Anyone else have weird but effective daily routines?

[Fantasia99]

I am neurodiverse. I can't just clean my house in a oner. It'll never happen and I'll feel paralysed. I've found the perfect routine that works for me.

7:30 - drop child at breakfast club
7:40 - get home and put laundry away/on
7:50 - spend an hour deep cleaning and decluttering a room
8:50 - breakfast
9:00 - work
12:30 - 5 minutes in each other room having a super speedy tidy/hang laundry
1:10 - lunch
1:30 - work
3:00 - school run
7:00 - put child to bed
7:30/8 - 20/30 min workout
8/8:30 - bath/watch tv/chill
9:30 - bed

I do exactly the same, every day apart from the weekends where I modify around my plans. It's comforting and gives me a sense of achievement. It's very rigid but won't get done otherwise. I have adhd which probably explains the deep need for routine. I also have 7 rooms in my house which works perfectly!

Anyone else have such rigid daily plans. Or just me?!

I wish I was more like you!! I procrastinate and never get any tidying done

I'm ND too, but my routines are set by the week. I have a daily routine with my exercise though.

I do the majority of cleaning done in one go, with added fortnightly and monthly tasks to tackle deep cleaning.

I think whatever works for you is perfect!

This doesn’t seem weird to me. I am also nd though.

I would too if I didn't know exactly what I was doing or when!

The only reason I say this is because a couple of people have made comments about how boring my routine is 😅

And have been also told an hour on one room every day is excessive! But. I enjoy it and my house looks lovely.

I don’t deep clean on a schedule during the week, that’s more an ad hoc thing on the wkd. But like you, my day is like clockwork, probably down to the millisecond! I like to keep it really simple and manageable, so the house is very tidy and decluttered already.

7am up and breakfast
7:40 ten mins of chores
8am go to work
4pm get home
5pm start dinner
5:40pm bath baby
6pm baby asleep
9:30 bed

I admire this! I always tell myself I should write out a schedule so I remember to regularly do all the rooms. Haven't made that schedule yet.

I'm so impressed you keep your house clean and tody with just 10 mins. Mine would be a mess! Though, my 'baby' is now 5 so that doesn't help!

I used to be all over the place but have set routines for shopping, cooking, laundry and admin and omg my life is so much better. I read atomic habits and it was a life changer. I combine it with podcasts - so certain podcasts for certain tasks so I put my AirPods in and boom!

All ironing gets done on an allocated evening, tidying one morning and cleaning on Saturday mornings.

Wish I had done it sooner. The house is tidy and more organised and my stress levels have plummeted.

Well done on finding something that works for you.

Do it! It's a game changer! I used to just sit paralysed Unable to get anything done. Now my house is always pretty clean and tidy and it makes cleaning quite enjoyable. I have time to do the things lots of people forget to do (including me in the past) like wiping cupboards, cleaning light fittings, shining taps etc etc.

I love atomic habits! All my ironing and stiff like that gets done when I need to wear the outfit.

What do these people commenting on your routine expect you to be doing? Surely if you have a job and a child to look after and don’t happen to have a full domestic staff you need a fairly rigid routine or the whole thing falls apart? I think they’re the outliers, not you!

Also I realised that most of my anxiety stemmed from having a messy house and worrying about it obsessively.

That's good to know!

@Fantasia99 I didn't realise what a weight it was on me until I cracked it. I feel like a human being. My biggest issue was not being able to start tasks but now it's just habit.

I started in March, after starting to read atomic habits, and lots still to do but the time it has freed up for me spurs me on to set routines in other areas of my life. I am building flexibility in though as things are always changing last minute and I'm worried that I'll become so set in my ways that I'll be uncompromising, or become stressful in itself.

Yeah I understand that. But once the habit is ingrained, your house will be so stress free that even if you have to take a day off, you can just start again the day after and it'll be no big deal :)

I have a thing where I had to tidy 3 things for every getting ready activity I do e.g. getting dressed might result in putting laundry downstairs, putting the iron away and sweeping the kitchen floor. My house is usually then tidy when I am ready for work. I can't just tidy, it's got to be in groups of three and wrapped around another activity.

I do this too. When folding laundry and doing dishes. Wash one dish, put 3 things away in the kitchen. Wash another dish, put 3 more things away. Fold one bit of laundry and put away, put 4 toys away, so on so forth. I wonder if lots of people do this!