#unfuck your habitat

[goodplace-janet]

before and after: cleaned up my laundry mess

[sunmontuewrites]

From a while ago, but damn it looks good. Never posted them here.

[little-homestead-in-the-suburbs]

I've been going through large totes of knitting and crocheting projects going back to when I was just starting to learn around 2006. I have a huge chunk from around 2009-2015 where I would start projects that caught my eye and then drop them never to touch again unless I was stealing the needles or hook for another project.

Some were ambitious like a cabled bed spread, others I just wanted to try a stitch pattern or technique (so many random crochet squares of samples), and some had fabulous intentions but either ended up in the wrong yarn type or a very bad size issue so it got abandoned.

Most of the finished samples or handfuls of blanket squares I'll gift on as mug rugs or coasters. Others I'll frog to pass the yarn on or just trash because the yarn is so matted or damaged it's not worth saving (looking at the eyelash and fuzzy yarns).

Yarns I'm willing to use will get re-skeined and organized. I had a grand time tonight logging tools and some UFOs turned WIPs onto my ravelry. I'm planning on adding pictures too as I've discovered it's great being able to look up projects by yarn to see what other crafters find it does well in. Especially great for some one off skeins I picked up in sales or was gifted.

I'm on ravelry as Gelflingandtiny if you want to follow the chaos directly:)

[flowersnteacups]

The health of my remaining parent is deteriorating further.

And I am very overwhelmed by all the things I need to do/take care of, so overwhelmed that I didn't even manage to write down a list.

Things I managed today:

- Took out the trash!

- One load of laundry! I have clean towels and sheets! There's still a laundry mountain to wash to do, but I managed to start on that.

[kuiperblog]

Tidy your living space with Pimsleur language tapes

I believe that Pimsleur is the best way to start learning a new language if you care more about oral ability than literacy.

It's also a great way to tidy your apartment.

While learning a new language is something that's done just using your voice and headphones -- theoretically freeing up your hands for other activities, like video games -- I find that speaking in an unfamiliar language requires such intense concentration that I cannot do anything that involves using a screen while speaking or focusing on an unfamiliar language.

Anything that puts words on my screen and engages the language processing part of my brain is right out, and even tasks like steering my go-kart or moving my reticle to an automaton's head require too much focus for me to do them formulating a response to the woman asking me "koen wa doko desu ka?"

Thus, while listening to language tapes might seem superficially similar to listening to a podcast in my native language, I find that many things I typically regard as "podcast activities" are off the table when my brain is sending the signals to my mouth to form the words "koen wa asoko desu" or "iie, atode tabemasu."

My hands limbs should be free to do whatever they want while I'm learning (aside from the moments when I find it useful to "talk with my hands" and point to remind my brain that I'm saying "over there" or "no, no,"), but for the most part, all I can really do with my body as I listen to the language tape is pace around my home. And as I pace, I pick up the glass off the counter and put it into the dishwasher. And pick items out of my laundry basket and fold them. And take the folding chair propped against the wall and transfer it to the closet. And by the end of my 30 minute lesson, I find that I've added a few new phrases to my vocabulary, and that my apartment is a bit tidier than when I started, and at the end of a week my apartment has the appearance of a home that has been the beneficiary of several hours of tidying up.

[rogue-panda]

NaClYoHo vs. ADHD

I'm even more of a mess than my apartment, and I haven't done much about either me or the apartment in ages. But I made some cleaning progress today:

dirty dishes that were in the bedroom are soaking in hot, soapy water

dirty laundry collected and sorted into hampers and moved out of the bedroom

clean laundry put away (some stuffed into drawers, some neatly folded)

some trash and recycling taken to the kitchen bins

giant wheeled container with supplies for church into the living room so I can sort and donate the stuff inside (I'm not doing that job any more! Hooray!)

giant green+spinach salad with turkey, tomatoes, olives, mozzarella, and Italian dressing for dinner

It isn't much, and Dad expressed his regret that my motivation took a nosedive (he said he wasn't criticizing me, but his tone of voice told a different story), but the housework took me three 20-minute sessions. My room is still a mess, and I have a few things to move off my bed so I can sleep. But it was something, it didn't exhaust me, and my room looks a little less awful.

I got one of those tomato-shaped timers to use for UFYH/Pomodoro Method time management, but even 20 minutes seems to be too long. My first 20-minute session ended with me yelping in fear because I'd forgot about the damn thing. I'd got distracted so many times in the first fifteen minutes that I ended up standing in the living room, watching the pie fight in "The Great Race." (Dad was watching it.) I got back to my room just in time for the tomato timer to reach zero and clang shrilly. I'm looking into how to stay focused better while cleaning.

ADHD: 1

Me: 0

I've got into the Beatles recently, and my current favorite playlist on TIDAL is a few dozen of their happy-sounding songs. I've been sick with bronchitis for two weeks, but I am getting better. It was nice to sing (hoarsely) and dance (a very little) while I worked.

P.S. I don't drink alcohol. At all. How the hell did I end up with a bottle of wine on my bedroom floor?

[a-curious-studyblr]

Tidying up tip: I learned this from unf*ck your habitat, take a before and after tidying up pic of your space on your phone. It's hard to see the improvement of the tidier space, so looking at the pictures is motivating and like a pat on the back!

[snarkleharkle]

You know that one thing you have to do, the one you've been putting of for weeks because it will take forever and be such a bother to do?

I finally decided to do mine today. I had set of 2 hours of 20/10s. I had 4 20 minute youtube videos lined up.

And then before my first 20 minuted was over, I was done. Not completely, but as done as I could be while waiting for the dishwasher and washing machine.

I'd even gone out with the trash. So I started tomorrows task. And sure, that was 40 minutes. But still. So much faster than I thought it was going to take.

So now I'm on my way to IKEA. Because I might as well buy what I need to finish the job.

[shipaholic]

Look how beautiful my finished washing up is 🥰

[omisspearl]

Bone weary tonight, but I have made it my habit more often than not to do 15 minutes (by timer) dishes/kitchen clean up and 10 minutes room cleaning.

At the same time I have added a combination of the flylady "clean your sink" and @unfuckyourhabitat make your bed. The latter really gets the generationally emphasized struggle to keep ones various levels of disabled brainbody shambling forward. I have also started making my bedtime routine start at 8 PM. Likewise a ruthless purge of my physical possessions is ongoing to reduce the chaos to manage.

I have a degree of specific skepticism that everything is one minor life change away from falling apart, but man the shame/ego damage of living undiagnosed and then unsupported neurodivergent is something else.

[still-bejeweled-and-shining]

whohoo! I tried unfucking my habitat a lil' bit, now that classes are about to start and my room was an absolute mess. Somehow, I managed to clear a LOT of stuff from my shelves in like, three 20/10s. I'm feeling great! And it was wayyy easier than I expected it to be. I still have many things to do to unfuck my room (cleaning out the drawers, organising my closet, etc) but at least I don't feel like staying outside of my room all of the time.

[sunmontuewrites]

Linen cupboard underway... I have the paint and new door handles and it would look SO GOOD painted semi-gloss white with chrome handles. But TIME. I'll tag it properly when I add the after photo.

Edited to add third photo.

[little-homestead-in-the-suburbs]

Cleaning Jump Starter random chore picker wheel. Created from the UFYH Mini-Challenges, with extras added by me marked with an asterisk. Hope this helps someone!

[flowersnteacups]

Unfucking my hallway

On the 6th I had parked several somethings in the hallway again and a pile fell over! But I managed more than one 45/15

One day later: Still messy, no photo after I managed to put some things away)

On Thursday, the 8th of August I felt very overwhelmed!

On Friday the 9th at noon (I had someone who helped me in the morning, mostly with vacuuming the hallway and putting stuff away that should be hidden behind fabric in the corner of doom):

There is space to walk through and the things in the white box will find a home soon! But they are a problem for another week.

[the-forbidden-fruit-project]

Open Access Resources

To kick off the project, here is a master list of open source archives, organizations, and other educational projects. I will frequently add to this over time and will gladly accept suggestions for more. These aren't in any organized order, they're just added as I think of them or are informed of more.

Disclaimer: I can't guarantee that everything in this master list will be totally accessible to everybody due to a disability, and I apologize if there is anything that isn't. If you notice an accessibility issue, or any other issues with what's on this list, tell me and I will add a disclaimer under it or fix it if it's an issue from me.

Everything on here is free, though.

Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.com)

Project Gutenberg is a completely volunteer-run online library founded by Michael Stern Hart in 1971. He was the inventor of e Books and believed in making books as easily accessible and distributable as possible. The website has over 70,000 public domain digital books and they add more very often. There are options to read their books on the website browser, through multiple downloadable file types, in plain text, without pictures, and some even have human or machine narrated reading options. There are many books on the website that are not in English or have non-English translations. You never need an account or are required to share any of your personal information with them to access anything on the website.

Open Library (www.openlibrary.org)

Open Library is another digital archive of online eBooks available for free. It is part of the broader Internet Archive. They share a similar goal of uploading every book published for easy and free access. Some of their books are public domain and others aren't. The ones that aren't you need to borrow from the site, either for one day or 14 hours depending on if the book is fully borrow-able or not. All the books they have also have audio versions, and their open access books are downloadable in either PDF or e Pub form. You need an account to borrow books from them, but not to read their open access books.

Crash Course (www.thecrashcourse.com)

Crash Course is a YouTube channel founded by Hank Green and John Green in 2012, initially created through the YouTube Original Channel Initiative and has since branched out into it's own company funded by community donations on Patreon. As stated on their website, "[The people at Crash Course] believe that high-quality educational videos should be available to everyone for free." They make fast-paced, easily understandable and processable educational videos on a broad range of topics ranging from science to humanities. They have over 45 published courses to date which include topics above a high school or primary school level. As far as I'm aware, all of their videos have closed captions and you don't need to have the ability to see the videos to understand any of their courses. They also have videos in Spanish and some directed towards children.

SciShow (www.scishow.com)

SciShow [pronounced Sigh Show], like Crash Course, was also founded by Hank Green in 2012 as part of the YouTube Original Channel Initiative. It's very similar to Crash Course, but they cover scientific topics exclusively. They have three separate YouTube channels currently alongside the original Sci Show channel: Sci Show Space, Sci Show Psych, and Sci Show Kids. Each respectively focuses on astronomy, psychology, and kid's content. The first two aren't currently making videos anymore, but they still have all their videos up on those channels. Most of their content is centered around more obscure topics that many people don't understand, have misconceptions about, or haven't heard of. Like Crash Course, I believe their videos all have captions and don't require the video footage to be seen in order to understand, but I would need somebody to verify that for me to say for sure. Unlike Crash Course I believe their videos are often shorter and more condensed because they don't normally cover broader topics.

Unfuck Your Habitat (www.unfuckyourhabitat.com)

Unfuck Your Habitat is an open source website full of information about cleaning and tips for doing so. The website has a strong focus on making cleaning easier for people that are mentally ill, physically or mentally disabled, or have a lot of trouble cleaning for personal or environmental reasons.

Their way of approaching things is very blunt and simple, and they use language that isn't complicated or confusing. It could potentially come off as not being serious, which some may like and some may not. They curse a lot so if you don't like cursing you might have a problem with it.

It's full of text based articles and as far as I'm aware there isn't any option for audio. Unfortunately I'm not very familiar with how screen readers work yet so I can't say for sure if it's possible to use one on their website. They also have two books written by Rachel Hoffman with similar names:

Unfuck Your Habitat: You're Better Than Your Mess

Cleaning Sucks: An Unfuck Your Habitat Guided Journal for Less Mess, Less Stress, and a Home You Don’t Hate

You need to pay for those, though, and I don't know if they have audio book versions or if you can read them with a screen reader.

[littlehouseontheaerie]

Making one of those stupid folding board things out of cardboard has made the least enjoyable part of laundry much easier. And everything fits better in drawers (I made it custom sized to my required dresser width).

Let's talk about clean laundry.

Where's yours? In a basket? Still in the dryer, days later? Making up the bulk of your floordrobe*?

Try tackling it just a couple of pieces at a time. If you put 5 things away a few times a day, it'll get done. It doesn't have to be all at once.

(*chairdrobe/couchdrobe/ellipticaldrobe/tabledrobe/etc.)