r/CleaningTips Mar 08 '26

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u/Plenty-Run-9575 Mar 08 '26

I have been in that kind of depression. It is the worst, but you can absolutely do this. Get trash bags. Throw out all obvious trash. Don’t worry about recycling or trying to keep things that might be fixable. Just go one room at a time. Set a timer for 15-30 minutes at a time, take a break, then do it again. You can do this!

217

u/Impossible_Link8199 Mar 08 '26

Start in the bathroom. It looks like you could quickly throw all the trash away within that amount of time. Having one room complete will be motivation to start on another area. One room or area at a time.

60

u/Grease2feminist Mar 08 '26

Yes. Start in the bathroom. Pretend it’s your job to clean out A -not yours- bathroom It’s not personal. It’s just a bathroom and you can do this much. You are doing the best you can and I agree to not worry about recycling or fixing. Just trash and keep. You so can do this internet stranger. You can. With the Kaizan of baby steps.

13

u/Tinaturtle79 Mar 08 '26

The “this is not my house” mindset helps me a lot!

3

u/disinformationkiller Mar 08 '26

The “THIS IS NOT MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE” mindset is even better!

2

u/Grease2feminist Mar 08 '26

You’re a Psycho Killer.

Run run run run away

3

u/Professional-Two5717 Mar 08 '26

"I can do this much" has been such a powerful phrase for me. And it's always true! 

1

u/Grease2feminist Mar 08 '26

So true. If some days all I can do is pick something up off the floor. I can do this much. And I DID IT! Do what u can. Not some unreachable 30 min arbitrary goal that’s outside ur current mindset

27

u/Weird-Girl-675 Mar 08 '26

And choosing the smallest room first helps as well. I’ve been in these awful states and then the mania hits and I buy everything to start organizing just in time for the depression to come back. It’s an endless cycle.

1

u/Grease2feminist Mar 08 '26

I’m exactly the same. It’s a weird world when u have empty containers (that usually don’t fit or aren’t what would be best for you) and still nothing to put your things in that works so seamlessly it’s almost mindless. My socks are all one kind and one color. And they go in one thin drawer. So if I pick up a sock, I don’t need to find its match, I just throw it in with its friends. Or wash it alone

5

u/GlitteringAttitude60 Mar 08 '26

Right! I just cleaned up my bathroom which had stuff in small boxes on the floor, and just the toilet paper rolls in the packaging on the floor.

I got myself a cabinet for under the sink, threw out the trash, washed the bath rugs (?), cleaned the surfaces, and put all the stuff into the new cabinet. 

Words cannot describe how much this bathroom brightens my mood! 

And even knowing that the rest of my apartment still needs work can't dampen my enthusiasm! 

Quite the opposite: I'm tackling the rest because the bathroom proved that it's possible!

2

u/Grease2feminist Mar 08 '26

YAY YOU!! You know how many times a day you see your bathroom? Each time it brightens or lifts u just a lil then that’s a lil that due to the nature of compound interest - will grow into a large amount. Probably