Tackling cleaning

I’m so glad to be able to post good news. And ladies and gentlemen, this is a good news post.

The last several weeks, I have been simulating what a usual work week would feel like. Being awake for more hours has given me the chance to work on a lot of different things that have been a mess since I got sick.

One by one, I have been slowly pulling things back together, which has also included cleaning.

Cleaning has been very hard for me since I got sick. To be honest, even when I was well, I was always busy and was always trying to fit cleaning in between the cracks of my life. So, even before I got sick, my home wasn’t exactly clean.

But, once I got sick, I didn’t have the energy or brain capacity to clean. Occasionally, I succeeded in cleaning up an area. One beautiful time, I actually got the whole place cleaned. But, to be honest, I got it clean by stashing a lot of things.

Plus, the real trick isn’t really in cleaning an area. The trick is trying to keep it clean.

As part of the pacing self-study course I took, I was referred to a website called FlyLady.net for tips on how to pace yourself with cleaning. I added a link to the website to my link library. I had reviewed her tips back then. I returned to them the last few weeks and I started trying to build a plan.

As I mentioned, the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to simulate what normal work day would feel like so that I could see if I could manage it. It hasn’t been super easy. But, it has been do-able. It got difficult dealing with pain. But, I have, more or less, still been able to manage.

As I mentioned in a previous post, to help combat my brain fog, I have been creating step-by-step instructions for myself for basically everything that I do. As part of that effort, I have also created step-by-step guides on how to clean all my rooms as well.

I also listed out all the cleaning tools that I need and have created a cleaning supply carrying case to easily carry them to whatever room that I need to clean.

Then, I scheduled room cleaning into my weekly and daily routine.

I scheduled a room a day minus Thursday-Saturday. I don’t specify which room. I just put that I am going to clean a room. I’m doing the rooms on rotation, working from the front to the back.

FlyLady also mentioned having “hot spots.” Hot Spots are the places that get messiest every day- dump sites like the kitchen counter or an entrance way. You build into your night routine to clean off those few spaces every night and it makes cleaning the rooms an easier job.

I’m also using a tip I found on Pinterest. I have a designated dump site for things that don’t belong in the room and need to be taken out as well things that were taken out of the room and belong in it. You dump the things there throughout the week and when it’s time to clean the room, you separate out the things that belong in the room and put them up and carry the things that don’t belong in the room to their designated dump site in other rooms.

I was already using this technique. But, I had fallen way down on the job. The past week or so, I started trying to use this “dump-site” technique, plus my step-by-step guide, and my new schedule. I officially completed one rotation and cleaned all the rooms the other day.

So far, I am cautiously optimistic about this plan. My home looks a lot better. Usually, cleaning a room took less than 30 minutes to clean and I didn’t feel overwhelmingly tired afterwards. Plus, the rooms aren’t getting too overwhelmingly messy in the interim.

It makes me think that I just might be on to something. If I can get cleaning back under control, it would only leave cooking as an area of my life that I don’t have under control.

I would, more or less, have my life back under control after months and months of upheaval.

That would be pretty amazing.

But, that’s not all. Given my successes so far with this pill, I talked to my supervisor and agreed to go back to work. I’ll be going back in another week.

My recovery is far from over and it very likely that I’ll never completely feel the same again. But, my life is starting to come back together. And it feels good.

#brainfog #chronicfatigue #pacing #recovery