I'm too cheap to have any ad-free streaming services and have started tidying up during the commercial breaks. Invested in one of those power spray dish soaps so I don't have to commit to doing a whole sink load. (No dishwasher.)

During one of tonight's tidymercial breaks, I had a stroke of brilliance. I picked up a pair of fuzzy socks that were no longer fuzzy due to age. Realizing how seldom I wore any fuzzy socks, much less that pair, I realized I could use them as dusting mitts! The towel bar, medicine cabinet door, and the top of the toilet tank were the first benefactors.

Hey all,

Not sure if this is the right sub for this. Recs to post to a more relevant sub are welcome.

I just donated a dresser and nightstand that I've had for almost 20 years. It was a in really good condition and excellent quality considering it's age and it was MDF. There were a couple missing trim pieces on the nightstand and a little puffiness from Chihuahua pee absorbition on one dresser the corner (someone was too lazy to make it all the way to the peepad for a senior midnight piss a handful of times 😐) that got worse after I tried to clean it with pet enzyme cleaner. Damage wasn't noticable to others, it was something I noticed because I clean and live with them.

I didn't have space for them anymore. They weren't the right color for my room theme, and they didn't hold a lot storage wise. I don't see myself moving to a place with more space for the next few years. Not sure where I would put them if I did. It would either be shoved in a guest room or I'd have to cross my fingers I had a daughter in that time frame.

But I still have a lot of guilt getting rid of them??? I feel like all furniture, wood or MDF, have gone down a LOT in quality over the last 20 years while prices are ridiculous. Plus I'm way too sentimental and those two pieces held a lot of memories over the years.

I know they're getting donated, but I still feel awful, guilty, and wasteful.

Does anyone have tips for getting over these feelings?

Apologies in advance- I’m not super reddit-savvy and don’t know if this is even an option. Someone had made a post awhile back and I suggested that maybe we could a body-doubling for interested parties.

You know how it’s easier to stay on a task you don’t want to do when there is someone else around- even if they aren’t doing anything other around keeping you company? That’s body-doubling. I do most of my housework while on the phone. I can clean like crazy for 40 minutes while talking, vs starting something and being distracted in 5 minutes.

Some other people mentioned they would also be interested in that, so I was wondering if there were a way to have a “reddit party” where some folks jump in at a specific time and post updates over a couple hours. Forgive me for being dumb, I was just trying to think of a way we could do something like that while keeping everyone anonymous and safe.

In possibly related news, I plan to bust arse in here from 5-730 eastern time tonight, so feel free to join me if it helps you to think someone else is also uf-ing.

Specifically I’m interested in podcasts about cleaning to listen to while cleaning. Something that will educate me and keep me motivated.

Life has been preventing me from UF my house lately. How dare it. The absolute cheek!

I have tried worked on some more of the minor tasks that I set myself when I have had a chance. I managed to take everything out of my pantry, give it a good clean, get rid of out of date products and put it all back neatly. I can't believe how much more space I have now. It feels really good to open a drawer and see that there's room for things to breathe in there.

Before

After

I also started working on my plates. I am trashing a few things, but will donate what I don't need. I'm pleased that I managed to claw back almost a shelfful of space! I still have to clean the shelves but I hope that I'll get to do that in the not too distant future.

Before

(Almost) empty shelf

I did start work on my Kikki-K planner and stationary hoard which was scattered all over the house. I got it all together, weeded what I was willing to sell/donate and was able to get it down to one small shelf in my bookcase.

Before

After

I have not touched the Happy Planners and all of the associated crap that I bought though. There's so much of it scattered around the house and shed that I feel intimidated by the enormity of it

Here's a couple of examples of the small cubes - I've just shoved everything in any old how, and they're filled right to the top.

Before

Before

However, the shed is so much worse than these boxes. I did take a photo of it, but it's so awful that I can't bring myself to share it. I can't even walk in there right now, let alone find anything. I know that there's a huge crateful of supplies in there somewhere, digging it out is going to be a huge endeavour. I'm due to start a placement for my course in a week and a half, so now is probably not the right time to start digging my way through everything. I'm thinking that, if I want to keep my sanity right now, it's going to have to be a problem for future me.

Overall, I'm pleased that I did get some things done, even if it wasn't everything I wanted. Did anyone else get something done that started with P?

I'm usually too tired/feel too sick to clean unless I'm in some sort of immediate 'danger' (parents visiting, landlord, etc.), but today I was planning on doing some meal prep and I thought 'it would be more fun to do this if my kitchen was cleaner.' So I just tidied a lot of the clutter and cleaned the counter I cook on, with nothing causing me any feelings of danger or urgency, and I had fun! My apartment is still pretty messy, but I did some dusting and picked up trash and stuff, and now I'm resting before I cook (I still have very limited energy lol)

Idk, I wanted to share because it feels good to just clean because I felt like it, and have fun doing it :]

Between caring for the toddler and during her naps, my husband and I made a good impact! A lot of it was laundry (several loads and lots of folding) but he also did all the shredding that piled up and prevented me being able to work on paper clutter (which is a major source of our clutter). Also he vacuumed the whole house and got all the dog hair under surfaces. Along with getting rid of old pillows and making a donation pile. There's still so much to do but I'm so glad for all his help the last two days.

Better yet, his mom will be babysitting the next two weekends for us to finish the decluttering, much neglected cleaning and just resetting the house so I look forward to a much more functional home in May! I'm sure our kid will appreciate it too. In the meantime this week, I'll be doing what I can, but I'm also trying hard to finish my kid's toy I've been making (it's nearly done, but still a few hours of work!).

And for those who saw my previous post... The dining table is still not cleared and the tablecloth has some more stains now. 🙃

ok so i think you all are the only people i can talk about this to without being judged. Tomorrow I am going to finally declutter my bedroom (i have been putting it off for a couple months now). I have been dreading it because I know I have a ton of laundry i will need to clean (basically 6 months worth).

There are multiple reasons I wasn’t keeping up with it a big one being that I don’t have the ability to do my laundry at home. My anxiety always is horrible going to new places so i never went to the laundromat and i just did a load every week at my friends.

Anyways I never caught up with it and I need advice on the best way to get it all done. I know i am going to donate a lot but i don’t want to donate dirty (or seemingly dirty) clothes.

EDIT: update I was able to get all the clothes into bags

I'm a grad student almost done with the semester, finally got a chance to rest and recover so I dove into my wreck of an apartment. I have two cats so the place gets smelly and dirty fast. I was sick last week when I normally clean, and things had honestly been hard for weeks, so things piled up. I mean literal piles of laundry, of trash.

It's spring now and I want to feel ready for the next few months, so I decided to deep clean the apartment. No B&A pics, sorry, I don't post my personal space online, but I wanted to document what I've done and have yet to do. Mostly followed UFYH guidelines, noted as below.

The biggest challenges:

1. I'm buying plants, and been gifted many for my garden, but it's two weeks away from planting. So I have about 80 plants that occupy my apartment when it's cold out. Right now they're sunbathing outside. Anyway.

2. I have two mischievous cats who make tasks like folding fabric and clothing just... more difficult. So I kind of bounce around based on what's easiest to clean in addition to what needs to be done.

3. Oops, I'm still overworked. I have deadlines tonight, Wednesday, and Monday. So I need breaks to also be semi-productive.

Right now, I'm home after errands to plan and to get a bit of accountability (and advice, if any of you all have it).

What I've done over the last two days:

• gotten the trash and recycling out
• unpacked packages
• sorted my wardrobe into keep/donate/store/decide later piles and put away the stuff to keep.
• the plants are all watered and outside. I got rid of a few houseplants that I couldn't fully take care of, and I made sure they're all clean (no mites or anything!)
• unpacked then re-packed the closet (I can walk in it now!)
• cleaned the cat areas
• put my winter stuff away
• folded and sorted my (actually small) fabric collection.
• put all my crochet projects (organized by project already) in one place
• did all the laundry (4 rounds, including all the bedding and my house blankets!)
• emptied the cabinets and the fridge
• cleaned the stove

I've gotten rid of 3 trash bags and vacuumed up and swept so much cat hair. And I have a box for donation. The place is clean, but untidy. Today's the day I want to fix that. At minimum, I want to finish the kitchen and my bedroom, including going through all of my clothes, and make it so everything has a home. I think Round 2 of desk decluttering will happen on Monday.

What I need to do:

- Dishes. I hate dishes. edit: done!

• Sort seed collections
• Sort plant care stuff into a new drawer
• deal with a bit more laundry
• deal with the pile of clothes - this will be hard as I'm indecisive and both want to declutter and also want to stop purchasing AND also have been successfully losing some weight so I'm a little overwhelmed here. Also some of these were aspirational sewing projects and Idk if they're hobby items or if I'm just being silly or what.
• deal with a pile of stuff (sewing, papers, random bags, etc) on my desk - another hard task as some of this is just the "I'll deal with this later" pile as I've cleared other areas out.

If you have thoughts on "how much is reasonable" for both crafting hobbies and wardrobe stuff, I'd really love to hear some advice! Thanks all.

Day 4: Got a bit less done than I expected, had to deal with software issues for that deadline. Finished the dishes, then found some more to clean and finished those. I'm clustering the clutter in the corner of my desk to diminish over time then to maybe get help with at the end of the week.

I'm going to tackle the clothes today!

Edit: all done clothes except for a handful that I need to try on to evaluate... not feeling up to it at the moment. So I did half of the desk pile and scrubbed down my kitchen table and bathroom.

What to do with books you love but won’t read anymore. I have a lot of YA books that I just simply won’t read anymore. Pre-kids me collected everything she could. The few I do I ended up borrowing from the library in my kindle app for convenience reasons. I strongly dislike the idea of just dumping them at the thrift store. The books themselves are in good condition, if a little aged. One of my goals is to cut down on books so I can actually feel inspired to read the ones I haven’t. I have many books I’ve bought and haven’t started. Thoughts?

Came home Friday to the notice- annual apartment inspection on Tuesday. Trying to see it as a blessing in disguise. I have family visiting next month so the place needs to be clean anyway, but…

I have ADHD and am in the middle of TMS treatment for a recurrence of depression. Fortunately, treatment is working and I am feeling more like myself again.

But with the depression and ADHD… I live in a studio and let’s just say it’s “cluttered” (I’m too embarrassed to post pics). But I took out the recycling, cleaned the litter box/took out the garbage, and am going to just pomodoro this thing best I can.

Starting… NOW!

Well, I never considered robot vacuums before as I assumed they were too expensive. Looking into them now, there's quite a few options below $500. Some of the brands I've seen are Eufy RoboVac, Roomba, Kogan, MyGenie, etc.

I've never had any experience with robot cleaners before, never really thought I needed them. But life's getting busier, and if there's something out there that can do the job well without breaking the bank, I'd seriously consider it. But I'm clueless about what to even look for in a good robot vacuum What are considered basic functions that these little helpers MUST do well, and what are considered as added features? I guess battery life and suction power are some of the basic functions you can't compromise on. Anything else? If you have any recommendations or personal experiences that you could share regarding any sub $500 models, that would be awesome too!

Thanks all!

So I’m moving to a smaller home in the same town. I drive a pickup and the house is 15 minutes away, so I can make trips. Have moved a few accent tables over but nothing that’s made an impact.

Nothing is in boxes, but I have boxes. I need to get rid of 75% of my stuff because I know I don’t need it, and I’m going to have two fewer rooms. One of which is a playroom for my very spoiled (she’s an angel, deserves it) threenager. The fucking toys this kid has.

How the fuck am I, a single woman with no upper or lower body strength, who also has ADHD, going to accomplish this in one weekend? I’ve read all the other moving posts but don’t feel inspired or like anything clicked. I need motivation. I’ve napped away my Friday off of work and am kicking myself. Literally paralyzed by my stress. Which is how I ended my last post in this group lol. Help!

UPDATE 1 (4/27/24 @ 2:37pm): just got the U-Haul truck. Never driven a truck like this. I barely manage the pickup I drive. Reservation is for 24 hours. I’m about to be the most independent woman who don’t need no man the worlds ever seen.

Cause I’m going to get up now. Then I’m going to take a shower. Then I’m going to pull a few weeds and rake a few leaves. Just a tiny bit.

Then Im going to light a candle to make it cozy inside. I’m going to wash a couple dishes and put in a load of laundry.
It will be nice. Then, if I’m feeling up for it, I’m going to return a call about a potential new job.

I’m Sick of being frozen. Im not even tired. I don’t know why I’m still laying here. Well yes I do, it’s the anxiety.

But here I go. If I can do it you can do it. I started with the toe wiggling trick. And now I’m up.

I have lived in squalor for much of the last 2 decades. I dug out once and relapsed within 2 years. My house is a money pit and not worth the extensive repairs and remodeling needed, but thanks to the market, I am actually going to get a decent sale price for it. I am moving into a beautiful new apartment in June. :-)

I have spent the last couple months throwing junk away, giving away decent stuff I don't use, and packing stuff to move. I am aiming for simplicity, and intend to move limited possessions. I am also starting over with all new furniture. I am VERY excited about this!!! I so desperately want to live in a beautiful and functional space, and I feel like no amount of effort could have turned my current home into that, but now I have that opportunity.

My question is, what advice do you have for someone starting over with a pristine place, on how to maintain it? Are there any products, devices, schedules, etc. that you recommend? (the simpler, the better) Should I get a Roomba (or similar)? It's a 1200 sq ft apartment with no carpet, so I am thinking maybe starting with Swiffer is sufficient and cheaper? Swiffer wouldn't work in this house because the floors would snag it profusely (rotting wood and crumbling laminate flooring), but the new floors will be very flush with no snagging issues.

I already have plans for several out of town guests to visit over the first 4 months, thinking that would be motivation to keep me on track. I am just really nervous about how to develop maintenance skills when I haven't had them for the first 50 years of my life (this is at least partially learned behavior from my mom, but also due to bouts of major depression, currently stable).

Any advice would be most welcome.

UPDATE: OMG - A local friend (one of only 2 who know my situation) just offered to pay for 2 months of cleaning service for me as a housewarming/birthday/Christmas/everything 2024 gift. So excited!!!