Is it just me? Fibromyalgia and Clutter

Topics: Fibromylagia, Is it just me?

Last week I intro­duced you to my newest series… Is it just me? Well, here I am with the first install­ment think­ing just that…

I am an only child.  I work 7:30–5:30, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year.  I was an only grand­child for most of my child­hood.  I am tremen­dously blessed to inherit fur­ni­ture and other items from gen­er­ous fam­ily mem­bers.  I am slow to get rid of items.  I rarely take my loads to the local thrift store.  I have many hob­bies.  My hus­band teaches high school, writes for a Grammy Award-winning band on a weekly basis, and takes six cred­its of grad­u­ate school a semes­ter.  We receive lots of mail.  We buy lots of gifts.  And… And… And…

I fight fibromyal­gia.  And I fight clutter.

Since I started expe­ri­enc­ing chronic pain and fibromyal­gia symp­toms in 1995 keep­ing an orga­nized space has grown much more dif­fi­cult.  Or, bet­ter put, the level of impor­tance I place on keep­ing a tidy bed­room, dorm, apart­ment, home, office, etc. has reduced drastically.

Grow­ing up I kept a clean room and play­room.  Sweats and I would play clean­ing games.  We raced the clock, or a song, or each other to get a room picked up and I loved it.  I loved hav­ing an orga­nized space.  I loved hav­ing a system.

Dur­ing high school I man­aged to keep a clean room because, to be hon­est, I didn’t have a ton of time to get it messy.  Col­lege was another story.  (Which I will get into when I roll out my new FibroY­outh site later this week.)  It was all I could do to bal­ance my health and my school­work.  Clut­ter began to creep into my life.  And, though I make a weekly stand against it, it still has a promi­nent place in my life.

So, fibro­folks, is it just me?  Please tell me… do you fight fibromyal­gia and clut­ter?  Does your fibromyal­gia seem to pro­mote clut­ter?  Does the clut­ter cycle tend to coin­cide with a fibro flare?  What do you do about fibromyal­gia and clutter?

Let me know and I’ll let you know what I’ve started doing about my clutter.

Existing Comments

    Comment by Jenni Saake - InfertilityMom on October 7, 2008 @ 9:38 pm

    Defi­nately not just you. I have dreams of some­day writ­ing a book about how I over­came the clut­ter mon­ster, offer­ing tips to oth­ers as well. And then I wake up and look at my stacks and piles and real­ize that it’s not going to hap­pen any time soon!!!

    Comment by Connie Arnold on October 8, 2008 @ 10:38 am

    Never really asso­ci­ated the increased clut­ter in my life to the fibromyal­gia, but I think you might have some­thing there!

    Comment by K8 on October 8, 2008 @ 8:46 pm

    I am glad to hear it’s not just me!

    And Con­nie, I think I do have some­thing here… I am not sure if it’s that I am too exhausted men­tally and phys­i­cally to get all proac­tive and start clean­ing, or what. But I do know I go through phases… which I am get­ting ready to write a post about.

    Comment by Irene on October 21, 2008 @ 11:49 pm

    I have clut­ter, always have. I get started declut­ter­ing on good days but then I flair up and poof clut­ter is back! It’s never end­ing for me.

    Comment by Fibrowriter on October 24, 2008 @ 11:34 am

    It isn’t just me! My clut­ter def­i­nitely coin­cides with fibro-flares. Both the mood flares and the pain flares cause my house­work to back slide. I try to fol­low the FlyLady’s site to man­age my clut­ter. i.e. 15 min­utes at a time. If I’m flar­ing I might try five minutes…or just take a nap. :p

    Comment by Rebecca on November 29, 2008 @ 11:42 pm

    I also have A.D.D. so I am not sure if my clut­ter prob­lem comes from fibromyal­gia. The fibromyal­gia does make my ADD symp­toms worse, though.

    Comment by no smoking on December 29, 2008 @ 3:46 am

    The same prob­lem with me, I also have clut­ter every­where and I don’t know what to do with it.

    Comment by Lodge Girl on January 8, 2009 @ 2:22 am

    Diag­nosed FM w/ chronic back prob­lems for last 10 years. Also the begin­ning of an unor­ga­nized. unkept, home with accumi­la­ton of clut­ter. Low energy, & pain made keep­ing up the house a low pri­or­ity. Earn­ing a liv­ing and tak­ing care of other needs took pri­or­ity. House has got­ten so out of hand that it has become very impact­ing on the sykie. Clean­ing cycles do coin­cide with flairs and your emo­tional state of mind. Some­times the clear­ing clut­ter just takes more emo­tional and phys­i­cal energy than you have — –but is sure does feel good when your on a clean­ing spree — the prob­lem is they are inconsistent.

    Tech­niques like touch it once, or every thing has a space and place are great when you are up to apply­ing the tech­niques — but they don’t work when your not able to work them. A sup­port group may help encour­age and moti­vate — any addi­tional tips would be great for a resource when we are in that moment of func­tion­ing. Keep me posted on this

    Comment by Kari on January 9, 2009 @ 5:12 am

    It’s not just you, I’m glad it’s not just me. Glad I found your blog via twitter.

    Comment by Tamicat on January 11, 2009 @ 12:53 pm

    Yay! We have com­pany in our mess. =)

    The funny thing is that I actu­ally love orga­niz­ing stuff. I know that if I can get this place orga­nized, my life will be less stress­ful and more peace­ful. Get­ting there is the hard part. When­ever I try to do it though, I always OVERdo and then end up miserable.

    If I could learn my lim­its bet­ter, that would sure help.

    Comment by Khürt Williams on January 13, 2009 @ 5:50 am

    It’s hard to say but I believe the clut­ter in our home ( and my wife’s reluc­tance to throw ANYTHING out ) existed before fibro and BK ( before kids ). I’m the Orga­niz­ing Min­i­mal­ist (OM) and she’s the Chaotic Clut­ter (CC). We have cos­tumes for our char­ac­ters. While I yearn for Zen bliss she …

    Comment by Amy on February 17, 2009 @ 9:57 pm

    I am quite the oppo­site with you here! I was always a clut­ter bug & kind of a slob! I would rather spend most of my time out­side with my horses than inside clean­ing & straight­en­ing. Since I got my Fibro diag­no­sis, I have a huge intol­er­ance for clut­ter & filth. I don’t clean myself though…lol! I had to hire a clean­ing lady, but you wouldn’t believe just how much I gave away to Good­will & just threw away. It was kind of a nice release for me. I just get stressed out when I see clut­ter & mess now.

    Comment by hagar's daughter on February 26, 2009 @ 1:22 am

    I thought it was just me! I have a low tol­er­ance for clut­ter, but can’t seem to get a han­dle on it since fibro diag­no­sis 8 years ago.

    Comment by Raven on February 26, 2009 @ 4:04 pm

    Clean­ing def­i­nitely dropped on my pri­or­ity list once I devel­oped fibro. You couldn’t make me make my bed these days even if I felt good. It’s not dirty, it’s messy and that’s how I pri­or­i­tize any clean­ing that does get done. Messy doesn’t count. And if I’m hav­ing a flare, my clothes don’t seem to make it to the ham­per. They stay in the bath­room where I took them off along with my shoes. I order out a lot or through some pre-prepared foods into the oven on those days too.

    Comment by Cindy on April 5, 2009 @ 4:29 pm

    Clut­ter sucks more energy from you. When you aren’t flar­ing, it will help to get rid of clut­ter. If you haven’t used it in 6 months-1 year.….get rid of it. You will be sur­prised how lit­tle you will miss.

    Comment by Miranda on May 12, 2009 @ 10:50 pm

    OMG! I’m glad to know it’s NOT JUST ME!! I was start­ing to think I was crazy or some­thing. I too have a ter­ri­ble time with clut­ter. And I hate a messy house! But I have more bad days than good and most of the time I just don’t have the strength or energy to clean it up. I hate it too because my hus­band just thinks I’m lazy or some­thing and he gripes when he comes home to the same mess. If he only had a clue! (I wish I could get him to under­stand how debil­i­tat­ing FMS truly is!) But it’s got­ten to the point that when we have vis­i­tors show up unan­nounced, we will meet them out­side because I am embar­rassed to let them see the mess. I hate that because I want to be able to have friends and fam­ily come over for din­ner or just to visit.

    I do have days when I have less pain and more energy and I do take advan­tage of them. But it seems those days are get­ting fewer and fur­ther between. I too was not was this way when I was a teenager liv­ing at home. I always tried to keep my room clean and neat. That’s why it dri­ves me nuts to see things lay­ing around that should be in the trash or in it’s proper place. There’s some days when even if I’m hurt­ing really bad, I just get dis­gusted and can’t take it any­more and will find myself try­ing to get around the house pick­ing up stuff, only to regret it later because it brings more pain on my body.

    What frus­trates me the most about this is that I have 3 kids old enough to help out and I’m like “HELLO! I could use a lit­tle help here!” But I’m afraid it’s teach­ing them to think that if Mom doesn’t have to do it, they don’t have to do it. So they attribute to the clut­ter because they just leave their things lay­ing every­where and they won’t pick up after them­selves! It is dri­ving me crazy and I don’t know what to do.

    Comment by K8 on May 13, 2009 @ 10:51 am

    Fibrowriter: The 15 minute rule is alive and well in our home. We’ll set a timer or turn on a song and race to see how much we can get done before it’s over.

    Lodge Girl: Touch it once is the way to go, though I strug­gle stick­ing with the rule. I’m work­ing on a follow-up to address how I man­age my clut­ter issues.

    Amy: If I’m hon­est with myself, I too have lit­tle tol­er­ance for clut­ter. I believe it over­whelms me and wors­ens my symp­toms. Every time I step foot in a bath­room I pon­der hir­ing a clean­ing lady. How do you like it?

    Cindy: So true. I’ve been on a dona­tion ram­page these past few weeks… get­ting rid of all sorts of items. It feels wonderful.

    Miranda: I under­stand your strug­gle find the strength and energy. I’ve sched­uled my, what I call “Martha Stew­art” or “MS” time… every Tues­day from 6–8. That’s my time for house­hold chores and orga­ni­za­tion. The rou­tine has made it fun and doable. And if I don’t get it all done it over­flows to Sat­ur­day morn­ing, when my hus­band and I will work on the list together. Maybe you and your sweetie can have a fam­ily meet­ing and setup a sys­tem for house­hold chores? I bet your kids will under­stand you need their help and step up to help. And every­one craves a rou­tine. Good luck! Let me know what you fig­ure out works for your family.

    Comment by perpetualspiral on May 19, 2009 @ 9:50 pm

    Oh I so have clut­ter. Cuz I like to have every­thing within reach so I don’t have to get up, but then get­ting up is an obsta­cle course because every­thing is all around! LOL. And, tidy­ing and clean­ing take energy and a cer­tain low pain level, don’t they. Clut­ter makes me feel even more weighed down on top of the fibro, but some­times we just have to live with it because our health is more impor­tant :)

    Comment by Julia on May 19, 2009 @ 9:50 pm

    Never thought about it. I’ve always been clut­ter­ful. I know as my symp­toms have got­ten worse, I am less moti­vated to clean. With my job went my clean­ing lady. It was tough.

    Comment by Emily on November 5, 2009 @ 12:42 pm

    I’m actu­ally to oppo­site! I’ve always been pretty neat any­way but, I find that in the past few years (I was diag­nosed in 2006 but had symp­toms since 1998), clut­ter dri­ves me nuts! I live with my boyfriend, who is a messy room­mate and I con­stantly won­der how to con­vince him to straighten things up a bit. I love every­thing to have its place and I feel uncomfy in my own space when stuff is messy.
    I DO, how­ever, some­times have flares of messy-ness and YES, it’s def­i­nitely corol­lated to my fibro flares. When I’m feel­ing super gross, I don’t care if my house is gross. Plus, I’m more wiped out from daily activ­i­ties and way less moti­vated to put any­thing in its place.
    I’ve read that it’s really help­ful and healthy for fibro­folks to keep their home clut­ter free. It tends to allow for our aches and pains to fit in eas­ier when every­thing else is orderly. Does that make any sense?
    PS– If any­body has hints on how to get a messy guy to put things where they go… I’ll take ‘em!

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