Avoiding the CLEAN ALL THE THINGS cycle

My plan to trick myself into being a functional adult without going through the doomed hyperactive 'CLEAN ALL THE THINGS' stage seems to be working.

The trick is currently not to let myself get distracted from cleaning up after things. No excuses, I clean up immediately. This means pausing the TV and getting up and doing the washing up in *gasp* the middle of an episode (I KNOW RIGHT?).

So starting this wasn't too daunting, I let myself off doing the epic pile of dirty recycling in one go and I'm soaking some of it with the left over washing up water every time. I'm down to only a small pile now.

The reward after cleaning the things is to go back to the TV show/website/Twitter conversation etc I stopped halfway in the middle of. Having a reward is important.

So far this is working, I'm even cleaning more things than just the dishes. I finish the washing up and go 'hmm this thing is also dirty, might as well clean that'. I am giving myself the habit of tidying up after myself, like a grown up or vaguely well trained child does!

This strategy took me until I was 32 year old to work out :)

...although it's not been a week yet, so I guess we'll he how long I take to burn out with it ramped down to 'clean SOME of the things'...