Hey im autistic & im struggling to keep my home tidy & I don't understand y i thought autistic peeps were tidy peeps
So im wondering if u can get autistic peeps that r untidy
Hey im autistic & im struggling to keep my home tidy & I don't understand y i thought autistic peeps were tidy peeps
So im wondering if u can get autistic peeps that r untidy
I use space as an aid to absent mindedness. Anything that needs my attention I leave out to remind me. So space is always cluttered. Also when I put things away it has to be in the proper place and order. I won’t just dump a pile of papers in a draw. I need to sort through them first. It takes time.
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.
Yep, I get it. I have one of two states:
A) Got the routine nailed, house is super clean and tidy and I'm free to let hyper focus earn me a living or out to play with the special interests, and making me happy
B) Totally thrown off balance by other people's chaos and dirt, turning in circles with housework, feeling completely overwhelmed by the size of the task and not knowing where to start, with concentration disturbed vis a vis all other demands on my time, unable to engage with my hobbies even...end up going back to bed and closing my eyes so as not to see the disorder bombarding my senses.
the 'super-tidiers' are always sanctimonious, jealous types who preach "cleanliness is next to godliness". Whatever. I've got better things to do than shove Henry around.
Poor her! Different strokes for different folks though isn't it.
I always find it interesting on these cleaning programmes how they depict the untidy person to learn lessons from the other one who is really tidy. It's never the other way round. Like cleanliness and tidiness is what you should be aiming for. I kind of think, if it's not harming yourself or anyone else, if one wants to live in a pigsty that's entirely ones choice.
I've always thought people who have clean and tidy homes must live dull lives.
Absolutely - my sister's house is immaculate and totally devoid of any evidence of people living there - like a show-house on a boring development - but she has no hobbies or interests or pass-times. The highlight of her week is Strictly.
I've always thought people who have clean and tidy homes must live dull lives. In our house we seem to accumulate clutter and theres always piles of washing everywhere. Theres onlynthe two of us here. My partner says he breaks tasks down into threes to make them more manageable. I was watching Yo Samdy Sam on youtube...there's a few videos about executive function. I seem to do housework when I feel like it..if I'm in the mood I can do a thorough job.
I'm going to employ two strategies from these videos and see how I get on..
I'd love to live on a boat then I could get rid of most of my possessions. I think the modern world gives us too much stuff which we don't need.
Having lived in a 3 bedroom house for 15 years then having to downsize to a 1 bedroom was overwhelming. I have strong attachments to things and have trouble throwing things out.
The council had to step in and empty the house for me, 30 van loads disposed of and a bill of £620 I had to pay.
My new place ive managed to get my living room tidy, my kitchen is ok its my bedroom that hides the chaos, boxes piled to the ceiling I can just get into my double bed.
I try and go through a box or a bag when I can bring myself to do so, I know myself it needs to be gone I'd feel happier knowing its tidy as I worry what people say if they saw the mess but its hard to get a plan in action and sticking to it
We've cleared the garage out to a point where I'm now able to see the floor - so now I'm repatriating all my tools back into their sets. I have an 'orphan' box where all the odd stuff is living until I find all their brothers to make a set. Once it's all sorted, all the duplicates are going to get donated to the Men's Sheds.charity.
I am tidying up slowly after many years of mess.
There are problems with autism, tidying, and possessions. I become attached to things and hate to get rid of them. Especially I hate to throw them away. So even if clothes get holes in them, I think they can be used as rags for cleaning things! Bits of wood, old screws, all can be used. Or so I think. Clothes I have grown out of, being far more portly now than I was thirty years ago. Books which overflow bookshelves. Boxes, many of them empty. And crockery and cutlery, many odd bits of crockery that are parts of sets that the other pieces have long since broken. And broken crockery that I could glue together. But haven't.
Then it comes to the point that things can't be found. Where is the screwdriver? Buy another as I need it now and can't spend a couple of days looking for it. Or a best shirt or pair of trousers. Have to buy another because I have to go somewhere that more formal attire is needed and can't find them. And so it goes on, accumulating things. The floor disappears under the mess, then trouble getting around the rooms and doors that cannot be opened or closed. Entrances blocked. And it gets worse and worse.
Tidying and cleaning is a long, long job. There is the sheer demoralising effect of seeing the mess and wondering where to start. And nowhere to sort stuff to. But I am making some progress. I am now at the stage where things are extremely untidy, which seems a lot tidier than they were. My next stage is to get it looking very untidy, which compared to extremely untidy will appear quite tidy to me! But things have to be disposed of. Old time of food have been emptied to the compost heap, some of them nearly twenty years past their best before date, some discovered rising through and leaked onto the pantry shelves. So the food cupboard at least is now clear and none of the time out of date. Next will be disposing of excess food to the food bank.
Clothes have now all been washed and in a large number of bags, being sorted into type - underwear, trousers, shirts, etc. But still in bags with zips as cannot yet get to the drawers and cupboards to wind what wonders are there. And want to only have two sets of smart clothes, two of casual, and two of clothes for dirty jobs. I have a dishwasher which is both a curse and a help, but need to sort the crockery and cutlery to remove the stuff that is in excess.
I hope to get a lot more done by the end of April. Once the warmer months are here I need to get outside, I enjoy the outside so much. And winter is too cold and dark to be motivated.
Others find it difficult to understand, although no one see the full extentmess as I don't have visitors inside. I fully understand that people can become incapable of keeping a tidy home. And the sort of thing that is least help of anything is the judgement of others on programmes that show people in a similar situation. They do not need threats of eviction or to be told they are living in a mess. They know that. They need proper sympathetic help, and a realisation that for some people keeping a tidy home is well nigh impossible.
I get so absorbed with what I am doing the house gets dirty and when I notice it I have to clean it. I feel SIGNIFICANTLY better in a clean house and what drives me to clean it is the stress it puts me under not being clean but like I said I only clean it when I notice it.
Whilst I am sure there a common traits among those on the spectrum that make it hard to keep a clean room, I know for a fact that it can be as equally hard for those without autism as well. Whilst I struggle with it myself I don't put it down to my diagnosis of autism. I find that mind set is not good for my health.
