Clean Spaces

Yep. Clean your damn house. I said it. 

But not because I give a single rat’s patootie about what it looks like or if it’s aesthetically pleasing. I certainly don’t care if it’s because a certain in-law is visiting. 

But I do care about your mental health, and a cluttered messy home is a sign of a cluttered and messy mind, and babe that’s no way to live. 

Do you ever wake up and look around you and are immediately irritated because the kitchen is still a mess from the night before, or you can’t even find the things you need to get going for the day because it’s so cluttered? So you run around your home like a chicken with its head cut off, getting more and more annoyed by the second because nothing is where it should be. Or maybe you wake up and look around you and immediately feel defeat because "where do I even start in this chaos…" Babe, heard. I’ve been there so many times before and it's like waking up to get your heart broken. It sucks. 

Not to mention that if you have stuff all over your floor, how are you going to have the space to workout and kick ass? Can you even find your mat or your weights or did you toss them in some rando spot? See, we need a clean space. 

Do not confuse me for one of those girls who is forever aesthetically clean by the way, I am not. I am an ADHD girly, and chaos is the general rule for my existence, so please know that these are tried and true methods to help corral my madness into organized little boxes so that I don’t feel like a chaos tornado all the time. It’s exhausting being a chaos tornado, and I’d rather spend my time doing other more enjoyable things. 

Flip the Switch

There comes a day when you look at your house and you’re like “come the fuck on!” because it feels like your bedroom or your home is a junk drawer of your life instead of a peaceful place to lay your head, or the shrine to your experiences. 

Now, I’m not at all saying that my place is exactly how I want it to be or even perfectly decorated or spotlessly clean all the time. I’m a Mom, to little kids, who also have ADHD. It will never look like a magazine. But it can look comfortable, livable, peaceful, and at least there will be a home for all the things I have instead of just random piles of homeless objects. 

Having my living spaces be more organized and take less work in the way of maintenance because I’m doing a bit of the work every day, has really helped me make more time for the things I love. 

As a society we are in peak waste mode. We literally have too much crap, and being trained to accept instant gratification as a primary dopamine hit is crippling our ability to have a sustainably clean home. We need to revamp this, we need to reprogram our minds and our homes to hold less crapola and more joy, thoughtfulness, and peace. 

We need more tools that help us live our lives efficiently and enable us to feel empowered and capable of handling anything that life throws at us. 

So here are some tips for you to get started on getting your spaces in order.  These are tools that I’ve used along the way on my journey that have helped me to feel more amazing about myself.

Everything in its Place…

If it doesn’t have a home in your home, create one, or get rid of it. We simply cannot allow there to be random piles of things. Papers, books, old cards, shoes, that “someday,” section of your closet. If you’re not using them, you don’t need to have them. 

Not too many generations back, true scarcity was a real thing, and not just scarcity of food or housing, but of basic needs like clothes and shoes too. And if you’ve ever lived on or around the poverty line, that might be a normal sensation from your life as well. No judgment. I’ve been there myself. But that mindset of “I should hang onto this just in case,” comes with a note of uncertainty for the future. While I support being prepared for things, you have to draw the line somewhere. And drawing the line before you become a hoarder is a good place for the line to be IMO. 

Storage

This is what I meant by “if it doesn’t have a place in your home, create one.” Give yourself storage spaces. Shelving, cubbies, bookcases, armoire, dressers, cabinets, bins, baskets- whatever suits your space and your aesthetic and storage needs the best- get those, and put them up and to work. Go see what you can find in thrift stores or at estate sales, don’t be afraid to paint something to suit your style or change out old hardware. Find something big enough to contain multiple items or that has a few different kinds of storage spaces. Cabinets and drawers, or cabinets full of shelves make great storage solutions because you can organize things that you fill them with. Here’s a small list of my favorites on amazon: 

The Kitchen

A space that is without a doubt its own can of worms. Kitchen chores can feel like they drain your soul because no matter what you do, the messes seem to breed like rabbits and you’re never really done cleaning in there. All it takes is one pit stop in the kitchen and the counter is sticky, or maybe you have an area of countertop that seems to be the catch all for everything that comes in the door. I hear you. 

Fix that pantry first by literally taking everything out and setting it on the table or counter top. EVERYTHING out. As if you’re moving. Wipe down your shelves. Note if there are mystery stains or spills and clean them up. Sweep or vacuum the floor. Take stock of your storage. Do you often have half open bags of sugar, flour, pasta, chips, or other dry goods? Consider grabbing some storage containers to keep them fresh and visible, instead of lumpy bags of questionable age shoved on the shelf. 

Can you fit a shelf in there? Do you need one? Potato or Onion baskets? A Bin for snack things? These things don’t just help to keep it looking nice in the pantry, though that is a big sell. They also keep things visible. Which is incredibly important if you forget what you have, or if your brain needs something quick to gnaw on but won’t let you cook anything (executive dysfunction is a real piece of work). Food Storage Containers keep the chips crisp in a bin with an airtight seal and a clear side so you know what they are. Or pasta from that half opened box from getting knocked over onto the floor. The Oatmeal stays in the jar and doesn’t flake out of the cardboard. Not to mention if you live in a climate that has pests, keeping your food stored in hard containers can keep pests out of your food stores. 

Inventory. Write a list of all the foods you have in there, the foods you need to put in there, and make a home for it that looks nice and makes sense and is functional for you going in and out for ingredients and snacks. Feel free to label containers or spaces for certain items temporarily or with a special tag so you can stick to your new pantry lay out. Knowing where everything is and having it be visible and readily available to you can make or break the function of a kitchen, so get it set just right and nice and tidy. 

Fridge Prep

Every week I do a thing. It’s nothing special or fancy but it has completely changed my life. I clean my fridge. 

Now wait just a minute before you scoff at me and roll your eyes. I know cleaning the fridge can be gross, but hear me out. What if instead of once a month or once every three months, you did a quick wipe down once a week. Would it be so bad anymore? What if you always knew exactly what was in your fridge every week and you no longer bought repeat items just for them to rot in your drawer or grow green arms and legs at the back of the fridge? What if your crisper drawer no longer resembled a graveyard of forgotten produce?

The day before I go grocery shopping, every week. I do a quick inventory and wipe down. I pull all the tupperware containers full of leftovers and dump and wash them. I pull everything out of the crisper drawers and wipe them down. I wipe down all my shelves and take stock of whatever condiments are in the door. Anything that is old or mysterious or has grown appendages is banished to the dumpster and the inside of my fridge is clean and yes, quite empty. 

Which gives me room to add new foods and have them be visible. Which brings me to my next step. 

Preparing fresh foods for storage before they make their way into my fridge has not only lengthened their lifespan, but makes it so I actually consume them instead of donating them to the compost. I know I know. You’re overstimulated and exhausted from the store (esp if you have to cart your kids with you) and you just want to shove everything in there real quick and plunk down on the couch with one of your newly purchased snacks. I hear you I see you I am you. BUT, what if. What if when you opened your fridge you knew everything that was in there without digging for ingredients because you had The Aesthetic Fridge. 

I wash my fruit before storing it in air flow containers in the fridge. I cut my carrots and store them in a glass jar of water (they look so vibrant I can’t ignore them!) Green onions get a little vase of their own as well. Lettuce gets washed and dried and stored in it’s own little box too for easy grab and go. Spinach gets an airflow container so it doesn’t go slimy on me. Cucumbers get sliced or chopped and same with bell peppers. Everything has a container that I can see into. And now, almost in spite of having small children- very little food in the fridge goes to waste, and we eat healthy wholesome nutritious foods all day. And my Executive Dysfunction? What's that? I can see everything and all my healthy choices are right up front, so I can grab and go and feel great at the same time.

Countertops & Drawers

Got one that is the Junk Station? Catches all the random crap that comes in the door and doesn’t have a specific home? Rule number one is creating or finding a home or storage spot for the thing, and if you can’t then it’s time to toss it! 

I like big bowls and I cannot lie… for setting in the center of a large counter space or a table beside the door, as the vessel for the randomness that comes in. Sunglasses, that pen that was floating in your pocket, loose change, business cards, a golf ball your kid found at the park, etc. The bowl becomes the catch all. This is great for two reasons- it looks better than a heap of nonsense, and the size and shape of the bowl limits what can be set there. It’s a boundary. If it’s too big to go in the bowl, it doesn’t belong there and needs to be relocated to it’s official home expeditiously. 

If it’s drawers that are the mess, then we go back to rule number two, because there are a ton of storage solutions specifically for drawers that you can find online. Get little dividers for your drawers or a handful of little bins that you can tetris in there and get your ish organized. 

Meal Prep 

Before you freak out about the idea of being one of those meal prep people let me just be that friend who reminds you that not every meal needs to be prepped out always. I don’t prep every meal, I don’t have a dozen boxes of premade food in my fridge. I do however make sure that my fruits and veggies are “prepped” before they even enter the fridge, and that my lunch and snacks are set up because my ADHD brain will executive dysfunction me right into an eating disorder. 

Creating new habits that fit your life is not about completely changing who you are as a person, but rather is about implementing what works best for you as an individual, customizing it to suit your lifestyle, and living your best life from there. 

So for me I don’t meal prep all our dinners or anything. I’m good about eating breakfast and dinner because those are family meals. But the middle of the day is always a challenge for me because I have a million things going on and am being tugged in different directions. It’s really easy for me to forget about lunch or put it off until a task is done, and before I know it, it’s time to work on dinner. Which is why I meal prep my lunches and snacks, so that I have something ready for me to dig into when I’m hungry. 

The Floor

Can we see it? Is it buried under… everything? Does the floor crunch or hurt your bare feet when you try to walk across it? Do you wear your shoes inside to keep your bare feet safe from the treacherous floor? That’s a problem. 

There’s no gentle way to say it, so here it is: Pick your crap up off the floor. You don’t work hard for that money just to buy nice things and then treat them like trash. You’d be upset if someone else were stepping all over your things, so why do you let your floor get like this? I’m going to be straightforward: have some self respect, and get your stuff off your floor and put it away. 

I am no stranger to parking my keister on the floor and sorting the floor things into various piles: donation, trash, laundry, whatever, and then getting up and carting them off to their designated homes. Play some upbeat music so don’t get lost in project paralysis, something that makes you want to dance and be silly, make sure your water bottle is full and within reach so there’s no distraction, and pick up the floor! Finish with a nice sweep with the vacuum or mop and look at the magnificence of a floor sans-clutter. 

The Closet

One of the most daunting tasks. because when was the last time it was empty? What do you even have in there? Who knows man, it's just a lot of stuff.

Start by going through your shoes. If you haven’t worn them in the last 6 months to a year, get rid of them. Barring the need for sandals or seasonal items like that, if you don’t wear them ever then you don’t need them ever.

Go through your laundry as you’re folding it- is there anything in there that is constantly going through the rotation but you don’t wear it? Or you wear it for like 15 minutes before it’s too uncomfortable and you change into something else? Donate it so you don’t feel bad about tossing out good clothes. Just because they’re good clothes doesn’t mean they have to be your good clothes. They can be someone else’s good clothes. And maybe while you’re donating those clothes you’ll find some great staple items to take home and replace those clothes with. Win Win. 

Don’t start what you can’t finish. 

This sounds easy, but in practice it can be really hard to keep as a habit. Because this includes chore tasks. Half done chores are more annoying than ignored chores, for one reason: they create an extra step for the next day. They become an add-on, instead of something you’re already done with. Not only do you have to do the dishes, but you also have to fold the laundry you left in the dryer, and then put it away. Now one task has become three, and instead of 20 minutes to tidy up the kitchen you’ve spent over an hour on finishing yesterdays chores plus today’s. See how quickly that can snowball? So if you’re going to start the load of the laundry, plan to also finish it- dryer, fold, and put away. If you wash the dishes, plan to also dry and put them away. If you’re cleaning out your closet- separate it in sections so that you can finish each section and stay on track instead of getting lost in the memories of the things you find. 

I know, this feels like the biggest, most impossible one of them all, but it means that you can actively check that task off of the list and there won’t be any leftovers for you to finish up tomorrow. Giving you more opportunity to pursue things you enjoy, or take a freaking nap- in your clean home.

Maintenance

You can’t just clean and set it up once and then never again do anything about it. You have to maintain your set up work. I’ve set up a loose schedule that I follow for all big clean up areas, and then give myself small allotments of time to do maintenance chores through the week. 

For example, cleaning out your closet of all the crap that you stuffed in the corners is the Big Clean, but doing your laundry and folding and putting it away properly is the maintenance. Everytime you’re putting things away, you do a quick once over the closet or dresser and make sure it’s still functionally tidy. 

Or like with the fridge- the night before your grocery day, you wipe down the fridge and pull out any tupperware or leftovers or questionable items and toss them. The next day, your fridge is prepped to receive new goods and it’s clean and organized for you to put things away. 

This same rule applies to other areas of the house as well. Make a list for yourself of the Big Cleans, the Main Mess Centers of the house, or the biggest chores that become projects when they've sat for a day too long. Where can you break down the laundry so it's not a mountain by Friday? What little steps can you implement in the kitchen, or the bathroom, that will make maintaining it easier and less of a job?

An example from my own home: In the past, onions and potatoes and other "pantry vegetables" would all just get heaped wherever there was space for them once they came home. This resulted in bruised produce- which then allows rot, and that's gross and wasteful. Or sprouted produce, which for some produce makes them inedible. Or we would simply forget they were there because they didn't have a designated home. I ordered a set of 3 soft baskets from Amazon, and now there are separate baskets for potatoes, onions and garlic, and gourds, they look great, and with everything organized and visually appealing, they get eaten all the time. If you're on a tighter budget tham Amazon allows for, you can always hit up a thrift or dollar store and look for baskets that would suit your needs and kitchen. I've found some great baskets for storing things at both places when online wasn't an option.

It might feel counterintuitive to break things down into smaller bits, or bins, or whatever- like it adds more work or more steps to what you already have to get done. I totally understand that. The point is to get to where you can manage and maintain your spaces without it being another struggle for you to add to your list.

The Ultimate Win

With clean spaces around you, your brain will begin to quiet down a little. Because you won't have the background static of "make your bed," "the kitchen smells," "trash is full, need another bag," "why is the floor crunchy..." rattling around in your head and stressing you out. Even if you don't think those things bother you, they do. They contribute to your mental and physical health and it's so important for you that your home brings you a sense of calm and peace and rejuvination, because it's where you go for rest, it's where you go for comfort, it's where you keep your things that are important to you. So your home should be tidy, your bedroom should invite you to rest and be comfortable, your home should invite you into your personal sanctuary, not your personal hell.

All this to say, that whether you're on a Wellness Journey, a Mental Health Journey, or just want to feel less overwhelmed and stressed out every day- a great place to start, is in your home, taking the time to create an organized space that functions and makes sense to you is vital to your well being.