Finally got one room almost decluttered and cleaned!

[Anonymous]

Our living room, what helped was a firm deadline (almost an ultimatum) – have it decluttered and cleaned by midnight Friday Dec 23rd. We’ve almost finished!

My husband wanted two rooms done, I didn’t think we could, so we agreed on which room would have priority and if there was time leftover, we’d start on the second room.

I used a whiteboard, put the deadline right up top. Then put headers up for each room, and we started to plan what small tasks we had to do in the first room, and who would do them (mine were written in red, my husband’s in green). We had to do one task only, until it was done, before we could go on to the next, so it took a bit of time to decide the order of tasks (bring up the bookshelf before you put the books away).

Some examples:

Put all the DVDs away except the one you are watching now.

Put all the books away (even the 20 or so that are new that I haven’t read yet) except for one that you are reading now

Package up a defective product and find and attach the sales receipt to it so we can take it back to the store, put it by the stairs

The hardest part was the last task, getting rid of or filing papers, because it needed a lot of small decisions. So I left that one until the very end. I threw out 1/4 of the papers, still can’t get rid of some of them, so decisions will still have to be made later.

What made everything more difficult was the fact that many things (ok, most things) didn’t have a “home”, and that’s why they were there, so we could see them and not forget about them, hope that made sense. So going forward, we need to make sure things have a place to return them to, or we’ll be back in this mess again.

Less clutter means less distraction and less stress for us. I am on sensory overload at the moment, so anything I can do to make my environment more organized and simple is important.

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[Anonymous]

Forgot one important thing – we are both on meds now, appropriate for our particular situations. In the past, we’ve never accomplished this, just bits and pieces. My husband said he had more energy to follow through on the the task, in the past, his depression would have sapped his energy within the first half an hour (although we didn’t know what was going on). For me, it was still challenging, but seeing someone else getting through their mess was helpful motivation to keep me on track.

We really enjoyed sitting in our living room last night for a change, very peaceful.

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[Anonymous]

Well, we got way more done today, still didn’t get to the second room but did a lot of other cleaning that was needed (you know how when you clean one area, another looks worse, we are ahead by a bit). The energy that usually went into yelling and arguing about doing housework got redirected into actually doing the work. And we got quite a bit of grocery/staples and treat shopping done too. What a difference it makes for us both to be on meds, the ADHD specialist was right on about that!

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[Anonymous]

It feels good to clear the clutter even if it is hard work. It is also so easy to allow the clutter to return so this is an on going battle for me. I just spent an hour getting rid of the clutter in my primary email account by deleting over 200 old messages I just could not seem to let go of. I say primary email account because I opened a secondary account when I could not deal with the mess in the first account :lol::

Carl

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[Anonymous]

I had to delete all the old voice messages from my voip account because it was full, there were 100 of them. When I had finished (all I listened to was the date of the call since I get email copies), I realized there was an option to “delete all voice messages”. DUH! Then I had to do the same with my cell phone messages. All clean now! I needed to select the option (delete automatically after sending email copy).

I have a lot of email accounts, I ended up just setting up a filter so they come into one account and I deal with them there. So there’s lots of unread messages in the actual accounts. At least with gmail you can call up messages by a filter and then delete all. But it’s still an awful lot of work, I agree. Same thing, i could set up an auto-delete the original message once it’s been forwarded but there’s no set rule as to which would get deleted.

I had never heard of archiving in email, everything sits in my inbox. I was kind of afraid to hit the archive button in case they vanished forever! I do need to keep some for business purposes, so can’t delete it all.

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[Anonymous]

Today we actually opened the blinds and let the sun into our living room – I was too embarassed to open them as people would be able to see the mess and dust. What a nice feeling!

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[Anonymous]

Congrats. My living room is close to be done too. I still have movie posters I bought laying on the floor I haven’t put up yet (for the last 14 days) and I still have a pile of DVDS with no label to go through along with store bought DVDs with missing cases I have to find. That along with miscellaneous dirty dishes and clothes and junk mail, it’s a lot but the more you do, the more manageable it gets.

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[Scattybird]

Well done! I thought it was only me that has to keep the blinds closed so nobody can see in! Thanks for outlining how you did it no-dopamine. It can be done……. 🙄

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[Anonymous]

The key was meds, and a deadline, but being reasonable about what we could do in that period of time. The living room is getting cluttered again (watercolour stuff and a few more books and CDs/DVDs), and the floors need sweeping, so it will be interesting to see how we fare going forward.

I’m learning that I need to coordinate big tasks/expectations with peak meds effectiveness, not for times when they have worn off.

Using that knowledge, I’m also getting to work earlier in the day, starting with a plan that we actually stick to, and getting out of work before my meds dial down and I get cranky, hungry and just plain annoying to be with. We’ve done it enough times in the last two weeks that I can see it becoming a more normal approach!

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[kc5jck]

Helpful cleaning hint:

Because we always have a lot of animals, we don’t have any carpet. We have hardwood or tile floors and some of the Roomba robots to vacuum. Whenever my wife is gone for several hours, I get the junk up off the floor and turn that sucker loose.

It works a bit better than using a dustbuster, getting under beds and dressers. Good for dust, dirt, and cat hair. Small items like wood chips, paper clips, and coins will sometimes get caught in the sweeping part and have to be removed, but overall it does an excellent job.

The more expensive ones can be programmed to automatically start cleaning and return to its base to recharge. All you have to do is remember to pay the electric bill.

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[Anonymous]

We have a small house, laminate flooring on the main floor, but lots of objects like chairs, ottoman, couch, etc. and one area rug. Would the roomba robot be able to clean all of that? Some of the pathways are no wider than the robot. And can it go over a bridging piece (laminate to linoleum, for example)

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[Anonymous]

I’m glad meds are working for you but you just described exactly why I plan on continuing to tackle my problem med free. I don’t want to have to rely on meds to get a boost of focus only for them to wear off and I’m back to my lack of focus again. I’m trying to eat better along with everything else.. fridge has turkey and spinach and various nuts like almonds and walnuts to help. I am sure my fast food diet was part of the problem too. In any case, I wish you continued success.

I was organizing when I stopped to reply.. ok, back to organizing.

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[Anonymous]

Meds-free is just not possible for some of us. Our lives are littered with the examples of med-free attempts. We changed our diet years ago when we became vegetarians, we do daily meditation practice, etc. etc. The only thing we are lax on is exercise but we do lots of stair climbing at home and work, and lots of shipping so that helps. I also practice yoga. This all helps, but it stops short of addressing our symptoms.

The best thing we ever did was get a referral to several healthcare professionals for a formal diagnosis and treatment, for ADD, depression, and our sleep disorders. It’s made an incredible difference in the quality of our lives and has given us tools to help us move forward and work through issues that have arisen over many years. Why suffer when there is help out there from experts?

If you needed glasses in order to read properly, wouldn’t you use them? I’m sure you’d prefer me to be medicated for my sleep disorder so that I don’t fall asleep while driving (there is no warning that it will happen). It’s also a safety issue, driving and unmedicated ADD is a risky combination according to professionals.

Falling off my soapbox now

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[Anonymous]

Again, I’m glad it worked for you. It was in no means a way of saying that’s the wrong thing to do. It just isn’t for me. Hope your success continues.

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[Anonymous]

sorry, I misinterpreted that. Good luck with your cleaning!

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[Author]

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