Survey #260—Full Response from Jacqueline
| Pronouns | She/her |
|---|---|
| Complete the following statement: “The biggest problem with managing my wardrobe is that __________.” | I have a good size collection of sweaters that are on hangers in my closet, but I was never wearing them. I like them, and they fit well. I realized the problem was the hangers were stretching out the shoulders, so when I put on a sweater, there was a weird lump on the shoulders. I washed all my sweaters to reset them, and googled a new way to hang them up. https://shannonaprilstyling.com/the-best-way-to-hang-a-sweater/ |
| What specific categories or types of clothing do you most struggle to manage? | I solved my floordrobe. It was made up of pajamas and work clothes (I wear a uniform). I used to change clothes standing by my bed and my dirty uniform clothes would end up in a pile of the floor. Now I change in the bathroom. There is a hook on the back of the door that wasn’t being used for anything. Now my pajamas hang there when I’m not wearing them, and work pants that can be reworn hang there when I’m wearing my pajamas. As a bonus, I am no longer putting on a show for the neighbors by changing in front of the window covered only with sheer curtains. |
| Here’s your chance to ask Gayle and Ed any question you’re curious about. It need not be related to this survey’s topic(s). If we think that your question—and our answer—might be useful or instructive to The Clutter Fairy Weekly audience, we’ll share them in an upcoming episode. | I wanted to share an issue that I struggle with related to cleaning and decluttering, and how I solved it, because I am sure other people share this difficulty, and maybe this could help them too. I am neurodivergent and because of this, I have struggles with managing time. Specifically the passage of time, in that I cannot tell you how long ago or how long it has been since I did “fill in the blank”. This affects cleaning and decluttering because there are many tasks that need to be done on a regular or recurring basis, such as mopping and vacuuming, dusting, washing my bedsheets, watering houseplants, even maintenance tasks such as filing papers or sorting email or photos, and you need to have some idea of when something was last done to know when to do it again. If a task is a daily one, I seem to be ok with that, but longer time intervals definitely trip me up. You might say “just clean something when it’s dirty”. Also because of the way my brain works, I usually won’t notice that something is dirty until it is pretty disgusting. Way past the point that a normal person would have noticed and cleaned it. Noticing a thing is dirty, and cleaning the dirty thing are two separate tasks, and can often be separated by days, weeks, or even months. If something was gross when I first noticed it, you will probably need to break out the hazmat suit by the time I get around to cleaning it. Obviously this is not a functional solution, because it leads to a huge mess to clean up or a giant backlog to deal with. I did however find a solution. An app called Sweepy. It is designed as a chore tracker. It comes preloaded with common cleaning tasks for different rooms in your house, but is completely customizable. I actually cleared out all the tasks the app came preloaded with and put in my own tasks because there were specific things I wanted to focus on and having too many tasks was overwhelming. You can adjust the time interval for each task, edit time frames, add or remove entire tasks at any time, and the tasks are displayed with a gauge, similar to the gas gauge in the car. Green is full and clean, halfway is yellow, and then red is empty/dirty and time to do the task. It tells you the last time you did the task, how often it is scheduled, and you can see a timeline of all the tasks you have completed. Not only does it keep track of when I did stuff, but it eliminates the mental load of trying to remember that on my own and also figuring out or assessing the current state of my house and deciding which thing most needs attention next. I just open the app and it tells me “time to vacuum”. Ok. When it’s done, hit the done button on the app and you get a cheerful done chime and the gauge on the task refills and turns green! |
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