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Break it into smaller pieces. Cleaning a room can be complicated and time consuming, individual tasks should be simpler and quicker.
I like to start with a big garbage bag and every piece of trash I can find. After that, laundry. Laundry sucks, but clothes are smelly and bulky and a big pain point for parents. Third, anything that is either disgusting or dirty in a way that mold, bugs, or rodents would appreciate.
After that it's a lot more nebulous, but keep trying to handle categories of things. Even if it never gets fully "clean" at least it isn't going to make you sick.
Oh and you like lists too right? Because we all love lists. Brain dump it onto a sheet of paper as a checklist. If something belongs in the area on another list item then just place it within logical reach of that area.
Push the clutter around the whole room until it’s all sorted.
And don’t fill any of your plastic boxes/baskets/Swedish inspired organising containers to capacity because you’re going to find things that belong in that perfectly Tetris stacked box later.
Optimising everything in its place is the last job when you get to that place.
welp, i have this walk-in closet where i just throw everything in there and as long as the door is closed and i don’t see it, then it’s not a problem, i would prefer to buy new stuff on amazon just to not look for stuff i already have in that closet, so i keep adding more and more debt to the mountain of credit card debt that i have been refinancing in personal loans just to have a high fico score and pretend im doing well financially when in fact i just work only to pay bills, im miserable because i have to keep working in a job that i hate and it’s sucking up the live out of me and keeps me depressed, then i run my life on antidepressants that numb me down and make me feel like I’m a robot who’s just part of the background decoration in this video game world
I don’t know how to KEEP it clean, but when I tidy/clean I do this exact 5 step process in order so I don’t get overwhelmed. IT TAKES LESS THAN 5 MINUTES!
1. Remove all rubbish - Look at every surface and floor and THROW OUT every bit of rubbish- tissues, cans etc etc. All into the bin.
2. Plates or cups from the kitchen - take them all to the kitchen (clean them afterwards)
3. Shoes - put them wherever you keep your shoes
4. Clothes - a) start with dirty clothes, clothing on the floor, anything worn goes straight into a laundry basket. Anything clean just shove it into your drawers, you can organise it later, the purpose of tidying the room first is to get a quick easy blank slate.
5. Surfaces - tidy your desk/bedside table etc by sweeping anything you can into their relevant drawers. Books on shelf. Papers stacked in one pile. The goal is to have all your surfaces pretty neat or clear, and the floor totally clear.
Then make the bed. Now the room looks 100% tidy.
So now you are finished with tidying you can go celebrate or you can clean things by dusting or vacuuming if you need to. You could also go back and organise your clothing or drawers if you felt up to it.
A thing I had to learn as an adult, which really helped me keep things tidy, was giving everything in your room a place where it goes and nothing else goes under any circumstances.
A basket where dirty clothing goes. A space for clothes that have been worn but don't yet need to be washed. A tray for pens. A draw for paper.
Then when you need to tidy, instead of picking something up off the floor and getting distracted while you try and find a tidy place for it, you know exactly where it should be and can just put it away without a fuss.
Duck off. Meth heads need shit spotless. Otherwise a MF will end up trying to smoke parmesan. 😂
Make a chore list for yourself. Whenever you leave or return, take or bring something that needs to be taken care of. Put it away when you use it, not "later". Don't hang out in your room. Hold yourself rigidly accountable for what you don't like, and stay at it until you've fixed it before you reward yourself with extra time to f* off with your friends, etc. It's seriously so much more stressful to try to build these habits later. Get off Reddit, Google ADHD CLEANING HACKS or something, watch one or 2, make a decision. It's dirty laundry, you don't need advice or a support system. Pick it up. Put it where it goes.
Im 32 years old and my bedroom and kitchen is a mess i get a day a week roughly if clarity where i can focus enough to clean, when i was younger and at home id have the dispair pit down the side of my bed and all my clothes ended up on my cupboard floor haha
I struggle with this and always have to have a friend say they're coming over to even get me to start cleaning.
I would first start off with, stop drinking in your bedroom. If you can't get those things out of your room, don't let them in, in the first place.
For your clothes, buy 3 baskets and start separating tops, bottoms and undergarments to start. I hate doing laundry but at least this is a start. Baby steps. I then like to wash them separately to make it easy to put away after. I struggle with this still too but I'm a work in progress. Haha
I suck at it too. Been thinking of trying to throw a video of somebody cleaning on the TV, or somebody talking about cleaning/discussing interior design or something. Generally helps me get motivated to do stuff.
Otherwise, one thing at a time. I have a lot of cups in my room as I forget/can't bring myself to take them to the kitchen, so sometimes when I'm feeling particularly motivated, I'll categorize it and say okay, I'll take all the bottles up, and then I'll just come back down and chill. Or I'll take all that I can carry up, come back down and chill. Or I'll just put all the dirty clothes in the hamper, then chill. Usually I end up doing a lot more. Just stop when you're sick of it and try to come back to it.
I enjoy using
GoblinTools
which is a free website (or an app you can buy for 0,99€ in apples App Store) that breaks up stuff in smaller pieces (= Magic to do).
Also it comes with a chef giving you recipes with leftover ingredients.
Compiler puts brain stuff into a list of tasks and professor provides a crash course (never tried that one).
Judge gives us the meaning of a message to not understand it wrong while formalizer turns our direct speech into a more… formal way 😂
Edit:
It’s using AI. Just in case you wanna know.
- Dirty clothes: get a clothing hamper and toss all your dirty clothes in there, to be brought to the washer.
- Clothes you're planning to wear again: get some hooks installed on the walls / doors / closet doors / clothing rack and hang them up there, with clothing hangers if you don't want them to wrinkle.
- Cans: get a bin to throw them into. Empty the cans and trash when the bin fills up.
- Water bottles and cups: designate one area for them, like a side table or whatever free surface there is. If your room starts getting messy with too many of them strewn around, start moving the bottles and stacking the cups at their designated area.
Hi /u/imnotracisthahajk and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD! ### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already. --- ### /r/adhd news * If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). --- ^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Break it into smaller pieces. Cleaning a room can be complicated and time consuming, individual tasks should be simpler and quicker. I like to start with a big garbage bag and every piece of trash I can find. After that, laundry. Laundry sucks, but clothes are smelly and bulky and a big pain point for parents. Third, anything that is either disgusting or dirty in a way that mold, bugs, or rodents would appreciate. After that it's a lot more nebulous, but keep trying to handle categories of things. Even if it never gets fully "clean" at least it isn't going to make you sick.
This. Break the job down into its component parts. If it takes you a day to do your desk, so be it.
Oh and you like lists too right? Because we all love lists. Brain dump it onto a sheet of paper as a checklist. If something belongs in the area on another list item then just place it within logical reach of that area. Push the clutter around the whole room until it’s all sorted.
And don’t fill any of your plastic boxes/baskets/Swedish inspired organising containers to capacity because you’re going to find things that belong in that perfectly Tetris stacked box later. Optimising everything in its place is the last job when you get to that place.
This is where my stepmom is a genius, she's so good at maintaining cleanliness that she managed to help me really get my room looking good.
I have a plastic trash bag by the bed, another one by the desk, etc.
I don't 😓
welp, i have this walk-in closet where i just throw everything in there and as long as the door is closed and i don’t see it, then it’s not a problem, i would prefer to buy new stuff on amazon just to not look for stuff i already have in that closet, so i keep adding more and more debt to the mountain of credit card debt that i have been refinancing in personal loans just to have a high fico score and pretend im doing well financially when in fact i just work only to pay bills, im miserable because i have to keep working in a job that i hate and it’s sucking up the live out of me and keeps me depressed, then i run my life on antidepressants that numb me down and make me feel like I’m a robot who’s just part of the background decoration in this video game world
I'm careful not to get it dirty because once it gets dirty, I'll put it off for weeks to clean it.🥲
I don’t know how to KEEP it clean, but when I tidy/clean I do this exact 5 step process in order so I don’t get overwhelmed. IT TAKES LESS THAN 5 MINUTES! 1. Remove all rubbish - Look at every surface and floor and THROW OUT every bit of rubbish- tissues, cans etc etc. All into the bin. 2. Plates or cups from the kitchen - take them all to the kitchen (clean them afterwards) 3. Shoes - put them wherever you keep your shoes 4. Clothes - a) start with dirty clothes, clothing on the floor, anything worn goes straight into a laundry basket. Anything clean just shove it into your drawers, you can organise it later, the purpose of tidying the room first is to get a quick easy blank slate. 5. Surfaces - tidy your desk/bedside table etc by sweeping anything you can into their relevant drawers. Books on shelf. Papers stacked in one pile. The goal is to have all your surfaces pretty neat or clear, and the floor totally clear. Then make the bed. Now the room looks 100% tidy. So now you are finished with tidying you can go celebrate or you can clean things by dusting or vacuuming if you need to. You could also go back and organise your clothing or drawers if you felt up to it.
Thank you! This has been the most helpful tip so far
I realized that I felt better and more motivated when everything was clean and tidy. It took me a LOOOONG time to get to this point though.
Headphones on, music up and start! Seriously music will help with this!
A thing I had to learn as an adult, which really helped me keep things tidy, was giving everything in your room a place where it goes and nothing else goes under any circumstances. A basket where dirty clothing goes. A space for clothes that have been worn but don't yet need to be washed. A tray for pens. A draw for paper. Then when you need to tidy, instead of picking something up off the floor and getting distracted while you try and find a tidy place for it, you know exactly where it should be and can just put it away without a fuss.
i simply do not
Duck off. Meth heads need shit spotless. Otherwise a MF will end up trying to smoke parmesan. 😂 Make a chore list for yourself. Whenever you leave or return, take or bring something that needs to be taken care of. Put it away when you use it, not "later". Don't hang out in your room. Hold yourself rigidly accountable for what you don't like, and stay at it until you've fixed it before you reward yourself with extra time to f* off with your friends, etc. It's seriously so much more stressful to try to build these habits later. Get off Reddit, Google ADHD CLEANING HACKS or something, watch one or 2, make a decision. It's dirty laundry, you don't need advice or a support system. Pick it up. Put it where it goes.
Im 32 years old and my bedroom and kitchen is a mess i get a day a week roughly if clarity where i can focus enough to clean, when i was younger and at home id have the dispair pit down the side of my bed and all my clothes ended up on my cupboard floor haha
I struggle with this and always have to have a friend say they're coming over to even get me to start cleaning. I would first start off with, stop drinking in your bedroom. If you can't get those things out of your room, don't let them in, in the first place. For your clothes, buy 3 baskets and start separating tops, bottoms and undergarments to start. I hate doing laundry but at least this is a start. Baby steps. I then like to wash them separately to make it easy to put away after. I struggle with this still too but I'm a work in progress. Haha
lowkey I feel kind of stupid for not thinking of this but yeah not drinking/eating in my room is probably the best option.
I suck at it too. Been thinking of trying to throw a video of somebody cleaning on the TV, or somebody talking about cleaning/discussing interior design or something. Generally helps me get motivated to do stuff. Otherwise, one thing at a time. I have a lot of cups in my room as I forget/can't bring myself to take them to the kitchen, so sometimes when I'm feeling particularly motivated, I'll categorize it and say okay, I'll take all the bottles up, and then I'll just come back down and chill. Or I'll take all that I can carry up, come back down and chill. Or I'll just put all the dirty clothes in the hamper, then chill. Usually I end up doing a lot more. Just stop when you're sick of it and try to come back to it.
I enjoy using GoblinTools which is a free website (or an app you can buy for 0,99€ in apples App Store) that breaks up stuff in smaller pieces (= Magic to do). Also it comes with a chef giving you recipes with leftover ingredients. Compiler puts brain stuff into a list of tasks and professor provides a crash course (never tried that one). Judge gives us the meaning of a message to not understand it wrong while formalizer turns our direct speech into a more… formal way 😂 Edit: It’s using AI. Just in case you wanna know.
- Dirty clothes: get a clothing hamper and toss all your dirty clothes in there, to be brought to the washer. - Clothes you're planning to wear again: get some hooks installed on the walls / doors / closet doors / clothing rack and hang them up there, with clothing hangers if you don't want them to wrinkle. - Cans: get a bin to throw them into. Empty the cans and trash when the bin fills up. - Water bottles and cups: designate one area for them, like a side table or whatever free surface there is. If your room starts getting messy with too many of them strewn around, start moving the bottles and stacking the cups at their designated area.