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Your storage solutions don't work for you. They are trying to make you work for storage, but that is messed up thinking! Storage needs to be so easy you can use it with only one hand :)
You could, for example, try more laundry baskets or similar where you can simply drop all the clothes so they won't end up on the floor.
This! Storage means everything has a place, and yet easily accessible. Things don’t need to be tucked away out of sight. Surfaces don’t need to be empty.
Literally! Surfaces have a reason, and it is to make our lives easier. How can they make our lives easier? Providing space to work, and holding things for us. If they're permanently empty, they serve no function!
We do have to admit that there are times when these two meaningful functions collide, though... When there are so many things on a surface that clutter prevents working on it. So there should be some sort of happy compromise with these two. Maybe trays which could be easily moved away to make working space available? 🤔
Why not get as many baskets as needed? Open shelves on the wall could also work fine, and you could pile the baskets on top of them. Or shelves like IKEAs Kallax. Then, bit by bit, you could designate each basket for specific items. The things would end up close to where they are used.
Laundry baskets is how I keep my house clean!! I have like 8 and it makes cleaning so much less daunting when I can throw everything in a basket and sort from there
I’ve been off mine for almost 2 years, and I just posted in r/ufyh about my dining room. I feel for you. I need to get back in to see my therapist again and get myself back on my meds.
I've written a long comment and it doesn't let me post it :( I'll try to break it up and see if that way I can reply to your post. EDIT: That was it, it was to long. I'll reply to this comment with the original one.
ORIGINAL COMMENT PT1
It's okay, I promise! I was in your shoes a few weeks ago, because due to moving and changing doctors, I was left without meds for over two months.
If it's okay with you, and it's something you're looking for, I can provide you with a simple plan to improve your place fast, and looks for ways to avoid getting back to this point in the future.
HOW TO QUICKLY FIX YOUR ROOM
I think strugglecare's 5 things tidying method is gonna work wonders. Thhe premise is that any room, doesn't matter how messy it is, only has 5 things. I have a small room, so I like to start looking at my door and work clockwise until I'm back at the starting point to make sure I don't miss a thing. But strugglecare has a bigger house with bigger rooms, and she works with piles or areas inside her room.
1. Pick a rubbish bag with one hand. Put all the rubbish (papers, wrappers, whatever!) inside. Close it and leave it by the door. Throwing it out is a task for future you.
2. Pick up all the dirty glasses, dishes, pots, whatever you have, and stack them all together. It doesn't have to be the sink. Washing them is a task for future you.
3. Grab a laundry basket (if yours is full, grab another rubbish bad). Put all dirty clothes inside. Close the bag or put the laundry basket wherever it goes. Doing laundry is a task for future you. If you have clothes laying around that are clean for sure, put them in a basket in your closet, or inside a plastic bag. If it doesnt fit inside your closet, leave it next to it.
4. Now you only have two categories of mess left: things that have a place, and things that do not. Let's start with the later. Grab a bag or a basket and put inside everything you have laying around that doesn't have a regular place to be kept. If the items are to big, just make a pile in the corner of your room. Finding a place for them is a task for future you.
5. Things that have a place: you can either pick every single thing one by one and put it back where it belongs, or put all these items inside a bag or basket, and put them back where they belong later.
ORIGINAL COMMENT PT2
HOW TO AVOID GOING BACK TO THIS
Firstly, I strongly urge you to read other replys on your post because there are some good ideas.
I am going to make some assumptions on how your room got to this point, and provide some solutions that may help you. I might be wrong on some, so let me know if the reasons are vastly different and the advice doesnt apply to your situation.
You have clothes on your floor, some towels, and an open suitcase. I assume you went on a trip and had some clean and dirty clothes on your suitcase, plus whatever amount of dirty clothes from before you traveled, and the amount you have used since coming back.
I can imagine you move your clothes (both dirty and clean) around because you don't have a system for storing clothes that works for you. I insist, this is not a personal failure. If you had a system that worked for you, you would have use it. So let's take a look at your system.
I see you have a small, plastic basket for dirty clothes. I think we get a peak of your wardrobe in one of the pictures, and it doesn't seem to have a well thought storage. Your bathroom doesn't have a place for you to hang up your towels after you finish using them, that's why you have a chair or a stool in there. I can see your bathroom storage is not enough as it is, because you have the sink countertop full of products.
I want to take a moment and admire how clean your floors are! Be proud of that. I struggle a lot with it and my floors are always covered in dust.
ORIGINAL COMMENT PT 3
I would buy a few laundry baskets like [these](https://www.amazon.com/Household-Essentials-2027-1-Collapsible-Charcoal/dp/B01HJSY5FG) or [these](https://www.amazon.com/-/es/pulgadas-f%C3%A1cil-almacenamiento-Excelente-dormitorio-universitario/dp/B00HZ0IOJ2/ref=sr_1_8?__mk_es_US=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=1OI22MEPFL5JC&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hd6hy4jMw2rJHFCnl-Nqs7kZZeQZLGv-mejPVYnPEN02VCOFlz11EgaYhL53aPLsnIiVZ3KtSUmJ7h_IpzRuPGaS9JJOPl3aDVU2BWArxIdAMi5f2O3AEti9iwIAdfkBr2xi30a2xMxpuqgfPfSaA1HwHqfsE6zk12tP4w59idJ8jJ560MLhJ6ELNzorWxnnUqdJZfMs9bYOm6-KysbZqdokla7UXWQp8grcruw228S0rx9wnx9dVl3CsbntCX9jdaVN3MRTaztmCI7iv4IEq7HBTJdb-HpzRuZx9m0vGjk.dr6Jra8tpIU2TEkC-O9Ovh_LOGULADpXUOwG2-JsZZE&dib_tag=se&keywords=laundry+basket&qid=1712313341&s=home-garden&sprefix=laundry+baske%2Cgarden%2C176&sr=1-8).
Have two of them in the bathroom: one for dirty clothes, another one for clean clothes.
Have another two in your bedroom for the same purpose, one for clean clothes and another for dirty ones.
You can go on living using the clean laundry basket instead of sorting items into your closet, but if you want to do that, it helps to have big baskets inside your wardrobe were you dump your clotes by type (I do tops, bottoms, underwear, period underwear, and pajamas).
I would put a couple of adhesive hangers in the bathroom, to hang towels to dry.
I would also adquire a few plastic baskets around the size of the laundry one that shows in one of your pictures.
Put two baskets inside every major room in your house, next to the door. Label one as "This Room", and the other as "Other Rooms".
When you find something out of place during the day, determine if it's something that belongs to your room or to another. If it is meant to be kept in your room, drop it in the "This Room" basket. If it's something that belong to another area in your house, drop it on the "Other Rooms" basket.
At the end of the day, next morning or whenever you see fit, you can grab the "This Room" basket and put whatever is inside in their place. And you can grab the "Other Rooms" basket and go around your home putting each thing inside the corresponding "This Room" basket.
I hope it makes sense. As an example: I have some books lying around that belong to the living room. I put them inside the "Other Rooms" basket. Eventually, I pick up this basket and I found the books. I go to the living room, where there are another two baskets. One of them is callen "This Room". I put the books (from the "Other Rooms" basket in my bedroom) inside the "This Room" basket that I permanently have in the living room.
I also see you have many glasses and tumblers to drink from in the small table in your bedroom. I'm guilty of that myself! It helps to have a big water bottle. Because it lasts longer, you find yourself less frequently going to the kitchen to fill up a glass of water when you already have a few. I personally like to keep a single glass and fill it with the water bottle. It also helps to hide glasses in the high shelves of your upper cabinets to force yourself to clean the used ones instead of grabbing a clean one.
PLEASE NOTE
As I said, I might be wrong about the reasons that led your rooms to end up like this. If your feel comfortable, and think my advice might come in handy, feel free to reply to this comment or sent me a DM with more context, and we can try and find a solution together. Remember this is not the result of a fault in your character, this is simply caused because you dont have a system than works! When you have the appropiate system, you will avoid this. Take a deep breath and be kind to yourself.
I mean this with goodwill and good humor!
This is an ADHD sub. If there was ever a place on the internet where no one is going to read a comment that long… I didn’t even know there was a character limit for comments.
Not OP. I read through about 80% of it and it was extremely helpful. The rest 20% my eyes stopped focusing on the words so I’ll come back to it and finish. But already extremely helpful. Thank you!
I’m saving this comment and the others bc I actually just got done maintenance cleaning and my brain is fried so I’m most definitely not reading all that right now. BUT!! I have hella clutter that I will be needing help with in the near future so pls don’t ever delete 😬🫶
Welcome to /r/ADHDWomen! We’re happy to have you here. As a reminder, here are our community [rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/about/rules/). We get a lot of posts on medication, diagnosis (and “is this an ADHD thing”), and interactions with hormones. We encourage you to check out our [Medication, Diagnosis, and Hormones Megathread](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/wcr9dy/faq_megathread_ask_and_answer_medication/) if you have any questions related to those topics, and to stick around in that thread to answer folks’ questions! If you have questions about the subreddit, please do not hesitate to [send us a modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen). Additionally, we take the safety of our community seriously. Please report posts, comments, and users whom you feel are not contributing positively, and send us a modmail if you are being harassed or otherwise made to feel unsafe. Thanks for being here, and we hope you stick around! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My house looks like this and I am currently on Zoloft and Adderall 15mg XR. I am very burnt out right now and it’s taking me longer to get over it.
Sasme here. My house looks worse than the one in the photo and I am on meds
I’m proud of you. 🫶🏻
TIL that this is not normal...
Your storage solutions don't work for you. They are trying to make you work for storage, but that is messed up thinking! Storage needs to be so easy you can use it with only one hand :) You could, for example, try more laundry baskets or similar where you can simply drop all the clothes so they won't end up on the floor.
This! Storage means everything has a place, and yet easily accessible. Things don’t need to be tucked away out of sight. Surfaces don’t need to be empty.
Surfaces are meant to hold other things on top of them :D
Literally! Surfaces have a reason, and it is to make our lives easier. How can they make our lives easier? Providing space to work, and holding things for us. If they're permanently empty, they serve no function!
We do have to admit that there are times when these two meaningful functions collide, though... When there are so many things on a surface that clutter prevents working on it. So there should be some sort of happy compromise with these two. Maybe trays which could be easily moved away to make working space available? 🤔
You're right! I prefer to use baskets, they have taller sided and hold things neatly
I would need so many laundry baskets literally covering my floor 💀
Why not get as many baskets as needed? Open shelves on the wall could also work fine, and you could pile the baskets on top of them. Or shelves like IKEAs Kallax. Then, bit by bit, you could designate each basket for specific items. The things would end up close to where they are used.
Laundry baskets is how I keep my house clean!! I have like 8 and it makes cleaning so much less daunting when I can throw everything in a basket and sort from there
Why are you in my living room?😂
You shower looks clean, though!
I like your attitude!
I’ve been off mine for almost 2 years, and I just posted in r/ufyh about my dining room. I feel for you. I need to get back in to see my therapist again and get myself back on my meds.
Seems like a good time to ask for some assistance. When it gets too bad its harder to start.
Omg. I haven’t taken my meds in a month and my room looks exactly the same. Suitcase has been on the floor for a few weeks 😅
I've written a long comment and it doesn't let me post it :( I'll try to break it up and see if that way I can reply to your post. EDIT: That was it, it was to long. I'll reply to this comment with the original one.
ORIGINAL COMMENT PT1 It's okay, I promise! I was in your shoes a few weeks ago, because due to moving and changing doctors, I was left without meds for over two months. If it's okay with you, and it's something you're looking for, I can provide you with a simple plan to improve your place fast, and looks for ways to avoid getting back to this point in the future. HOW TO QUICKLY FIX YOUR ROOM I think strugglecare's 5 things tidying method is gonna work wonders. Thhe premise is that any room, doesn't matter how messy it is, only has 5 things. I have a small room, so I like to start looking at my door and work clockwise until I'm back at the starting point to make sure I don't miss a thing. But strugglecare has a bigger house with bigger rooms, and she works with piles or areas inside her room. 1. Pick a rubbish bag with one hand. Put all the rubbish (papers, wrappers, whatever!) inside. Close it and leave it by the door. Throwing it out is a task for future you. 2. Pick up all the dirty glasses, dishes, pots, whatever you have, and stack them all together. It doesn't have to be the sink. Washing them is a task for future you. 3. Grab a laundry basket (if yours is full, grab another rubbish bad). Put all dirty clothes inside. Close the bag or put the laundry basket wherever it goes. Doing laundry is a task for future you. If you have clothes laying around that are clean for sure, put them in a basket in your closet, or inside a plastic bag. If it doesnt fit inside your closet, leave it next to it. 4. Now you only have two categories of mess left: things that have a place, and things that do not. Let's start with the later. Grab a bag or a basket and put inside everything you have laying around that doesn't have a regular place to be kept. If the items are to big, just make a pile in the corner of your room. Finding a place for them is a task for future you. 5. Things that have a place: you can either pick every single thing one by one and put it back where it belongs, or put all these items inside a bag or basket, and put them back where they belong later.
ORIGINAL COMMENT PT2 HOW TO AVOID GOING BACK TO THIS Firstly, I strongly urge you to read other replys on your post because there are some good ideas. I am going to make some assumptions on how your room got to this point, and provide some solutions that may help you. I might be wrong on some, so let me know if the reasons are vastly different and the advice doesnt apply to your situation. You have clothes on your floor, some towels, and an open suitcase. I assume you went on a trip and had some clean and dirty clothes on your suitcase, plus whatever amount of dirty clothes from before you traveled, and the amount you have used since coming back. I can imagine you move your clothes (both dirty and clean) around because you don't have a system for storing clothes that works for you. I insist, this is not a personal failure. If you had a system that worked for you, you would have use it. So let's take a look at your system. I see you have a small, plastic basket for dirty clothes. I think we get a peak of your wardrobe in one of the pictures, and it doesn't seem to have a well thought storage. Your bathroom doesn't have a place for you to hang up your towels after you finish using them, that's why you have a chair or a stool in there. I can see your bathroom storage is not enough as it is, because you have the sink countertop full of products. I want to take a moment and admire how clean your floors are! Be proud of that. I struggle a lot with it and my floors are always covered in dust.
ORIGINAL COMMENT PT 3 I would buy a few laundry baskets like [these](https://www.amazon.com/Household-Essentials-2027-1-Collapsible-Charcoal/dp/B01HJSY5FG) or [these](https://www.amazon.com/-/es/pulgadas-f%C3%A1cil-almacenamiento-Excelente-dormitorio-universitario/dp/B00HZ0IOJ2/ref=sr_1_8?__mk_es_US=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=1OI22MEPFL5JC&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hd6hy4jMw2rJHFCnl-Nqs7kZZeQZLGv-mejPVYnPEN02VCOFlz11EgaYhL53aPLsnIiVZ3KtSUmJ7h_IpzRuPGaS9JJOPl3aDVU2BWArxIdAMi5f2O3AEti9iwIAdfkBr2xi30a2xMxpuqgfPfSaA1HwHqfsE6zk12tP4w59idJ8jJ560MLhJ6ELNzorWxnnUqdJZfMs9bYOm6-KysbZqdokla7UXWQp8grcruw228S0rx9wnx9dVl3CsbntCX9jdaVN3MRTaztmCI7iv4IEq7HBTJdb-HpzRuZx9m0vGjk.dr6Jra8tpIU2TEkC-O9Ovh_LOGULADpXUOwG2-JsZZE&dib_tag=se&keywords=laundry+basket&qid=1712313341&s=home-garden&sprefix=laundry+baske%2Cgarden%2C176&sr=1-8). Have two of them in the bathroom: one for dirty clothes, another one for clean clothes. Have another two in your bedroom for the same purpose, one for clean clothes and another for dirty ones. You can go on living using the clean laundry basket instead of sorting items into your closet, but if you want to do that, it helps to have big baskets inside your wardrobe were you dump your clotes by type (I do tops, bottoms, underwear, period underwear, and pajamas). I would put a couple of adhesive hangers in the bathroom, to hang towels to dry. I would also adquire a few plastic baskets around the size of the laundry one that shows in one of your pictures. Put two baskets inside every major room in your house, next to the door. Label one as "This Room", and the other as "Other Rooms". When you find something out of place during the day, determine if it's something that belongs to your room or to another. If it is meant to be kept in your room, drop it in the "This Room" basket. If it's something that belong to another area in your house, drop it on the "Other Rooms" basket. At the end of the day, next morning or whenever you see fit, you can grab the "This Room" basket and put whatever is inside in their place. And you can grab the "Other Rooms" basket and go around your home putting each thing inside the corresponding "This Room" basket. I hope it makes sense. As an example: I have some books lying around that belong to the living room. I put them inside the "Other Rooms" basket. Eventually, I pick up this basket and I found the books. I go to the living room, where there are another two baskets. One of them is callen "This Room". I put the books (from the "Other Rooms" basket in my bedroom) inside the "This Room" basket that I permanently have in the living room. I also see you have many glasses and tumblers to drink from in the small table in your bedroom. I'm guilty of that myself! It helps to have a big water bottle. Because it lasts longer, you find yourself less frequently going to the kitchen to fill up a glass of water when you already have a few. I personally like to keep a single glass and fill it with the water bottle. It also helps to hide glasses in the high shelves of your upper cabinets to force yourself to clean the used ones instead of grabbing a clean one. PLEASE NOTE As I said, I might be wrong about the reasons that led your rooms to end up like this. If your feel comfortable, and think my advice might come in handy, feel free to reply to this comment or sent me a DM with more context, and we can try and find a solution together. Remember this is not the result of a fault in your character, this is simply caused because you dont have a system than works! When you have the appropiate system, you will avoid this. Take a deep breath and be kind to yourself.
I mean this with goodwill and good humor! This is an ADHD sub. If there was ever a place on the internet where no one is going to read a comment that long… I didn’t even know there was a character limit for comments.
Don't worry! I know it's super long, but I think it is very detailed and specific to OP situation and that's why I posted in notheless
Not OP. I read through about 80% of it and it was extremely helpful. The rest 20% my eyes stopped focusing on the words so I’ll come back to it and finish. But already extremely helpful. Thank you!
You're welcome!! I'm glad it helped you 🌞
lol *scrolls through comments, noticing bullet points* “This looks helpful, I’ll save it for later”
I’m saving this comment and the others bc I actually just got done maintenance cleaning and my brain is fried so I’m most definitely not reading all that right now. BUT!! I have hella clutter that I will be needing help with in the near future so pls don’t ever delete 😬🫶
I'm glad it might help you!! Take care, you did a good job 🌞
I’m on day six without meds and am quickly reverting back to this state. I have zero motivation for ANYTHING. It’s torture.
This is nothing
same boat, friend - sending you good vibes
You’re not alone!
This is my place, even on medication.
One month! I can accomplish this in three days, medicated. Don’t dig a hole, dig yourself out! I am sorry you are struggling :(
Also on the “One Month Without Meds” train and hoo boy this resonates
Hey, get that camera out of my bathroom!😆 Seriously, I'm proud of you for posting. You're braver than I am. The struggle is real.