Story by Jacalyn Wetzel
I used to beat myself up all the time about the state of my house. My living room in particular, because I couldn’t keep up with laundry. Well, I could keep up with the wash and the drying, but the folding – the folding took 7-10 business days or weeks…or until we cycled through all of the clothes on the couch and they were rewashed and replaced.
The point is, my couch was always a hot mess. I would take armfuls of clothes and throw them on my bed and shut the door any time company came over and as soon as they left the pile went back to it’s rightful place.
Then I found a person on TikTok who is a fellow therapist and a late in life diagnosed ADHDer. My soul sister. She introduced me to the idea of containers for my mess. Making my space functional for my needs and not just presentation for presentation sake.
So, I looked around at the surfaces that collect things and put a basket there to catch it. Is it functional to someone else? Maybe not, but it’s functional to me because it clears the space and all of my random things have a home. When the basket gets too full, I go through and throw things away that I don’t need and put the things I do need either back in the basket or the actual place they’re supposed to go.
The biggest change is my couch full of laundry. I have turned it into something glorious!!! Glorious I tell you!
Instead of stressing out and being overwhelmed by the amount of clothes on my couch that I must somehow fold and put away, I bought a laundry sorter. Not for dirty clothes, but for clean clothes.
This is life changing for me. It takes me five minutes to get clean laundry sorted and off my couch. FIVE MINUTES! It takes the overwhelm out of the process. Yes, clothes are a bit wrinkly, but I don’t mind ironing or tossing them in the dryer with a damp rag.
It works for me. My house is more functional for me. It’s not for show. People live here and you can tell, but my mental health has never been better when it comes to overwhelm about mess.
There are a few more things on my list to get to continue making my house work with my ADHD, like a Cross Wave and a Roomba to keep control of the mountains of hair that my dog sheds daily. For now, everything has a place and I wanted to take the time to encourage you that if you’re struggling with keeping up that it’s ok to aim for function over feature.
It’s ok to do what works best for you to keep your sanity.
It’s ok to work with your depression, anxiety, ADHD or any other mental illness you may have. Functionality is personal, not what works for others or what society pushes us to believe is the “right way.”
If you’re struggling with household tasks, I highly recommend following Domestic Blisters on TikTok or here on Facebook Struggle Care. She also has a book called How to Keep House While Drowning available on Amazon.
Go forth and be great!
You can follow her journey on: Facebook, Instagram and Website
