Squalor levels / minor cleaning goal

The Squalor Survivors web site lists degrees of squalor. This seems like a helpful way to think about the spectrum of messiness and dirt, but the specifics don't quite fit my situation.

These days I will let my friends K. and M. come over once in a while, and my landlord and caretaker as needed, even though my apartment is far from anything most people would recognize as clean or neat. Last year I also let a social worker and a county home care worker come in to help me clean. (In the past I've also allowed a couple other friends and boyfriends to visit, with ... mixed ... results.) My general policy is: if I don't already know you very well, or if you aren't here specifically to do repairs or help me clean, YOU CAN'T COME OVER. My apartment is too small to be a good place for more than one person to hang out anyway, regardless of messiness / cleanliness. It's all kind of moot right now since I don't have much of a "social life," but still it would be nice to feel that I could have people over without feeling ashamed of how dirty and messy my place is. There have been stretches where I wouldn't let ANYONE in, even for needed repairs, due to the combo of Severe Depression and Extreme Squalor. Fortunately things have improved a lot in the past year or so.

Second-degree squalor? Hm. I've always been able to use the bed and phone, and to physically get around in here (stepping over / on / through piles as needed), but I do have a chair and table that have at times been used ONLY for piling things on. The chair is fine now; the table is not. Also there have been extended periods where I couldn't really cook, or could cook only in very limited ways, because the dishes and stove were too scary, but that is over now.

Level 3? I never had any problems with animal feces or urine. I've had cats for extended visits when their owners were away, but I always kept their litter boxes under control even when everything else had gone to hell. Rotting food? Um, yeah, there has been some, but it has always been confined to the refrigerator. I don't know if that counts. Probably.

My place isn't near Level 4 now, but there have been times when it wasn't far from it; again the description doesn't quite fit. Until a year or so ago I had sporadic bathroom plumbing problems that I sometimes didn't deal with for months, so at times I had to find, um, creative means for certain functions, but I never had areas of human waste that was not in the toilet and just sat there. The plumbing has been fixed now, and I wouldn't hesitate to have the caretaker come in if the problems recur. Point is, I can see how people's homes can get to 4th-degree squalor, and at times mine has been close, but fortunately I'm far from it now and I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK.

HOUSE OF CTRL-S TODAY

Many things are in boxes and drawers and shelves and my closet now that weren't before, and the dish, laundry, and trash situations have been resolved. The floor is mostly clear, and I can move around without much trouble beyond that caused by limited space and inconveniently arranged furniture. The bathroom sink, toilet, and tub are clean. The stove and kitchen counter are clean. My dresser drawers and closet are even somewhat organized. This is good.

Still: the floor is dirty, the walls are dirty, many surfaces are dusty or grimy, my kitchen cabinets and drawers are a mess, there are a few piles of papers and a snarl of electrical cords, the contents of my file drawers and some of the boxes are NOT organized, the windows and blinds are dirty, and overall it is just not anything you would call "nice" in here.

I need to rearrange my furniture, probably get rid of some more stuff, and probably get more shelving and another two-drawer file cabinet.

(I need to do a lot of other things too, but that is all I can cope with thinking about right now.)

I don't think I can rearrange my furniture until I've dealt with some of the piles.

ACTUAL CLEANING GOAL, 7/20/06:

In the next few days I want to remove all the stuff that is piled up my coffee table, and clean the table's surface. First I need an empty box to temporarily store the papers and other stuff that is now on the table, until I can -- *shudder* -- sort it all out. I am going to try to have the table cleaned, and the stuff that was on it at least partly sorted and culled and organized, by, um, Sunday.

Today I will try to get a box or two.

P.S. I just now found an ancient bottle of Murphy's Oil Soap in my cabinet, to clean the wood tabletop with after I've cleared it off. VICTORY.