Clutter

Piles of dishes and laundry currently await my attention. In addition, I need to do general apartment cleaning. As you can probably tell, cleaning is not one of my favorite things to do. I would rather do so many other things, such as reading, crocheting, and playing with my cats. I have discovered that if I leave things a mess then I need to actually do the work rather than waiting for it to clean itself. After all, my mom doesn’t live here, and I don’t have a cleaning service either.

Part of living on my own is doing household tasks that I don’t enjoy such as washing dishes and doing laundry. I’m really lucky to have a place of my own and the time and physical ability to keep my place clean. Why do I wait so long to do these chores? I’m really not sure about the reasons. Could it be that I’m waiting for someone else to do them for me? Could it be that I’m not comfortable doing the chores and feel like I do a poor job? Could it be that I overestimated how long it will take me to do the task/tasks?

I have tried a few different methods, including writing to-do lists. Which I often ignored and eventually lost, although I do find them every so often in my purse, jacket pockets, notebooks, and other places. I tried assigning certain cleaning tasks to a set day of the week which I didn’t follow or forgot until the next day, causing a buildup of cleaning chores. Right now I’m trying to complete two household tasks per day and it seems to work most of the time. Today I’m tending to more than two tasks as I’m preparing for an upcoming apartment inspection. I’ve set a goal to do laundry, dishes, take recycling out, sort mail, and clean the litter boxes. I almost skipped doing these chores since I was enjoying reading so much and I needed a reminder to start working on them. I really don’t want to have a dirty or messy apartment since that would be very embarrassing. I could even be written up and have to endure a re-inspection if they note any cleaning or safety violations. I’m hoping to have a cleaner, better organized apartment by next week.

The older I get, the more I realize how easily I have misled myself regarding why I did or didn’t do something. I believe that self-knowledge is never completely accurate since we all have blind spots. My blind spots are about household tasks. I’m not very good at sticking to a regular schedule in part due to being easily distracted. I put things off to the point that I get very overwhelmed. I know that this cycle isn’t good for my mental health because it makes my anxiety and depression worse.

Have you ever struggled to get something done? What worked and what didn’t work for you? Has this affected your mental health as well? Hopefully this blog is helpful to you and perhaps you even identify with some of my struggles. As always, wishing the best to all of my readers.