How to Clean up Your Home When You’re Depressed
Depression is one of those illnesses that makes it nearly impossible to just get out of bed, let alone do all the necessary things in your life, such as dressing, eating, and cleaning the house. Unfortunately, the tendency to neglect your physical needs can often make you feel worse, leading to a downward spiral that is difficult to break out of.
When it comes to cleaning when you are depressed, the physical activity of cleaning and the sight of a clean house can help you feel better, while a mess in your home can make your mood worse, but when you are depressed, mustering your strength to clean can seem almost impossible. Here are some strategies to help you clear up when you are depressed.
The amount of cleaning you can do will depend on your energy level and the amount of clutter.
Depending on how severe your depression is, and how long it lasts, your approach will vary depending on how much energy you have and how messy your home is. If the depression lasts for a while, chances are high that the disorder has accumulated to the point where it is impossible to deal with. Even so, there are little things that can help you.
What to do if you have almost no energy
If your living space seems so buried under piles of clothes, garbage bags and clutter that you can barely move, the first thing to do, according to K.S. Davis , author of How To KeepYour Home From Drowning , is aboutmaking your place functional to live . Davis, a licensed professional therapist, runs a mental health platform called Struggle Care , which focuses on practical, non-judgmental advice for people going through difficult times.
When Davis says “functional,” she is not speaking neatly, orderly, or even very cleanly. In fact, she has in mind that you deserve a clean place to sleep and a safe place to walk. Start by placing clean sheets on your bed, then clear your way to the kitchen, living room and bathroom so you don’t trip over piles of clutter every time you try to move. If that’s all you have the energy for at the moment, then that’s enough. You will still feel a little better than before, and that’s the main thing.
What if you have energy
If you have a little more energy to clean up, Davis recommends a cleaning strategy that keeps cleaning in the same room while minimizing the number of decisions you have to make so you don’t get distracted or overwhelmed.
As Davis explains in her Youtube video “5 Ways to Clean Up “, when she looks at an extremely messy room, she says to herself, “There are only five things in this room.” These five things are: trash, dishes, laundry, things that have no place, and things that have a place for them to go.
Davis’s suggestion is to do one thing while staying in the room all the time so as not to get distracted and wander halfway, forgetting everything about what you were doing, which definitely happens when you struggle with depression.
To get started, grab a trash bag, start collecting trash and only trash until you collect everything, after which you put trash in the corner of the room. Then, collect all the dishes and place them in another part of the room to wash them later. Once you have done that, collect all the laundry, put it in a separate section to tackle later, then start collecting all the items without space to put in another section of the room. Finally, put all things where they should be.
Once you have done that, you can either do the dishes, do the laundry and / or find a place to put your things, or if you are out of energy, you can stop. Either way, the room will look and feel more manageable than it did before you started.
As Davis explains in his video, an important part of this technique is staying in the room all the time to reduce the chances of you being distracted and lost, while the five categories minimize the number of decisions you have to make, thus making it more manageable. …
What to do if you have moderate energy
The previous methods are fine if you have either extremely low energy levels, an excessive amount of clutter, or both. If you are dealing with low-level depression or mild disorder, it can help break up some tasks as well as try to clean up the process.
Six strategies for cleaning a home when depressed : break down tasks into smaller, more manageable ones. clean up in the direction of travel so that clutter does not accumulate; do everything possible so as not to postpone until later; keep cleaning products close to where you need to use them so that they are easily accessible; focus primarily on cleaning areas with heavy traffic; and then include your family in your cleaning efforts.
Depression can be overwhelming, and clutter can make the situation worse. Even if you have enough energy for a few minutes of cleaning, it will still help. Just make sure that, in addition to cleaning, you also get the help you need to recover.
Where to get help for depression
If you are going through a mental health crisis, qualified crisis counselors are available 24/7 through the national suicide prevention hotline , which you can reach at 1-800-273-8255 or through theironline chat . To call of The Crisis the Text Line , send «HOME» text to number 741-741, to call on the hotline Trevor Project design , dial (866) 488-7386. You can refer to this American Psychological Association resource for additional hotlines and to find a psychologist. Your doctor can also help, so see him. Depression is a serious medical condition, but it is treatable, especially with the help of a suitable medical team.