[Jimmymcpiggy]

My depression is crazy winning and my apartment is disgusting. I just cant seem to get to cleaning. I procrastinate and become overwhelmed! Any ideas?

[mcl6136]

set a timer for ten minutes and do a tiny bit. Do that today. Tomorrow, do 12 minutes. Anyone can do almost anything for ten minutes. You have to start small. Really small. Remove one item or clean a single surface.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Originally Posted by mcl6136

set a timer for ten minutes and do a tiny bit. Do that today. Tomorrow, do 12 minutes. Anyone can do almost anything for ten minutes. You have to start small. Really small. Remove one item or clean a single surface.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

I echo the timer recommendation. I learned this from UFYH (unf**k your habitat) and it really helps. My home gets out of control if I've been depressed and or sleep deprived for a very long time. It can be so overwhelming to get started. My method is set the timer for 20 minutes, get what I can done before the buzzer goes, then set it for 10 or 15 or even 30 minutes, depending on how low energy I am, in order to take a rest. Then I set the timer for twenty minutes again.

It's true, you'd be amazed at what you get accomplished in 10 or 20 minutes. I've learned it only takes 5 to 7 minutes to wash one sink load of dishes and leave them in the dish rack to dry, as an example. Seven to 13 minutes, to sweep the area around the litter pan, dump out all the litter pan's contents, thoroughly wash the litter pan and fill it with new litter. 30 seconds to carry the garbage bag of old litter to the chute.

Sometimes how much you've accomplished in a short span of time can give you the energy to do more. Sometimes you'll be too overwhelmed or low energy to do more, but you'll find satisfaction in what you have achieved in 5 or 10 or 20 minutes and it will give you the strength to do something else in a day or two or even later that same day.

[Jimmymcpiggy]

Thanks!

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I do tiny bits of cleaning during commercials while I watch TV; folding clothes, sweeping, taking out the trash. It takes forever to get the dishes done, lol; but hey, they eventually get done.

If I have some energy to make myself begin to tackle a chore I play upbeat music; that helps a ton. I used to even let my favorite movie play in the background while I was cleaning. I've seen it so much I don't need to be watching it to 'see' it. And it gave me the sense of time progressing so I didn't feel stuck doing something boring for a seemingly endless stretch of time.

[Marla500]

It really does help to notice how much time various chores take, usually it's much less than we would guess.

[spondiferous]

Exactly! Plus, what I find is, even if I only get up and rinse the dishes in preparing to wash them, I'm much more likely to feel a sense of accomplishment than if I hadn't done anything at all, and usually, just the act of setting out to do one small aspect of something encourages me to go ahead and finish it. This is something I really have struggled with since my sister died last year; before that I was keeping things up to date all the time but then I lost the energy. My wife is also lazy (self-admitted, not just my humble accusation ) and so there's two people making a mess and only one person (95% of the time, me) doing any of the cleaning. So it really taxes me because living in a messy environment takes up a lot of internal space. It's a challenge for sure.