What workarounds did people try for "How to clean a room when you are too depressed"?

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Community members documented 88 workarounds:
1. Hiring professional house cleaners
2. Taking things one hour or one day at a time
3. Using plastic mattress covers as temporary fixes
4. Hiring professional trash removal services
5. Reading Atomic Habits
6. Resetting a space immediately after use
7. Tackling small areas for instant gratification
8. Having a friend come over to help clean without judgment
9. Using power tools like drill brushes or orbital sanders with pads to save time and physical effort
10. taking it one step at a time over days or weeks
11. focusing on cleaning for the sake of pets
12. using huge trash bags and sorting items into categories like keep, trash, goodwill, and paper clutter
13. sweeping everything into the center of the room to bag or sort later
14. going through the house room by room or area by area over several days
15. stuffing items into bags for life to make surfaces manageable and putting things away later
16. Hiring a housekeeper or maid service
17. Following a rigorous cleaning schedule
18. Continuously decluttering and donating unused items
19. Adopting daily habits like putting things away immediately rather than setting them down
20. Start small by picking up broken glass, clearing the sofa, unpacking boxes, and removing floor hazards
21. Moving items into a separate storage space to work through them gradually
22. Getting rid of a portion of the items directly from the home
23. Loading up a bag of trash once or twice a week to throw away
24. Paying a couple hundred bucks to have junk haulers drag the bags out
25. Dumping half-full soda cans and disposable cups into the toilet
26. Tidying up as you go along
27. Putting items away right away after use
28. stacking items when they do not have a dedicated spot
29. renovating or clearing out the house to evaluate what is actually needed
30. keeping a designated box handy to collect items for donation over time
31. Watching time-lapse cleaning videos for motivation
32. Cleaning while listening to or watching companion cleaning content
33. Breaking tasks down into tiny steps like cleaning just one dish or item at a time
34. Focusing on clearing small open areas like finding the floor
35. Using apps to prioritize chores by urgency
36. Setting a timer for a short, set amount of time (e.g., 20 minutes) per task
37. Carrying items that don't belong when leaving a room
38. Breaking large cleaning tasks into small, manageable sections (e.g., 4-foot sections)
39. Decluttering excess items and establishing a specific home for every belonging
40. Opening the curtains, picking up laundry first, making the bed, removing trash, and taking breaks.
41. Taking things in small sections like a grid
42. Setting timers for short intervals like 5 or 10 minutes
43. Focusing only on throwing away trash first
44. Listening to music, podcasts, or shows while working
45. Crowd-sourcing the executive function and order of operations
46. Doing slow decluttering ahead of time
47. Hiring movers to take things to storage and then move into the apartment on separate days
48. renting a roll-off dumpster bin
49. cleaning with a mask and gloves
50. tackling one room at a time, starting with sleeping areas and the bathroom
51. hiring expert help if budget allows
52. shoving items into the closet
53. taking small breaks
54. tackling small sections at a time
55. bagging or boxing items to live with them for a week or two
56. trying to pick up as you go
57. cleaning around the mess and accepting that the whole house isn't going to be perfectly picked up first
58. picking one spot to keep picked up during the week
59. adding more hampers where clutter tends to pile up
60. Binning containers with no purpose or expired items
61. Folding clothes better to save drawer space
62. Following the rule of putting things away instead of just putting them down
63. Using the reverse Marie Kondo method to decide whether to keep an item
64. Clearing one surface at a time and donating, selling, or binning excess items
65. Holding off on indoor treatments
66. Trying to find a way to prep the room without doing a deep clean
67. Working in small chunks with baskets and bin liners
68. Using a shovel and big trash can to clear bulk waste
69. Wearing PPE like gloves, masks, and disposable coveralls
70. Scrubbing by hand with anti-bacterial solution and enzyme cleaner
71. Hiring a professional to sand and refinish the flooring
72. Putting on headphones and powering through the cleaning process
73. Doing dump runs to dispose of accumulated items
74. Breaking the cleaning process down into sequential categories like trash, laundry, and dishes.
75. Reading books on managing a household while overwhelmed.
76. Using vertical fabric drawer dressers to sort items
77. Starting with an easy category like expired makeup, skin products, or old underwear
78. Tossing things that have reached the end of their lifecycle without donating
79. Throwing out one bag of items daily without over-planning
80. Prioritizing the removal of 'biohazards' like trash and dirty dishes first.
81. Picking a corner and moving clockwise around the room.
82. Choosing one small spot and moving items to an empty area to sort them.
83. Committing to putting away just 10 things a day.
84. Reading resources like 'How to Keep House While Drowning'.
85. turning on a 'clean with me' video in the background for motivation
86. starting with just a single black garbage bag for obvious trash
87. breaking the task down into specific categories like trash, dishes, and laundry
88. making DIY pest traps with apple cider vinegar and dish soap

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