Anyone else find cleaning overwhelming?

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No one really likes doing chores and I'm no exception. The idea of cleaning doesn't bother me, I like having everything organized and tidy but I am by no means a tidy person and actually a lazy person, but as a kid I was always taught to do dishes and clean the house at a early age.

But I find cleaning very very overwhelming and it makes me dizzy, this makes cleaning more frustrating because I never know what to start with and all the clutter gives me a head ache. I always become violent when I clean and sometimes I meltdown, I still clean, I just don't clean as often as others, I only clean if I am expecting company or if I just get tired of the mess.

Anyone else find cleaning frustrating, confusing and overstimulating?

I dislike cleaning intensely. I get overwhelmed.

Anything to do with your new job?

I procrastinate, but when I finally start on it it's a struggle of desperation, especially when doing the plastic bathtub. Soap scum really wears me out.

Yup, I never know where to start and it seems that it's hopeless and I'll never get done.

I remember reading online somewhere that this is a fairly common experience of aspies.

Same here, it's not the cleaning as such - I enjoyed cleaning a very dusty lightbulb today - it's the complexity of cleaning and tidying a whole housefull of stuff. I used to at least start sorting my stuff out but I'd get distracted by some or other item that I hadn't seen for ages, e.g. I'd end up re-reading a comic instead of finding a place for it. Perfectionism doesn't help either. Eventually I developed an aversion to even starting the process, as I'd be so likely to fail. And I've been very late to cotton on to the idea of putting small items into containers so they don't collect dust. I try to sort out a little at a time. Usually I feel I've got "better" things to do, so as long as I can function, I ignore the mess, though I suspect an untidy environment makes my mind untidy somehow. If there's a snob coming round for tea and biscuits, that might motivate me to clean up a bit.

I agree it's especially difficult for Aspies, but I've read that it's a common experience for people in general, and that shame about it is very frequently reported. Seems it's important to ditch the self-loathing before much can be done.

No. I just have a hard time getting started and doing it. Right now the fridge needs to be clean and it smells but I can't get my mind to it but my dad isn't doing it either or my mother or my husband so it's not only me. I miss my OCD cleaning.

My sis in law who isn't even on the spectrum also dislikes cleaning she will not do it. Her house is a huge disaster as a result and it's my mom in law who cleans it but since she hasn't been well, she can't do it so the house has been a pigsty and gross. And ironically she has OCD and it's about germs but yet she won't clean. She also has a fear of cleaning toilets so that was her reason for not trying to work for the company here that employs people with disabilities.

yeah, i used to find it very overwhelming. i would get upset and couldn't do it at all. the 'where to start' problem was so without solution. ive found that one of my autistic problems is not being able to do a thing anything less than to 100% do a thing. with cleaning, i think i turned the corner when i rationalized that it was okay to clean a thing better than anybody ever would clean a thing. this was really freeing for me. true, if 'clean the floors' is on my to-do list, it will come after 'dust', which comes after 'picking up'. so, starting with the chore that is the easiest to do because by doing it you won't mess up another chore has worked for me (in this case, 'picking up' can cause dust to go all over and dusting can cause clean floors to get dusty). ive never been able to compartmentalize chores by room, so just 'picking up' requires an awful lot of sorting that can take a few days (and, of course, washing drawers and shelves even comes before 'picking up'). but i rock out when i do chores because im okay these days knowing it will take a super long time, but that im doing the best job that anybody even could do. my final word is that 'picking up' is the most debilitating, so ive made it a rule to 'pick up as i go', meaning i dont leave anything to pile up. or, if i do (cause i still do) i have a 'pile location' so that the overwhelming visual of things that need to be 'picked up' can be avoided when other chores need to be done.

Yep, and my room and my desk are very messy because of it.

If I was ordered to do it, I'll surely get things done. But if it affects me due to my other physical problems (i.e. hyperhidrosis hands and feet, or carpal tunnel in the left wrist), I'll get surely get overwhelmed.

Absolytely! I hate it - I get melt-downish.

it is a daily struggle- that I work to deal with. Honestly, If I can work up the energy and actually clean ONE thing (a part of the counter, sweep a single room) I consider it a huge success. My room for example has been extremely dirty for a while now- the items in it are clean (I actually really enjoy a clean space that is nicely organized, makes me feel better) but the bigger things mopping sweeping- total nope . Also I loose everything all the time and am constantly trying to organize. This takes up so much of my time

Yep.

If the house is perfectly neat and tidy, I can keep it that way. If I lived on my own, I'd have a beautiful house!

But if anything is already dirty, messy or out of place, that overwhelms me and I then can't do anything, so my stuff gets added to whatever else is there, and then I end up in a spiral unable to do anything.

I'm fortunate to have a husband that helps by doing the cleaning and tidying at home, but that's not ideal and I do end up feeling very guilty.

I have difficulties for 3 reasons, some have already been mentioned.

1. Constantly having to make decisions about what to clean next, out of all the many possibilities.
2. Not being able to see that what I am doing is making a difference. I don't seem to pick up on changes to environment very well
3. Being black and white and believing something should be done perfectly or not at all.

My solution at the moment is to write a time line of my cleaning progress. Then it is visible to me what to focus on and the progress I have made

11:00 - 11:05 picked books off floor
11:05 - 11:07 wiped mirror
Etc.

The thought of it overwhelms me so much that I just can't get motivated.

I know that overwhelmed feeling; the way you conquer that is a simple trick but you have to really stick with it: break down everything into small tasks and small areas. Sections -- mentally focus on one small section of anything at a time, as if that's the only part of the room, or the floor or whatever, that exists right then. It's the only way to clean without freaking out at the enormity.

Instead of look at a whole room and realize you've got to tackle it all, walk to the area just to the right of the doorway, and in your mind partition it mentally into one section. Think of that wall as just one 7ft by 4ft section or whatever size, just keep it small. To you that's the only part of the room, and the things in that part, that exists right now. You have to stick with that firmly or it doesn't work.

Always work top to bottom, and left to right, it's the only way to feel like you're in control instead of being met with chaos.

Start at the top, the ceiling. Any spider webs? Get a long cloth and flip at them, or stick a vacuum nozzle on and if you can't reach to vacuum then use a broom to reach.

Now progress down a level -- any pictures on the wall? Dust the frame edges top and inner. Any furniture, a bookcase? Dust from top to bottom, left to right, meeting each physical object as the next logical task as you go.

Being systematic is the key. Always work from the top of anything to the bottom, be it a wall, a piece of furniture or a small item. And keep your tiny section in mind. Don't travel around the room randomly dusting anything, stay in your one section and go from top to bottom until everything in that section is done. Go slowly and don't rush. When I rush I get agitated and start to feel like a meltdown is possible. Going slowly in anything holds down agitation.

Leave the floor until last. Move on to the right and mentally cut off your next section of the room. Work top to bottom.

Stuff in the middle of the room can either be lumped into a section or tackled as its own area.

Do the floors last. Again think about sections. Move the vacuum across one rectangle or square as if that's the only thing that exists. Then systematically do the the next section, with a small overlap. Work around the room from the far corner to the door, but keep thinking in small rectangle or squares. A lot of people vacuum or sweep or mop "willy nilly" -- that is chaotic.

Small squares of work is the only way to tackle it without feeling overwhelmed, at least, that's the only way I can work it for me. I do it for a living and I actually enjoy the process but only if I do the "section" thing ALWAYS. Anytime I've become willy-nilly for some reason -- people in the house I'm trying to clean, something breaking my routine, it's driven me crazy. Sections sections section, and methodical left-to-right, top-to-bottom working.

I like hygiene and having things clean, but cleaning can bother me because of hypersensitivity....touching stuff intensely (to clean it), especially if dirty, bothers my senses.