Maintaining a Clean Home with Mental Illness

Cleaning with mental illness can often times feel like a never-ending battle. It’s one of those areas that many with mental illness struggle with, so don’t feel alone if you’re one of these people. Even if we are generally clean and organized, one episode of anxiety or depression can leave our homes looking like a disaster zone.

So, what can you do to maintain a clean home when mentally ill?

Decluttering

Let me just start by saying this: Decluttering has changed my life.

I live in a small studio apartment in the city and I used to collect a lot of stuff. Not because I like to hoard items, but mainly small things I’d keep because I would be concerned I would need an item in the future and wouldn’t have it. I’ve never had a lot of extra money, so a large portion of this stemmed from fear of not having the money to purchase the item in the future.

So many of us struggle with this mentality. The scarcity mindset. Feeling like we will never have enough of what we need.

Or maybe you just have a lot of stuff because you have a lot of different interests.

It doesn’t matter which category or reason you fall into - if you’re reading this post, then it’s likely you have too little spoons to manage all the stuff you have in your home. Mental illness is exhausting and it takes a toll.

Whether we like to admit it or not, cleaning is one of the first things that gets behind and quickly becomes overwhelming when we are beginning to struggle. Simply having less stuff to manage is one of the ways we can help limit just how out of control our environment can get when we are ill.

With less stuff, there is less mess that can be made, and there is less to put back together when we finally have the energy.

Some of the decluttering tips that have helped me most:

• Declutter before you clean. It may feel better to clean and reorganize as you declutter items, but try to focus on just decluttering ALL before trying to clean and organize. Doing your decluttering all in one go with allow you to see dramatic results in a shorter span of time, which will help keep you motivated and on track. Decluttering definitely becomes easier the more you do because you start to see the results quickly. Also, if you decide to clean before you declutter, it will give the illusion that the clutter problem is solved. But before you know it, things will be piling up again and you’ll be back to square one. Reducing the amount of stuff you have is CRITICAL to being able to keep your home clean while struggling with mental illness. Figure out where to store things once you have finished discarding everything you don’t need.

• Only having 2 plates, 2 bowls, 2 silverware, and 2 cups. Only having 2 of everything means that my sink never becomes overflowing with dishes and it encourages me to wash my dishes at random times throughout the day when there is only 1-5 items at most to wash. This rule, with different numbers, has been helpfully applied to other areas of my life too. I only keep a certain number of pens, highlighters, notebooks, and coloring books. I use fleece on the bottom of my animal cages, so I now only keep enough for 1 set of fleece to be in use and 1 set to be rotated and washed. I only keep a certain amount of extras in my home so nothing can pile up and create clutter. This helps me so much when it comes to keeping my home organized. There is simply WAY LESS to get cluttered.

• Declutter clothes more than once. The first time I decluttered my clothes, I left a lot of items in there that I didn’t really need but couldn’t imagine getting rid of. But funny enough, decluttering gets way less challenging the more we do it. Because of this, I suggest decluttering your clothes and clothes-like items once, but then coming back around and doing them a second time after you’ve spent time decluttering in other areas of your home as well. By the second time around, you’ll have a better eye for what you really want to keep in your closet.

• Don’t stop decluttering! After you’ve decluttered your home once, you may think you’re done… but the honest truth is, you’ll never be done decluttering once you start. BUT it does become less of a chore and more of a lifestyle. After you do it once, you’ll enter maintenance mode and this just means you’ll continue to declutter items as things pop up. Usually once a week, or on the weekend when doing my big deep clean, I’ll declutter a small area of things, like make-up or a random drawer in my kitchen. Doing this a few times a month will help keep things from building up again and will help control any messes from piling up! As a rule of thumb, if you have any areas in your home in the future that seem to get cluttered, this means that area needs decluttering again!

• Do whatever you need to do to get the items you’re decluttering out of your home. This may be an unpopular opinion because it can very wasteful, but getting the items out of your home is crucial to decluttering effectively. You know yourself best. If you are willing and able, donation is the best way to get rid of the things you don’t need. You can easily schedule a donation pick-up through The Salvation Army or AMVets. Another thing you can do is sell some of your gently used items if you are in need of the money. BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF. If you are someone who will take months to sell or donate your items, the best thing you can do for yourself is just toss the items. The most important thing, first and foremost, is that you are taking the steps necessary to get your home life under control.

Keeping your home clean

Keeping your home clean can sometimes seem like an impossible task. Whether you are living with just yourself, or with others, this seems to be one of the hardest things for me to maintain, ESPECIALLY when living with mental illness.

There are many benefits to keeping a clean home. Those who are able to keep a clean home show more productivity, lower stress levels, improved sleep quality, healthier food choices, save time, and show an overall happier attitude about life.

Here are the cleaning tips that have helped me most:

• Start small and keep it small. Let your small wins be the thing that motivates you to keep moving forward through positive feedback loops. (A positive feedback loop is when the product of a reaction causes an increase in that reaction.) Do this by starting out with something small. Putting all the trash in the garbage. Picking up any dirty dishes and placing them in the sink. Picking up all the clothes and putting them next to the washing machine. As you complete smaller projects, you will start to notice a difference in your space and it will motivate you to keep going through the larger projects. Once you have moved onto larger projects or spaces in your home, break these larger areas down into smaller projects to help keep the pace the same. This will also help keep full rooms and larger spaces from becoming too overwhelming and seemingly impossible to do. Don’t expect yourself to do everything in one day. Start small and keep it small, doing a little bit more each day to get your space to a manageable state.

• Affirmations and positive self talk. I’m a firm believer in the power of affirmations used daily in our lives. I used to be riddled with negative self talk in every area of my life. I began slowly combatting those negative thoughts by keeping a daily journal where I consistently write out positive affirmations about the things I want to be able to accomplish and my ability to do those things. Negative self talk can demotivate you from doing the things you need to do by trapping you in a circle of self deprecating comments and beliefs. This go-to may not work immediately but you will begin to notice a difference in the areas you focus most on. Remember, with affirmations, you want your affirmations to be believable to you, so sometimes you may have to play with the wording a bit. Some positive affirmations surrounding cleaning can be: I am turning into someone whose house is always tidy. Cleanliness and hygiene are becoming more and more important to me. I am starting to notice how it feels good to have a clean house. Cleanly regularly is a normal part of my everyday routine. I am in control of my life and surroundings. Every day I do something to make my surroundings more comfortable. Use the power of our minds to your benefit!

• Put cleaning products in every room. Put a small basket or container in each of your rooms for cleaning products so they are always handy and easy to reach. I personally use only white vinegar for almost all of my cleaning. It eliminates the need to have multiple types of cleaning products to store and it’s simple to buy and use.

• Make sure everything you own has a home! This helps keep clutter at bay as you’ll never have random items floating around your house with nowhere to put them. You already know where they go and can put them in its place rather than in a random spot. If areas begin to get cluttered, you’ll know it’s time to either declutter or find homes for the things that are lingering around your house.

• Have a cleaning routine! I have a small cleaning routine that I do every night after work. This helps ensure that nothing is building up to an insurmountable task before it needs done. The main things I focus on every night includes: dishes, cleaning off my desk where I work, picking up any random things I left laying around and putting them back in their homes, and taking out any cardboard or boxes that I may have gotten for the day. The routine I follow every other day includes: quick cleaning my animal pens/cages and vacuuming my floor. These small steps are tiny but mighty helpers when it comes to keeping my apartment looking clean and easily manageable. On the weekend, I spend Saturday doing the rest of my cleaning and organizing anything that has gotten out of place.

• Use timers. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started, but sometimes it’s also hard to keep going. Try to get motivated to start cleaning your space by setting a timer, even if for just 10 minutes, to clean as much as you can within that time. After the 10 minutes, you get a break. Then try another timer, maybe setting this one to 15 minutes. When I first started my cleaning and decluttering journey, my apartment was a mess, and this was one of the first things I did to get myself more motivated to start. Knowing I only had to clean for those 10 or 15 minutes really helped me start. Once started, I could usually accomplish a little bit more. Giving myself breaks in between allowed me to still rest and recharge in between the sessions. Don’t feel bad for needing breaks in between your timer sessions. Good habits are formed slowly and consistently. If you need breaks, take them. Slow progress is still progress. Remember to go at your own pace and don’t let the expectations of others (or yourself) doom you to not being able to accomplish anything.

• Ask for help. This may be the hardest suggestion out of any of them, but the most important. Asking for help can look a little different for everyone. Maybe you need help doing a massive declutter so you can get started in keeping your home more organized. Ask a family member or a friend to help you get started and to help keep you motivated with moving forward through your things. Once decluttered, your space will be MUCH easier to organize and keep clean. Maybe you need help with the cleaning because you’ve let your space go for too long. Ask for help from a family member or friend in getting your space back in order, so you can begin developing habits to help keep it cleaner in the future with less effort and time. If you live with other people, enlist their help when it comes to daily chores and keeping your environment picked up. This can be done through a chore chart for smaller kids and teens. This may look like splitting up tasks between you and your significant other so you’re not the only one working towards a cleaner home. This also may be realizing that it’s impossible to keep your home clean on your own. Putting aside money for a cleaning service, even once a month if you have the means, can significantly reduce the amount of work you need to do each week to keep your home clean and tidy. Living with a mental illness can be hard and sometimes we need to ask for help. Don’t be ashamed of asking for help! It takes more courage to ask for help in the beginning, but it ultimately allows you to reach your goal of having a cleaner and more maintained home overall, and there’s no shame in that.

Hopefully these small tips and tricks for decluttering and cleaning your home will be helpful for you.

Don’t expect yourself to do them all at once. Start with one tip and build up new habits and routines from there. Give yourself freedom to make mistakes as you go along. Nobody is perfect.

The most important thing is: no matter how slow you go, keep going. Keep your goal of having a clean and organized home in the front of your mind. And don’t give up until you reach your goal!

If you have any more tips or tricks when it comes to decluttering or cleaning your home, please leave them in the comments below!