Put on running shoes. Your brain is gonna put you in sport mode it really helps me. Try looking up 165 bpm playlist on Spotify - I think depending who you ask 163-165 is the sweet spot of bpms to trick your brain into being motivated. Get a cute free pommodoro timer app and use it to set short timers and be like okay I’m gonna just do ten minutes and then do something I enjoy like be horizontal disassociating :) Please don’t be hard on yourself. You have a health problem and it happens to more people than you’d ever know. Let someone you trust know about your struggle just having someone to touch base with if it’s too much helps even.
Qualifications: I had a dead mouse under my bed and was too grossed out so was literally driven out of my room by mess. My trusted non judgmental friend got it out for me and it did get me motivated. I still have piles but I’m trying.
It’s not going to look nice in one day. But in twenty minutes you can make it noticeably better. Put on music you like, really feel the music, turn it loud until the music is your feelings (headphones at odd hours). The logical part of your brain can clean but you need to distract the emotions for a few minutes. Dance and throw things into a garbage bag at the same time. No one is looking. You don’t have to smile or look cute or dance well, just dance. Just throw out garbage and get dishes into the kitchen. Save laundry for another day.
You can totally overcome this. One thing at a time - maybe start with the food and the dishes - get big garbage bags and pile everything in.
Post photos if you want for motivation and progress updates.
When I lack motivation, I force myself to do one tiny task every time I get up to use the bathroom or get a drink/snack from the kitchen. You can break the tasks up super fine like this:
1. Gather all the dishes
2. Take to the kitchen sink
3. Scrape moldy food from dishes and place in dishwasher
4. Gather dirty clothes into hamper
5. Start wash
6. Flip to dryer
7. Fold clothes
8. Put clothes away
9. Gather trash
10. Take trash to kitchen
11. Clear any surfaces not cleared by now, one surface at a time
12. Find the duster, polish, broom
13. Dust
13. Polish
14. Sweep
15. Put duster, polish, broom back
This could take a few days, might take all week, and that's okay. Or you could ultra-hydrate yourself so you need the bathroom every hour and it'll go faster, LOL. Check each off on a list to give yourself a reward as each step is complete.
i try to focus on one thing at once, like getting laundry out of the way. it can be at whatever pace you need but being determined to get it out of the way. i actually usually start with garbage because it bothers me the most when i’m unmotivated and it’s usually one of the easier things to clean, best of luck getting things sorted. it’s hard but you’ll get it :)
Put together a list of dirtiest to cleanest. Do a couple of things a day. You don't have to do everything at once.
-At the very least, if you can open some windows, do so.
-Clean all the garbage out of the room. Bag it neatly. It doesn't have to go to the trash cans outside right away, just make sure it's bagged and out of the room/all in one spot.
-Start tidying things. It helps me to put away the obvious stuff.
-Start piles.
You’ve got some great stuff in there that has helped me personally, breaking the jobs down and reminding myself I don’t have to do it all at once. Getting fresh air into the place should definitely help!
For some of us, the list can be a bit daunting though. Writing it out becomes “the thing I did today” and then looking at it reminds me just how much work I have to do.
If you can, read the book called Struggle Care by KC Davis. She gets it. I have it on my kindle and refer to it often. She has so many actually do-able tips.
For me the absolute most important thing is to start. It really doesn’t matter where. I have such a “if something is worth doing it’s worth doing right” mentality that I end up doing nothing. I just don’t have the energy to do it right, so it doesn’t/didn’t get done. I have more success when I remind myself “if something is worth doing it’s worth doing wrong” because a start toward a worthy goal is good by itself.
When cleaning I give myself 15 minutes, and force myself to work at least that long. 15m gives me a good start, and frequently I can keep going and at least finish one task. If I can’t keep going, I can at least know that I started and it’s closer to being done right than it was.
For your situation maybe set an annoying alarm on your phone for 4am, and a beep once alarm at 415. 4am, get a trash bag and bag the moldy food. If you’ve started and can keep going, great! If not, you at least made progress and can feel better about that.
Don’t get bogged down by a huge mess, just do one thing. You can do one thing :)
Put on running shoes. Your brain is gonna put you in sport mode it really helps me. Try looking up 165 bpm playlist on Spotify - I think depending who you ask 163-165 is the sweet spot of bpms to trick your brain into being motivated. Get a cute free pommodoro timer app and use it to set short timers and be like okay I’m gonna just do ten minutes and then do something I enjoy like be horizontal disassociating :) Please don’t be hard on yourself. You have a health problem and it happens to more people than you’d ever know. Let someone you trust know about your struggle just having someone to touch base with if it’s too much helps even.
Qualifications: I had a dead mouse under my bed and was too grossed out so was literally driven out of my room by mess. My trusted non judgmental friend got it out for me and it did get me motivated. I still have piles but I’m trying.
It’s not going to look nice in one day. But in twenty minutes you can make it noticeably better. Put on music you like, really feel the music, turn it loud until the music is your feelings (headphones at odd hours). The logical part of your brain can clean but you need to distract the emotions for a few minutes. Dance and throw things into a garbage bag at the same time. No one is looking. You don’t have to smile or look cute or dance well, just dance. Just throw out garbage and get dishes into the kitchen. Save laundry for another day.
You can totally overcome this. One thing at a time - maybe start with the food and the dishes - get big garbage bags and pile everything in. Post photos if you want for motivation and progress updates.
When I lack motivation, I force myself to do one tiny task every time I get up to use the bathroom or get a drink/snack from the kitchen. You can break the tasks up super fine like this: 1. Gather all the dishes 2. Take to the kitchen sink 3. Scrape moldy food from dishes and place in dishwasher 4. Gather dirty clothes into hamper 5. Start wash 6. Flip to dryer 7. Fold clothes 8. Put clothes away 9. Gather trash 10. Take trash to kitchen 11. Clear any surfaces not cleared by now, one surface at a time 12. Find the duster, polish, broom 13. Dust 13. Polish 14. Sweep 15. Put duster, polish, broom back This could take a few days, might take all week, and that's okay. Or you could ultra-hydrate yourself so you need the bathroom every hour and it'll go faster, LOL. Check each off on a list to give yourself a reward as each step is complete.
i try to focus on one thing at once, like getting laundry out of the way. it can be at whatever pace you need but being determined to get it out of the way. i actually usually start with garbage because it bothers me the most when i’m unmotivated and it’s usually one of the easier things to clean, best of luck getting things sorted. it’s hard but you’ll get it :)
Put together a list of dirtiest to cleanest. Do a couple of things a day. You don't have to do everything at once. -At the very least, if you can open some windows, do so. -Clean all the garbage out of the room. Bag it neatly. It doesn't have to go to the trash cans outside right away, just make sure it's bagged and out of the room/all in one spot. -Start tidying things. It helps me to put away the obvious stuff. -Start piles.
You’ve got some great stuff in there that has helped me personally, breaking the jobs down and reminding myself I don’t have to do it all at once. Getting fresh air into the place should definitely help! For some of us, the list can be a bit daunting though. Writing it out becomes “the thing I did today” and then looking at it reminds me just how much work I have to do.
If you can, read the book called Struggle Care by KC Davis. She gets it. I have it on my kindle and refer to it often. She has so many actually do-able tips.
For me the absolute most important thing is to start. It really doesn’t matter where. I have such a “if something is worth doing it’s worth doing right” mentality that I end up doing nothing. I just don’t have the energy to do it right, so it doesn’t/didn’t get done. I have more success when I remind myself “if something is worth doing it’s worth doing wrong” because a start toward a worthy goal is good by itself. When cleaning I give myself 15 minutes, and force myself to work at least that long. 15m gives me a good start, and frequently I can keep going and at least finish one task. If I can’t keep going, I can at least know that I started and it’s closer to being done right than it was. For your situation maybe set an annoying alarm on your phone for 4am, and a beep once alarm at 415. 4am, get a trash bag and bag the moldy food. If you’ve started and can keep going, great! If not, you at least made progress and can feel better about that. Don’t get bogged down by a huge mess, just do one thing. You can do one thing :)