Clutter

Does clutter in your house make you depressed or manic?

For me it can swing both ways where I am so depressed I don’t want to get out of bed to look at it or it sparks agitation and irritability that I get hypomanic and just want it clean so I stay up late cleaning but trying to be quite so I don’t wake the whole house.

It doesn't usually send me into an episode, but it definitely makes me irritable and uneasy/frustrated feeling. I don't like clutter and try to keep it to a minimum. It is usually my husband's. With our home improvements, it is inevitable to a large degree.

Unkemptness is a reminder of my illness I do not like.

I think it depends on the mood I'm coming from. By itself it's usually not enough to send me into an episode, but it can definitely exacerbate things.

My apartment is clean and clutter-free - however, I constantly stress over keeping it clean. I never, never feel like I've worked hard enough to keep it nice, no matter how much work I do. Comes straight from my mom...she was an obsessive cleaner, demanded that I do the same when I was growing up, and nothing, no matter how well-kept or clean, was ever sufficient. It's a HUGE challenge for me.

Oh- to answer the question: cleaning and decorating my house can make me manic, yes. Definitely. I can start out with a plan, get amped up, spun out, and end up in a manic episode.

Clutter doesn't bother me as much as it should. I care more about things being clean. My husband hates clutter, so together we make a good team. We have kids and they leave stuff everywhere, so some level of clutter is inevitable. I get agitated over it at times, but it usually doesn't affect my mood to any sort of impactful degree.

I live with and care for my 85 year old mom who is a clutter bug and a brother who is in very poor health. Controlling clutter is an ongoing project and can really depress me when it gets out of hand. I work hard to keep everything orderly.

I can't stand clutter. My mother is a hoarder. I am the anti-hoarder. It doesn't send me into an episode, but if it starts creeping in, I can get quite agitated in getting rid of it. ("It" generally being manic-y excesses.)

I was up until 2am organizing things. I don’t want to sell them because it is more work then what we would get for it but I just don’t want to donate it to a charity. I would rather give it to someone I know. All of this is cranking my anxiety up

A couple of times per year I go through my clothing and throw away the trashed stuff, keep a few items, and fold the nicer clothes into a big box. I write "Clean / Free" on the box and set it out near our town library. The stuff goes fast.


I also belong to a few Facebook groups in which people in my community sell or give away *whatever*. It's an excellent way to pass stuff along to someone who wants it.

My whole apartment is in disarray! I have stuff in piles and boxes and piles of boxes because I'm moving. I have a friend whose apartment is very small and he has things stacked on top of things and every corner is full. If he ever moves I dont know where he's going to start! I am trying to avoid this fate with myself so I am getting rid of many large garbage bags of STUFF! I take a fit every so often and scrub down the whole place. This is on top of normal cleaning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moose72 My whole apartment is in disarray! I have stuff in piles and boxes and piles of boxes because I'm moving. I have a friend whose apartment is very small and he has things stacked on top of things and every corner is full. If he ever moves I dont know where he's going to start! I am trying to avoid this fate with myself so I am getting rid of many large garbage bags of STUFF! I take a fit every so often and scrub down the whole place. This is on top of normal cleaning.

You have my admiration. Moving is sooo hard!

Clutter is a trigger for me. Like IZ, my mother is a hoarder. It made it impossible for me to have friends over when I was growing up. I still hate going to her house. It’s gotten exponentially worse since I moved out. Her house is not filthy like some hoarders but it is just FULL of stuff. I can’t stand it. I throw **** out like it’s going out of style.

I have gone beyond clutter to mess. If I think about it, it depresses me, so I don’t think about it. It gets really bad when I am unwell, yet still seems overwhelming when I get better.

Thank you! N3 came over today and worked for at least 5 hours sorting and getting rid of his stuff. Unfortunately, he took a lot of it with him to his place- I don't know where he's putting it all but that's not my problem I guess. Moving IS hard! I'm just looking at the stuff I want to keep and even that pile looks "big" to me, even though in the grand scheme of things, its not. I haven't even started on the kitchen yet! I did the fridge and freezer and pantry- pantry is EMPTY! Fridge and freezer are greatly pared down. I just know there are lots of dishes. I gave my daughter some soup for her boyfriend today. She wouldn't take them all though! Oh well. (I was into soup for a while, but now I'm eating differently and there's too much salt and too many calories in those "eat as a meal" soups!)