if you’re drowning in stress or anxiety…… clean your house!!! As in, scrub the spots off the walls. MOP. Clean the windows. Get it like Airbnb level clean. Don’t tell yourself you don’t have time. Don’t break it up into a week long plan. just pick a day and sacrifice it and clean until you drop.
I think the cleaning itself is a form of exercise and then for whatever reason your brain is just like “ahhh” sitting in that new fresh space. I feel like a Monk listening to the birds chirp. I Don’t feel the need to reach for my phone or tv or anything. And just a few days ago I was like breakdown-level stressed.
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Finally a post that belongs on r/thanksimcured
This is the one that belongs there.
Here to confirm that this works like a charm!
Deep cleaning is the only way I get my brain to be distracted from my cluster of negative thoughts
Wierd how that can happen…
If you are feeling overwhelmed , break the cleaning into small tasks. Start with one room, one surface, even just a corner.
While Cleaning, play something relaxing in the background. Music can help you stay calm and centered.
Give yourself a time limit. Cleaning for just 30 minutes or an hour can still make a huge different and prevent burnout.
Yeah then it dirty in a day
Awesome
I am at that point today lol. I just have to knock it all out.
I need to do this mainly in my room. So much junk and clutter everywhere is driving me nuts
That is great advice and great therapy!
This is so real. I’m Italian, and growing up I used to think my mom was crazy for going on these deep cleaning rampages when she was stressed. But now I get it—there’s something powerful about making your environment spotless when your mind feels chaotic. It’s like physical order helps create mental order. Great reminder.
I just smoke a J, get to cleaning, then 3 hours later everything is clean without me even realizing it ahaha. It’s nice!
Tackling it all in one day is key! Otherwise momentum drops and even worse, it becomes a rollover list of things to do. You find yourself inefficiently cleaning throughout the week without the reward of an entirely clean home.
It’s so hard to reach this level of motivation. But when it does come through and i spend hours cleaning stuff, i have the best sleep at night . Also, the dopamine rush of having something done that matters. Will keep this in mind when I’m doom scrolling next
As Jordan Peterson says ‘clean your room’.
Deep cleaning the house = free therapist + yoga
Nothing, absolutely nothing feels best than cleaning the house when you are frustrated. Good music or podcast and off to dance with your mop and vacuum back and forth. Then take a hot shower – its like a fresh outlook portal opens up. Try it.
I do this as a practice every week Sunday morning. Just clean up my TV cabinet, speakers. Also my desk , monitor and keyboard etc. If I see dust building up that means I haven’t cleaned it over a week. It calms me down and almost like a reset. I play some songs sometimes.
When I clean my kitchen and hoover the house , I feel a sense of calm. Glad to hear that, other people have the same experience 😇
When the ADHD goblin gets out of control and my house becomes a disaster it can really cause me to spiral into a depression/anxiety/shame sinkhole where it just gets worse and worse and it feels impossible to climb out. I read How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organising and it really helped me reframe priorities and not feel like such a worm. Might not be for everyone, and some of it might be common sense to non-neurodivergent people, but it really made a big difference in my life!
I used to work with a gal and we took care of everything in the office. We were so alike, if we felt our home or work place needed a cleaning, we loved to have them both cleaned at the same time. We felt freer and lighter LOL
True words, just cleaned my place yesterday and all feels FRESH
Cleaning and organizing are two of my favorite hobbies!
So true
Hard agree, cleaning is one of the most effective and immediately accessible self-care actions. Clean environment helps to clean the mind.
I agree 100%. I’m over 70 and still have a a spreadsheet that covers all the rooms in my house . . . listing items to clean in each room. Actually don’t really need to use the list, but it makes it fun. Kinda OCD. Oh Well.
I don’t like doing it but after I do always always feels good and calm
This is what I do to get through it. I will be sobbing and having panic attack and have to stop to just have guttural breathing and I’ll be crying so much and it’s like dripping slobber from the stomach wrenching sobbing but then I clean it up and keep going until I’m so exhausted from crying I finally sleep after also scrubbing my entire body clean of my sadness
You’re right! Cleaning resets your mind as much as your space. The act itself is movement, focus, and control—instantly easing stress. A fresh environment = a fresh perspective.
True, a clean room for me makes me feel better, a dirty room makes me stay lazy
I can’t let myself sit down on my phone at alllll during a day of cleaning. Headphones on yes but standing and a quick change of the song or pod is all I can do. PC fully turned off. I have to literally throw myself into it and force myself to lock in but when it’s done it’s divine
Best of all, your house/apartment also transforms its own energy into a positive, encouraging one. Life feels easier afterward. Sounds weird, but I believe you can relate 😉
Yes!! Your space truly represents your mental state. A clean house is a clean slate 🙂
Congrats on the deep clean!
Look, I’m trying but I’ve allowed it to get to pretty obscene levels due to ill health and boy is this going to take some doing.