Tips for Keeping a Clean House When You Are Depressed
Wednesday July 22, 2009
Depression destroys so much of our motivation and energy that it can become difficult to keep up with day-to-day chores, yet a dirty living environment only serves to make us feel more worthless and discouraged. The following tips can help you get a handle on your house work.
Comments
I used to be that depressed. I found that if I just tried to get one thing done, like make the bed, I would feel better and then say put the dishes in the dishwasher.
About 6 months ago I found a product my friend was given by her doctor, a supplement called CraniYums Mood Balance. It is a candy with a minty taste. You suck on it like a lozenge, and wow about an hour later I don’t know what I was depressed about and I can get stuff done. They are on the internet just google them CraniYums.
I started making my bed every day so my cats would not get their hair all over my pillows – and discovered that I loved how nice my room looked with the bed made. So that became a habit – and I now just make the bed no matter how I feel. It looks clean and neat which helps me feel better.
For other housework and self-care I try to do one major project of each every day. So one day I do my eyebrows, another my nails, etc. And I tend to either cook OR do dishes! But I cook for several meals at one time – so I can grab healthier food and reheat it.
Routine helps me too. Laundry every Saturday – even if it’s only 1 or 2 loads. And I usually vacuum while laundry is going. Cooking on Sundays (to prepare for work week).
For big projects I need to do an hour at a time or one piece of the project. Since starting something is hardest for me, I can sometimes get on a ‘roll’ and accomplish much more than I intended!
It most definitely helps me feel less depressed to have clean and orderly home and get things done that need to be done.
I’ve suffered from severe depression associated with bipolar disorder. Daily, I’ve found it hard to clean house or get anything accomplished when I’m in a heavy depression. The only thing I can accomplish on a daily basis is maybe one thing at a time: one load of laundry, Load or unload the dishwasher, clean the counters in the kitchen, etc. What I’ve found that helps not only my state of mind but my energy level, is Noni Juice. I can get energy almost immediately and it allows me to accomplish almost a weeks worth of housekeeping in one day!
I live with bi-polar and for a long time found it almost impossible to have a clean tidy house. There was always some job just too overwhelming to tackle, let alone complete. One day I made a bargain with myself….. Spend 15 minutes doing dishes and then you can stop. Instead of the dishes being too big as a job, 15 minutes didn’t seem too big as a chunk of time. I do this all the time now – and often, after the allotted time, there is so little of the job left to do that I finish it off anyway and then give myself a pre-agreed reward. I also put on my “working” music – usually the cd of Mama Mia and that helps too.