Getting started if your place is an awful mess I've written before about my overhauling my place. I live alone, so it's all on me. I got stressed out by some stuff, and then the pandemic hit, and my place got really terrible. It was a total wreck. I've overhauled it into a very nice looking apartment that is easy and fun to live in. I've already written in other posts how I did this, but I wanted to cover one really important thing: getting started. I knew for a long time that I needed to completely revamp my apartment, but I didn't even know where to start. It seemed so overwhelming. It was so bad that there was no way I could get it in shape in a day, or in a weekend, or even in a week. It was a disaster area. I looked through self-help books and viewed Youtube videos on what to do. They had a lot of good ideas. Right then I needed specific advice on how to get started when you feel overwhelmed. The best advice I got was to start with just one thing and concern yourself with that one thing only. One disaster that had happened was the water heater's drain thing had fucked up, and it spilled water all over the carpet in my living room. Maintenance fixed the device, but I was still left with wet carpet, and that had dried with a smelly, moldy smell. Then the cat had pissed on it. The mold and cat piss smell was making me gag, and that was actually dangerous to my health. It was pretty obvious what one thing I should concentrate on first. I got all my shit out of the way and vacuumed just that one room. Then I rented out one of those carpet cleaners and gave it a good cleaning. It was a lot of work, but I did it. Then I went and returned the carpet cleaner and just hung out in my favorite restaurant, enjoying a meal and surfing the web with my laptop. I gave the carpet some time to dry. I had left the cat with some friends whom I trust. When I got back, my place was still an awful mess, but at least it had clean carpet that didn't make you gag with moldy and cat piss smell. Was that enough? Of course not, but it was a start. I was no longer stuck on overwhelm. I had momentum. So the next day, I picked one more thing to concentrate on. It was one half of my kitchen. It was the half with the sinks, the microwave, and a counter top. So I hit all that stuff with some general cleaning spray and some comet for the stubborn stuff. When I was done, it was a weird looking kitchen in which one half was spic-and-span and the other half was a pig sty. You can probably guess what I did the next day. Yup. I cleaned the other side of the kitchen that included the stove, the oven, and the fridge. Then I did the floors. So now I had an apartment that was a horrible mess, except it had clean carpets and an immaculate kitchen. Now you probably have an idea what I did next. You got it! I picked one more area and hit it, and concerned myself with only that. If your place is such an awful mess that it's not fixable in one day, pick just one thing and get it in shape. In some cases it's obvious what's most important, as in the case of my smelly carpet. On other cases, there's no obvious top priority. In that case, just pick something and go with it. And you just keep picking stuff and hitting it with whatever time you have. If you have to split the cleaning from weekend to weekend because you work or go to school, that's fine. As long as you keep hitting it, you'll eventually end up with a great place. Here's another important piece of advice: Don't beat yourself up. Telling yourself crap like, “I'm such a fucking slob” just reinforces keeping your place in a trash-pit state. Replace negative self talk with something like, “It's not in shape yet.” That's still truthful, but it instills the notion that you're going to get it in shape. Change doesn't happen via your berating yourself. It happens via whatever action you take. If you're stuck in procrastination mode, it's because you feel overwhelmed. Beating yourself up won't break you out of that. Making a plan to concentrate on just one of the tasks will. That establishes momentum; then taking your next step is easier. Once you have several parts of your place in great shape, you've built up both momentum and confidence. At this point it's simple to just keep the ball rolling. Pick your next trouble spot and hit it. Jordan Peterson recommends that men get their places in shape, whether you're living in your own apartment or house, with other people, or even still at home with your parents. If you're still with your parents, then get just your room in shape. You could conceivably also work with other family members to get other areas in shape if they're bad. If you're living alone, everything is solely your responsibility. If you're living with others, it's everyone's responsibility who lives there. When I lived with a roommate, we had a roommate meeting and came up with a plan to get our place in shape and to maintain it afterward. We even put it in writing. We worked the plan, and it worked for us. I hope my writing about cleaning and organizing is maybe helping some men out there. MGTOW is all about building a better life, after all. If your living space is a terrible mess, it's hard to accomplish other things. You could work out anyway, but you'll hit obstacles like, “Where the fuck is my workout bag?” or maybe if mold has grown in your bathroom, it will make you sick so that you can't workout that day. If you're learning to play guitar, you'll hit obstacles like, “Where's my damn guitar strap?” The point of getting a clean and organized place is not to impress people or to make you think you're better than other people. It's to serve you in whatever you want to accomplish in life. Maybe some other dudes here have had similar experiences. If you once had a pig pen of a place, but you overcame it, speak up. Even if you're currently living in a mess, it's fine to talk about it. We might be able to help you to formulate you plan of action to fix it. Don't be afraid to check out Youtube videos on how to clean and organize, especially if you're not skilled in that area yet. Yes, I know, Youtube sucks in many ways. They're bad about quashing dissenting voices, and they constantly misinterpret copyright law by killing videos that were clearly fair use. However, one thing that Youtube still kicks ass at is their “how to” info. I needed to install a swag hook in my ceiling to hang up a potted plant. I had never done that before, but a Youtube vid was all I needed to learn how. Their videos on overcoming procrastination and how to effectively organize also helped me a lot. Your turn. Feel free to post your experiences in overcoming procrastination or in getting your place in shape – or if you need to do so, feel free to seek help in this thread. Best of luck to all of you. TigPlace communities.win