A 23-year-old woman has revealed how her home became a ‘disgusting mess’ piled with mounds of rubbish and covered in grime as she battled depression and anxiety.
Finance worker Ashleigh Ward, from Wiltshire, took to TikTok to share a video of her house and explained she ‘hated’ living somewhere covered in leftover food, dirty plates and upturned furniture.
She told how she had ‘hit rock bottom’ with the mess in January and wanted to ‘clean up her life’.
Now, with the help of partner Ben Stone, Ashleigh is tidying up her house and documenting her progress in a series of TikTok videos.
The couple have tackled the bathroom, kitchen and part of the dining room.
Overwhelming: Another room in the house is unusable due to being piled high with boxes, toys and furniture. Ashleigh said she wants to start ‘cleaning up her life’ in a viral TikTok video
Sleeping surrounded by mess: Ashleigh’s bedside table was full of empty bowls and leftover Pot Noodle containers. The floor was totally covered in clothes and more rubbish
Transformation: Ashleigh has started to clean her house, tackling one room at a time. Above, the kitchen before (left) and after hours of hard work (right)
Turning over a new leaf: Ashleigh is cleaning up the house with the help of partner Ben, above
While many have applauded Ashleigh for being an inspiration, some trolls have branded her ‘vile’ and ‘disgusting’ for ‘using mental health as an excuse’ for her mess.
The videos, which have gained thousands of views, show the couple tackling their bathroom and kitchen – bagging up left-over food and scraping grime off the bathroom mirror.
She said: ‘The reason I started the TikTok is because I went through a very long time of feeling very alone, and I realised that if I could post what things look like when I’m bad, I could show how I make it better again.
‘I knew that I wanted to start cleaning up the house. January is always a rougher month for me, and that tends to be when the house gets the way that it does.
‘I knew I’d hit rock bottom and I needed to do something about it. I looked around the house and thought ‘Where do I start?’ It’s absolutely overwhelming and it’d put me off for a while.
‘Sometimes you’ll have days where there’s a little light behind the clouds and it was on one of those days that I decided to make a start on it.
Kitchen chaos: Ashleigh, from Wiltshire, revealed her kitchen was covered in dishes and rubbish before she began her major house clean, as documented in TikTok videos
Covered in rubbish: The dining room was so full of stuff there was no space for Ashleigh to eat
Unrecognisable: Ashleigh shared a progress shot of the dining room halfway through the clean
‘I picked one of the easier rooms first, because I needed a little win. The bathroom wasn’t super-duper messy, but it needed reorganising and setting straight.
‘The bathroom has been completed, and the kitchen is nearly complete – it’s taken me nine hours to do.
‘The next room I’ll be moving onto is the living room, and hopefully that’ll be a little easier. That’s mostly sorting through stuff and taking down Christmas decorations.’
Ashleigh claims that cleaning the house was often a daunting task to both her and Ben, as their mental health sometimes left them too exhausted to clean.
Ashleigh said: ‘When I’m in the headspace where I’m at a low point, it’s very difficult to pull myself out of that.
‘Rock bottom’: Ashleigh said she realised last month that it was time to change and set about cleaning her house, including this reception room covered in clutter and upturned furniture
Sleeping next to rubbish: Empty food packets were scattered on clothes next to Ashleigh’s bed
Where’s the floor? Ashleigh’s reception room is covered in so much stuff that you can’t see the floor. She and partner Ben have started to tackle the rubbish and transform their home
‘You do go day-to-day trying to get out of bed and function normally. I work full-time so a lot of my energy is just taken up by going into work and going home.
‘Some people don’t understand how a house can be this way. They’ll say ‘It’s not hard, just wash up each evening’ but sometimes it’s not that simple.
‘It’s difficult some days, I’ll get home from work and I can hardly move. There’ll be some evenings where Ben and I will sit there in silence because we’re both mentally exhausted.’
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As well as Ben, Asheigh is supported by her friends and family.
‘When my first video came out, I had friends offering to come up for the weekend to help out,’ she continued.
Determined to make a change: Ashleigh and Ben start clearing up the kitchen in a TikTok video
Room by room: The couple started with the bathroom, wiping grime from the mirror
Scraping away old toothpaste: Ashleigh filmed as she made a start on the bathroom
‘I’ve also had cleaning companies reaching out offering to clean it for free. The response has been fantastic.
‘Although it’s hard work and I’d like to take the easy option, it’s important for me to show that relatable content and show the process bit by bit.
‘I want to show that it’s possible to do this on your own, even if you can’t afford a cleaner.’
Many TikTok users applauded Ashleigh for making a start on cleaning her house despite her difficulties.
One user wrote: ‘You’re doing so well & you are a real inspiration. Thank you for sharing. Your partner is doing a great job helping out also.’
Still to come: The couple are only part of the way through the clean and still have rooms like the one above still to tackle
Another user commented: ‘Taking that first leap is the hardest and you did it, proud of you.’
A fellow supporter wrote: ‘Ignore the hate, anxiety is a terrible thing that many do not understand…keep going hun.’
Since embarking on her ‘new life journey’, Ashleigh has found an appreciative audience among those who also suffer from poor mental health.
Ashleigh said: ‘There’s so many people who will sit and scroll through TikTok, and they’ll see these perfect properties.
Making a change: Ashleigh Ward is cleaning her house after growing tired of the mess
‘I don’t want people to be sitting at home feeling like they have no-one to relate to. That’s my only goal – relatable content for people who suffer with mental health.
‘I got a lot of responses from people who said they didn’t feel alone, that their houses looked like mine and their friends mocked them for it. That spurred me to keep going.
‘They’re motivating me as well. I didn’t want to continue cleaning the kitchen but I knew I’d promised to upload a video about it.
‘It really is a mental health community I’m trying to form, where I’m showing we all need to stick together and work through it.
‘I’ve got over 22,000 people following me now and it’s amazing. It told me that I’m not alone and I’m helping people, and they help motivate me too. It’s been really lovely to see the response.’
Despite the overwhelming support she’s received, Ashleigh has had to contend with vile abuse from trolls who have blasted her for ‘using mental health as an excuse’.
Ashleigh said: ‘I have had a lot of negative messages. I’ve been called vile, disgusting and had people say they hope I never reproduce.
‘I’ve been told that if I have kids, they’re going to find out where I live and tell social services. I’ve had to delete so many comments.
‘But the nice comments have vastly swamped the bad comments. I’ve had to put some filters on the comments so that certain words can’t be commented on my page – ‘lazy’, ‘vile’, ‘disgusting’, ‘excuses’.
‘I even responded to one woman and said ‘There’s no need to comment. Just scroll on. Be kind’, and she actually said to me: “Be Kind was B.S”.
‘I’ve had people comment ‘There’s no excuses, you’re lazy’. Things like that are really harmful. I’m really lucky I’ve got people around me who support me.
‘The world is in such a toxic state, it’s really important to be kind to people with mental health conditions.’
Source: Daily Mail
