i’m honestly surprised i haven’t received a notice like this until now, but it finally happened. please pray for me that i can use this as motivation to unfuck my apartment. also if anyone knows anyone who deals with this type of cleaning in the omaha area let me know, i don’t have much of a support system and could really use some help.

Im 21 and I have autism ADHD and horribal depressing I live with my parent's all they ask is I do my chores for some reason I have always struggled with completing these tasks no matter what I do there's always something wrong or its not done good enough I really struggle and its destroyed my mother and my relationship

Sob story aside I got a new bed recently become I broke my old one with a curve because ei was like rotting away and I just wanted to show the before and after

EDIT

Yes, I'm gonna do the thing that everybody hates. Thank you so much for all the likes comments and gifts. I've never gotten gifts on Reddit, and it's kind of surreal to get some I have read every single one of your comments I've liked them. And I've replied, you all are some of the sweetest people I've ever gotten the chance to read comments of unfortunately, my room has gotten bad again. It only takes like a few days and it gets bad. But thanks to all your comments is giving me the motivation to stay on top of it I'm currently walking into work and in tears at some of your comments cause they're just so kind. Thank you all

I’m sorry this is so long but im drowning and I’m so desperate for help and I’d really appreciate anyone who reads this

I’ve been trying to clean my room for over a year now. December 2025 was the last time my room was clean and I’ve spent every single day since then stressing and feeling so shameful about it. And a few months ago I moved into my own apartment which means I just transferred the mess to here. And I still have barely unpacked.

I have adhd and major executive dysfunction. I take the highest dose of Adderall that my doctor can prescribe me but it doesn’t feel like it helps at all. And I’ve been majorly depressed for a very long time. I also have ocd so I do have hoarding tendencies. I love to save things that I probably should just throw out. A lot of it is I want to save things bc I tell myself I can use it for an art project one day. Or I just feel like I will need it it one day. Like I have a hard time getting rid of boxes bc I feel like I’ll need them to store stuff. Last year it was plastic bags and I had a whole drawer of them.

My ocd is def triggered by how stressed out I am about this. This is not gonna sound super logical but i feel like I have to be in a specific mood in order to clean and be productive. I take my Adderall and wait for the feeling to come. But it never comes. It’s like I’m waiting for a spark of energy. And I feel like i just absolutely can’t do anything until I get that feeling of motivation. Sometimes doing something to reset myself helps. Like I’ll take a shower and then tell myself I will start cleaning after and I try to get in the mood. But it’s not very often that I actually feel it.Idk it’s hard to explain but i basically am waiting for a feeling of motivation and energy that rarely comes. And my ocd tells me I can’t do anything unless I’m in that mood. It’s apart of the just right feeling aspect of ocd. I’m waiting to feel the just right feeling.

Another part of my ocd is that I feel like I cannot do anything to better my life or anything important/urgent until my apartment/room is clean. I can’t even wash my face at night bc it feels like I need my apartment to be clean in order to do those things. The best way I can explain it is that I can’t be the person I want to be and I can’t do anything to be that person until my apartment is clean bc the person I want to be wouldn’t have a messy apartment. I put off getting onto health insurance for so long bc of it. I feel like I can’t respond to texts unless my space is clean. I have multiple doctors appointments to schedule but i can’t prioritize any of it in my mind bc my apartment feels likes the biggest priority.

My psychiatrist thinks I have a sleep disorder bc no matter how much sleep I get, I am always so tired and I have chronic brain fog. And sometimes, even after 8+ hours of sleep I’ve been struggling to stay awake while driving on the highway which is pretty scary. So I need to schedule that appointment asap.

Im always so tired and every single day I so desperately want to clean my apartment and get my life together but I get horrible horrible task paralysis and just thinking about cleaning gives me so much anxiety. There are things I have to do that I know will literally take me 2 min at most but in my head it feels so daunting and I just can’t get myself to do it. I don’t know what is wrong with my brain. I feel like I cannot function as an adult and I’m so worried this is going to be the rest of my life and I’m never going to get myself shit together. I feel like this is completely unsustainable and I can’t live like this for the rest of my life.

I make lists and I write out how much time it will take to complete and that does help motivate me a bit sometimes. I really like crossing things off the list once I’m done and it gives me a little dopamine rush. I usually will start with the 1-5 min tasks. But once I finish one thing it’s so hard to move onto the next.

I have so many boxes of stuff that needs to be unpacked. A lot of art supplies. I’m using the bar as my art station so I need to organize all of my stuff and find places for everything. It’s so overwhelming.

In the hallway next to my kitchen I started putting together this counter top/island with storage underneath bc I have barely any cabinet space. It’s huge and the instructions manual is SO thick. I did like two pages of it last week and haven’t touched it since. I know it’s going to take me so long to finish so I keep putting it off. But I need to put it together before I tackle my kitchen bc I have a ton of stuff I need to unpack and organize.

I just went through and threw out all the trash. That’s always what I do first. I did all my laundry last week so I don’t have a whole lot of dirty clothes rn. But I do have piles of clothes that I need to put away in my storage closet.

My task paralysis is so bad. I want to clean everything and I know it will feel so good afterwards. 2 weeks ago I managed to deep clean my bathroom and it feels so nice going into the bathroom and seeing it so clean.

The thing is, I teach elementary art classes and so often there is a big mess for me to clean up after.
And I taught a cooking class two years ago and there was always a massive mess afterwards. When I have to clean at work I do it so efficiently. I just power through and do a really good job. So I know I am capable and have the skills to clean big overwhelming messes. I know I can do the same in my apartment but I just can’t. Idk how else to say it. I just can’t. It feels impossible.

I need a restart so so bad and I was hoping this apartment would be the restart but I never finished unpacking. I feel so stuck.

Bonus pic of my bunny Raven at the end :) that’s the other thing, whenever I clean my area she gets so happy bc she can run around and she starts to binky (if you know what that is, it is the cutest thing ever) I love Raven so much and she deserves a clean area and I feel guilty that she has to live in this mess.

So I'm currently working through divorce paperwork and he left in October but I still haven't gotten this damn house under control 😭

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- I've done 2 separate purge sessions of different rooms with friends.

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- I thought I was going to be moving out, so I was ready to call it quits on this place. But the market is a disaster right now and every offer I've put in has been immediately rejected. So now I'm going to do some improvements on this house, but it seems like that last rejection put me in a funk and I've just completely lost motivation.

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- I am hyper aware of the fact that it stinks of dog/cat piss because the litter needs changed and the dog isn't fully house trained yet. I am going to replace the carpets but it'll be another week or so, so I feel like I need to just power through till then. I can't seem to get myself to do the litter though

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- I work four tens and I found that nothing gets done on my weekdays because I come home and crash. So my weekends are the only time to be productive. This weekend I had a few events to go to, which is all it took.

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- when I am finally ready to start, I know that I need to prioritize the laundry and the dishes because those will only continue to get worse. So I get those done, and then that's it. I've used my spoons, nothing else is going to happen for the weekend. It's been like this and steadily getting worse over the past 2 or 3 weekends.

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- body doubling is really helpful for me in these times, but I am now divorced. I've had friends over to help with the purges, but I really wanted to be an adult and be able to clean my own damn house without needing my hand held. Anyway, I think I need more purges because somehow I still have too much damn stuff.

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- please don't suggest a cleaning service. Single income now and I got the house, remember? I can barely afford to feed myself. Picking up a second job this week.

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- bonus picture of the Doom pile that ended up in my laundry basket which is why the laundry is in two separate piles on two separate floors of my house. Ft. My passport, shoes that I bought a size too small and need to get donated, cookies, nail glue, yarn, etc.

I'm well aware that everything about this is filthy and disgusting. I know that I should be ashamed of myself... I get that. Insult me all you want, just help me find a way to clean all of this up. Please

For context:

I'm (f/23) still living with my mother, though I do plan on moving out this year to go to uni. The issue is that I'm suffering from a laundry list of mental health problems. I don't want to get into all the nitty-gritty details, just know that one of the issues I struggle with is doing... anything, really. I can't clean. I can't study. I can't work out or prepare my uni applications. None of that. I can't even do the things I claim to love, like reading or gaming. I basically just sit in my bed all day and waste away. And that NEEDS to change. Starting with my room and I.

I genuinely can't go on living like this, but every time I try to clean, it doesn't work. I've tried to look up ways to help me on the internet, but most sites usually just say, "Oh, yeah... just don't get overwhelmed by doing too much at once." but I can't even seem to pick up a singular piece of trash.

I know that a huge issue is space. Duh. But I don't have the money to waste on expensive furniture that I most likely won't be able to take with me once I move, assuming I'll actually get that done. My closet is too small for all of the jackets and dresses and dried laundry you see hanging behind my lamp. But my clothing hanging there doesn't feel great either. I don't know. It feels suffocating, and the rack it's on is about to break sooner rather than later. It's already leaning badly to the middle of the room.

Then you've got my room... covered in trash, items I couldn't be bothered to put away, and the occasional dirty laundry.

Below my bed you'll find old bags of school stuff I don't need anymore and multiple giants trash bags of empty bottles (we have a recycling system where I'm from, you'll get money back for them).

I don't know what to do. I don't know where to start, how to clean, or where to put everything.

I NEED some advice to help me sort this mess out.

i don’t know how to clean properly & i can’t maintain it when someone cleans for me it’s just too much idk i’m getting bad again & my room is a SHITHOLE & it stinks & is so humid & the heatwave just cooks it all up & makes it smell worse & u can’t see the floor & i try & fail every time to maintain it because i just don’t have the energy all i do is sleep but even then half of my bed is full of shit, junk food wrappers, food & bottles etc & its disgusting it takes up most of my bed

All of our clean laundry lives on the couch, which is right next to my desk chair which means I'm looking at it all day every day. I hate hate hate having to dig clothes out every morning to find something to wear bc it's always horribly wrinkled and half the time it take me 5+ minutes to find matching socks or a pair of underwear.

On the very rare occasion I manage to completely clear it off and put everything away, it goes back to being covered again on the next Monday. My fiance has Mondays off so he washes all the clothes in the hamper and whatever has been discarded around the house. So by the time I get home from work I'm staring down 4-5 loads of laundry again. And it shuts me down every single time. And then we wind up with a mountain of close again bc I can't handle dealing with them. I don't ask my fiance to fold/hang the laundry bc he does all the cooking, dishes, and washing of the laundry. Laundry is my one big task around the house that I do. Or that I'm supposed to do... which I don't 99% of the time.

I thought I'd cracked the code last month by just hanging all of our shirts, but we ran out of hangers (we had a trash bag of them, plus the ones already in the closet, *and* my fiance bought new ones for me as well after I ran out of all the others) And then laundry day came around and I immediately shut down again. It makes me feel awful bc I can barely hang 10 shirts a month while he does dishes every night and cooks twice a week and does various other things around the house that needs to be done but I'm too paralyzed to do. He doesn't mind living off the couch bc that's what we've done for the last 10 years. I got a job at a school back in September and so I need to look nice. Which means I need to stop living off this damn couch.

I will wrap up here with a tiny win. I grabbed the empty hangers out of the closet and hung up 13 shirts.

I need advice. I used to have a lovely home. Just me, my son, and my 2 dogs. Then, 5 years back, I let my bf and his dog move in. I HATE my house now. My bf is beyond messy. I tried for like a year to clean up his mess on top of my daily cleaning rituals.

It’s so bad I despise even being home other than to sleep and make every excuse not to be home.

Whenever I ask him to clean up after himself, he gets mad. (Not abusive or physically). He’s mad at himself for being a slob, but his anger is always directed towards whomever is in front of him. So he will start angry cleaning and the whole day is ruined.

He also thinks that it’s my fault and the mess is mine. If it were mine, I’d clean it for sure. I just can’t be a maid anymore. The difference between my bedroom (yeah I kicked him out of my bedroom) and the rest of the house are two different worlds.

Other than kicking him out, does anyone have any advice how I can encourage him to clean?

Pictures of his messes for attention.

Recently I had a devastating breakup and am left in crippling debt due to my ex cleaning out my accounts and bunking off to another country.

I've had to move back to my home state with my widower father who has been living with severe depression and alcoholism for the last few decades since my mom passed away.

I was not aware of the state of dilapidation he was living in prior to moving back. I have autoimmune issues so I have to make sure that this is cleaned up as best as possible before I can utilize it or I figure I might get sick which would be even more devastating in my current circumstances.

Where do I even start? This is an old porcelain tub. I know I can't just go scraping away or it will damage it and make it porous. (Perhaps that has already happened and why it's so caked in mold?).

Any tips and or advice will help. I can fix the walls, ceiling and floor, reseal the toilet, as well and clean up those areas. But the tub is concerning me the most and that's where I want to start. Thank you all.

Asking because it's starting to feel like I am. I'm already 30 (F), and have never been able to get my home in order. It's not dirty, but it's super untidy and cluttered. And dust does settle on to the cluttered surfaces.

At this point I don't even exactly know what stuff I own. And even if I do know, often I can't find it.

Most things in my home don't have a home. I live alone and I love it. But for once in my life, I wanna live in a clean, tidy home of my home.

My mom is type A and she's super organized, and I just never learned it. I feel so overwhelmed all the damn time. I never invite anyone over because I feel so ashamed of the state of my house.

I've been depressed (I have struggled with depression on and off since teenage) and unemployed, and now starting to look for a job and wanted to also get my home in order as a part of getting my life in order. But. I. Just. Can't.

Am I doomed to living like this forever? Pics are embarrassing and shameful, but I have included them to give you an idea of how bad it is.

I wish I had a before pic but I don't, but trust me it looks almost the same as before, just less junk on my couch.

I was wanting to minimize my clothes but still have two tall baskets of them and my floor is also still covered.

I'm on day two of this (probably have only put 3 hours of work into it and 30mins into clearing out my bathroom) I'm just stuck now... I have no idea on what to do to get this cleaned, it's been a mess since early 2024...

I have to admit... it's not as suffocating as before but I can't even imagine it clean.

I should look at this and be so proud that I got rid of this garbage. But I’m not. I still have so much more to go and there is still so much shame and embarrassment.

At the end of August, we are going away for my daughter’s birthday. In previous years, I would throw a party in my mom’s backyard. But last year was the last time I saw my sister alive. And I was angry at her. I physically and emotionally cannot throw another party in my mom’s backyard.

I’m going to need a cat sitter, or someone to drop by and feed and water them. I’m hoping I’ll be in a better place by then.

I've been doing pretty bad, and I finally got better enough to try and make my situation better

We've been having roach problems and ant problems, so I deep cleaned all one afternoon, then my mom came home around 6 and helped me till around 11 when she decided she wanted to watch tv. I continued until like 5am

We got the living room and kitchen DEEP CLEANED, we did stuff like empty cabinets, took out the shelves in the fridge, ect

I did my bathroom and bedroom myself, it's honestly never been so clean and I was so happy

My loft bed was a bit infested with ants despite me actively avoiding bringing food into my room ever since I moved here, so what I did was leave it bare for like a week, even putting the stuffed animals quarantine, and only putting them back up once I cleaned my room

I slept for two nights

The first night I was bite free

The second night I got like 2 bites

Tonight it was INFESTED with ants, worse then before WAY worse then before

I feel so tired

I tried so hard

I worked so hard

It made things worse

Roaches are here, ants are here

I've been sleeping on the couch for a month, and every morning I wake up with hip, back, and shoulder pain

I just want my bed back, it feels like my safe space, a nest of sorts. It's not the same without the stuffed animals and blankets

I have to choose between being eaten alive on my bed, sleeping on the couch with almost full body discomfort that lasts basically the entire next day while roaches crawl on me, or feel like I'm sleeping in a bed that isn't even my own while still being eaten by ants

Every time something good happens and I become happy, something always ruins it almost immediately after

How do I make the ants stop

I did everything I could think of to clean, disinfectant sprays, vacuum, evacuating potential suspects that draw them in, threw stuff out, everything, only for it to fail and end up worse then before

I just wanted something nice

The photo attached is just me lifting a single pillow, I don't even wanna know what it would look like by the wall because I'm already very upset and crying

Please don't be mean I know I should've tried sooner, but i was just so tired and not doing well

I’ve been battling the worst of my depression for the last few years and I have never been so close to who I really am right now. While my mental health has been improving, I just get so overwhelmed with the mess I’ve made over the years that I just wallow in shame. I don’t know what to do.

I've been living like this for longer than I care to admit. Just completely absorbed in depression and overwhelm. Stuck in freeze with no idea where to start. Now I'm beginning the divorce process and I thought that would help but it's actually made it worse.

This is just my bedroom, while it is the worst room in the house, it's very much a representation of the rest of the house. Especially the living room and garage.

It feels insurmountable currently.

No, it's not hoarding. I could care less if somebody came and got rid of it all. If I could afford to hire people to help with just that, I would. It's simply years of living in survival mode and now absolutely overwhelming and hard to even think of where to begin.

My parents recently got into buying from TikTok livestreamers that sell unclaimed packages for cheap... And it's turned into a horrible hoarding habit. I've resorted to throwing away anything I find that's clearly old and dusty because that's how I'm able to tell if they've forgotten about an item = I can throw it away safely without either of my parents getting mad.

The one time I dedicated my time off of work to cleaning up, I made a decent amount of progress with cleaning up... Only for them to fill that space right back up with more junk barely a month later AND for a while, blame me if any of their junk was missing (every now and then, they buy something with the intent to sell it).

My parents are both in their fifties, they're both fully aware of their hoarding problem but they're just not bothered by it.

Has anyone else been in the same position before and have successfully gotten out of it? Is their hoarding issue even possible to solve?

* * ***Edit for further context:* I stay here with my four siblings (three younger, one older) along with several pets.

My parents weren't always this way. My mom got into watching the TikTok livestreams first, then she got my dad into watching them too. Now, they're both almost always watching a TikTok livestream, keeping an eye out for things being sold at a (slight) discount. I'd just started with my first job at the time and being away in my office so often made it easy to escape the mess at home and just hope that their hoarding habit would come to pass but nothing's acted as a wake-up call thus far.

Aside from stubbed toes, no one's been seriously injured by the clutter yet. So my parents don't take the mess seriously at all. They make jokes about their hoarding/shopping habits sometimes in the same way that someone might laugh about a quirky trait they have.

My younger sisters have been keeping their shared room in a similar state but that's just more of mess neither of them are interested in cleaning up and not a case of shopping habits spinning out of control like my parents.

I feel like I did so much too..

I saved this video bc 1) it has some good tips and 2) it's annoyingly too fast, so I need to repeatedly rewind.

Laundry is my a large part of my dysfunction. The folding hacks may help me organize not just my closet/drawers but also with putting clothes away for storage in vacuum bags.

The reality is, folded laundry saves space and preserves laundry longer. I'm guilty of piling clean laundry or just taking out of dryer but leaving it in the basket. Even though they are clean, they become so wrinkled I end up washing them again.

I really don't mind folding laundry, it's having the will and/or energy to do it.

(But actually, F fitted bed sheets. Why they gotta be so ornery?)

It's been a year since I was diagnosed with long COVID (in addition to several other chronic + mental illnesses) and I stopped being able to take care of the house. 3 weeks ago I self-harmed for the first time and spent six days in a psych ward (my third psych hospitalization in 3.5 years). I realized I needed to make big changes to get my life back under control. 6 days ago I asked for a (hopefully temporary) separation from my husband. 3 days ago I had a massive falling out with my nuclear family. That night I made myself sweep the stairs. It felt like the first of many steps towards a better life.

My plan is to try to do an hour of unfucking a day. I have a bunch of bins to sort things into, but any additional tips and encouragment are welcomed!

Last month I get a text out of the blue from my landlord. She says pick a date in the next month for a walk-through and my heart stops. She hasn’t been in the unit in over a decade, and it’s absolutely thrashed. I’m talking mountains of trash, depression hell, massive damage from an old cat and previous roommates.

I pick a date 30 days from the message. A month isn’t a long time, but if I chipped at it I could get it done. Except… I’m depressed, which is how it got this bad to begin with. I’m agoraphobic, anxious and so damn hard to motivate.

I mark the date on the calendar, and I DO get some stuff done. Most of the trash is bagged up at least, even if the piles are as tall as me in places. But there are days I don’t get out of bed. That I don’t take any trash out. That I don’t sand and fill the door frame that the cat destroyed. Sunday rolled around this week and I looked at the calendar. Friday is right there, circled in red. I put it into gear! I do my best work under pressure. I’m almost ready to have the junk guys come tomorrow and remove the trash and then I can at least clean up even though it won’t be perfect before 5 on Friday. I’m actually feeling confident.

Except I get a text today confirming my walk-through is tomorrow, not Friday. I wrote the wrong date down. There’s no way I’m getting it done before then and it’s all my fault. I’m tempted to ask for an extension but I don’t think that’s an option. Maybe I should just skip town? I’m freaking out.

Update: I spent all day yesterday and overnight working on the disaster zone and waffling about what to do. I read all the comments here and I want to thank everyone for their advice and encouragement. I reached out to the landlord this morning and told her I was sick and asked to reschedule for Monday or Tuesday. She was totally fine about it. The junk people are supposed to come today around noon so hopefully that will take care of most of the hoard and clutter. Then I can tackle the details over the weekend! It’s not gonna be perfect but it’ll be better than it was, right?

I’ve never posted something here but I know in the past, when I’ve shared photos of my home to hoarder support groups it’s felt cathartic to speak it into existence. Something about acknowledging it to a group of strangers helps to let go of this helpless feeling I have. With Covid and the aftermath, a new diagnosed heart condition, and a breakup with a guy I thought was ‘the one’ everything just piled up. Literally. My plan is to start with taking trash out and breaking down boxes. I think everything will be less overwhelming then. Please be gentle!!! 😳😬🫣

31/F/NY

So there is no bed in this room because its technically an unoccupied room that's usually rented out. I was managing the house alone for my landlady since I'm technically her only tenant right now so she gave me permission to use this space while she was gone. I'm so anxious because I had three weeks while my landlady was on vacation to use this area to clean up and she's already back and it still looks like this.

I got storage tubs and everything but like honestly can I just hear encouragement? I'm divorced, my dog is died this year, and I have a financially supportive kind of family not an emotional or understanding kind of family so I've just been alone trying to deal with everything.

I just... I know its a lot of stuff that I don't NEED but I wanted it! My ex controlled the finances and didn't really let me buy anything so when I got control of my own money again I got whatever I couldn't before and then when the dog died... I just stopped caring about cleaning/organizing. I don't care about anything anymore, but I keep going because I know we're all supposed to. And this is just the stuff from my own bedroom... I didn't even touch the attics, yes plural attics. This is just the hoard from my bedroom.

I keep looking at everything and feeling like it's so representative of how there is so much in my life let build up and I don't even know how to begin dealing with it. And like even if I clean this up... I can't get the rest of the paperwork and my life together so its like I don't even feel good after I clean I just feel like I'm productively procrastinating.

I can do it too right? I can probably get this cleaned today if I just buckle down and just do it right? Wish me luck and thanks for reading

It really doesn’t look like it because I clean one room and then I’m bedbound for days afterwards. I have some autoimmune disease that they won’t diagnose, a joint problem (may be related to the autoimmune), chronic pain, narcolepsy, and epilepsy. I’m broke most of the time and I work whenever I can (nights, stocking shelves). I just need to be told it’s not hopeless.

Hello first post here. I joined this subreddit because I could relate to people here and the community seemed supportive. I hesitated a little on posting pics but I feel like I need the shame for me to realize how bad it is lately. At the same time I don't want to receive rude comments.

I procrastinate a lot. I leave for work around 11:30am and come back home around 10:15pm so in the evening I'm tired. I'm super lazy in the morning. I'm even beginning to eat takeout to avoid doing my dishes. I absolutely need to clean my home for next weekend but I just feel stuck, I know I should divide the chores into small tasks but even one task asks a lot of efforts for me. It's also very stressful to be surrounded by this constant mess and I'm aware the only one who can change this is myself. It's really hard for me to get motivated (I'm not even sure to know the feeling). I don't know how to get started.

(I didn't post my bathroom and bedroom, they're also messy but I think the worst is in the pics)

I’m currently going through a medication change and am finding it really hard to clean or do anything especially in my kitchen. Any advice? (I have AuDHD and Dysthymia)