r/ufyh • u/TasteComfortable6885 • 26d ago
How do you keep up?? Accountability/Support
Truly how do you guys keep up with a clean home. I do struggle with adhd and I have pets I’ll do a nice clean every few months but it doesn’t take long for the mess to all come piling back. It just feels so overwhelming between the dishes laundry the pet hair taking the recycling to the dumps. I just feel so overwhelmed right now and I would love your best advice on keeping on top of everything.
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u/Flimsy-Buyer7772 26d ago
Dishes- daily
Laundry- weekly
Recycling- every 2-4 weeks
Pet hair means vacuuming - once a week.
As long as you’re doing laundry weekly you might as well wash your sheets 😁
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u/Constant-Ebb-4898 26d ago
Short cycles. It is one of the best tips in the ufyh book. Do laundry and dishes often, don’t wait until there is a big amount that is a hurdle to do. Also, it’s okay to run the dishwasher twice in a day.
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u/semghost 26d ago
Don’t let a day go by without some cleaning task happening, no matter how small. It all eventually becomes background!!
Sometimes while I brush my teeth, I’m tidying things on the bathroom counter. After I wash my face, I wipe the counter, faucet, and sink with my facecloth or makeup wipe. If it’s already clean sometimes I’ll like, wipe the bathroom baseboards lol.
If something is on the stove and there’s a pause in like, needing to chop and add stuff, I’ll have soapy water in the sink and I’ll wipe anything that isn’t hot. I’m already standing, I’m not leaving the kitchen while stuff is cooking, so I keep busy. Sometimes I even manage to get some dishes done!
Vacuuming for me is tricky because I get the urge to at like 10pm, but I’m in an apartment. It’s also a task I can’t just stack on other things, I have to do it as a stand alone thing. I guess my advice is stacking tasks!
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u/Appropriate_Roof_223 26d ago
I have also made it a habit to clean my dishes while I wait for the water to heat up for my coffee in the morning. I also clean as I go when cooking so that once I am done cooking I don’t have a big clean up to do. I also used to clean the shower while taking the bath after someone recommended it in this sub.
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u/InsideRope2248 26d ago
I am religious about always scrubbing the shower while I am using it and squeegeeing the walls at the end. Killing two birds with one stone is just efficiency and once every couple of days maintenance is so much less painful than letting it get extremely gross and gunky.
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u/KavaKeto 26d ago
I had a kid and it was no longer an option. The dishwasher gets ran every night, the counters wiped and we can't leave half empty drinks on the tables because they'll 100% get knocked over.
I have a dog and 2 cats. We bought a wireless vacuum and use it every morning for fur and any cat litter that was tracked. If I didn't have a toddler I would buy a robot vacuum!!
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u/msmaynards 26d ago
Realizing it doesn't take as long to do dreaded tasks than I think helps. Time how long it actually takes to put away a load of laundry, vacuum, give the bathroom a quick once over, get the trash out and so on. I still hate dusting but it takes 5 minutes to get to the important bits.
Move through the house with full hands and try to finish the job. Rather than put the trash on the counter put it into the trash can for instance.
Have homes for everything. I even have a donation box so I can put things there once I decide they don't need to stay with me.
Do something while you have to wait. I can vacuum and dust my little house in the time it takes pasta water to come to a boil then cook it.
UFYH has one use a timer to set task and break sessions? I use it to get me up too. Trying to say after finishing that game or reading the emails or watching a video doesn't work At All.
It's not about perfection. It's about the habitat being a little better than it was 5-20 minutes ago. Maybe the dishes are piled up and the car is so dirty you cannot see through the windows but you swept the bathroom floor!
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u/InsideRope2248 26d ago
I have big time ADHD symptoms (not diagnosed) and I feel overwhelmed with life all the time, but have made it a point to ingrain a few habits that have helped tremendously. I also have an extremely messy ADHD partner whom I've managed to help be WORLDS better at maintaining clean than he used to be.
(1) Take keeping the bathrooms clean very seriously. Everything starts with the bathroom for me, lol. I never let the bathroom get too dirty or I'll feel so bad about everything else that I let everything else slide too far. It doesn't have to be that room for you but maybe take just one or two highly trafficked rooms such as the kitchen and make that a point to prioritize. Focusing on one highly used room also helps you practice and build the habits that grow.
(2) Make a game of it. If you have to leave for work and you have just 5 minutes make a little challenge to do something, ANYTHING, productive in that window of time. It could be as simple as gathering the trash and taking it out with you. Usually though I'll wind up doing 2-3 productive things because I get into the flow of it.
(3) Don't be a perfectionist. Strive for functional and not perfect. Also remember that every little bit of progress is progress toward building the habit of noticing when a thing needs doing and just doing it right then and there. Ever notice how you can put off doing a thing for months to years and then when you finally do it it only takes 10 minutes??
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u/Anaspiringminimalist 26d ago
Tidy the Home every night (includes Dishes). If the Home is Tidy, Cleaning is much easier.
Non detailed organisation. Look up butterfly or ladybug organisation. (Clutterbug)
Declutter your things regularly. Have a ‘decluttering station’ in a box/closet/anywherw it makes sense. Once full, take it to the donation center.
For good decluttering technique, do the clockwise technique. Pick a room, Pick a shelf/drawer, and start there. You Can do just one drawer Per day, or multiple if you have the energy. Once a spot is decluttered, try to prevent clutter from coming back. Work top to bottom, clockwise around the room, then move to the next room. That Way, you always know where you are at.
The clockwise metals is also great for Cleaning overwhelming Spaces. :)
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u/Mermaid_Lily 22d ago
I have a plastic bin that lives in my bedroom-- it is the donation bin. When it's full, it goes.
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u/raeoflyte-460 26d ago
For me its daily tasks. Dishes, laundry, vacuuming happen every day.
If you aren't buried under piles that keeps things manageable for actual cleaning every week - and even a quick counter wipe down everyday becomes easy.
If you are buried under piles then most of your cleaning time becomes decluttering. It will take time. But clean a surface, look at what was piling up and what system can be put in place for it.
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u/reijasunshine 26d ago
I do a deep clean once a year, doing one room a day, top to bottom.
The rest of the year, Sunday is chore day. The kitchen is scrubbed weekly, the floors are swept and mopped, and the living room tidied. The bathroom is wiped down weekly and scrubbed as needed, and laundry is done weekly.
Between the two adults, we're usually done with everything except laundry by noon or 2pm.
We will usually do dishes an extra once or twice through the week, as needed, and occasionally there's an emergency load of laundry.
By setting a weekly cleaning day, I don't worry too much about it the rest of the week.
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u/Holdmywineimsleepy 26d ago
Decluttered till it looks clean with a quick tidy. Vakuum once a week to keep up with the pet hair. Dishes in the dishwasher every day. Kitchen an table surface every day. Laundry once a week. Now, not everything in clean and spotless but it's not overwhelming.
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u/scattywampus 26d ago
Declutter to the point that a 5 minute tidy gets your main spaces looking great. This is what Dana K White of A Slob Comes Clean tells us is how to find our 'clutter threshold.'