Does anyone struggle with household chores and contamination fears?

[BelAnna]

I'm really struggling! I not only find it really hard to do any routine household jobs but I cannot cope with the rest of my family doing them either so I ask them to leave them and then things get even worse! 

How do you cope? 

To make things more tricky my parents are trying to sell their house (I live with them and my sibling) so we need to deep clean and get it ready to go on the market. I'm worried about how this will work with the Coronavirus outbreak but I'm also struggling to do anything around the house to get it ready! 

[Angst]

Hi Belanna. I find it difficult to do household chores and recently I have developed serious contamination fears. My hands are red raw with frequent washing. I think that you need your family to do the cleaning. The market value of a property is seriously affected by clutter and grime. The property needs to be staged to achieve maximum value for its type and location. The property market with the corona virus will probably slow down. I was involved in preparing a house for the market in December with the death of a family member. We staged and cleared and sold in late January. But we are concerned about any hitches as we proceed to the exchange of contracts.
 

We will not hear about the effect of virus on the housing market because the virus has crowded out other news. For instance the shooting of a terrorist outside Parliament a few days ago  which would generally hit the headlines. So let your family do the work.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Angst

[daja]

I’m the same BelAnna. I have got to get out of this rut. I have a leak in my ceiling and some mould. My bedroom is full of used nitrile gloves, medication packets, and wet wipes. And lots of clothes and towels that need washing.

Edited March 10, 2020 by daja
Typo

[dksea]

I struggle with chores too, but my reason is slightly different, its cause I'm lazy and a procrastinator.  That said I think some of the same tips can help.  (there's actually a similar thread floating around recently, you might find some good advice there).

Basically the three things that help me the most are:

1. Breaking things down in to small tasks
2. Setting a schedule 
3. Making a check list

Say you have to clean your room.  That can seem overwhelming.  Where to even start?  Well break it down in to smaller steps.  Clean a specific area for example.  Do a specific type of chore (say dusting, or taking out the garbage, or putting away the laundry).  Set a specific time you will do it, and maybe a specific amount of time you will spend.  Then take a break.  Its great if you can make a checklist so you can track your progress, it helps you feel like you are moving forward even if it still LOOKS like things are a mess.

 

6 hours ago, BelAnna said:

I'm worried about how this will work with the Coronavirus outbreak

Its understandable to have some anxiety around this, its unknown and that makes things scary.  But its not an end of the world apocalypse either.  For some people it will be bad, for most people it won't.  The steps to reduce your risk are fairly simple.  Wash your hands well, avoid extra social contact, rest when you feel sick, etc.  Nothing extreme at this point for most people. It can help to focus on what you can control, and try not to focus on what you can't.

[daja]

That’s good advice dksea. I do have a to-do list. Had a cold which set me back a bit. Missed one of my meds last night but only 25mg of denzapine not sure if that’s why but I have a bit of a headache tonight.

I hope you struggle less soon BelAnna. OCD sucks it really does.

[dksea]

4 hours ago, daja said:

I do have a to-do list. Had a cold which set me back a bit.

Yeah being sick can mess with routines and also exacerbate things like OCD.  Take care of yourself, get well, and then do your best to get back on schedule!
 

4 hours ago, daja said:

Missed one of my meds last night but only 25mg of denzapine not sure if that’s why but I have a bit of a headache tonight.

I'm not familiar with denzapine, but I am familiar with the whole missing a med thing.  Obviously not a great idea, but probably not the end of the world.  I use a daily pill case (one slot for each day of the week) to track my meds and take them at a specific time of day now for that reason.  I put it next to my bed and its the first thing I do when I lay down for the night.  Its easy to check if I've forgotten and being on a set schedule at a set place means it becomes part of my routine.  I highly recommend it!

Oh and, if you have multiple meds you take at different times of the day, they have cases for that too.  They are cheap and handy.

Edited March 11, 2020 by dksea

[leif]

I actually signed in here after a long time away because I'm having a **** morning with household cleaning

I used to have a terrible time consistently though and my place was horrible. Piles and piles of things i couldn't deal with--laundry, garbage, dishes...It was an absolute disaster. Anyhow it did get a lot better with the help of meds and CBT techniques. Took a while but I am currently at a place where my place is OK. it's sort of sloppy in a good way. I've found a middle ground.

However once in a while I have freak out days like today where i feel so distressed by contamination fears. So then I come here and connect with others who understand.

I hope things get better for you Belanna--did you start the meds you were thinking of? That will hopefully give you some extra strength to do the CBT techniques.

[BelAnna]

Thank you so much for the replies!

I will post more later. Just about to clean the kitchen floor- really, really dreading it. I need to lift 'contaminated' wipes and kitchen roll from the floor and mop it. Will write back later!

[leif]

Hi Belanna, 

I hope cleaning the floor went ok.. Maybe you could start a hierarchy  specifically around cleaning tasks and try to allow your parents to take on as much as possible as part of the exposure?