9 Honest Photos You Might Relate to If You're Too Depressed to Clean During COVID-19

During the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, a lot of things have fallen to the wayside. Maybe you’re struggling to keep your children educated, fed and entertained, so you’ve put homeschooling demands on the back burner for now. Maybe you’re so anxious and stressed that you aren’t as productive at work as you were in non-pandemic times. Or maybe you’re struggling so much with depression that you haven’t had the motivation or stamina to keep up with your personal hygiene or house cleaning.

If you are having a hard time cleaning because of your depression, you’re not alone. In the interest of showing you just how not alone you are, we asked members of The Mighty community who live with depression to share honest photos of what their living spaces look like right now.

No matter what you’re struggling with right now, please have compassion for yourself. It’s important to remember we are living through an unprecedented pandemic. It makes sense that we weren’t immediately prepared with an arsenal of coping skills to make it through. Just keep going one day at a time, doing the best you can do. That’s more than enough.

Here are the photos they shared with us:

1. “My room, right now, after I took out two heaping bags of trash and a bunch of recycling. Struggling with this right now.” — Jenna W.

2. “The pile of beautiful clothes I took the time to source online (a lot of vintage stuff amongst it) and I still can’t get my sh*t together enough to just move it a few feet away and place it all on hangers!” — Lisa H.

3. “Groceries not getting into cabinets.” — Connie B.

4. “Even though my house is chaos, my cat just adapts.” — Sirena A.

5. “Haven’t seen the floor of my closet since this pandemic started, and who knows how long before that too. At least the laundry gets cleaned… but never makes it back to where it’s supposed to go. At least it gives my pup a comfy spot to chill.” — Julia T.

6. “I’ve tried really hard to keep up the kitchen and living room but I’ve let my room slip because I just don’t have the mental energy to go through and clean it.” — Rachel M.

7. “My room right now. At the beginning of quarantine, my brother asked me to make it livable. Not a big request, but it feels huge and impossible.” — Krista E.

8. “Blanket piles everywhere.” — Jessie A.

9. “I had to move from one place to another last week. The anxiety from COVID-19 as well as the depression due to the sudden change literally makes me cooped up in my bed and ignoring everything. I haven’t put up all of my clothes and put things away from my room.” — Vy N.

For more on the coronavirus, check out the following stories from our community:

• How to Get Through COVID-19 Quarantine With Your Partner
• Feeling Calm in the Midst of the Coronavirus Pandemic Might Be a Trauma Response
• The Problem With Saying ‘Only’ the Elderly and Immunocompromised Will Be Affected by COVID-19
• 7 Things to Do If Social Distancing Is Triggering Your Depression