From quietcasey: I share a room with my twin sister, and we both struggle with our mental health, and our space has turned into a depression room. We’ve tried over and over to clean it. Everytime we try, we just both end up getting so worn out and defeated. Our room is disgusting and I hate sleeping in it. I cry so much thinking about it. I’ve been looking at mental health cleaning services but there are none in my area and I don’t even think any in my state. I really just need it clean. I really need advice on how to not get extremely overwhelmed and feeling like breaking down just by thinking of cleaning it and actually cleaning it.
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From daisy1985: <@786063750594953246> I’m so sorry that you guys are having a hard time and struggling with mental health
By any chance have you try friends who can volunteer or help out? Maybe music that can pump your day.?
You may consider clean a piece of a room a day or by the hour, it dont have to be the whole day but a part of the room to clean.
When I hit rock bottom I also get overwhelmed from cleaning so I will do minor cleaning so I won’t get overwhelmed as well.
From quietcasey: No, we don’t have anyone. Our entire family is religious and don’t believe in mental health. We’re just constantly told that we’re being lazy or being slobs, but they never understand that we hate living like this and we want it clean, and we try to get and keep it clean but it’s just so mentally taxing
I just want to say thank you for reaching out to HS! We appreciate you coming here. I’m so sorry that you’re feeling this, that daunting feeling can be so incredibly overwhelming. Sometimes having something like this can occupy your head in such a brutal way. I applaud you looking into some services and to coming to us, you’re taking steps in the right direction even if it doesn’t feel that way. I was taught a trick when I was a child that I use very often now that might help a lil bit. Whenever I have something pretty daunting that I need to get done I just set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes and just do as much as I can in that short amount of time. And then take a break. Even though it may not seem like much, I find that once I get started and just get a small something accomplished, I feel a bit more confident to keep going.
I hope that might help a little, and I know you’re gonna have this tackled soon. You got this!
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hi friend,
i appreciate you being here and being vulnerable about these obstacles you face. it’s always so disheartening and difficult to clean the area around you when your mind isn’t doing so well to begin with. i’m proud of you for searching for extra support in mental health cleaning services and wish there were some in your area too. for me, it usually takes me a couple days, many breaks, and rewarding myself at the end when deep cleaning my place. depression can set me sooo back on cleaning but taking it one step at a time at my own pace helps a lot.
i’m sorry there’s not much support from your family on this situation and mental health in general. please know that you are heard, seen, and understood here. depression is a beast but i know that you can conquer it with enough patience and strength to reach the end goal of a clean space that promotes positive healing. i hope that with the goal in mind, you can achieve more than what you think was possible. you got this!! wishing you and your sister all the best this world has to offer!
love,
twix
Hey friend, how is it going since you posted? Did you manage to have a little bit cleaned out?
For what it’s worth, I find myself often in this situation as depression and PMDD just don’t help with being consistent at keeping things organized all year long. It’s really overwhelming to feel like you really need for your own sake to have a clean space, but at the same time to feel completely overwhelmed by the imensity of the task.
What helps me personally is usually a couple of different things, but essentially:
- Not trying to do everything at once. It’s tempting because the perspective of having a nice room soon is the objective, but at the same time trying to do too much only in one batch is utterly discouraging. If you end up not doing anything, I would encourage you to push as much as you can this “all-or-nothing” mindset, and instead to focus on small steps.
- Small steps: one day with a couple of thing cleaned out will be better than one day with none! Start small, for example by limiting the time during which you clean out, or the space you will focus on. If it is based on the space, you can decide for example to focus on cleaning this shelf, this desk, this corner of the room - and once you’re done with it, you’re done with your cleaning session for today! If it’s based on time, you can set up a timer on your phone and clean out as much as you can during that amount of time. Personally that one works very well for me. I usually dedicate 10 minutes to power clean, and you come to realize that you can do more than you expected during short amounts of time by remaining focus. Then again, once the timer is done, you can celebrate yourself for the step taken and rest.
- Put music you love on! That is soooo helpful and motivating to me personally. When I start my 10 minutes I put some bangers on and clean while singing. It helps making the task less daunting and discouraging.
- Before leaving the room, take a couple of items that you need to carry to the room you’re going to. If you have clothes that need to go to the laundry, take some with you and put them in the right place. If you have dishes that should be in the kitchen sink and you’re on your way to go grab something to eat, leave the room with the dishes that need to go there. This will help declutted a little bit if you need it.
- If you have boxes, you can put things in separate boxes to declutter/clean out space already. Later on, you can foxus on one box at a time and put objects where they belong progressively.
These are a couple of ideas, but I hope it can help a little bit. You got this, friend!
From quietcasey: It’s a little cleaned out. We went through old clothes and stuff so far, but college and work just started up this week so we’re super busy so on top of it just being a mentally exhausting task of cleaning it, we’re physically exhausted from work and school.
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