Small Steps are Still a Huge Success
When you're coping with daily mental health and trying to keep it in check, it's great to take small steps so you're not overwhelming yourself into more anxiety or depression.
The past two weeks I've really been working hard in my house "Spring Cleaning" to help with my mental health and depression. When my house is dirty and cluttered, it gives me more anxiety and depression which makes me walk into a room to clean it and I end up turning right back around out of that room I'm about to clean and just say, "NOPE!" Then I will sit down on the sofa and be depressed all day because it feels so overwhelming that I can't contain the depression and anxiety.
So, the past two weeks, I've came up with a great strategy for ME that helped me to deep clean 4 rooms already in my house! I really hope my cleaning tips can also help you to achieve some goals in your home.
🧹 - Only pick one room to start with! Don't do multiple rooms. This will stress you out and you won't end up making any progress.
When I used to clean my house, I would get so rattlebrained that I wouldn't get anything accomplished. Then when I did get anything accomplished, I would be extremely tired and maxed out for days. Then it would take me another week to even try again. So, I decided to focus only on ONE room at a time. I decided the first day to clean my dining room. My dining room is just a tad different than other dining rooms. My husband and I don't actually eat in the dining room. It was where I did all of my sewing at. But it was a cluttered mess ever since I'd gotten back from my in-patient rehab stay. I made a plan first and decided what I wanted to do with the room first and then started cleaning it. I decided to move the room where I sewed at into my office and change my office room into my sewing room. You want to begin by throwing away anything that's trash. Don't hold onto things. It's very hard to NOT BE A HOARDER in times of cleaning LOL. If it's laying on a shelf or on a table for months untouched, you're probably never going to touch it again. Get rid of it or donate it! After getting rid of all your trash, straighten up all the other mess and put everything away. I have a large filing cabinet that I keep my sewing things in, so that's a huge help for me to organize my things away and out of sight. Now you should be able to sweep and mop your floor, wipe down all your walls in that room with your cleaner of choice and neatly put everything back into its place. For me it made it easy because I knew that everything in my dining room was going to be moved into another room, BUT it couldn't be moved until I got the other room clean and organized first! It felt really great to get that first room cleaned and it also made me eager to start on my office.
🧹 - Take a day's break the next day or even take a two-day break! No one is judging you, and if they are, then just ignore them. You're doing what you can. Keep at your own pace for your mental health. I had to take a couple days break in between every clean and that's because I babysit my grandkids during the day, so it's VERY hard to do anything at all in the daytime while I'm caring for a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old. Still, don't get discouraged because you're doing something at least!
🧹 - Next, I began in my office room that was going to be turned into my sewing room. Now that I got my dining room all cleaned and ready to turn into my office, I was ready to start cleaning my next room. Now that the dining room is all cleaned, it's so easy to start the transformation of moving things from room to room without being all rattlebrained and having too much of a clutter that will cause anxiety! So, I cleaned the next room starting with throwing away the trash and organizing the items to keep into the closet on shelfs while cleaning. After cleaning, I swept and mopped the floor. Washed down the walls with a washcloth and my favorite cleaning product. Now I was ready to move my computer and office equipment into my new office room, and all of my sewing supplies into my new sewing room. The thing I love best about my new sewing room is that the room is all windows to the outside, so I had an amazing place to put my houseplants all on one wall to soak up amazing sunlight!
🧹 - I now have two completed cleaned and organized rooms that are clutter free and stress free. An amazing place to sit at my computer to do all of my writing and an amazing place to go and work on all my sewing projects. I have a big tv on the wall in the sewing room, so I can sit down to my favorite Joel Osteen programs to watch while I sew. Or I can watch a favorite movie while sewing. In my new computer room, I can watch tv with my husband or my grandkids while working at my desk. I'm really loving the change so far and all of my progress! I also want to note that while working on these two rooms, I was also working on little things around the house trying my best to not get stressed out by having too many things going on all at once. It's really easy to get sidetracked, and if you're like me and all rattlebrained, then you'll end up doing 5,000 things all at once getting NOTHING accomplished.
🧹 - My next project was to deep clean my kitchen. For some reason the kitchen always gives me anxiety. Silly little things that shouldn't even stress me out, I let stress me out lol. Little things like, the ice trays not getting filled up when they have just one piece of ice in them. I will eventually get tired of filling them up and just let them go empty. For the most part, my husband will fill them up, but he also likes to not fill them up at times, and to get back at him, I will put the ice tray back in the freezer making sure it only has one ice cube in the tray, so he HAS to refill it. LOL. Just little silly things like that stress me out. But remember, if you're living with someone and sharing a space, please do what it takes to help out the other person. I know it may sound petty, but truly listen when I say, being a stay-at-home nana, (while trying to work from home too) is not all fun and games running after kids all day while trying to keep a clean organized home. And honestly, I never ask my husband for help. If I do, he will help me out any way he can. All I ask is that he takes out the trash and fills the ice trays if they need filled. That's really not much to ask for. I keep the house cleaned and even do all his laundry too when it needs washed. The way I see it, he is the bread maker, making way more money than I do, so I do things for him to show I appreciate him and what he does to keep a roof over our head. He will also cook at times because he loves to cook, and he doesn't mind washing dishes. I have been keeping all of the dishes washed up though. Since getting the kitchen all organized and clean, I really can't stand to even see one dirty dish in the sink. It's about helping each other out. Never just expect something from someone because you get used to them doing things for you though. It will make them feel less of a person. If you're making more money than your spouse, don't just expect them to do things because you think you deserve it. None of us are kings. There is only one king. And that's Jesus Christ. the only other thing that truly stresses me out in my kitchen is the cabinet organization. It seems that no matter how many times I organize the cabinets that they just keep getting cluttered and messed up. SO STRESSFUL! And this is me and my husband's fault LOL. This blame doesn't get pointed at only one person because I'm just as bad when it comes to just throwing something in the cabinet to get it off the counter. haha. I am truly going to work harder at keeping my kitchen cabinet's organized better!
🧹 - Now after I have a new office, a new sewing room, and a great looking kitchen it was time to tackle to dreadful laundry room! O MY! To even start this task, I had to do it after the grandkids left for the evening. I started on this task around 7pm and I finished around 11pm. So about 4 hours to declutter and clean the laundry room. The bad thing about our laundry room is that it's always been our, "out of sight, out of mind room". It's VERY, VERY stressful when you're trying to keep the laundry up and clean, but when you walk into the laundry room, you can barely even get through the door from junk and clutter that gets piled up. With my husband not having a garage to put his things at, they get placed into the laundry room. And that's a really great place for things to be put away, but only if it's organized. Things thrown here and there just can't work. It's stressful for everyone.
🧹 - I began with first, taking out the clothes from the room that had been washed, but were still in laundry baskets not put away yet, or hung up. With the new sewing room all clean, I was able to place all the clean clothes on the table to be folded and put away later the next day when my husband went to work so I didn't wake him up while I was cleaning. Then I began to move everything from the room and put onto the kitchen floor so I couldn't throw away junk and trash that had been placed in the room. I swept the floor really good and cleaned everything before I started to organize. After cleaning it was time to start organizing. I moved the toolbox and swept behind everything. Then I put up all the tools where they belong and other nick-nacks into the dresser that also organizes tools and my husband's things. Then one by one I was able to start putting things back into the laundry room until it was very nice looking and stress free. It's so amazing to be able to walk into my laundry room now and actually have a nice clean floor and no clutter everywhere. I do also want to note this. It really does make it hard on my husband not having a place to put his tools and things not having a garage. But keeping the things organized and put away just makes it so much easier for the person who has to stay home and clean all day. Always make sure to help the other person out by keeping your things put away.
🧹 - Now I have FOUR amazing clean room in the home. It's less stressful. I have less anxiety. I have less depression. And if my husband and I keep our things picked up as we go, it will make it easier for me to clean daily. Once you stop putting away things, everything just starts to clutter up, the person who stays home, gets stressed from always being the one who's picking up and eventually they will just stop cleaning all together and the cycle repeats over and over again. So please help each other out. It's not about who works more, or who makes more money. It's a team job!
I really hope you enjoyed reading about my messy house haha. But it feels so nice to walk into an organized room and feel great about yourself because all of the hard work you accomplished. Give yourself a huge pat on the back because it's not easy to organize a home. Especially when you can't do it until nighttime when the grandkids are gone, or everyone else is sleeping and getting rest that you also need to be having but you're cleaning instead. LOL.
My next task is trying to figure out the carpet in the living room. It's old and nasty and it stinks so bad. I can't get the stains out of it and it's super embarrassing when anyone comes over to visit. I'm really thinking about ordering some beautiful throw rugs and just pulling up the carpet to throw away. I can lay down the throw rugs and honestly no one would even notice. I pulled up the carpet in the laundry room years ago because it was mildewed and stunk really bad. And it looks fine. I'd rather it not stink than to worry about having throw rugs down.
Until I figure it out, my small steps to clean my house and organize was a HUGE success. Remember it's not how much you do. Don't stress yourself out trying to do everything in one day. You're amazing and you got this!
I hope everyone has an amazing day. I love all of this May weather! It makes me very happy!
I will see you all tomorrow!
xoxoxo, Michelle Neal