Cleaning..

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Does anyone else feel like whenever you try to clean, you just make the mess worse??
I thought it was a not-knowing-where-to-put stuff, but it's more than that.. Every time I try to clean, nothing actually gets any cleaner, but I still get stressed out by it, so it all just gets worse.

And I have to clean up after the roommates a lot too.. but I think maybe that's juts because I don't clean enough and they're mad at me for it so they leave their dishes for me to do, so it's probably my fault. It's not like I can complain about doing other people's dishes when I do so little anyways.

Someone said it had to do with the executive functioning thing.

I dunno.. it's just like.. I'll try.. and then after I've been cleaning for awhile.. nothing is actually cleaner.

""Does anyone else feel like whenever you try to clean, you just make the mess worse?? ""

Yes, especially when it comes to trying to help.

Do yu have a plan/schedule on what to clean, where to start, etc.? I can't really clean much without help if I don't have such a thing, because I will end up cleaning in random order. And of course if you clean something just after you've touched a dirty place, the other thign will catch the dirt. Or if you move stuff from one place you want to clean up to another place you want to clean up, etc.

so.. how do you clean it so it actually gets cleaner?

And I got a Swiffer Wet Jet, and then later there were these little maggots all over the kitchen floor between the stove and the sink! I don't know if they were in it somehow, there was nowhere nearby the could have come from.. Or maybe someone put them there.. it was really gross. Now I'm afraid that it was Swiffering the floor that got them there. I know that doesn't make sense, but it was like they came from nowhere! I looked under the stove and under the sink and there was nothing there. they were just on the floor in between them. Not like in a little crevice, the stove is in an island in the kitchen. Between the stove and the sink is where you stand to cook or do the dishes.

So anyways.. now I'm afraid to mop the floors too.

And there's all this stuff all over the floor upstairs.. and I don't know where to put any of it. And even when I find places for a few things.. it doesn't seem to help.

Yes. Especially organisation. The actual cleaning with brooms and solutions I know, because it was drilled into me at the group home and is now habit. But knowing what to throw out/give away, where it goes..

I find the best way is to put similar things in groups. Soap + shampoo + toothbrush = group. Videos + dvds + playstation= group. Do this one at a time so you don't get distracted and confused. Once you've assembled one group, take it to the room in which you would use the items and put them in places near where you employ them.

Soap + shampoo + toothbrush = group > Bathroom. Soap and shampoo in the shower, toothbrush in the mirror cabinet.

Dish drying towels + scourers + dish soap = group > Kitchen. Soap on sink, cloths etc under sink.

Videos + dvds + playstation= group > Lounge (living room). Playstation with TV, dvds and videos in the space provided.

It's taken me a while to nut this one out, no idea why...

Last edited by activebutodd on 24 Jul 2009, 1:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I am NT, but my son is an Aspie. I have found that I cannot ask him to clean our bathroom, and that I have to walk him through cleaning his. Because if he cleans ours, or if he cleans his own without very specific instructions (that I have to give him one at a time) then things will actually be worse than when he started. I was not sure if this was due to his different wiring or because of his age (he's not quite twelve).

I have come to the point where I am afraid that he when he is old enough to live on his own, he will not be able to function without a housekeeper. Although, I am considering making a checklist with each "piece of equipment" and the specific steps for cleaning them to hang in his bathroom. Maybe if he had something to tick off each part it would go easier? Perhaps it would help you also?

YES! I find bullet point lists of specifics help. As does doing it repeatedly until it's habit. Show him which bottle, which cloth, what to do, why, and do it often. He needs to 'get' it and understand what he needs to be doing and what you expect it to look like when he's done. A lot of kids need to know specifically what they need to aim for that means 'clean' to you.

Also if choosing between clearing floor or organising cupboard - organise the floor and stuff outside the cupboard first, because pulling the cupboard out to clean it just makes a worse mess, you get overwhelmed and give up.

There's a great old book I had as a kid called 'what to do when your mom/dad tells you to clean your room'.
[img]http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/05/7a/bb94828fd7a006b56fe81110.L._AA240_.jpg[ig]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... ythin08-20

*learned these things the hard way, still struggles*

Until recently, cleaning up or tidying were synonyms for 'Look at the mess, fail to organize thought patterns necessary to deal with lots of different objects lying all over the place, feel overloaded, sit on the floor dwelling on something else instead.'

I solved that with the same approach as activebutodd, by separating things into groups...

I've never been able to clean or organize my living/work space. It's simply impossible for me. I usually end up shoving everything into a corner, and it ends up all over the place again. If only there was someone to keep me organized so I don't have to.

My room at home is a mess, and probably will always be
But it seems like I have no problems at work. There I'm the one with the cleanest desk.
Weird...

When trying to clean, I have no idea where to start. This thing needs to be put away, but ACK wheres it's supposed to go has something else in there. Most of this is my own fault though. I'm just horrible at putting things away in the right spot.

Exactly.. and as soon as I come across anything with any writing on it, I'm sitting there reading it.. no matter what it is.. if I'm trying to clean, and I find a 5-year-old supermarket circular under the couch.. I'll be sitting there reading everything on it.

Of course, sometimes it's more interesting than that.. especially if I find those spiffy fold-out informational things that you put in binders.. the ones that are always insanely expensive to get the subscriptions of, but they send you samples.. I had a bunch of them about animals when I was a kid, but I think they make them about all different stuff.. I love finding those when I clean.. not that it can actually be considered "cleaning" then..

Story of my life. I have a book I never finished reading by Cindy Glovinsky-" 100 Simple Ways to Live Clutter Free Every Day" that has some good suggestions. I need to start with that again. She has suggestions that are geared for people the way they are and not the way they ought to be. For instance for people who have trouble organizing- piles (boxes) are better than files. Also things like spend 15 minutes in one room only-then another 15 minutes in another room-then another 15 in another room, then sit down and flake out for 15 minutes. She understands how our little minds work .

That book looks very cool! I have a similar reaction to having "too much" to sort through. I am not sure if it is my ADHD or just the fact that my parents were lousy housekeepers and so I never learned how to be organized. Now that I am grown I am fine with keeping the "organic" mess taken care of, we have clean laundry and there is never mounds of rotting anything or bio hazards... however if I cannot decide what to wear one afternoon there can be piles of clothes everywhere for weeks.

That would be your ADHD, or your ASD. One or the other.

My mother is great at being organized, none of it rubbed off on me until recent times, despite her best efforts.

That's exactly what it's like when I try to tidy a room.
My bedroom for example is very hard for me to clean because I have too many things and never know where to put them. Instead of making things tidier, I end up splitting one messy pile into two or just making the original pile of mess even bigger. It's like I just move the mess around rather than get rid of it. It's really frustrating. It's like everytime I have to tidy my room my brain just shuts down and forgets how to be organized.