Te vs Ti cleaning style

[DreamBeliever]

I was wondering if there's a difference in the way Te users clean & organize things compared to Ti users (ex. cleaning their house). What do you guys think? Real life examples are welcome.

 

[pinkgraffiti]

I don't know if it's anything to do with Te, but my cleaning style is I forget about cleaning for days and then one day I wake up and decide that everything is dirty and needs to be clean! Like a dictator.... And I overwork and do everything in one hour or so. And then I forget about it again, even if there's dirt around I don't care.

 

[Oaky]

Ti cleaning style?

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Te - perhaps might involve list making? each item goes in a specific place for a specific reason, etc.

 

[ceecee]

I was wondering if there's a difference in the way Te users clean & organize things compared to Ti users (ex. cleaning their house). What do you guys think? Real life examples are welcome.

I'm sure there is a huge difference. I like lists. I like organization. I like it because I don't want to be bothered with having to look all over the place for something. I also don't want to spend a couple hours every week cleaning and putting things away so a certain amount of things are done daily.

I took all the chores that must be done on a regular basis and assigned them to a housecleaning service. Bathrooms, washing floors, vacuum and dusting. They come once a week and that works very well for me. Laundry is done every day.

 

[Totenkindly]

Ti cleaning style?

yeah, srsly....


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I have a lot of trouble cleaning.

Usually there's just a slow accumulation of stuff and then I just get sick of it and go nuts in a burst of energy. One problem is that my lack of focus --- I tend to think comprehensively and so I tend to start cleaning one thing, then get sidetracked into something else, and nothing gets totally finished.

When I get really frustrated by dealing with that, yeah, I'll resort to a list and make items I can just cross off.

Still my best cleaning jobs have been when I'm leaving an apartment behind. There is no need to prioritize or way to get sidetracked, because you have no choice but to CLEAN IT ALL. So you just go nuts and don't stop until it's done. In those cases I can get very detail-oriented (once I'm in the groove) and scrub things/vacuum/wash things until they are spotless.

As far as "clutter" goes, I've learned to throw away a lot rather than pack-ratting it nowadays. My normal style is eclectic and having a variety of things in a space, though, so that helps; I don't have to make everything perfectly lined up and uncluttered. IOW, I don't try to be someone I am not; I use a style that doesn't demand an insane amount of clean lines and space.

Still, it's hard enough for me to vaccuum or hang all my washed clothes back up. Everything else? hahaha.

 

[Frosty]

It is weird, seems like wherever I go, if I stay too long the environment just takes on a mind of its own. Shit piles up. Piles upon piles. Piles of food, piles of clothes, piles of bottles, piles of papers, piles of plates... It is actually quite organized in its own chaotic way, but no one else sees it as such.

If anyone were to look at any room that I frequent, or anything that I owned they would probably have a heart attack or put me on that hoarders show. It is just that it sneaks up on me all at once, and then it becomes a task to clean it up. And I mean as long as I am not injuring myself(ala yesterday...)it really doesn't bother me at all.

Funny thing is that I am pretty organized when it comes to my files on a computer, phone, music, stuff like that, but look at my backpack or anything else that I own and you would probably have a stroke.

Generally though if it gets absloutely annoying enough I chip away until the mess is back to being sustainable. But it is never clean, never. Once something starts clearing up, something new just pops up. It just takes way too much work for something that does not bother me at all. Ill just mess it up again anyways, let the faeries take care of it. It is just way too difficult and complicated, but probably something to work on.

 

[Poki]

My cleaning style begins with a trash can. I like simple and clean. I don't like cleaning so I keep very little to make a mess.

 

[fetus]

I'm filthy. No, not like a cutely haphazard tumblr photo. I mean honest-to-God filthy. Clothes are everywhere, to the point where I'm not always sure what's clean and what's not. The clothes that are clean are never put away; they just accumulate in one laundry basket. My room reeks of dust. Family members notice when they walk in--but I guess I've grown accustomed to it. Though many mornings I wake up with a stuffed-up nose and a sore throat. The worst thing is that I don't care that much.

Te sorely needed.

 

[miss fortune]

My cleaning style begins with a trash can. I like simple and clean. I don't like cleaning so I keep very little to make a mess.

this

 

[DreamBeliever]

My cleaning style's like this: I dump everything out into the open, throw what I don't want into a huge trash bag, throw the stuff I'm going to keep to the side, & when I'm done sorting all of it, I re-organize all of the rest of the stuff I'm keeping back (but never in the same place, it's always completely re-done).

I do the same type of thing when I organize stuff for my grandma (she's an ESTJ, but claims I organize better than her! lol). For examples, she has me organize her pantry. I take everything out, placing it on the table or kitchen counter, & completely re-organize it. The only things that are always on the same shelf are the cans, but everything else gets resorted wherever it fits. I like to start from scratch, instead of just re-shifting everything around. We keep clothes hangers in a clothes basket, too, & after awhile it gets practically impossible to pull any out, because they're completely intertwined. Therefore, I'll dump all of them out onto the floor, sort them into piles, & place them back in after they're all sorted.

I was wondering if cleaning/organization techniques correspond with the Te/Ti functions?

It's interesting that some of you mentioned lists, because for whatever odd reason, lists never work for me.

Only since I've got to college, have I started to use separate folders for different classes, too, so it'd be less for me to carry at a time. Before that, I would always just mix all my papers from all my classes in one folder, filling it up until it was ready to burst, & then start a new one.

Cleaning my room usually consists of me tossing everything out of my drawers & removing everything from the floor of my closet, leaving it scattered along the floor & on my bed, along with the stuff that's already there. I get rid of what I don't want, shoving old papers & whatever else I don't need in a bag, & literally throwing or kicking everything else to the side. It's always a bigger mess at first before it gets put back. Then, I start re-stacking books & games, putting back shoes, & putting back whatever else into where there's now room & looks good.

Also, day calendars never work for me. I end up writing things anywhere in the book, circling one assignment, underlining another, star-ing others, until I can no longer tell which ones are due what days, give up on writing them down, & just try to remember from the top of my head. My only fixes so far are writing things, while in classes, down on my hands, or posting sticky notes on my dorm room walls. I'll make 5 of them, each with a heading at the top of a different day of the week from Monday to Friday, & write the assignments for those days under them. I don't do that as often as I should, though.

 

[GarrotTheThief]

I will clean something unless I am going to mess it up in the next ten hours. That is my formula. That's why everything in my house is spotless except for my water glass and bed.

i do my laundry according to maximizing my time efficiency - too large is too slow, to small is too frequent.

I wash the dishes once every two days...

I operate like clockwork and every week i throw in a new thing...my mom still does my floors once a month.

 

[Frosty]

My cleaning style begins with a trash can. I like simple and clean. I don't like cleaning so I keep very little to make a mess.

Yeah... This seems to make a ton of sense, strategically placed containers. New plan in motion

 

[ceecee]

Yeah... This seems to make a ton of sense, strategically placed containers. New plan in motion

One thing you may want to do (not that trashing things is a bad idea) is taking a laundry basket and putting eveything that needs to go elsewhere in it. Room to room and when you've finished you have relative clean and the things to put away in one place.

 

[Frosty]

One thing you may want to do (not that trashing things is a bad idea) is taking a laundry basket and putting eveything that needs to go elsewhere in it. Room to room and when you've finished you have relative clean and the things to put away in one place.

Yeah, it has turned into kind of a greater issue since I came home for the summer to live with my parents again. My mom is the neatest person on the planet, and I am the biggest slob, so I enter a room~destroy it with my presense, don't even realize how much I have destroyed it because it just honestly does not register~ and she will feel compelled to clean it.

Then she gets stressed out, cries, and goes on about how no one cares about all that she does. Absolutely tearing herself to bits, and she works so hard and does so much. Which absolutely kills me and just isn't fair to her either, but we are just night and day in this respect.

I'll never understand her need for cleanliness, but it wouldn't be a big deal for me to fake it. Reach a common ground. Simple answer for that is to stop being messy, but I just find that really hard to sustain, and she always sees and recognizes a mess before I do, and up starts cleaning and stressing and feeling down on herself before I have time to even process what is going on. (Though she did once tell me that cleaning is soothing to her which... Kind of blew my mind) So yeah, I think she will always be looking for something to clean, but I don't want it to overwhelm her.

So yeah, I don't really care if I live in my own mess when I am on my own terms, but I need a temporary fix. I like the laundry basket idea, keeps the mess nice and consolidated and I could probably try to associate it kind of subconciously. Replacements for a behavior are probably easier than complete and total 180s. Trick your brain and maneuver slowly and hope something catches. Just do what I normally do, throw stuff on the floor and let it pile up, but have something to catch it. Don't have to worry about my own room thank god... It is a lost cause apparently, but the rest of the house needs baskets. It is a quick fix and probably does not really adress the root problem, but anything that I can do...and this is something that is 'big' for her. This got a bit personal, huh.

Anyway, any other ideas? Set reminders~lists? Do surveys of the room on occasion?

 

[Poki]

Yeah... This seems to make a ton of sense, strategically placed containers. New plan in motion

I have 4 tape.measures because I can't seem to keep track of them. So the more I have the easier to find one

 

[PeaceBaby]

I grew up in a very tidy house. My Mom used to vacuum twice a day. Dusted all the time. Laundry ... the machine never seemed to stop running. We could take a glass out of the cupboard, set it on the kitchen counter, turn around to get milk out of the fridge to pour some to drink and then wonder where the glass went. She had already put it in the dishwasher.

Sooooo, having grown up like that, I have a high guilt conscience for messiness. I can personally tolerate a lot, as I am just not wired to be neat - but imagining unexpected company seeing my house a mess does stress me out. So, I clean usually on Thursdays or Fridays and do a LOT in a whirlwind lasting about 3 - 4 hours. Trying to do a little bit each day? Too much to figure out and prioritize, aside from doing the dishes and general tidying of LR / kitchen in case someone pops over. So, the rest all gets done in a big burst, the house is tidy over the times it seems most important to be tidy, and everyone is relatively happy about that.

My technique is "pick up a thing, deal with the thing / see mess in one spot, clean up the one spot" - it means I'm not as efficient as I could be, but no strategy is needed, conserving my brain power for more important tasks.

Ha! I should add, if I am hosting dinner or having company for the holidays - it's like I have new eyes or something, I want the house to be perfect and alllll of a sudden, I can see every teeeny tiny thing that needs to get done! I'll definitely overdo it at those times, and tire myself out too!

 

[Frosty]

I have 4 tape.measures because I can't seem to keep track of them. So the more I have the easier to find one

More to have in sight easier to have in mind? That makes sense, if something is more convenient for you or easier to gather you would be more likely to use it frequently and develop it into every day life. Assign it a purpose, and then use it in that way and mess with it a bit here and there, until you get it right. Sounds like that might work with the baskets.

 

[Ene]

I break the task into chunks, organize for maximum efficiency, then multi-task to complete as many objectives as possible in as short amount of time as possible. First, [MENTION=12103]Poki[/MENTION], you may like to hear, I'm a minimalist. I habitually set aside days to go through and get rid of any item I haven't used or worn within the last year. The trash can and charity clothing center are my friends. I tend to like a lot of light, airy, open space. I don't like things that serve no function and/or collect dust. So, I don't keep a lot of decor. If I keep something it has to be unique, special, functional or have some deeply held meaning. I can't stand clutter, yet I do manage to have a random pile of books here and there.

So, back to my cleaning method, I may throw the laundry in the machine while I do dishes and make my bed. I'll toss it in the drier and let it dry while I vacuum and dust. Then I'll break the tasks into categories. I'll tackle the kitchen, clean everything in it, then move on to the next room until I've worked my way through the whole house.

I do not really like housework, but I don't like a mess, either, so there you go! The hard part is when my schedule gets busy. I guess that's why I want it done fast and easy.

 

[Frosty]

I grew up in a very tidy house. My Mom used to vacuum twice a day. Dusted all the time. Laundry ... the machine never seemed to stop running. We could take a glass out of the cupboard, set it on the kitchen counter, turn around to get milk out of the fridge to pour some to drink and then wonder where the glass went. She had already put it in the dishwasher.

Sooooo, having grown up like that, I have a high guilt conscience for messiness. I can personally tolerate a lot, as I am just not wired to be neat - but imagining unexpected company seeing my house a mess does stress me out. So, I clean usually on Thursdays or Fridays and do a LOT in a whirlwind lasting about 3 - 4 hours. Trying to do a little bit each day? Too much to figure out and prioritize, aside from doing the dishes and general tidying of LR / kitchen in case someone pops over. So, the rest all gets done in a big burst, the house is tidy over the times it seems most important to be tidy, and everyone is relatively happy about that.

My technique is "pick up a thing, deal with the thing / see mess in one spot, clean up the one spot" - it means I'm not as efficient as I could be, but no strategy is needed, conserving my brain power for more important tasks.

Ha! I should add, if I am hosting dinner or having company for the holidays - it's like I have new eyes or something, I want the house to be perfect and alllll of a sudden, I can see every teeeny tiny thing that needs to get done! I'll definitely overdo it at those times, and tire myself out too!

Yes, I totally understand where you are coming from when it comes to picking up anxieties from your parents. My mother, love her but super high strung sometimes, has a thing about never being late for anything. We will leave at least an hour early for any event, from a movie to a wedding, and will nearly always be the first there. It has sort of transferred over a bit, to the point where while I do not get really anxious if I am late like she does, as I still am late pretty often(sigh), but it has been drilled into my head as rude. And I absolutely see it that way, as completely inconsiderate. I guess my problem is just that while I understand why certain things are valued, what the reasoning and consequences are for not following certain procedures, it is just too hard to always keep them in mind and play a specific part. But yeah, that is a bit of a derail. Anyways that was just meant to say that environment can have an impact, it might not change what is innate, but it might tweak the definitions a bit. But yes a here and there is so much easier and more flexible than a rigid do this now, then do this, this, and that. Except you and I totally differ when it comes to cleaning for other people. I might move some junk over so someone can sit down, but I don't want to give anyone any ideas of staying. And I assume generally, probably wrongly, that if it doesn't disgust me then it doesn't disgust anyone else. Well that is when I actually notice the mess, as it all blends in. I like the mess actually a bit, kind of odd but it distinguishes the room and is soooo much less stressful then having to do everyday 'tasks'. Really it generally isn't even a blip on my radar, unless it is pretty much slapped into my face. Then when it is it seems overwhelming, and I have no place to start so I don't. So break it down, gain awareness of and concetrate on one thing, and try to chip away at it? Is that what you do?