I did the ‘only one of everything’ thing sometimes after I first left home. When I needed be able to carry everything I owned it made perfect sense … TBH if it was just me on my own, it would still make sense
I’m married and we have a kid. When I first moved into my house I stayed here alone for 2-3 months while the wife and kid mostly stayed at the previous house to prep it for selling. (I had injuries that prevented me from being much use in that task, though I contributed when I could.)
I thought it would be easy to keep the new house clean - after all, when I was here alone, there was hardly any mess and what there was was mostly contained within the living room and kitchen; those messes were minor and I picked up after myself every night! Turns out that a kid and two tired parents make a lot more mess than one lonely single person who doesn’t do much. Also, most of our stuff (at that time) was at the old house, so there wasn’t much to use to make a mess here even if I wanted to.
My wife is smarter than I am. During a phone call, I expressed the above to her, finishing with “I think it will be easy to keep this place clean.” She responded with something like "oh, you do, do you … "
In case there’s any confusion, I’d much rather be with my wife and kid in a hoarder’s house than be alone in a pristine environment, I was just unduly surprised by the change.
I will share an anecdote that is barely relevant, but is one of my favorites … The day we signed for this house, all three of us were here. The kid, much younger at the time, left a toy triceratops atop the tank of one of the commodes. I never once even thought about cleaning it up because it was one of the only reminders of my family I had at the time. I never thought a toy dinosaur would make me miss anyone so much.
If you have 5 dirty dishes, each time you walk past pick one up and hope it leads to them all being clean.
Alternatively, throw out all dishes, you have one bowl, it doesn’t get clean, you don’t eat.
And other tips in my new book, “It’s totally fine, I’m fine, why do you keep asking?”
I did the ‘only one of everything’ thing sometimes after I first left home. When I needed be able to carry everything I owned it made perfect sense … TBH if it was just me on my own, it would still make sense
I’m married and we have a kid. When I first moved into my house I stayed here alone for 2-3 months while the wife and kid mostly stayed at the previous house to prep it for selling. (I had injuries that prevented me from being much use in that task, though I contributed when I could.)
I thought it would be easy to keep the new house clean - after all, when I was here alone, there was hardly any mess and what there was was mostly contained within the living room and kitchen; those messes were minor and I picked up after myself every night! Turns out that a kid and two tired parents make a lot more mess than one lonely single person who doesn’t do much. Also, most of our stuff (at that time) was at the old house, so there wasn’t much to use to make a mess here even if I wanted to.
My wife is smarter than I am. During a phone call, I expressed the above to her, finishing with “I think it will be easy to keep this place clean.” She responded with something like "oh, you do, do you … "
In case there’s any confusion, I’d much rather be with my wife and kid in a hoarder’s house than be alone in a pristine environment, I was just unduly surprised by the change.
I will share an anecdote that is barely relevant, but is one of my favorites … The day we signed for this house, all three of us were here. The kid, much younger at the time, left a toy triceratops atop the tank of one of the commodes. I never once even thought about cleaning it up because it was one of the only reminders of my family I had at the time. I never thought a toy dinosaur would make me miss anyone so much.
We eventually resigned ourselves to just buying paper plates/bowls/cups/etc. Yes, it’s wasteful. But it also helps just the tiniest bit.
I would like a copy of of your book
Genuinely, How to keep house while drowning by KC Davis is kind of like this and I recommend it to any neurodivergent person or parent of young kids.