The Laundry is not talking to me, because that would be impossible.

It's depression mode. I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're here.

The laundry is not talking to me. It's not scolding me or giving me a guilt trip about the fact

that I haven't washed, dried, folded, and put away everything. The laundry is not telling me I'm a

terrible person or a failure as a dad or husband. It can't do that. It's not alive. It's clothes. Same with the dishes. There's no judgment

being handed down by the dishes in the sink. To me, they're not yelling out there ruling on my

value as a human being. Can't yell. Got no mouths. I would like to clean the dishes. I like to

have a clean kitchen, but the dishes

have no power over me because the dishes and the cleaning of them are morally neutral.

A messy house or a clean house are not inherently bad or good. The state of order or chaos

among your cleaning tasks are not any kind of reflection

on you as a person or a partner or a roommate or a family member. That's one of the things

Casey Davis wants you to know. Casey Davis is a therapist. She's the author of a new book,

How to Keep House While Drowning. Casey hosts a podcast called Struggle Care, and she's a social media video maker.

Her field of expertise is care tasks, the things you need to do around the home.

And she's very interested in helping people who have a hard time completing those tasks,

whether that's due to mental health issues,

neurodivergence, or chronic illness, or things like grief, postpartum, or trauma, all those human

factors. Casey's approach is sympathetic and kind to the human being faced with care tasks,

maybe more sympathetic and kind than people may sometimes be to themselves.

I think it can help you if you're faced with a pile of dishes or a messy laundry area,

and you think that it makes you a bad person. Because you're not a bad person.

...