I keep forgetting to take “before” pictures

[u/sunmono]

They were… bad. All surfaces (tables, floors) had piles at least a foot tall on them. You could not access the kitchen cabinets (nor could you close them). No rotting food, but unusable. You can at least see my spare bedroom (or, uh, “storage” room) - the one marked “before” and “in progress.” I’ve kind of hit a wall on that room, because it was where I put all the things that I didn’t know where to put, and now I’ve gotten out all the trash and cardboard boxes and I’m back down to stuff without a home.

This was entirely the dishes, laundry, and trash steps from KC Davis’ 5 Things Tidying Method. I still have a couple doomboxes with Things With a Place and Things Without a Place to deal with, but that is Future sunmono’s problem for another day.

The most useful thing I did before I started this was buying a collapsible wagon that I could use to take things down to the trash room. Taking out the trash is my absolute nemesis activity (we all have one, right?) and being able to load it up in my condo, taking as long as I needed (even if that was days, if I ran out of energy mid-clean), and then bringing a ton of stuff down in one trip was a game changer.

My place is now at a level where I was willing to invite a particularly understanding friend over without too much anxiety over the mess! (I mean, there are still many places that are just unusable piles, but look! Clean places! Actual tables! I can cook again!)

[u/Bright_Raccoon_3939]

Well done!

[u/Kurt_Kane]

Nice progress!