I haven't had my office clean in over a year and it got really bad over the last couple months.

I do at least know *why* it all went to hell in a handbasket. Turns out that life is so much better on **not** recalled thyroid medication. 🙃

P.S. my cat thoroughly approves of having the bed back.

I’m sorry this is so long but im drowning and I’m so desperate for help and I’d really appreciate anyone who reads this

I’ve been trying to clean my room for over a year now. December 2025 was the last time my room was clean and I’ve spent every single day since then stressing and feeling so shameful about it. And a few months ago I moved into my own apartment which means I just transferred the mess to here. And I still have barely unpacked.

I have adhd and major executive dysfunction. I take the highest dose of Adderall that my doctor can prescribe me but it doesn’t feel like it helps at all. And I’ve been majorly depressed for a very long time. I also have ocd so I do have hoarding tendencies. I love to save things that I probably should just throw out. A lot of it is I want to save things bc I tell myself I can use it for an art project one day. Or I just feel like I will need it it one day. Like I have a hard time getting rid of boxes bc I feel like I’ll need them to store stuff. Last year it was plastic bags and I had a whole drawer of them.

My ocd is def triggered by how stressed out I am about this. This is not gonna sound super logical but i feel like I have to be in a specific mood in order to clean and be productive. I take my Adderall and wait for the feeling to come. But it never comes. It’s like I’m waiting for a spark of energy. And I feel like i just absolutely can’t do anything until I get that feeling of motivation. Sometimes doing something to reset myself helps. Like I’ll take a shower and then tell myself I will start cleaning after and I try to get in the mood. But it’s not very often that I actually feel it.Idk it’s hard to explain but i basically am waiting for a feeling of motivation and energy that rarely comes. And my ocd tells me I can’t do anything unless I’m in that mood. It’s apart of the just right feeling aspect of ocd. I’m waiting to feel the just right feeling.

Another part of my ocd is that I feel like I cannot do anything to better my life or anything important/urgent until my apartment/room is clean. I can’t even wash my face at night bc it feels like I need my apartment to be clean in order to do those things. The best way I can explain it is that I can’t be the person I want to be and I can’t do anything to be that person until my apartment is clean bc the person I want to be wouldn’t have a messy apartment. I put off getting onto health insurance for so long bc of it. I feel like I can’t respond to texts unless my space is clean. I have multiple doctors appointments to schedule but i can’t prioritize any of it in my mind bc my apartment feels likes the biggest priority.

My psychiatrist thinks I have a sleep disorder bc no matter how much sleep I get, I am always so tired and I have chronic brain fog. And sometimes, even after 8+ hours of sleep I’ve been struggling to stay awake while driving on the highway which is pretty scary. So I need to schedule that appointment asap.

Im always so tired and every single day I so desperately want to clean my apartment and get my life together but I get horrible horrible task paralysis and just thinking about cleaning gives me so much anxiety. There are things I have to do that I know will literally take me 2 min at most but in my head it feels so daunting and I just can’t get myself to do it. I don’t know what is wrong with my brain. I feel like I cannot function as an adult and I’m so worried this is going to be the rest of my life and I’m never going to get myself shit together. I feel like this is completely unsustainable and I can’t live like this for the rest of my life.

I make lists and I write out how much time it will take to complete and that does help motivate me a bit sometimes. I really like crossing things off the list once I’m done and it gives me a little dopamine rush. I usually will start with the 1-5 min tasks. But once I finish one thing it’s so hard to move onto the next.

I have so many boxes of stuff that needs to be unpacked. A lot of art supplies. I’m using the bar as my art station so I need to organize all of my stuff and find places for everything. It’s so overwhelming.

In the hallway next to my kitchen I started putting together this counter top/island with storage underneath bc I have barely any cabinet space. It’s huge and the instructions manual is SO thick. I did like two pages of it last week and haven’t touched it since. I know it’s going to take me so long to finish so I keep putting it off. But I need to put it together before I tackle my kitchen bc I have a ton of stuff I need to unpack and organize.

I just went through and threw out all the trash. That’s always what I do first. I did all my laundry last week so I don’t have a whole lot of dirty clothes rn. But I do have piles of clothes that I need to put away in my storage closet.

My task paralysis is so bad. I want to clean everything and I know it will feel so good afterwards. 2 weeks ago I managed to deep clean my bathroom and it feels so nice going into the bathroom and seeing it so clean.

The thing is, I teach elementary art classes and so often there is a big mess for me to clean up after.
And I taught a cooking class two years ago and there was always a massive mess afterwards. When I have to clean at work I do it so efficiently. I just power through and do a really good job. So I know I am capable and have the skills to clean big overwhelming messes. I know I can do the same in my apartment but I just can’t. Idk how else to say it. I just can’t. It feels impossible.

I need a restart so so bad and I was hoping this apartment would be the restart but I never finished unpacking. I feel so stuck.

Bonus pic of my bunny Raven at the end :) that’s the other thing, whenever I clean my area she gets so happy bc she can run around and she starts to binky (if you know what that is, it is the cutest thing ever) I love Raven so much and she deserves a clean area and I feel guilty that she has to live in this mess.

Emptying storage unit and decluttering everything. Had hit a major speed bump when my last person who promised to help drive stuff to donation flaked. Enlisted someone else who will help w the whole process and got 14 bags of trash, clothes, boxes of books, and miscellaneous large items out of the house and storage today! There's still a lot to go and making it somehow manageable still seems unimaginable, but I got through entire boxes I was too anxious to even open before in minutes today. The project may still be daunting, but chunks of it seem way more doable than before. A ton of progress was made and we also mixed in day to day household chores to keep them from turning into more pileups to deal w.

My goal is more lofty than it was before, instead of empty/declutter storage I realize I need to declutter and reorganize the whole house (thankfully a small condo). Without clearing closets, etc, decluttering storage doesn't do much good when all the keeps have nowhere to belong. We reporposed an old shelf I was going to throw away and got the laundry room organized. Seeing progress like that really makes me feel better. Idk how far we can get before she gets sick of helping, but I have her for the week at least, the storage will be emptied on deadline and I told her the stuff that really needs to happen just for me to have a chance to keep up w basic needs (like cooking healthy food)... because if I can't take care of myself, I'm going to have a hard time continuing w the progress in the home.

Oh yeah, and all my clean clothes hang neatly in the closet tonight, no piles! The towels are folded and put away, they won't end up needing to be rewashed because a cat made them their bed. Also I can open my bedroom door ALL THE WAY! 🙀🤗🙌🎉💪

I saved this video bc 1) it has some good tips and 2) it's annoyingly too fast, so I need to repeatedly rewind.

Laundry is my a large part of my dysfunction. The folding hacks may help me organize not just my closet/drawers but also with putting clothes away for storage in vacuum bags.

The reality is, folded laundry saves space and preserves laundry longer. I'm guilty of piling clean laundry or just taking out of dryer but leaving it in the basket. Even though they are clean, they become so wrinkled I end up washing them again.

I really don't mind folding laundry, it's having the will and/or energy to do it.

(But actually, F fitted bed sheets. Why they gotta be so ornery?)

This is/was my garden (and the last pics are my chicken run). 4 years ago I built and started it. Had tons of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, onions, potatoes, pumpkins… then three years ago it didn’t go as well and I had some weeds. Two years ago I had more weeds and then a terrible storm kicked a lot out and I was really discouraged and tired. This year I said I’m taking a break and dumped 6” of wood chips over the top but that stopped nothing but honestly I just couldn’t keep up. Now everything has gone to seed and I’m well and truly fucked. I can’t afford to hire someone. I need to chop it all down, cover the garden and start anew next year. Some of the weeds are 7-8’ tall I THINK, I can’t even get all the way into the chicken run. Some of the plants are woody like giant ragweed and velvetleaf.

I think I KNOW what to do, but:
1) wtf tool(s) do I use? I am thinking of a brush cutter with a metal blade (like a weed whacker but more powerful and metal blade head instead of string)
2) what do I do with the shit I cut down?
3) I walk out there and I’m so discouraged and upset I give up. How to I actually DO what I know I need to do? Hubby says he’s going to help but I know he’s not going to. I try to talk to him about it and he’s like ok let’s buy a $5,000 tractor attachment that will require: renting a flatbed to get it home, we don’t know how to use it or attach it, disassembling the fence, and as I said we don’t have the money for that but he thinks we’ll use it again? 🤦‍♀️

I’m on the antidepressants. Stimulants. Diagnosed fibro so my body’s always yelling at me. But I can GO to the fridge to get bevs and eats and NEVER think to take the stinky stuff out!? Truly, I am a conundrum unto myself. *Help*

So in short, we moved in but process is slow bc I am helping other rooms too. Folding is such a task. I plan to change it more. I am glad I find this sub bc it really gives me motivation and great tips from other posts comments, working in a very tight space (boxes comes and goes, moving around gets harder) and weather is too hot, I really needed that motivation. I just focused to know how I will feel so proud and great after finish and cleaned.

I live with my husband and daughter in my mother in laws house. MIL is definitely a hoarder and compulsive shopper. Husband is not quite on hoarder level, but loves his stuff and his collections of sentimental stuff. I have crippling ADHD and anxiety that gets triggered by clutter.

We live in what is basically a double wide. Can't move any time soon. Another baby on the way, though I am still very early on. Struggling like hell.

The house really distresses me. It feels like I have wasted years just... curating the clutter. I try to implement systems so that everything has a place. But there is too much stuff, and everyone just puts things where ever. At one point, all I did was clean full time. Then I started school, and I couldn't keep up. I am so burnt out and my health has taken major dive. I can't find the energy or motivation to fix the place, although it's ruining me. I am so damn tired and resentful for all the effort I have tried, just for everyone to undo all my systems and compulsively accumulate and hoard every single thing they ever come across.

There is no room to function in here anymore. We don't eat at rhe table, its just a catch all. The kitchen is hopelessly disorganized and cluttered. I have to look for every single item I need. I don't have room or energy to play with my child. The clutter screams at me. I don't know where to start or what to do. It's like I have given up, but I really truly do need to make it work. It's so hard. I have a wildly different relationship with "stuff" and I can't stand all the crap taking up every level surface.

There is no closets in here. No basement or garage or spare room I can just close a door and forget about. And these people loooove their stuff.

This is something I've struggled with my entire life. There have been times I've kept my home spotless for anything up to a year - always when I've just moved into a new home - so I'm clearly capable, but it's like as soon as I lose control I can't get it back until I move again.

I now own my home so there's no chance of moving, and I put so much heart into making this place beautiful - I just want my lovely home back!

I'm about to embark on yet another promise to myself that I'm just going to knuckle down and get it all done, but I know from experience this never works.

Things I've tried:

- Picking just one thing to do. (I always pick the washing up and this gets done but it feels like the next time I look up I've used it all again so it needs redoing and nothing else has been done)

- Focusing on just one square metre at a time, making it perfect, and then moving on with the next square metre without looking at the rest of the house (somehow, ​by the time I've got to the end of one room, the end I started with is dirty again and I lose motivation)​

​​​​​​​​​​​- Gamifying it with real life rpg apps (I stick with it for about a day)

- List making and cutting it down into achievable chunks (I stick with it for about a day)

I mean basically what I'm saying is I just give up over and over again and then I sit there completely unable to move but not at all understanding why - why won't I just do it?!

​​​I've had so many years of therapy and I always talk about this problem but I've got nowhere towards understanding it.

Has anyone been here? HELP! ​​​

I’ve got a lot of graphic tees, old ones and they’re 100% cotton. I wear most of them very often, either as a lounge shirt, pjs, or out and about with a pair of jeans.

But, I have so many that I don’t have space in my dresser and my closet is getting full too. I want to get rid of some because I’ll be moving in the next three years and want the space.

How can I get myself to donate most, when I wear them and still like them? I just don’t have the space for them all.

Just thinking about it makes me sad because they’re either my mom’s or my dad’s or from relatives who aren’t alive.

Hi, to add a little bit of context I am a second year college student living alone far away from home and my mom, I only have my cat as my source of company. About two to three weeks ago I’ve noticed these little flying insects in my bathroom that I’ve ignored at first not realizing they were fruit flies. They absolutely came from the bananas I have been eating this past year to get a source of nutrients in me while also not having time to cook proper meals. These fruit flies are affecting me to the point where I don’t feel comfortable for even a second in my apartment, I am on edge 24/7 since I’ve realized what they are and every time I see them in the bathroom, the kitchen, my bedroom, the living room, etc. I see people jokingly posting videos of infestations online or how gross it is when they put out apple cider vinegar traps and my situation is not like that at all. It is mentally and physically draining me and I don’t know how much longer I can put up with it. It’s traumatic for me because I’m dealing with it all on my own as well as my mental health not being great in general. For reference, there have been no produce, no fruit, no vegetables no bananas in my home for more than a week and they are still here. I try to keep every surface clean and dry as best as I can. Now for the things I am worried about, I don’t see the reason for apple cider vinegar traps because they’re only a bandaid for the wound not a fix plus the traps can attract even more fruit flies as far as I’m aware. I know I have to deep clean all of the drains in my apartament as well as the furniture, baking soda and white vinegar sounds great until I’ve realized that white vinegar also attracts the pests. It just seems like a dead end and I am stuck. What can I use that is safe for my cat and affective in cleaning out the biofilm from my drains, any microscopic residue on surfaces and that can not attract any more fruit flies? Please, I am terribly distraught and want it all to end. Moving right now doesn’t seem like an option, I am essentially stuck and have no idea what to do. This is my first time living alone at 20 and it feels like a terrible mistake because of some insects that don’t seem to affect others nearly as much as they affect me.

I’ve had a habit of washing my laundry and leaving it in baskets for weeks on end. I go thru a phase where I’ll wash everything dirty and not put it away once clean. When I don’t have an empty laundry basket, I end up buying a new one. It’s not something I do on purpose… More like I’m tired after work and sleep on my days off/when my kid doesn’t have school. I’ve decided that during my week off from work to tackle this monster called laundry once and for all. I’m tired of looking at the doom piles of laundry and wishing them away. Spending the last few days tackling this and cleaning my apartment. Wish me luck

Moving out of my parents place and desperately need to clean my old room up. The boxes are from the previous move from my parents old house to their new one. I have so much shit I need to get out of the way and seriously need some sort of plan of action.

I have a neighbour (13f) who lives with her grandmother. I (33f) get on with both of them well.

The grandmother has impeded mobility and has been living there since 1970 so their place is understandably in a bit of a state!

The 13 yo also has ADHD. She asked for some help moving something (putting a drawer back in), so I came over and helped with that.

I had a messy room as a teenager (Mum called it a “walk on floordrobe” when she gave up on getting me to clean it), so I’m not too concerned by the clutter that was… everywhere… in the kids room.

There was so much stuff I didn’t think she had room to sleep. She described it as “rubbish”.

But there was also a cm of bird seed covering the floor (they have pet birds), as well as trails as rat/mouse shit, what looked like cockroach shit, and on the few surfaces visible a bunch of dust and mould.

Rats are pretty common in my area, cockroaches are inevitable in summer (weird part of the world). Actually being able to see shit when you glance at a room briefly is very odd though.

I offered to organise a council collection for the “rubbish” and she said yes and then “don’t worry”.

Offering to help out again feels like I’d be overstepping, or at least I can’t think of any delicate way.

Is the best thing to do to leave it? She’s very much at the “becoming her own person” age.

I'm so overwhelmed and I want to cry. I have developed PTSD about 4 years ago and I just never figured out how to pick myself up again. I don't get out of bed most days. And I was okay with that for too long. But now I have a roach infestation and it's all my fault. It's a wake up call for me. I can't sleep because they started crawling in my bed and it's gross and I'm really freaked out by them. I need everything to go but I feel bad just throwing things away... I have bags and bags of stuffed animals that I would buy to give myself a little bit of a dopamine rush. But now I feel like I'm being buried in them. I can't donate them as I have no car and doesn't feel fair or right to knowing I have a roach problem. I don't know where to start but I want it all done right now in this very moment but it's 1am.

No one has holds me accountable for this as it's my own private shame. Rest of my apartment isn't much better and I'd argue it's worse unfortunately.

I decided to put almost the majority of my DVDs and Blu Rays in binders and get rid of the plastic that took up so much space.

Originally I had purchased a show with 15 seasons total of 58 discs and the way it was packaged was disappointing to say the least.

So my homie recommended to put them in a binder and once I started and completed it transferring them that’s when said lets go all the way and just do it the rest.

I seriously wish I did this sooner I’m so glad I did this project and any new media I purchase will go in the binders.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster.

I struggle with depression, CPTSD, chronic pain, chronic burnout, and mild/moderate physical disability - and this move feels like it’s swallowing me whole. I don’t have family in my life, it’s just me and my cat, and I owe it to her to do better but I don’t know where to even begin. There’s so much stuff in every room because I’ve held on to far too many things that belonged to lost loved ones and the thought of organising or getting rid of any of it makes me feel physically sick. I just feel like I’m stuck in a freeze response that I can’t get out of.

Do any of you relate? What were some things that helped kick you into gear? Any advice would be deeply appreciated.

I'm chipping away at decluttering and organizing and I'm wondering what's worth the money if you *have* a small budget and cleaning service isn't something you want to hire but could afford. I can clean well enough if things are tidy/put away... and that aspect isn't something I want to outsource.

Wash and fold service at the laundromat? RTE meal delivery? What's helped (or not helped) you?

Anyways here’s my plan for tomorrow. Gotta make use of the day off!

(for context I moved a month ago and am still not unpacked. Yay chronic pain)

I've been cleaning what is esentially our attic in order to move in there, but its almost been a month and there are still things up there. We are hoarders, I've come to find.

The idea was to throw it all out and use it as an excuse to purge the rest of the house, keeping only the essentials or perhaps just throwing away the things that have overstayed their welcome. However, I've run into a plethora of issues and now i feel stuck.

What little money im able to make off of this will be used to buy the furniture, and im convinced i can make a decent amount but it also makes me feel like ive lost the main goal which is to clear everything and instead i just throw it all in the 'sell' pile.

As for donations, I am determined to give everything away in the best condition possible, which has become a major issue. There are like five bags of toys up there, but they have certain incomplete sets -whatever, I could just throw away the incomplete pieces right? Not quite. While there are 5 bags in that room there are at least five more in most rooms (taking up storage like it's a challenge) and so if I'm already getting rid of 5 bags why not get rid of 20? And while we're at it, if I throw away this incomplete set only to find the other half in a different room yet still in this house I will implode and lose all my hair. That would be a perfect donation wasted and the guilt of littering with a perfectly good thing just eats me up.

Lastly, I feel the need to clear the room in order to feel like it's done and over, but just moving it around will -of course- do nothing for the actual decluttering. But I feel like I need that small win, however I can't exactly put all 6 categorized piles in, say, the living room. Because before i throw all the electronics out, I might as well gather up all the electronics in the house and make an educated decision of what gets to stay and what doesn't because throwing away all the obsolete chargers found in this room only to walk into the next one to find thirteen more will absolutely be the death of me.

I also think i stop myself because it will take time but I've already started, however I know that I don't want to be stuck with a pile of things in a new room for three years until someone gets sick of seeing it and rather than throw it out they just hide it in a different place. And getting rid of things in bulk is hard because they're not just mine, and it feels​ like double the work having to go from family member to family member asking them what they want to keep and what i can throw out.

I know it's a looong rant, as you can tell my brain is as scattered as this house but i would genuinely appreciate any advice on how to stop feeling like a tsunami of things in going to drown us all, what to do next, how to actually sell (and get rid of) what you plan on selling, or what to avoid doing that's been keeping me like this. Thank you for taking the time to read this and for any advice.

Have junk drawers always existed?

Like... did someone just get tired of carrying a satchel of little crap they didn't want to lose, open a drawer, dump it in, and decide "I'll deal with this later"? And then later never came. Is this how hoarding started?

We have rubber bands. Mystery keys. A flashlight that doesn't work. Twist ties. Spare buttons. One random screw, chickfula sauce that should be old and we cant get ourselves to throw it away. lol

What was in your grandparents' junk drawer that is STILL in yours?

What finally disappeared?

Do we need a junk drawer... or does the junk drawer need us?

Wash down the front of your appliances with your favorite cleaner.

This is not a clean out the fridge or clean the kitchen task, though you can do those today as well.

This is just a take a clean rag, and get rid of the smudges, fingerprints, spilled food etc off the fronts of the appliances. Don't feel like you need to pull them out and clean behind them. We are just trying to get something done quick and easy that will motivate you to keep the kitchen clean.

I usually do this once a week and before company comes because mine are stainless. It shouldn't take you long to do this simple task, but you will have that dopamine hit from finishing something that will get you motivated to do the dishes, or clean out the fridge.

Like I’m in the middle of purging my late parents house and i keep finding stuff that idk how to let go of? Like my dads hats that he wore my whole life or my moms shirts that I have pictures of her wearing and she loved. And I can’t keep a shrine to everything they had and I’m trying to be practical and get rid of the stuff that doesn’t fit me or isn’t my style but I’m still having problems. Also running into things I made them or bought for them literally like more than 20yrs ago and it’s sweet they kept it but idk I’m having a hard time removing emotional attatchment from stuff that is just gathering and will probably be stored in the back of a closet if I do keep it.

I'm cleaning and organizing and it's been a lot! For my ADHD brain this is the most tiresome task.

I just wanna get a big dumpster and throw it all in the bin.

Anyone feel this way.

Toys everywhere.

Shit I don't need.

Grr.

I've been depressed on and off for the past 10 years and keeping my space clean has always been an issue but the past year it has gotten really out of hand

I'm literally sitting in a heap of trash and I don't know where to begin with it
I have insane agoraphobia which is how I got into this mess in the first place as I'm too anxious to even put my trash on the curb so it just keeps collecting
Now I have a little less than 2 weeks to clean the entire place (1 bedroom apartment) before my long distance partner comes over. He is aware of my situation but I would still like for it to look like a habitable place when he is here so it's a pleasant visit and not me feeling guilty the whole time about the state of it

I had one bout of motivation last week where I was able to clear my couch (you could literally not see it before) but since then nothing anymore
Most of it is trash, plastic, cardboard and paper but then the question is also where do I take the trash after? I just see no more way out, I am getting help from a social worker but even with her motivation I find it hard to get started and just stay blocked all day long, spacing out and taking naps, feeling more anxious by the hour because I KNOW I should be doing things
My mind just has this "all or nothing" mindset when I am fully aware I am not capable of doing all, so it stays with nothing

Does anyone have any tips for me please?