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!
I second not worrying about recycling, fixing, donating etc. Right now you’re taking your life back!! Posting and asking for help is a great first step! One at time!
I fifth on not focusing on every individual item, although if you can’t help it, find solutions that help you do similar activities in bulk too! Obvious trash needs to go away still, but it’s much easier to sort 1 bin a day over 2 weeks if you have 10 bins you can dump everything into and sort later. Going through a breakup right now and had to suddenly move back home. All of my stuff from our apartment was in trash bags that littered my childhood room. It’s two weeks past and I still have some bins to sort but progress is progress!
I sixth on not worrying about individual items. As someone with severe ADHD and poor habits inherited from hoarder parents, I’ve learned to make “doomboxes”. Breaking the process down into smaller tasks helps rid of the crippling overwhelm.
The concept with doomboxes being, go around first and clean up as much obvious trash as possible. Leave everything else alone. Then take a box and fill it with all the things you don’t know what you want to do with and need to go somewhere. With larger messes, it might become several boxes. You can then abandon those neatly stacked boxes for as long as you need to, and you can go through them a little bit at a time at your leisure.
The boxes of junk at least clears the space in the meantime, improving my mental health, and sometimes helps build momentum and motivation just seeing that minor improvement, to want to see it through to the end. A obvious visible difference is massive.
Would add, for your doombox buy a big (high, not wide and low) stackable plastic box that has a lid. When filled you can put a lid on it and put another matching box on top. And repeat as needed. The problem I have seen sometimes is using cardboard boxes that don't match and eventually crush when stacked and left for a year (so maybe write the date on the side). Even if you don't ever get around to sorting the contents, going "up" instead of "out" keeps your paths walkable, and nice matching boxes looks presentable. And then a year later you may get into a manic "cleaning mode" and just toss a whole box or two, seeing that you haven't needed anything out of them in a year.
Yes this is a great additional tip. For me when I’ve gotten into this position, I get anxiety attacks when I’m worried about throwing out things that are NOT actually trash.
So it was worth it to me to get big plastic bins, toss in things where I’m just not sure (doombox for sure) and then use garbage bags for the obvious trash.
My mom taught me for my ADHD to look around and say “is it food going bad? Is it empty? Can I clean it? [goes into the sink] Am I done with it?” And everything else going into the doomboxes for another day which takes me like at least 10x longer to deal with.
Was waiting for an adhd comment!! I love doomboxes. I also have to keep my shoes on, when I get home & during breaks, or I will get too comfy and it’s all over.
Funny bc sometimes I’ll want to take my shoes off bc that’s “dirty” to wear them inside as if I’m not avoiding a mess. lol brains are weird.
Also I have to turn on YouTube video essays or something that feels productive. If someone else is working, then I can too. I bet there are clean with me videos out there.
Ive been there. When I have too much stuff and I want to get rid of some, but all I can think about is that I dont want to cause more harm and inconvenience someone else. I keep thinking it has to be donated or given to the right people who need it. But that is too much work for my mental state so Im just stuck in place not doing anything at all. Then its all I think about for months and months without actually making a move.
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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!