c/depression·Posted by u/chris_moretti·1h ago
How do people keep a house even a little clean when getting off the couch is hard?
There is a stack of mail on the counter that has been there so long I stopped seeing it. The recycling bag is overflowing next to the door and I keep bumping it with my hip on the way to the kettle. None of this is a health hazard yet. It is just this slow tilt. I used to wipe the stove every night. Now I notice the splash marks, think later, and later is three days. Yesterday I put one mug in the sink and felt like I had done a shift. That cannot be the standard and also it is the standard right now. I am embarrassed to have anyone over, which makes me stay in more, which makes the mail stack taller. I am not looking for a routine from a magazine. I want to know what you do when the floor is right there and your body will not take the five steps.
Peer discussion on askDr.app. Not therapy and not a substitute for professional care.
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u/jade_c1h ago
One surface. I do the coffee table and I leave the rest. The room still looks bad. The table looking okay tricks my brain a little.
u/ravi_kapoor1h ago
I keep a grocery bag on the doorknob for recycling so it does not sit on the floor. Tiny. I still bump it. Less shame somehow.
u/emma_fraser1h ago
The mug-in-the-sink-as-a-shift feeling is so real. I text my sister a photo of the empty sink on days I manage it. She never makes it a big deal, which is why it works.
u/malik_j58m ago
Do you notice it more at night or in the morning? Morning I can ignore it. Night it looks like evidence.
u/elena_v57m ago
I set a song and when the song ends I stop, even if I only moved the mail six inches. Stopping on purpose helped more than trying to finish the whole counter.