today's to do list

WARNING: Here be swearing. So I follow a blog/Twitter/Facebook page called "Unfuck Your Habitat." The creator of the blogs is pretty sweary, and I sometimes am, too. So I didn't let the profanity deter me from a method of keeping my home habitable that might actually work. I will abbreviate the name of the blog and method to UFYH from here on in.

I think UFYH started on Tumblr with photos people submitted of their before and after spaces. The creator also outlined her method, basically saying that you do what you can when you can. If you're physically or mentally disabled, neuroatypical, mentally ill, or emotionally disabled, you can still get stuff done. And something is better than nothing at all. Bringing in help is good if the help understands you make the decisions. Being of help to someone else is good, so long as you bring in kindness and leave judgment at the door. What to do when the people you live with don't feel it's their place to take care of messes, personal or communal.

You choose the durations and set timers for work/break. The usual is a 20/10. Twenty minutes of work, then a ten-minute break. Sometimes it's a 45/15. Sometimes it's a 30/15, or on a bad day, maybe a 5/15. If you can do more than one work/break cycle, you do it. Again, the point is that doing something is better than doing nothing. Five minutes is great if you haven't done anything for a week. Three cycles of 20/10 takes an hour and a half, and sixty minutes of that time was spent working on your home.

I don't always stick to it. Because of that, my commitment to living in relative cleanliness/tidiness waxes and wanes, as does the mess. Maybe I don't believe that I deserve it, which goes into self image and self esteem issues I don't want to explore at the moment. But I'm having a day with a bit of motivation and energy, and I want to use it.

So I'm blogging about it instead of working. Yay, procrastination.

The list is huge, and I won't get it all done today, but that's always been my method. Even doing half of a big list is an accomplishment. I'll add strikethroughs on breaks. Everything's in the bedroom (my Depression Nest) unless otherwise stated.

make the bed

unclutter the floor on north south side of the bed

unclutter the floor in front of Grandma's chair

check library websites and put all library books in one place

dirty dishes to kitchen

unclutter the floor along the east wall

separate dirty laundry into bags I labeled last night

unclutter the desk top

move desk and dresser to increase available floor space

take out the trash and recycling

spend at least 15 minutes shredding stuff

organize bills and other important mail

rake exposed carpet

vacuum exposed carpet

wash Dad's stinky blankets and my soft blanket that a cat barfed a hairball on five minutes after it came out of the dryer on Laundry Day

box of menstrual supplies organized

take clean clothes I stuffed into drawers on Laundry Day and fold properly

living room carpet raked

living room carpet vacuumed

scoop cat boxes

sweep kitchen floor

Music is on. Timer is set for 30 minutes. Here we go.

Edit: My first 30/15 ended up being a 30/60 -- today's headache has got worse -- but something is better than nothing. The music isn't doing it for me, so I'm listening to podcast episodes instead.