Blackswan
Banned
Joined: October 2008
Posts: 6,388
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Post by Blackswan on Oct 25, 2008 0:02:53 GMT -5
My squalor is all cleaned up, and I am bored, bored, bored. It seems like there are fifteen extra hours in the day with which I can do nothing but be bored. I tried to find squalor somewhere in my house, but after five minutes I was done cleaning! Then I wandered over to my computer to come on this site, but I felt like an outsider, some poor person with no squalor to her name.
Okay, that was tongue in cheek, but I definitely do feel this sense of boredom/emptiness, and I find it interesting, because now I see the role that squalor played in my life-it kept me oh so busy. Now I might actually have to get off my *** and do something, instead of just sitting here thinking I really SHOULD clean. It is the weirdest feeling, and completely unexpected.
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Post by razy on Oct 25, 2008 2:48:30 GMT -5
May be you shoud talk to the journalist that is looking for people that have cleaned up. She posted yesterday.
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Post by sweetpetite325 on Oct 25, 2008 6:43:24 GMT -5
First, I want to say CONGRATULATIONS for getting your squalor all cleaned up!!! It must feel WONDERFUL!!!!!! I also want to say that I think it is SO interesting what you said about being bored. Just the other day, I said to a friend-"what would I DO if I got everything all cleaned up"?? They didn't understand. I mean, I am busy all during the week running my business, but even at night or on the weekend, what would I do with myself?? It's like squalor has become so much a part of my life and takes up every thought in my head, and then all of a sudden-it's not there. This sounds crazy, but I totally understand what you are saying.
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Post by margarita on Oct 25, 2008 14:37:00 GMT -5
Great job, Blackswan. That's what this site is all about.  Glad you have been able to achieve your goals and hope that you enjoy every minute spent in your clean home. It's interesting, but I have seen that point also brought up in many organizing/decluttering/dehoarding books. The amount of time that people spend churning things and moving things and reorganizing them is unbelievable. Plus, all the time we spend deciding what to do with things, and how to get rid of them properly adds up, too. When I first moved across country, all my things were in storage for months and I lived in a furnished rental. It was amazing how much free time I had then. I just loved it! Enjoy your extra time. You worked hard for it! Margarita |
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nonimouse
New Member
Joined: July 2008
Posts: 41
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Post by nonimouse on Oct 25, 2008 14:50:33 GMT -5
 , you can come over to my house---I can find something for you to do! |
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Post by threeg on Oct 25, 2008 17:48:56 GMT -5
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Blackswan
Banned
Joined: October 2008
Posts: 6,388
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Post by Blackswan on Oct 26, 2008 0:39:33 GMT -5
I have to help clean my sister's squalor first! She is even worse than me...it runs in the family I guess. She has been trying to stay at my house all the time now, because she wants to get away from her squalor.
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jeremyfirth
New Member
Get some barbells and move them!
Joined: September 2008
Posts: 6
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Post by jeremyfirth on Oct 27, 2008 22:00:45 GMT -5
I cleaned up my office back in April (it's been in various states of cleanliness since, and is very clean now) and I have to say that I was shocked by how much anxiety I felt about having a clean office. Here's why: I didn't have any reason anymore to not work. (I work from home.) I couldn't look around me and think, "Wow, this is a mess. I should do something about it, but it's so overwhelming. Well, I can't really clean my office, because it's so overwhelming, but that's the most important thing I should do, so I'll just read reddit.com instead and maybe watch some South Park." This went on for YEARS. YEARS. So I cleaned.
And when I cleaned I thought, "Crap! I don't have any excuse not to work and what if my work isn't good enough and I don't want to work and I'd rather put it off and my boss doesn't really NEED that report today" and so on. My procrastination went into overdrive when my office was clean because I had SO MUCH anxiety built up over my job.
I started an exercise program (I go to a local CrossFit affiliate) and it has REALLY helped. A lot. Seriously. Much of my anxiety came from a lack of exercise. If you have a dog with anxiety, walk it. A lot. Every day. I decided to apply the same rule to myself, and it has made a HUGE difference.
I'm not going to lie to you and say all my problems are solved now. Not like that at all, but what exercise has done is to reduce the intensity of my anxious thoughts and feelings down to a mere simmer, and I can ignore them just long enough to start a project and get hooked into it without feeling overwhelmed or feeling like "I don't REALLY need to do this right now."
My office is right now 95% clean, but some other places in my house are still cluttered up. I take just one chore every day that I've been procrastinating and do it. My house is slowly improving and my anxiety is down to a quiet simmer now. And I credit exercise with 90% of the credit. The other 10% goes to Buried in Treasures (a book about hoarding).
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Blackswan
Banned
Joined: October 2008
Posts: 6,388
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Post by Blackswan on Oct 28, 2008 12:10:14 GMT -5
I agree with you about the exercise helping anxiety, I have found it to be entirely true to an unbelievable degree.
Without squalor, the room is too quiet, if you get what I mean? Like holy crap now I have to fill up my time, and I have no idea what to fill it with. My time was being filled with procrastination activities to avoid cleaning. I honestly feel like i need to find some other "unconquerable" project just to make myself feel normal again. It is so strange. "They" said it would be like this, but i didn't believe them.
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