How Do I Clean When Half The Room Isn't Even Possible To Walk In?

[Deleted member 27340]

Okay, so sometimes I just really get things done (like when I cleaned the whole house a few weeks ago), but usually executive dysfunction does its job perfectly...

Now I've GOT to do something in my room. I can't use the desk, the music table/bar/stand/whatever is completely inaccessible and half my room is not possible to walk in. It's not even a joke; there's a meter-1.30 meter high layer of mess there. I've got mess in the hallway, too. Besides "normal" mess I've got EIGHT boxes of stuff I just (four months ago) picked up from my mother's. It's like this mountain of stones before me where all the stones are connected to each other but one, and to get the mountain away you've got to find that one stone.

Anyone know what I can do? Because I've got no idea, I'm lost here. I told my father the mountain-of-connected-stones-thing, he just said that I was exaggerating and even sound mad at me. This was after he said that I never follow his tips when it comes to cleaning, which is not true. He also said that the time I cleaned in one hour doesn't count because I cleaned before my buddy came over for a sleepover, and that the reason I did it for something fun to happen makes it not count. Annoying, annoying, annoying, annoying.

Anyone with tips?

(Sorry for strange sentences and grammar, if there are any, English is my second language.)

 

[scout86]

You might not like my solution.

I'm not sure how you dispose of garbage where you live. Do what ever you can to make it easy to throw stuff away. Here, we have a number of places we can donate used items like usable clothes, books, plates, pictures, etc. Begin with the pile of stuff closest to the door. In your case, maybe start in the hallway. Sort into 3 piles. "Throw away" "Give away" "Put away". When the "throw away" pile gets to be as big as you can manage getting into the garbage, put it there. (Here, if you have a weekly garbage pick up service, they may have a limit to what they'll take. We have the option of hauling stuff to the local land fill too. Don't bag up more than you can get rid of at one time, but get rid of it as fast as you can as your go along.) Follow the same procedure with the things you decide to donate. Remove stuff from the room as promptly as you get it bagged up. Be ruthless! If you haven't used it this year, get rid of it unless it has an extreme amount of sentimental value. Don't keep anything you don't have a place for. You might get a friend or 2 to help you with the hauling away part.

I think cleaning, for any reason, "counts". The more stuff you get rid of, the less stuff you have to deal with. So make it as easy as you can to get rid of stuff. Start with the first stone and keep moving.

Your English seems fine to me!

 

[Hope4Now]

Sounds like total overwhelm to me. This happens to my children, and to me regularly. It is the case with parts of my house right now. The only way we've found to get through it is to take it a small bit at a time, and in small chunks of time. Try dividing your room into sections...four to eight sections. I usually start with the bed--change the sheets and make the bed first so you have that space clear and can use it if you need to sort things out. It is very helpful to start with one simple thing like that. Play some good music while you're working. Congratulate yourself on having accomplished that piece.

Next, pick up all the clothing (if that's part of the mess) and put it all in a laundry bag, or hang it up/put it in the dresser.

After that, decide on categories for sorting stuff. I usually do 1) trash; 2) recycle; 3) donate; 4) put into storage for future use; 5) stuff that stays in the room. Get some trash bags for the throw-away stuff, and a box or bin for the recycling. Use the bed for the other three categories. Then choose what section you'll work on first. Try to picture in your mind what you would like it to look like. Take the stuff that you want to keep in your room in that section, and put it in its own pile on the bed. Then, just for that one section, sort out the other stuff into the other categories.

Then stop. Take a break. Feel good about what you accomplished. Let yourself know you were able to do that part, so you will be able to do the next part too.

I wish you well. This task is on my agenda this week as well.

 

[JEKBreatheandBelieve]

Set small goals and work from there. Don't try to do the whole thing at once. Choose one little area. I, too, agree with creating piles/boxes. I just moved and I was unpacking my office/guest room and it was a catchall of stuff. I made a pile of things that belong elsewhere, things to donate/sell, things to throw away, and things to recycle. Since mine was mostly boxes to empty and put away, I just did it one box at a time. Little rewards along the way help. After I get through this space, I will take a 5 minute walk outside or read 3 pages in my book- whatever motivates you. Best of luck!

 

[Deleted member 27340]

Thank you all. I think I'll try to get rid of the stuff in the hallway first, as it makes it hard to move around there (our house is very little (50-60 square meters or so) and just there the roof isn't really high either so yeah you get it). Then surfaces, before all the boxes and then stuff on the floor and inside drawers etc. I believe I'll have maybe 1 box of things with sentimental value/memories to store away and maybe a half-one box with things to keep after going through all of them. Also I think of going through my clothes and getting rid of those I never use.

Does this sound like a plan?

 

[KwanYingirl]

I agree it's overwhelming. Be ok with creating sensible piles while you go through the boxes. And it really is true, if you haven't used it, read it, or worn it in a year, donate it.

Allow it to take time, but be mindful that you are committed to the process. What works best for you? Spending one day a week on it or maybe one hour every day? Some kind of schedule that you can keep to. It took a long time to gather it all so be patient.

 

[Deleted member 27340]

@KwanYingirl I'll make the one-year-rule count, with some exceptions, as the boxes are from my mother's and I ran away from her and it took 1,5 years to get my stuff moved.

I guess some every day-every other day would be fine. I've got to be done before school starts, and that's on the 14th of August so one day a week is not an option.

One dilemma: I've planned buying a certain type of drawer from IKEA with either 4 or 6 drawers. If I wait till I'm in Sweden I'll get it next week and then I won't get my clothes organized before after I'm back in Norway again. If I get it tomorrow my room will probably be done by the time I go to Sweden, but I'll have to spend about 100 NOK more because it's more expensive in Norway (shock :P).

 

[Go Hungry]

I've had to do alot of this when I moved. My big problem was books, piles and piles of books. (I love those things.) First I got a bag and eliminated the ones I had bought but never read, or hated, you know.. that stuff. But I kept many of them. And get this, when my friends and I moved me to my new apt, they literally brought my clothes up in a wheel barrel that was close to overflowing. That was just plain embarrassing... I actually had so many that they were stacked on my book shelves. Then one day after a party I just came home and tried them all on, and if they didn't fit, I threw them out. I couldn't even keep them for a yard sale or Goodwill or anything, I just had to get rid of them as fast as I could, or else I would go through them again and start taking stuff out.

With the books I've had to do the same thing. Determine which ones I'm likely to read, and then throw out the rest. I have 7 heaping shopping bags full of books to get rid of. I keep them near a door because that way I'll be more likely to take them to a bookstore for credit. They've been there for 1.5 months already. I may have to just throw them away too.

There are some things that I've kept for sentimental value, like some ancient shirts from happy times in the past. Someday I'll be able to let them go too. Also some books that I just can't bear to let go of. But most things are being eliminated one at a time.

Warning!! The likelihood that you will buy more stuff to replace what you got rid of is very high. You have to ask yourself this before any purchase of stuff (being discount DVD's, gee-gaws, toys, figurines, books, whatever..) Will it gather dust? Exactly how long will I have it before the 'new' wears off, and I set it aside for another item? This applies to clothes, kitchen items, pictures, decorations, everything. That is how I gained alot of my stuff. I've gone through literal tons of stuff in my years, only to replace it later.

My answer for that has been two-fold. One is to digitize everything that I can. Computers now hold terabytes of data, so you can rip all your DVD's and CD's to them, and then sell the original copies. And now with cloud-storage you don't have to worry about losing your pictures in a computer wipe. There are heaps of books available for free online, and in my case, a three-story library right down the street. I've already saved hundreds of dollars by using that instead of ordering books or movies or books on tape through Amazon. And it's even better because then you don't have to worry about where to store your books. :cool:

 

[KwanYingirl]

Also helpful: start taking a brain medicine that makes you gain fifty pounds, then you can donate ALL your clothes and only buy a few new ones because you fantasize that the weight is going to magically dissolve.

 

[Go Hungry]

LOL!

 

[Friday]

Personally... I clear the room.

Take everything outside (or into a second room if It's raining).
Sort
Put stuff where it belongs.

I go one room at a time.
And I literally take out everything and start from scratch.
Including using 10% bleach on ceilings & walls & do a total field day on the room.

 

[risingsun]

I agree with the forum folks here. Break it down into small tasks.

I hear you, though. Okay, maybe I don't have as much of a mountain as you do, but I know what it is like to create a mess around me in a matter of days. Heck, I can create a mess in a matter of minutes. Then, I feel like I have bricks on my feet and can't seem to get moving. In fact, I happen to be in a mess now that I've created with by bills and school items (i.e. books, articles). So, I have to get moving myself.

In the past, though, I have found that once I get started, I get into a flow. It's just a matter of forcing yourself to get started and it will flow from there. Hope the same will happen to you. My motto is "When in doubt, throw it out." What I mean by that, though, is to donate it or throw it out if it is, in fact, junk.

Nothing feels better than a good clearing at the end of the day. It creates space for clarity and calmness. Then, the hardest part, but a necessary part, is to try to keep it clean as difficult as that can be sometimes when you are overwhelmed. In this respect, you can prevent the mountain of madness from occuring again. I'm working on that myself.

Best Wishes to you. Warmest, Rising Sun.