I really do struggle with trying to keep up with my house for a bunch of reasons but the main ones are poor executive function, fatigue and honestly I work better both with someone else and on a deadline. So this year I am planning on doing manageable tasks whilst my Scotsman is well in Scotland! It's not that I don't know what to do or where to start it's the sheer wave of overwhelm and speaking to others in the same situation as me I know I'm far from alone in that.
Sometimes though I'm in the groove and have a high energy playlist on and can be a master of all the cleaning tasks and honestly I just want to be able to do things straight away which just means each job won't take me nearly as long and keep the spiralling at bay! But Right now the house is in disarray for a myriad of reasons and if I can just do one thing a day and slowly add to my list I will slowly get back on top of things.
I came up with a list that once I'm in the swing of things everything should be a tad easier to keep on top of things. I thought it might be helpful for someone to see what I came up with and created this infographic; do you need to follow this as is? Of course not, things might not be applicable to you because you may have a handle on certain things or only need encouragement with others.
I am notorious for finding something else I'd rather do...hello this blog! I also found that when I was working I'd get in after a 14hr shift and just want to sit down, so I have found that when I get up now I need to do something before sitting down because I'm more likely to do another job too rather than vegetating with a podcast.
I have learnt some tricks to keep my brain engaged when I am in the mood to clean and the main one was setting an alarm for 25 minutes and focusing on one task in that time. If I finished that task then I would use the remaining time to pick another task in that room. Then have a 5 minute rest, have a drink or a snack then set another 25 minute alarm doing something completely different and in a different room. Then rinse and repeat until I'm done or tired or it's late etc. Sure some tasks might be left unfinished but they are 100% better than they were and that's the main thing small progress until it becomes a small task that can be done immediately.
I also have things I do when I'm super low mood/energy that help make a massive chore just a little smaller (although I've been really scraping at the bottom of the barrel over the last month and everything has gotten away from me)
When I have a ton of washing up to do I have started focusing on one sink full at a time and that looks like for me washing an item, drying it and putting it away, I hate leaving things to dry on the draining board. Plus I tell myself I'm getting a couple of extra steps in! Once that sink full is empty I immediately refill it whether I need to do fresh water or can get away with what's in there. This means that when I come back to it things have softened and or easier to clean once I've emptied and refreshed the water.
Laundry I think catches us all out it's just so much effort! But when I take a basket of clothes and what not upstairs I separate things into piles for things like wardrobe, drawers and even into types because no one keeps t-shirts, underwear and trousers all in the same drawer right? Then I just put each pile away and because the piles go down faster I feel like I have achieved so much more in a small space of time. That gives me a dopamine kick and I'm more likely to do some more or another task.
What things work for you? I'd love to hear about them and maybe they will work for me too.
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