Autism & house keeping

I'm another one who is bad at tidying and cleaning. For a long time I basically just didn't do it - as in for years. There was very thick dust on everything, and moulds and bacterial slimes growing all over my kitchen and bathroom. I don't know if it's because of autism, it might just be from depression.

Part of the problem is I'm a perfectionist and I don't like doing things that I can't do absolutely perfectly. With cleaning, it's never enough. Even if I clean, it could be done more, and very quickly it will be dirty again. I can't believe how fast dust appears and accumulates. Within a few days it's back. I don't understand how people keep a clean home. They must spend their entire lives cleaning. It would be a full time job to keep my house clean.

I tend to get hyper-focused on something and then that is all I want to do for weeks or months and the last thing on my mind is cleaning.

Lately I have been making an extra effort with cleaning, because I want to eventually sell this house and I also thought it might be bad for my health to live in squalor.

As for tidying, I have a photographic memory for where things are, so whilst it might look like a mess, it's basically a situation of everything being left where I last put it. So it's not disorganised as such. I don't see any benefit of putting things away or hiding them and I used to get very annoyed as a kid if my mum tidied up and I couldn't find something because it wasn't where I left it. I can even tell if something was used and put back by someone else because it will be off by a few centimetres.

I'm another one who is bad at tidying and cleaning. For a long time I basically just didn't do it - as in for years. There was very thick dust on everything, and moulds and bacterial slimes growing all over my kitchen and bathroom. I don't know if it's because of autism, it might just be from depression.

Part of the problem is I'm a perfectionist and I don't like doing things that I can't do absolutely perfectly. With cleaning, it's never enough. Even if I clean, it could be done more, and very quickly it will be dirty again. I can't believe how fast dust appears and accumulates. Within a few days it's back. I don't understand how people keep a clean home. They must spend their entire lives cleaning. It would be a full time job to keep my house clean.

I tend to get hyper-focused on something and then that is all I want to do for weeks or months and the last thing on my mind is cleaning.

Lately I have been making an extra effort with cleaning, because I want to eventually sell this house and I also thought it might be bad for my health to live in squalor.

As for tidying, I have a photographic memory for where things are, so whilst it might look like a mess, it's basically a situation of everything being left where I last put it. So it's not disorganised as such. I don't see any benefit of putting things away or hiding them and I used to get very annoyed as a kid if my mum tidied up and I couldn't find something because it wasn't where I left it. I can even tell if something was used and put back by someone else because it will be off by a few centimetres.