HELP me clean my room

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvqqIM3g-jc[/youtube]


Any advice on how I can get started? It's overwhelming and it's making me depressed. Every morning I say "Today I will clean my room" but I don't know where to begin.

first categorise everything?

first of all everything that can be thrown away (that gives you more space to move)

then you have to do it by category of importance, like either the biggest things first,
or the things that have an easy place to store
(best not start with things that need hours of reflection of what you should do with it, cause that slows you down, first you need to attack the easy things to get the drift)


also don't make yourself think you have to do it all the same day.
you get yourself a goal : like today laundry
tomorrow everything on the floor
the next day, desk items
etc

once you get the drift as a good aspie you won't be able to stop,
it's the beginning that is a terrible thing, not the going on

wish you a lot of success Cosmiccat, i can completely understand what you're going through,
but somehow i've solved it, by doing it often, then it gets something automatic (although for the moment hub is doing the house chores, i'm doing the full time job, but well, it's like bicycling, you don't forget how to do it)

and nice to find you here in this cosy thread (it's not often i can have a typical woman conversation, cause well, i never fit in those
nt woman conversations)

Quoting Lemon

pick a corner, work it.

Sweep everything into the center pr pile it onto the bed. Filter out the trash or the throw-awayables then work on they dirty laundry then the clean (make a pile for each) and find a home for general stuff like books and nick-knacks.

Oops. Cosmiccat made a mistake and posted an extraneous post.

Thanks Digger. More good advice.

wow, I would LOVE to help you with this. One of my strongest parts is actually is to keep tidy around me. If someone ever seen me swipe around they use to say "oh please come and do that at my place, lol"
Anyway, so here is my ideas to get you started. It require some new ways of thinking.

Problem 1: Too many stuff in a way too narrow area!
Solution: Bring on a big black bag and walk around pick those stuff you honestly dont NEED and use!
Im sure there can be things to find to throw away. Think and analyze!
You need to start here to be able to see whats left and to give a good place and space for those things you do actually use

Problem 2: Think of HOW to KEEP things the Best Way without them messing AND take a lot of space
Solution: Discover all spaces and corners and boxes you have
Is a drawer half full? Or is stuff that you dont use keeping up half the space of it?
Use all avaiable spaces you have. From the ceiling to the floor
Buy boxes to keep in the wardrobe for example, they make it much easier to keep order in the future!
A tip can be to buy transparent boxes so you get to see easy whats in them even if you place them in piles above each other

Problem 3: Risk of it beeing messy again soon after a tidy up
Solution: Grade your things in importance and if frequently used

Things that is used often: Keep them in a convenient level and easy accessible
Things that is rarely used: Can be kept a bit more on distance. In a box in the top shelf in the wardrobe or under the bed. Think even beyond this room
Concider the basement or other area in the house so some more things get to leave the room (can be a solution if you have difficulty with throwing things away)

Divide winterclothes and summerclothes apart if so and keep those you dont use for the season on some distance
When a new season comes, swop places of the clothes!

Thats my spontanious ideas, I wish you great good luck with this!

Quoting Xalepax

Sure, Im very glad that I can be at help. Just grab me if you stuck on something. I guess the most difficult part is to Get Started but if thats a problem, then think how wonderful it will look once you are done
But I see I have bad spelling so I had to edit that post

I got two more ideas when watching the video

Keeping it tidy afterwards:

1: Prepare a box or a place where it can be "allowed to be messy"
Like a place to throw things to be taken care of later when there can be energy for it
But make sure its limited so it wont get generally messy again all over the place

This especially concerns papers and documents. I see in the video that they are tucked in here and there
I know for myself that some things need some energyboost to take care off

2: Try to follow a simple rule. Keep the same kind of things at the same area. Where you keep your shoes you shall not be able to find DVD discs and other non related things and vise versa.
This prevents messyness and frustration with not finding things and dont know where to look for something

3: When you do start. Everything can be very overwhelming
Here Lemons advices is great

A lot of my paperwork mess comes from mail and not wanting to throw it in the trash because it has personal information that I don't want to get into the hands of identity thieves. I think I will put a bin under the dresser maybe to put all of that kind of mail in and then burn it when the bin gets full.

Thanks for the many good ideas you have given me.

Irregardless as to whether it’s in the right place or not take everything that is light enough to lift by yourself and put it either in the hallway or in another nearby room. You need to do this because you will not be able to discern by looking at each item if it belongs where it is. The reason you will not be able to discern where each item belongs is because you have seen each item in it’s particular place for so long that your mind will think it belongs there. Once everything is in the hallway start taking each item one at a time and place it in the best place for that item. If you do not do this you will only wind up having moved things around without having put them in their correct place. Keep a LARGE trash can handy. If you do not have a paper shreder use a hillbilly shreder (barbecue).

Start with the garbage first, pick it all up
Pick up all the clothes and put them away. If the drawers are messy also, take clothes out of the drawer and refold them and do the same with the others. Put the rest of the clothes away or leave them on your bed.

I love to clean/organize!
I do it like this:
Pick the easiest looking spot.. the one you know what you want to do with most of it. Like the desk area or something. Then sit down there, and start sorting everything that has to do with THAT SPOT. If it goes in a different spot, toss it in that direction. If it goes in the spot you're in, start making a few different piles that are clearly separated.
Then just go to the next spot, and the next, until all the stuff has been shuffled into the right place. If some stuff doesn't have a place, make a random-stuff-box or something. Or get rid of it. Or decide on a place for it.

*Sometimes you need to get new containers or shelves for stuff, which really helps keep it organized.
*Always organize things so they're convenient to find and reach. Like, don't stack anything too deep, or you'll have to make a mess when you dig it out.

...TA-DA!