Cleaning Up My Act

Well, my week of cleaning is drawing to a close and parts of my house, particularly the kitchen and bathroom, look a lot better. To be fair, in the bathroom it wasn't so much cleaning involved, as the completion of numerous half-finished jobs in there. Now, I know that many people might think spending the better part of a week off of work cleaning is a pretty strange thing to do. Which I suppose it would be for most people. However, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I recently found myself emerging from a long trough of low level depression and, when that happens, it is akin to waking up to find yourself living in a pig sty. Whilst depression is different for everyone, for me it means not having the energy or inclination to do any household chores beyond the bare minimum of washing up, or occasionally vacuuming the living room carpet. Things lie where they fall, dust accumulates on every flat surface and the kitchen becomes unhygienic, (even by my standards). Whilst not as debilitating as a bout of full blown depression, a spell of low level depression can be highly disruptive to my normal life.

Basically, I find that I just can't handle any complexities in my life: my focus narrows to a tiny range of activities which I can deal with relatively easily. During this most recent bout, for instance, I found myself focusing on my online activities to almost obsessional levels. Probably because it is something I have a greater degree of control over than any other aspect of my life. Consequently, everything else has suffered - I've come out of my depression to find that my house is filthy and chaotic, and I've been seriously neglecting friends and relationships, failing to keep in touch, or to be available when needed. So, the house cleaning is a necessary, and cathartic, first stage to putting my life back on track. Not that I've finished with the cleaning. For one thing, whilst much healthier looking, my kitchen is still falling far short of the standards of cleanliness that my friend Little Miss Strange, for instance, would demand. (Many years ago she started cleaning it up in the early hours of the morning, she was so appalled at its then state. But that's another story entirely). Also, my living room has taken a couple of steps backwards - thanks to moving stuff from other rooms during my clear up, the floor is now covered with stacks of books and DVDs, making vacuuming difficult. Clearly, my next priority will have to be putting up more shelves...