Mental illness impacts virtually all aspects of a person’s life and, although mental health conditions are regularly referred to as “invisible” illnesses, there are some effects that you can definitely see.
Dishes, vacuuming, putting things away, cleaning the bathroom and decluttering are all important tasks to stay on top of and, left to their own devices, they can quickly get out of hand. A messy environment is not only an easy-to-spot sign that someone is struggling, but it’s also bad for your mental health in itself.
Scientists have found that a cluttered environment makes it harder to focus and can increase feelings of stress, which, in turn, means that feeling unable to face our chores can quickly become a cycle that leaves us feeling overwhelmed.
According to an anonymous Twitter user, her anxiety has left her feeling unable to return to her home. Staying with her mum, she told the Breakdown “I have food in my fridge that I know needs taking out, but I’m too scared to go back.”
She wasn’t the only one struggling, with several people contacting the Breakdown to tell similar stories. Some of the most common chores that were problematic for people living with mental health conditions were doing laundry, putting clothes away, doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen or bathroom.
One Twitter user, aged 32, told us how she had been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for 3 months because she “can’t bring herself to unpack” and another explained how her depression had such a huge impact on her ability to clean that it led to her house becoming infested with roaches saying “It took me YEARS to get rid of them.”
Blurt Foundation attributes the difficulty associated with managing chores to be a problem linked with the lack of motivation and concentration that goes along with living with depression and emphasise the importance of self-kindness when it comes to tackling these kinds of tasks. But how can we stop it from getting out of hand?
It isn’t always possible to stay on top of keeping our homes clean and it’s important not to beat yourself up about it, but, when you are feeling a little better, it’s advisable to try to do little and often, rather than let things build up.
Consider building some chores into your daily routine. A good way to do this is to incorporate some of your tasks into your self care regime; consider cleaning the bathroom tiles while you shower; rinsing your crockery while listening to music or a podcast or folding laundry in front of your favourite Netflix show.
Remember that it’s OK to start small; tackle areas of food preparation first and wherever you spend most of your time and then gradually move on to areas of lower priority. Try not to worry about what your friends and family think; it’s OK that you don’t live in a permanently immaculate environment.
Don’t be afraid to consider asking for help. Needing help with cleaning isn’t anything to be ashamed of – in fact, 52% of people wish that they had help with keeping their homes clean. If you have a Mrs-Hinch-like friend who you feel you can open up to, ask them to muck in; you can always repay them with dinner later down the line (or even by helping them tackle something they’re finding difficult).
Whether you’re going it alone, paying for a professional cleaner or enlisting your nearest and dearest to help you out, thankfully, the internet is full of resources at the ready (like this article from Instructables.com that shows you how to clean your house in a hurry) just take it one area at a time. The most important thing is to remember that your mental health and wellbeing comes first and tidying up comes second.