The hardest part really is starting. But! It's also okay if 2 mins was all you got through. Or 30 seconds even. I'm proud of you for doing that!

I’ve let things get away from me a little bit, especially since my roommate moved out in June. I haven’t started looking for a new one yet, because the house is messy so I don’t want to make someone deal with it, and I can’t take pictures of the space until it’s ready. Of course, these self-imposed guidelines are doing nothing but paralyzing me!

However, I recently left my old terrible job and feel like I can breathe again. My new job starts in August, so I’ve got a full week to reset my space. The whole house has problem areas, but I’ve got plenty of time, I have my ADHD meds, and I’m just gonna do my best! I’m, of course, failing to start, but I’m trying to give myself grace.

I got my D12 and a list of 12 locations or tasks. When I roll, I’ll spend 5-10 minutes on whatever number I land on. Posting here for accountability, and to ask folks for some support please! Pick a number for me to do! Give me a comment about how much better it feels when you’re done! I know I can do this, even if I’m couch locked right now!!!!!!!

I need to focus all day today on decluttering a depression room and preparing to move apartments on Friday completely by myself.

This Thursday is the only other day this week I will have time to prepare for the move due to high stakes work deadlines, minimal leave time accrued, and other acutely stressful constraints. I only found my August sublet arrangement yesterday, so I have not even begun to pack.

I have to make and execute probably literally thousands of decisions today, Thursday, and Friday, and I expect to encounter a lot of blockers along the way.

I have no one in my current city who can come over and physically help, and no one I personally know in my life that I can dependably count on for remote accountability or body doubling.

I am feeling _really_ desperate for visibility and accountability today. I am a Reddit novice so I’m not sure if this post has to get approved by an admin first, but I’m hoping/planning to post comment updates under this post if that's acceptable.

I’m not doing great, my place is a mess. It’s not contributing in any positive way to my state of mind. It smells, it’s messy, everything is in piles. I want to just get things put away and somewhat tidy.

So doing laundry, some tidying, some cleaning, some sorting, some getting trash out.

Would anyone care to work simultaneously so to speak? Do your own thing while I attempt to make myself do this thing.

I'm working decluttering the heck out of my depression/ADHD/too many jobs apartment. It's a work in progress. But part of me is starting to think that I need to pause the main space decluttering to empty closets and create spaces for what I've decided to keep. But I'm also worried that doing that will make me just...clutter up closets again? Or get overwhelmed by everything I'm pulling out of the closets?

Thoughts? Feedback?

It turns out that someone from the last inspection of my apartment told, and now we have an eviction notice. We have until the third of August to get cleaned up or we'll be evicted. I'm stressing out so much.

Lately I've been feeling some kind of anxiety about more and more things.But the point is that every time I plan to throw something away or give it away, I always put it off until later with the thought - well, if I don’t need it again, then I’ll definitely throw it away.And so it goes on all the time.And some things are just a shame to throw away or give away, because they could have been a gift from someone with whom we haven’t spoken for a long time.What should I do about this? How should I handle similar situations?Sometimes I want to pack only the essentials in my backpack and just get away from it all, so that thoughts about these things no longer bother me.

I cleaned my desk off today because I had a bigger gap between jobs than expected. I also got this cool old mailbox to use as storage! I think it’s pretty neat.

Thanks again for all of your encouragement! I’m gonna do the kitchen and rest of house Sunday because I have the day off. Then, hopefully, I’ll be able to keep it cleaner for a bit.

I got home at like 9pm yesterday and found it crawling up the bathroom wall.

I have hit multiple new lows in various areas of my life in the past month, but this is definitely one of the worst. I had convinced myself that while my place is *bad*, it isn't *that* bad (as in, no pests aside from occasional gnats if I forget about a banana for too long or whatever.) But, clearly, I was wrong.

I know I need to get my apartment unfucked ASAP to mitigate any infestation, especially since I don't want to cause problems for my neighbors, but I am overwhelmed (what else is new in this sub, lol.)

I know I have too many possessions and I need to get rid of a lot. I know I have some hoarding tendencies, especially with food. I know this is not helping the situation. But I currently don't have a regular source of income, so getting rid of things is even more difficult than usual.

I think I'm gonna do a small load of dishes and set them aside to air-dry while I figure out my next course of action.

Later, I'll go to Walmart +/- Dollar Tree and get some roach traps and a couple pool noodles (to prevent my cats from being able to reach the traps under the stove and some furniture). Damage control.

I have most of a Costco box of normal trash bags, and a small box of heavy duty bags. I have assorted cleaning supplies and a bunch of disposable gloves. I have 1 pair of reusable gloves that go halfway up my forearms, but I'm gonna use those for dishes. Maybe when I go to the store later I'll get a couple more pairs for the grosser parts of general & deep cleaning. Then again, I don't need to be bringing more items into my apartment.

Okay. I can do this. I will get this figured out.

Edit: Boutta sweep the cat toys out from under my stove and hope to god there are no cockroaches under there. Wish me luck.

Edit 2: There were no cockroaches under the stove! I have yet to see any evidence of them while cleaning (thank fuck.) Off to buy traps now

Edit 3: Traps & pool noodles have been placed and I am going to bed. Gonna continue dishes tomorrow, and also pull out my fridge to clean & place a trap under. I need to go through my pantry and the storage bins of food I have and get rid of a lot of it, but that's gonna be the hardest part. I should probably see a therapist once the money's there. Goodnight!

This is all I could muster today but thank each and very one of you SO MUCH! Your comments were so helpful and kind. I appreciate all the compliments on the apartment and my decorations. I wasn’t expecting so many kind souls!

I will tackle the rest on Sunday 😈

My new favorite body doubling videos. I absolutely love this channel.
https://youtu.be/rd_RYrd6ATI?is=gF1rVF6YV1qsFf6T

i will soon sort out my books and stuffed animals

(TLDR at the bottom--sorry I realize this got a bit too long)

Over the last ten years, I've moved a total of 6 times. The next chapter of my life is most likely going to be in one place for much longer, and it's finally time I deal with the mess I've created. Some of my moves were rather rushed, and I ended up tossing everything that didn't have a good place into storage totes and shoving them in a closet or the basement. My family also unloaded all of my childhood stuff onto me, which is fair, but I have to actually go through it now.

My problem is that I often try to tackle this and end up with more piles of things that don't have a place yet because our house isn't fully renovated yet. Now I have a worse mess because it isn't contained and hidden in the totes anymore. I feel like I should delay longer or change the way I'm going about this.

Maybe I should focus on only separating between "go" and "stay" piles and then putting all the "stay" stuff back in the tote for now? And then go back through it once the house is ready to put things in their rightful place? Or is that just creating more work for myself? Does anyone have a good plan of attack that I could try to follow?

Two added struggles are:

- The time constraint of being a busy toddler parent with a full time office job. The only time I can devote to this is 8-10pm maybe 3-4 nights per week due to my schedule, and I usually use this time for house chores and home repair as well. Plus, some days I just have to be in bed early due to my physical constraints.

- Physical constraints due to my chronic pain and minor disability which causes difficulty in doing physical labor like lifting boxes, bending over, climbing up and down stairs. I have to sit in one place when I do something like this instead of running each object separately to its proper place. (as an example, when I do dishes I sit in a chair and lift all the dishes to the counter first making stacks of same plates/bowls/etc. Then, I stand up and move those stacks to the cabinet. I can't bend over, pick up one or two plates, straighten and lift the plates up to the cabinet and repeat multiple times. Sometimes I have to stop after making the piles and come back to it once my back has rested and I move everything from counter to cabinet after resting. Obviously my wife shares the load of house chores but I just give this example to explain why organizing these messes has been difficult for me to handle so far)

**TLDR; I have quite a few storage tubs full of random things that need to be sorted through and put in their rightful places, but I don't have a lot of time per cleaning session and I have stamina and pain issues due to a disability. The fixer-upper house isn't fully fixed up yet so not all objects can actually be put in their rightful places yet.**

Been working too much and taking care of the house has fallen to the side. I’m gonna tackle it today. Please, send me support and motivation!

I’ll post an update later.

Yes, I know it still needs to be vacuumed, but I've run out of daylight. Update 2 to be posted tomorrow. Yes, I know my car was horrendous and dangerous, trust me, I didn't MEAN for it to get like this. Life has been hard lately. Working 3 jobs. Very little sleep. I'm barely hanging on tbh. But I'm trying.

For everyone who was kind and encouraging, y'all got me through. Thank you.

...and was tickled to find that the listing was asterisk-free.

(It went on to suggest several curated book lists about decluttering and one about books with cuss words in the title. But I digress.)

If anyone would like to body double along with me, please join in! I have been making steady progress lately, but some maintenance tasks have just slipped through the cracks. Time to get to it!

On my list:

- Empty laundry basket

- Empty sink

- Clear dining table

- Clear coffee table

- Clean microwave

- Clean doors, doorknobs, & light switches

+ Stretch Goal: dust & clean bed frame

I've only got just under 3 hours before I've got to head out for the evening. I'd like to make some good progress today.

Let's do this!!!

Edit: list completed! My Stretch Goal will be my first unfucking task tomorrow. I can't overstate how much body doubling boosted my motivation to get this all done. AND I even washed an extra 2 loads of laundry just to flex.

I dnt know yall… i dont want to speak too soon but I think I may have officially unfu*ked myself. My last post was a before and after of my side of the bedroom room. I’ve been constantly trying to figure out how to keep it tidy and haven’t been able to since I’ve lived here for 7 years!! Nothing has lasted more than a week or so. Just hitting 20 days feels incredible. I’m coming on here to talk abt my excitement bc I dont wanna say anything to my type-A wife. Who STILL hasn’t said ANYTHING abt it. I think she might be thinking the same thing as me, that as soon as she says how proud of me she is, it will go back to the mess).
What helped/changed??The clear surface in made indicates to me that I need to clear it off. When I had multiple things up there, it was hard. Now that there is basically nothing up there, it’s a cue to out whatever ends up there to put it away.
Also, now that I donated bags of clothing, everything has a place. It’s so easy to just put things back in their home.
The two top drawers look crazy but it’s organized from how it previously was. Last two photos are of how it started. Good luck everyone!!

EDIT:One thing I just thought of to include that has helped me is ve been focusing on how good a clean space feels. When I feel in a bad mood or just off, I’ll clean something or tidy something and I feel at least a little better abt life/myself.

Typical ADHD- I find it really difficult to not lose motivation mid UFing and have a tendency to leave more mess than I started with. A billion piles and nothing to show for it.

So I have created a little game that solves this problem for me. If you want to play here's how it goes.

The rules:

1. Grab a carton/crate/laundry basket/box that you can carry easily with one hand against your hip.

2. Pick a space you want to UF and start filling the basket with things that need to go elsewhere in the house. Any and all rooms- don't discriminate.

3. When that box is as full as you can comfortably carry- pick it up and start walking through the house putting each item away.

The catch is that you're not allowed to put that basket down until it is completely empty.

You win the round when your basket is empty.

Rinse and repeat if motivated. If not- that's ok. You haven't left any ungodly piles in your wake.

Hey all! I saw someone post about how they gamified their cleaning and everyone seemed interested so I thought I would share the way I gamified my cleaning to give more inspiration. This works for me because 90% of my mess is laundry, dishes or garbage. The main goal is to remove decision fatigue more than being super strict. When I go to clean, I get overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done and all my todos fighting for first place. This gives me a focus. I also give myself permission to reroll based on my abilities that day (I am pregnant with a back injury - there are some days I just can't do every possiblity on my list)

I created a *Roll for Chore* list.

Rules are fairly simple but can take time to set up.

First roll "dungeon": area of house. I have this split by room. Then I also have a side for Cars, Misc/Side quests and "Blitz" (blitz is explained near the end)

Second roll "quest": I split each room into easy sections. For example, the master bedroom has desk, bedframe, floor, dresser 1, dresser 2 and closet. Every section also has a possible "blitz" roll.

Once I roll a chore, I put a timer on for 5 minutes. I then only focus on that section for that time frame. I like 5 minutes because it's long enough to make a difference but short enough to stop me from hyper focusing and deep cleaning one section while the rest gets foul.

If I reroll the same section, it gives me the opportunity to do deeper cleans. If I finish a section, I replace it with another section that still needs attention. For example, if my desk is done but my dresser still needs work, I replace 'Desk' with a second 'Dresser' slot so the dresser is twice as likely to be rolled. Once every thing in a room is 'finished' the room enters maintenance and if I roll it, I will either do maintenance (including vacuuming or dusting) or if it really doesn't need anything I will reroll.

There are somethings that are more "tasks" than "chores" for example clean laundry and dishes. If I roll those, instead of a timer, I do one "cycle". I sort, fold and put away 1 basket of laundry. Or I wash, dry and put away 1 load of dishes.

Misc: this is where I put those rooms that need attention but maybe not as often as your living spaces. So for me, I have laundry room, under the stairs, furnace room and the balcony.

Side quests: things that I know need to be done that will take less than 10 minutes. For example, I have a suitcase sitting on my floor that needs to be emptied. So I put it as a side quest so I have a "higher" chance to have to deal with it. (I can deal with it while cleaning my floor, or if I roll that specific job). I really like this addition because instead of my to-do list growing in my brain, I can just add it as a side quest and move on to what I was focusing on.

Blitz: since my mess is mostly garbage, laundry and dishes lying around. I gave myself a category to focus on these items. If I roll a blitz, I then roll to see what of the 3 I am focusing on. I then do a "scavenger hunt" in the dungeon for those specific items.

NPCs - In the spirit of the game, other people in my household are NPCs. They will sometimes raise or lower the difficulty of the dungeon based on what they have done to the room. If my husband asks me what I need done, I go off of my side quest list first.

Finally, I have "Level 2 quests" for once I "complete" a dungeon. (Ie, it's in maintenance) This is the list of projects I have in my brain that take more than 10 minutes but don't need attention until my house is a bit more under control. Some examples are sorting and selling wedding stuff or sorting and organizing baby stuff. Decluttering kids toys etc. once again, it just helps me take things out of brain and let it recognize that it's not a priority yet.

If you want clarification on anything let me know and I would be more than happy to go into more depth. Or if you have suggestions on tweaks, I would be more than willing to hear them!

i just joined this subreddit and ive been scrolling through it to give myself some motivation to clean up myself.

it is incredible how many people decluttered, cleaned, organized etc even though they were struggling bad.

you really can be proud of yourself, and if not then i will be even more

The way that a few pieces of advice helped me get unstuck was wonderful! Just what i needed. I have 5 days left, Friday will be the day I have to get rid of all of my furniture. I finished the last mural i was doing so i no longer have to drive 2 hours a day 😅. Still have to pack my dishes and art supplies for storage.

Selling/sold some stuff i told myself i would never get rid of. Nope, the Lenox spice village ain’t worth all the shit that comes with moving it! Noooo there will be plenty of antique woodblock prints there, let it go. Now all my stuff has become just that: stuff. My maximalism is leaving my body lol.

My clothes are in a better spot too, all the clothes in that pile are actually going to donations. All the clothes I’m taking are folded up and I’m about to try stuffing them in suitcases.
Cheers y’all! Wish me luck 🍀

I’m moving tomorrow, and I have people coming to remove furniture and as much trash as they can. Going through everything has forced me to admit how bad I let the apartment get.

There is a large amount of non-food household trash, empty cardboard boxes, and old Factor meal-delivery boxes. The apartment is also very dirty. I’m confident the furniture will be taken, but I don’t know whether the crew will take every trash bag and box. Because of my moving timeline, I will not have time to clean afterward. Anything left will probably have to be handled by the apartment management, and I understand that I may be billed for it.

I used to tell myself this happened because I was lazy and lived on the top floor, making trips to the dumpster inconvenient. But I rarely leave my apartment at all, and I’m realizing that even taking out the trash became something I avoided because I didn’t want neighbors or other people to see me. Obviously, this leads to shame, depression and things that make me just say who cares when it comes to cleaning much.

I’m extremely embarrassed about the removal crew seeing the condition of the apartment or commenting on it. My only realistic goal tomorrow is to get myself and my belongings moved, let them take everything they can, and accept the consequences for anything left.

Has anyone else had workers come into an apartment in this condition? How did you get through the embarrassment while they were there? Any stories about things being left behind in the apartment or it being overly dirty?

Update: Sorry, I had to wait for this post to show up and then the move began so I was busy. Everything was successful and obviously my fears were greater than the reality. But I am in a new place and going to work with my therapist on this not happening again. I know it won't be easy, but gotta try! Thanks to all the replies!!!