I am some who had never hoovered or vacuum cleaned my floors in almost 10 years. I find there are a lot of things that my ADHD and autism cause that make the whole act of hoovering awful.
Executive dysfunction
First is executive dysfunction I found that hoovering was this entire big thing in my head, what I would have to do is get to the cupboard with the hoover and dig it out as well as the attachments which are too big to stay attached so next I have to plug in the tube in the cleaner and the head onto the tube, and then I have to tug the power cable to pull out enough slack so that I don't keep having to go back and forth sorting it out, and then I had to plug it in and switch it on, and then I had to actually hoover.
Yes after all of that executive dysfunction, there's more!
Noise senstivity
Secondly I have noise sensitivity which means that a loud AF hoover or vacuum was really very uncomfortable to hear. I don't know if it manifests the same way for others but for me, it's like my entire perception of reality feel distorted and like every detail of the noise however small is 100% volume. To make matters worse my small rooms also create extra screeching sound reflections on top that reminds of being in a gig or concert in a venue with terrible acoustics. I would have tried doing very small patches and take breaks, but then I'd get distracted and then later I just have a hoover in the way that I've probably stubbed my toe on twice before I jam it back into a cupboard.
For noise sensitivity I've tried :
wearing earplugs (feels really uncomfortable for even a short time)
wearing over ear noise-cancelling headphones (this does help reduce the intensity but not enough that it wasn't uncomfortable even with music on!)
JusT DoINg It
attempting to force or guilt my self on the grounds that I SHOULD be able to do this (AKA internalised ableism)
But none have ever worked!
But this isn't just a rant post about how frustrating day to day tasks can be with Autism and ADHD, here in the vague zone we offer ideas and suggestions previously unknown! so here's some I personally found helped me and its *drum roll*
A carpet sweeper! A carpet sweeper is a thing you push along and brushes in the bottom of it rotate creating static which pulls in things up from the carpet or flooring. It's the thing that the vacuum cleaner was supposed to replace! This thing makes a small ratting noise usually, and it picks up a lot of bits of crumbs little rocks from shoes, crisps, bits of lint, bits of miscellanea and what ever that thing is that keeps getting stuck to my socks and irritating my foot. It can even pick up a little hair but not all, which would be something to know if you have long hair or pets that moult.
It's a little hard to explain the bottom of a sweeper so a picture is worth a thousand words:
See this carpet sweeper is small enough that I can just keep in the front room visible at all times so when I notice a bunch of stuff building up I can just walk over to it and push it over the stuff without any real prep. This massive reduces the chance of getting distracted or struggling with executive dysfunction during the many steps that it takes to actually start hoovering.
It makes a very subdued noise in comparison to hoovers's and smaller vacuum cleaners etc… You can use noise-cancelling headphones to block it out if needed on a bad sensory day where noise sensitivity is especially pronounced this was exactly what i needed to actually keep the floor cleaner! And i do mean cleaner not clean
I still dont force myself to do it when I'm not really wanting to and if i tried to keep it 100% clean well I'd burnout and have patches of not being able to do it. a burn out like that would be far worse than doing a little every few days or a once a week or 2.
Caveat's with the carpet sweeper
There are caveats as with all things.
One is how to you empty the thing on mine there are 2 compartments that you push tabs on to open which then releases the dirt and a stuff into a bin below it. It usually goes into the bin as expected, but some can get on your hands and if you really don't like that then you could try gloves, but that's an extra step in using it.
The second is this is a flat square head with no flex or give the brushes can't always reach the sides of walls due to its shape, if you have the extra energy you can use a broom or something to move bits of stuff away from the edges of rooms, but that's an extra step and i something don't have the focus or executive functioning for doing extra, like I'm already doing so much better than before forget the corners sod this I'm off to do something fun
The third is i doubt these will work on carpets with High pile carpets but thats just me assuming tbh I've not actually tried.
As far as smaller things the first time I used it I had to empty it twice before I picked up everything but that's the result of years of debris and stuff built up over time.
And finally I also have had to give the rubber wheels a little wipe down after a few months as they got a little sticky and the brushes something trap lint or hair which you will need to remove occasionally.
For me using a carpet sweeper made it possible for me to go from zero floor cleaning to the odd clean here and there this is a big improvement and has broken one of the most tedious barriers in housework for me. It's funny as I mentioned before I hate when things get stuck to my socks or foot that dig in or irritate my feet, and I have
fibromyalgia
a damn princess and the pea condition where things that shouldn't hurt like being poked or flicked can hurt and actually pain gets amplified. But despite all of that it still wasn't enough to get myself to do this thing that would have objectively reduced stress and cleaned a little too!
Final thoughts:
Unfortunately every neurodivergent person will have different needs and executive barriers, so I can't promise you this will help you, but I have never heard anyone mention carpet sweepers before, and it was so beneficial for me its unbelievable. I'm sure that most of you who read will know with the details I've explained that it might not be for you, I suspect the occasional maintenance might be difficult for some. If you don't see anything that is an explicit issue for you then please consider trying one, I was able to get a really nice one for under half the cheapest hoover/ vacuum cleaner at £30 so it won't be as big a risk to try as buying a good hoover that advertises being quieter.I know not every has £30 to potentially waste but if you can try it do, you're always worth 'wasting' a little money on especially in pursuit of making life more manageable or less stressful for you.
with all of that said I hope that this helps you with finding a solution to difficult executive challenges with hoover / keeping the floor clear!
I've been Caret Azerty with things that make you go ^^
