4 simple tips for doing a high-pain cleaning day
I see so many people talking about how hard it is to clean when you’ve got chronic pain or chronic illness. It is!
However, so is living in filth!
I know, because I’ve done both. So I thought I’d share some tips on how I manage unfucking my abode when I’m having a rough pain day, like today (ow). This is just me speaking about me — it may or may not work for you, but if something sounds like it’s right, maybe give it a try. Or not. Whatever works.
TIP ONE: I get enough sleep the night before, if at all possible! I know that’s hard for some of us, me included, but me on sleep = me more able to deal with just about anything than me on no sleep.
TIP TWO: I have a morning list of things I would like to get done every morning. I’m gonna show it to you, but I know yours will be different. It’s the principle that counts, not the contents of the list.
My morning routine:
- Get up and make bed
- Get dressed to street-legal clothes (plus hair, face, teeth, morning meds)
- Read FlyLady emails and check Unfuck Your Habitat
- Put out Hot Spots for 2 minutes (using timer)
- 5-minute room rescue (again, timer)
- 15 minutes of decluttering (annnnnd, timer again)
- Laundry (make sure clean laundry is put away and dirty laundry is in hampers)
- Amsler grid (a diagnostic test I have to do for my eyes every day)
TIP THREE: I am gentle with myself. If I can’t work for 15 minutes (see #6 on the above list), then I do it ten or five or two minutes at a time. As long as it gets done, who cares how many tries it takes? It’ll still be better when I’m done than when I started.
TIP FOUR: I SIT. If I can do it sitting, I do, because sitting is the least painful position for me. (I do walk for exercise, a couple miles a day, but standing still is painful for me, and housework doesn’t present enough movement to count as not-standing.)
A few examples of things I can do while sitting:
- Chop veggies
- Wash dishes
- Sort things into give-away/put-away/throw-away bags
- Go through paper clutter
- Clean off almost any flat surface
- Fold laundry
There’s more, but these are the main ways I manage to get work done when my body hates me. Got any to add?
