Cleanliness of home environment

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Very very straight and organized, but only clean on the surface. I hate vacuuming and dusting. I clean things if they look dirty,

I def struggle with this.

Two things that seem to help:

This may sound weird but cutting out gluten and caffeine completely, and dairy/casein and sugar to a *large* extent, seem to help me get more grounded/in my skin/here and now, probably something to do with the food opioids or opiates in gluten and casein ( and that I am without a doubt in the subset/36% of people on the autism spectrum with unusually permeable intestines, compared to just 5% of the general population, such that they are able to enter my bloodstream and reach my brain ), which disturb delayed reward pathways, executive functioning/long-term thinking, and mood etc, and that sugar being a powerful painkiller tends to make cleaning etc seem even more "mundane"/banal/dreary/uninteresting; if I'm spaced out/numbed on sugar I simply "don't care" very much, if at all.

And also rather weird, but very noticeable, I have been finding that getting fit, as in *strong*/stronger, with exercises involving/working the "core", ( that is the "trunk"/abdomen/back etc ), as well as arms ( with weights ) and my heart ( with cardio, and by cutting down on fructose too which it is becoming increasingly clear plays huge role in causing heart disease ), seems to make it a lot easier to keep up with the cleaning, and tidying and general maintenance of the house, as if being more "in" and aware/conscious of my body enables me to better manipulate/interact with/organise/handle the physical world *outside* my body. ( I have been using a lot of free online workout videos to get fit so don't have to go to gym etc ). Exercise seems to "connect" me with physical/material stuff in a positive way.
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I used to be on that email list. It did help me out of a slump I was in at the time I joined it.

I don't mind vacuuming so much, but dust and I don't get along. And I seem to have dirt blindness most of the time. Until I really look for it I don't even notice it. Pretty creepy, actually.

Last edited by SpiritBlooms on 06 May 2012, 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I can relate to this. From looking at my room you'd think one of my special interests was trash with my collection of mountains of it in there. It's even starting to invade my magical path to the door now. How ever will I leave and do anything construction then? Oh no.

The two times a year that I actually do attempt to clean it up have to line up with whenever everyone else is out of the house. I get tired of them nagging at me to hurry it up, and they just seem to get in my way somehow, even if they're on the other end of the house.

In response to one of the other posters, I do think that having too much noise in or around the house contributes to my issues. It doesn't make it messier but if it's noisy when I'm trying to clean the probability that I'm actually going to finish drastically decreases. Maybe it's just because I get distracted too easily.

If you find it difficult to keep your place in a reasonable state (and what you describe does not sound completely reasonable) then bite the bullet and pay someone to come in for a few hors every week to keep on top of things.

Consider this: your son will eventually want to bring friends from school home. You may not want this but it would be a good thing for your son. If your place is a tip, your son will be too embarrassed to bring friends home.

I don't know what country you're in but if your place is so unsanitary as to present a health hazard, health visitors/social services etc may form a view on the matter.

Household chores, cleaning, tidying etc are very boring, but they are part of indepedent adult life.

OP, does this answer your question?

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My house is usually a mess but it's not really anyone's business but mine as long as I can still walk around and it doesn't stink really bad and it's not infested with bugs or rodents. I'd worry more if I had a kid though.

Maybe you need a bigger place? My mother and I used to live in a two bedroom apartment (also with my grandmother for most of my life) and we barely had room to walk around. We moved into a 3 bedroom with a living room, dining room, and kitchen last year. It's still messy but we have more room to spread out.

One thing about flylady, is that while it's good to have a clean sink, it's something that does get deep cleaned once a week. I don't let dishes pile up, as I've gotten into the habit of putting them in the dishwasher right away after rinsing the food residue off. For me, the only time I wear shoes is if I'm going somewhere, or it's cold enough to where I wear slippers inside. In the summer, unless I'm at work or doing something where closed toed shoes are more appropriate, I wear sandals when I'm outside.

In my eyes, my house is a pigsty. But to the rest of my family, it's clean as long as you can see the floor. Both of my grandparents, my little sister, my mom, and my little brother don't help to clean the house, but they love to contribute to the mess that's constantly accumulating. I'm the only one in my house who cares about the cleanliness, and my dad agrees with me. So it's always up to me to clean since I've been raised to be a clean freak thanks to my nana Sanchez. With homework, a busy social life, and sports, it's tough finding the time to bust out the cleaning utilities. Usually I find the time when I'm absent from school or when I'm home alone.

I'm a neat freak. That's probably because I was raised with hoarders and in semisqualor. I cannot stand a mess. I've had a lot going on, had a bug, kids have had a bug and I also had a two week bout with depression where I just stayed in bed, so right now my house is a mess. I am going to clean it today. When the house is messy it drives me crazy. I really cannot stand it.

I'm also way into organizing things. I want my drawers and closets neat too. It's very frustrating to me when it's not. Luckily, I'm a housewife so it's my "job" to keep it the way I like it.


For me, when it's like it is now, finding where to start and actually getting started is the hardest part. Once I do that, I'm golden.

Finally decided to give up and pay someone to clean my appartment frequently. I cannot do it though I really tried.

Complete chaos here, except in my book shelves, where everything (books, dvds and other media) is sorted by category (genre for books, movies/tv shows for dvd/bluray, platform for games) and media type, and of course alphabetically within its category. But as I said, the rest of my apartment is utter chaos. I manage to clean once in a while, but for every time I do that, my dad does it for me twice. I'm somewhat better at washing clothes and dishes, but that usually happens because I don't have anything clean left.

Short answer - yup. For me it's not trash but a lot of clutter. Dishes do get done daily and I'm on top of pet related stuff i.e. cat's boxes scooped daily, dog bathed weekly. I think a lot of it with that stuff is avoiding potentially smelly scenarios (the dog is an older hound x and man does she get gamey!) both because of sensitivity and out of sheer terror of what I could get habituated to if I let things slide too far. That being said, this place is a mess, it's just all 'clean' junk. I have a hard time getting rid of any printed material, from books down scrap paper and junk mail. I have never completely unpacked after a move, just shove the last boxes up against a wall until it's time to move them again. Trying to work on this but can't figure out where to start and tend to just sort of freeze out on it and do something else instead.

My house is a mess. Although to be fair it's mostly everyone else's mess. Every person is aspie/borderline and a pack rat. Nobody likes cleaning. I actually feel pretty decent that I keep my dinner table and kitchen decently clean, food and cooking is my main job. I also keep up with laundry and make sure everyone's clothes and towels and sheets are clean enough. Other than those I don't do extra cleaning. I can't cope with 5 people's mess on my own. Whenever we have people coming over, the whole family do cleaning together.

When I was living by myself my place was very clean and neat (and decorated). I was very disciplined about not dropping a single crumb or buying anything not totally necessary. I didn't clean much, but I didn't make much mess.

A few things in my life are meticulously organized, but the majority of my stuff is haphazard. I personally feel like I lose things if I can't see them, which I think contributes.

If it's because of health problems or time problems etc, I'm sorry to hear that. If it's because you don't really know how or where to start, etc, I'll be glad to tell you exactly how to clean, step by step. Everything. In detail.

Just let me know, it's what I "do for a living", I'm a housewife.