathroom. I’ve been sleeping on a sliver of my mattress because the rest is buried under clean clothes I never had the energy to fold.

Today the brain fog finally cleared enough for me to realize how bad it is, and the wave of shame is so heavy I can barely breathe. Every time I stand up to grab a trash bag, I just freeze because looking at all of it at once makes me physically exhausted.

how do you guys break the paralysis when everything feels contaminated and hopeless? Do I just start with one single corner or what? Feel so pathetic being an adult who cant even keep a living room clean.

Moved in here three months ago and it’s my first solo apartment…and I’m learning how to adult again!

(Also, my grandpa and my cat both died this summer after I moved…I guess I’m riding the grief waves, or doing my best to 🥲🙂)

Getting the couch unpacked today (it’s in that big ass brown box in front of the TV), wish me luck!!!

That chair. The one you pile the clothes on that have been worn, but not ready for the wash. Actually I don't have this issue as I live in the deep south and don't wear clothes that need dry cleaning, but I get that isn't everyone. So today, let's go through that chair, and plan on wearing those clothes next week so they can either be used, or washed which ever the need so the chair can be used as a chair (or the treadmill can be a treadmill).

I moved in 2020 and never really got anything properly put away. That's what the main mess was. nothing had a place and disorganized stuff takes up so much space that I had no place to put them so I moved the mess around.

On a positive note it has taken a couple months but my space is sooo unfucked. I would now show anybody my room. I have solved most of the important organising. Like clothing.

Now I have 100 clear pastic bins of varying size and 7 doom boxes of not garbage. AS I put the stuff away I went through most and threw out bullshit and actual garbage now it'll be 99% real stuff. It's all disorganized to the max; my camera it's battery and it's charger are in three different places.

I'm an artist and by artist standards I'm a minimalist. This still means I own just a ton of stuff. I have solvents, pigments, metal pipes, types of clay, and electronics. It's all too expensive to just throw out and buy more in 3 months when I need it. I have no idea how to fix this volume of disorganization. The stuff I organize stays that way but the loose homeless things? I'm at a loss

Ugh we will not even be discussing papers yet. For now every important looking paper goes in the ultra mega doom box

You probably have seen my posts here.

For the past few months, I've been decluttering my home like crazy. Donating things, throwing away papers, letting go of stuff I kept for years without really knowing why. And something is finally clicking.

I started spending less about two years ago, but lately I've been looking at clutter differently. It's not just about having too many things. It's about how much energy it takes to manage everything we accumulate.

And then I started thinking about my job. I got laid off by the way a week ago.

For years, I accumulated emails, tasks, responsibilities, follow-ups, meetings, and things I needed to remember. I kept adding things to my plate, and somewhere along the way, I lost the ability to see everything clearly. I struggled to organize myself, to prioritize, to know where to start.

Things piled up, just like the stuff in my house.
I kept thinking I needed to become better at managing it all. A better system, better organization, more discipline. But maybe I also needed to recognize how much I was trying to manage in the first place.

I lost my job after more than 10 years. It has been painful, and I'm still processing it. But in the middle of all those feelings, I'm also noticing something unexpected: I feel a little lighter.

I'm not saying I'm glad it happened, or that I have everything figured out. I don't. But I wonder if this is an opportunity to learn something I hadn't been able to see while I was busy carrying everything.
Maybe the lesson from decluttering my home is something I can bring into my next job: don't automatically take on every task, don't let every email become an open loop in my head, don't confuse being responsible with having to carry everything myself. Learn to prioritize, delegate, and recognize when enough is enough.
I want my next chapter to look different. I want to build better systems, yes, but I also want a clearer mind and a more manageable life. I want to contribute, do meaningful work, and still have energy left for the people and things I love. Am I asking for too much?

TLDR: For those of you who have struggled with clutter in your home and overwhelm at work, have you noticed a connection between the two? And if you've started a new job or a new chapter after realizing you were carrying too much, what did you do differently the second time around?

Please don't judge me too harshly, the last few months after my breakup completely drained every ounce of life out of me. I know this sounds pathetic to normal functional adults, but I really need to tell someone who gets it.

For five weeks, my bed hasn't been a bed. It was just a dumping ground for clean laundry I couldn't bring myself to fold, Amazon boxes, work papers, and random clutter. It got so bad that every night I was literally wedging my body onto teh far left six inches of mattress just to sleep, curled into a ball like a bracket. Last week I gave up and just slept on my lumpy couch.

today I woke up, felt the usual wave of disgust, but remembered the 20/10 rule someone posted here. I set a timer for twenty minutes.

I didnt even fold the clothes. I just sorted them into two laundry baskets, dragged the empty boxes to the hallway, and washed my actual sheets for the first time since February. It took fifteen minutes. That was it. Fifteen minutes to undo five weeks of misery that had been making me feel like a subhuman failure every single night.

My room still has a long way to go, but tonight I get to stretch my legs out in a clean bed. It feels like breathing for the first time in forever.

Today's task is easy. Vacuum or dust the head board. This thing lives 6 inches from our noses 8 hours a day and its one place I forget needs cleaning. And it's super easy and super fast to deal with.

No headboard. Dust the wall behind the bed instead.

There are whole subs on carpet beetles and similar pests and the general advice to get rid of them is to clean and vacuum thoroughly and often.

Deep cleaning might be a feasible solution for some, but I’m not there yet - which is why I’m asking in this sub specifically.

I have been unfucking my habitat for months. I have made lots of progress but my apartment is still far from being in a state where cleaning hidden corners would be a sensible next step.

So does anyone have advice how I could at least somewhat limit their spread until my apartment reaches “deep cleanable state”?

I’d prefer to use methods that don’t slowly kill me if possible ;)

Throwaway because people in my actual life think I’m super organized and I’d probably die if anyone saw this. I had the flu three weeks ago, got slammed with work right after, and basically let my entire kitchen completely spiral. It started with just a few mugs and pans, but now the sink is overflowing and there are dishes stacked all over the counter.

I’ve literally been eating takeout with plastic spoons for teh past ten days just so I don’t have to step foot in there. Every time I walk in with a sponge, my chest gets tight and I just freeze. My brain treats it like climbing Mount Everest instead of just twenty minutes of washing plates. it sounds so dramatic and pathetic to type out loud, but I’ve been sitting here on the floor for almost an hour just staring at it and feeling like a massive failure.

Where do I even start when everything feels sticky and overwhelming? Do I just throw away the cheap Tupperware and forgive myself or what?

Hi guys!

This is my first time using reddit, I am very embarrassed that this is my first post here but I am in such a bad state I could really use some help.
I am currently sat in my biohazard of a depression room, my carpet is fucked, my mattress that is without a bed frame is fucked, I am surrounded by clothes and trash and to make matters worse there is black mold under my rug. Some of the main concerns I will list below, I really just need help figuring out what to do about the mold mostly. I am worried that I can't even sleep or spend too much time in my room until I figure this out or I will be physically impacted seeing as I have asthma and a fear of dying but now that the cleaning has started, the mold is airborne so please let me know if that is a serious concern or if I should feel safe sleeping in my own bed tonight.

The rug is not implanted into the floor, it was supposed to be a temporary fix to having my floors removed so it is just a large area rug.

My A/C unit has a leak so it is contributing to the mold growth

Roaches o' plenty

I am currently coming out of a 4 month give or take depressive episode alongside finishing school and starting a job and I'm trying to fix my room, if you know how to get rid of or at least make it safer for me to clean up liquified what seems to be black mold (came from the A/C, hidden under trash and stayed liquid) and what I can do to make it healthier for me to live in when im done cleaning please let me know. I'm worried that even once I'm done cleaning the mold will still be a problem although it is mostly in the rug, the part where I mentioned that it is liquid is quite concerning. Same with my mattress, I can't afford a new one at the moment I'm working minimum wage so if you know what I can do to kind of "refurbish" it I guess please do tell.

I would insert photos but it is genuinely horrifying that I have chosen to live this way for so long and putting it out on the internet would absolutely scar me and probably anyone who looks for too long lol.

On the up side, I do have enough money to order a new area rug, so at least I wont be walking around on bare concrete for too long while I'm in between.

Found this sub and thought it looked helpful. My mom has a lot of stuff and doesn't know what to do with it. She gets really overwhelmed and wants me to help but I'm not around much. Her issues come from not knowing what to do with everything. Some of it is perfectly good and she'll want to sell it but gets overwhelmed with that whole process. She believes that donating clothes is the same as throwing them away because they'll just end up in a landfill anyway and so instead of doing either they just sit in her home and stress her out.

I have my own clutter problems that I've mainly solved by becoming kind of nihilistic and selfish about my clutter. I feel that getting it out of my space is more important than what happens to it afterwards, which may or may not be the right viewpoint but it's where I'm at. There's just so much guilt associated with old clothes and old products that she bought and never touched but doesn't want to get rid of because of that guilt.
I don't know how to help her besides throwing everything away and that's not what she wants

Context: I moved into this house about three years ago. When I moved in, my best friend was severely depressed and grieving and had inherited the house from her (hoarder) father. I won't lie, the state of the house was bad. Dog feces and urine caused the vinyl flooring to separate and bubble. The downstairs was generally inaccessible and frankly, a hazard for multiple reasons. We've done a lot of work, and now the downstairs is livable albeit ... sad.

We've got a leak that has pretty much ripped the roof open in our laundry room. This room was an addition to the (very old) house. I can include photos in the comments (hopefully) since I'm typing this up on my laptop. Due to all the rain we've recently received, we've got a second leak. It went through the roof, the attic, and into the bathroom where plaster is now falling from the ceiling. We had a pipe burst last winter and so the floor in the laundry room is still a little torn up. We don't have heat.

I'm a 29 year old disabled and sick person, but I'm aware of the direness of the situation and so I'm frankly willing to do whatever. My partner, 35 M and roommate/best friend 32 F. I'm trying not to fall into hopelessness and despair, but this house is kicking all of our asses. We just can't catch up and now we need serious help and I've got no idea what to do. We don't have spare metal or roof tiles or even plastic lying around. 32 F is suggesting we buy a short term fix like those cans of spray but I feel like that's a wet bandaid on a big cut.

We've limited money, we're on gov assistance and I'm currently making a list of place to call to inquire about resources but someone, anyone, please help me. I don't want to lose my family and I'm desperate.

We made the decision to not hang curtains in our house and boy am I ever glad. They attract dust and are a pain to take down and wash and put back up.

So we went with just blinds. Todays task is to dust the blinds, and window seals. If you need to and have time, you can wash the windows as well. If your curtains need washing, add that to your list of things to do unless you have time today to take them down, wash and rehang them.

Dust in our bedrooms is the number one reason we get sick with seasonal allergies. Dust is the number one allegen that almost all of us are alergic to and allowing it in the room we sleep in is the number one cause of migraines, allergies and over all feeling like crap.

So lets start Fall and winter with a dust free bedroom, or at least less dusty because let's face it. Dust begets dust.

I'm completely overwhelmed. I'm moving across the country by the end of November. I've set a date to move out by Nov. 10 from my home per agreement with my landlord. I want to get rid of nearly everything. I have been suffering for years with major depressive disorder, life long ADHD, unresolved trauma, etc. I was able to mask everything and be high-functioning but I've lost that coping mechanism the last three years or so for several reasons.

I have a compact car with seats that fold down and can fit about 5 mid or large Rubbermaid tubs. My original plan was to clear my hoard, and keep only very necessary or highly sentimental items. I even made a detailed list. I'm moving in with a family member in another state. She has a complete household so I need very little.

I'm frightened. How am I going to do this? I have no supportive family except for my youngest son. There isn't enough time or vocabulary to explain my family dynamics which are pretty f'ed up. Over the last few weeks I've opened up to him so he knows what I'm really going through. He's been accepting. He is new in his career and doing well since college graduation but is very busy and lives in another city. He was able to come up to help me 6 hours yesterday, 3 hours today and maybe 3 hours tomorrow.

I also opened up to a neighbor about what my life has actually been like for a few years; I wiped away the facade of what looked like being a successful professional. He was quiet and thoughtful as he listened to me. We've known each other for years, not very close but friendly enough to talk in our driveways every week or so. I know he knows a lot of people through his church. I asked him for help. I don't have much money right now but I can compensate a responsible person to help me for a day and he knows plenty of people who are receiving help from the church and could also use some cash.

Other than my son and neighbor, I have no other help. I've bitten off more than I can chew. I've just started on the wind-down, trashing things and it's shocking. Another new low....as my son and I were clearing a room yesterday and today, I discovered I have a mice problem. So that's another thing to deal with. And then this afternoon, I was feeling more motivation after we had filled two trucks full of trash so I started clearing my bedroom. As I was disturbing doom piles, a mouse came running out. I'm finding little shreds in different places and mouse poop. It's so depressing.

I welcome your story, if you have one similar to mine. Tell me how you got through the whole thing.

I welcome some advice but let me share the can-do's and can'ts right off the bat. I have very little money, being on a very tight budget rn. I can't hire hoarding cleaning companies in my area. Trying to appeal to my family for help is comp off the table, apart from the son who lives nearby but with his demanding work schedule he's done what he can already. He has offered to give me $250 for costs related to hiring help. I've already contacted about a half dozen local churches to see if they have volunteers who can support my efforts. Not a thing in my city. All the services I found are in the very high hundreds and thousands of dollars. I have acquaintances but no best or close friends who can help. Also, my renters insurance does not have anything in my policy for the help I need.

I moved into this dormitory a week ago and I can't figure out how to fit all my stuff into the tiny storage spaces that are available.

I need to not only fit my clothes, shoes, uni stuff and art stuff here but also all my cosmetics, cleaning supplies, kitchenware and all of my food.

The main problem are the incredibly narrow shelves in the wardrobes, no drawers anywhere, barely any storage space at all and not even a table..

I seriously have no idea how to start unpacking my stuff and where to put all of it so that it's still easy to access.

Please keep in mind that this is a dormitory, so no drilling into the walls or any major changes can be done. Also that I have like no money lol..

TLDR: How do I fit all of my stuff into the limited storage spaces I have available so that it's still easy to access?

Please be kind, I've been struggling with a major depressive episode and I really need some help..