Why can't I clean

The other day I woke up early had some time to kill so I cleaned the crap out of my bathroom. I just got home and my living room is a mess and dishes are piled high. While my dishes usually get done I can't seem to focus cleaning my living room. I don't know what it is but I can't do it. It's not like crazy clutter that would take me a few hours, no I could have it clean in 20 minutes. Why can't I clean my living room??

I hear you.
why can't I clean my bathroom floor?
it is black from a build up of hair spray...and sticky when I walk on it.
gross
ugh!
bizi

I mean my part time job is part cleaning. Why can't I clean my living room. Did I see. Hypnosittist that blocked from it.

If I let things get too dirty for too long, cleaning it and having it look different makes me so anxious I have panic attacks. It just looks so different. If I keep up on keeping things neat and tidy, cleaning does not cause me severe anxiety because things generally look the same.
I really really hate change. Maybe this has something to do with it?

It kinda gets me down that I don't clean. I think that is another reason I don't watch tv is cause my living room is cluttered.

This is a tip I learned at the IOP:

- clean (or do anything that you dread doing) for 10 minutes every hour

I have not done it yet, but I plan to try this approach. I moved last March. It has been 11 months. I still have unpacked boxes - lots of them.

Another, similar approach: do one item at once. If you unpack one box a day, eventually you will have unpacked every box (this is a tip from another IOP - I have been to two different programs). It does work. My car was full of garbage and I would take one thing with me to deal with it each time I would arrive home; the car is only half full of garbage now.

Another thing is I give myself credit for job partly done. Say, your message inspired me to clean the bathroom sink and wipe the vanity and the top of the toilet, so I will think of this as my having cleaned the bathroom, and next week I will clean the bathtub and inside the toilet.

I hate cleaning. I do the bare minimum. And my house looks like it too. It's too hard to get up the motivation and the energy. And once I start cleaning I start getting ocd-like compulsions to do a million other things that leaves me exhausted. It's easier to live with the mess.

So how do you get the motivation to do the ten minute dread activity?

Their advice was by building in a reward.

Say - 10 minutes of the dread activity and then read this board, but not until then.

I struggle with this so bad!

Me too obviously lol.

I dunno...I know that my depression/anxiety and life in general will be much worse if I don't clean up. Life is hard enough, so I figure I don't need the added stress of living in an unpleasant environment. Also, cleaning helps the time pass.

I struggle with this too.

I struggle with this a lot. I tidy up and whatnot but cleaning hurts my back and I don't want to deal with the pain.

Same here. You aren't alone!

I have problems cleaning too. Our bedroom is a mess with tons of clothes all over the floor and the bathrrom is a total mess. Scum is all over the sink, shampoo and makeup laying on the floor. Thank God my husband uses another bathroom. I don't understand it. I start to pick up clothes and I stop. I start to clean the bathroom and I stop.

Sometimes I'm like that too. I'll do the sink then stop and not worry about the floor or tub.

When I was younger, I used to clean instinctively. It was easy and quick. I felt less motivated to do that while on Lexapro 10 mg for 10 years. I still could and would clean but it took more effort and willpower. The tradeoff was worth it though b/c I had a really good mental foundation for dealing with things and a fundamental happiness and good feeling about life.

Fascinating thread -- I'm so glad the forum is taking up this problem. Thank you for introducing it, boogiesmash. I have always had trouble with cleaning and neatness, since I was a girl. My sister and I shared a bedroom. Our single beds were opposite each other against the walls, and there was about a 4 foot space between them. At the foot of my bed, were piles of clothing I didn't hang up. My sister is a neat freak.This situation must have been very hard on her. She drew an imaginary line down the middle of the four -foot space, and ordered me not to cross that line with my stuff!!!

As a young adult, we had a wood stove, our only source of heat (loved it!). When my papers would pill up too high, I would just heave handfuls of them into the fire.

I moved to a city about 20 years ago -- no wood stoves here. Only electric heat.. I developed boxes and boxes full of paper -- some writings I did, some paid bills, you get it...So when I moved into my present apartment,I did not know if there any documents in there that were valuable or not. I had 7 boxes of paper! Fortunately, Medicaid in those days paid for a Senior Companion, and it took the two of us 4 years to sort through it all. Then, my mother paid a cleaning woman to help me out. I've kept it clean and relatively organized since I've had this help. I know that so many people cannot afford to hire a cleaning person. Two suggestions -- check your various agencies and see if there is anyone to help with cleaning/orgainzing. Two, a good thing you could ask for,for various gift-giving (holidays, birthdays, etc) is to give you a cleaning person for a certain number of hours. Note that a cleaning person is not the same as a custodian or janitorial service. The latter is very, very expensive

I do my cleaning in bursts. Dishes. Load washing machine. Break. Sweep floor. Vacuum. Break. I do leave it too long between though. Luckily my kids can help.

When I'm so depressed, I seem to accumulate clutter. I don't like clutter.
There are some interesting approaches in this thread.


WC

I was talking to my Dr. about the fact I cant stop cleaning. He said if Im out mowing the lawn at 3am then we have a problem. He told my wife who goes to my appointments enjoy having a clean house.

So do I. I have a substantial lack of motivation and things don't get taken care of until they are overwhelming. My only advice is taking baby steps which is what I plan on doing in my situation. Be gentle with yourself.

Wow old thread. I still struggle with this but I may have come to a solution. I offered a coworker 100 bucks to clean my apartment she agreed.

That is one way to deal with it.