The More Than Messy Toolkit is designed to give you some of the tools you need to make progress toward building healthy habits and ultimately independence. The toolkit is under active construction (as of December 2025) to get the tools into your hands as soon as they are ready. It will be updated frequently until it is complete.
“Find Your Strength” Image Files: Download these and save them in your phone when you need a boost. Remember, you are not alone.
Note: The exercises and checklists in this toolkit were developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and were formatted, reviewed, and edited by a human before publication. The content in this toolkit is provided for general information purposes only. These practices support emotional wellness but are not a replacement for therapy or professional advice. If you are in crisis, please seek professional help.
Included in the toolkit are:
- How Do I? tip sheets: Fact sheets on how to do some of the household tasks you may never have been taught to do
- Exercises: Exercises to help lower your stress and make your own space more livable
- Checklists: Quick checklists to keep yourself organized as you work toward a healthier living space
How Do I? Tip Sheets
(More in progress)
Exercises
These exercises are designed to help you begin to build healthy habits, make baby steps toward a more peaceful living space now, and plan for your future. Be aware that some of these will require processing difficult emotions, like sadness, anger, grief, or anxiety. That’s normal, and it means the exercises are touching on real stuff. If at any point an exercise feels too overwhelming:
- Stop. You don’t have to finish.
- Take a break and come back later (or never – that’s okay too)
- Try a different exercise that feels more manageable right now
- Do something that helps you regulate (listen to music, move your body, talk to someone safe)
There’s no grade here. Use what helps, skip what doesn’t.
If you’re in crisis or having thoughts of harming yourself, please reach out:
- Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
- Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453
| Title | Description | Time Needed | Energy Level Needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| My Peaceful Space Vision Board | Imagination exercise to envision what your perfect peaceful space looks, smells, and feels like |  45 min |  Medium |
| My Control Circle | Visual mapping exercise showing what you can and can’t control so you don’t waste time |  15-20 min | Medium |
| Gratitude & Goals | Acknowledging small wins while working toward change | 10-15 min | Medium |
| Energy Check-In | Quick technique to recognize when you have energy for tasks and when you need rest | 15 min |  Low |
| Emotion Mapping | Connect feelings to spaces/situations in your home so you can begin to see where triggers are |  20-30 min |  High |
| Creating My Calm Corner | Steps to carving out one small, peaceful personal space and keeping it clean | Varied | Varied |
| Mindfulness in Everyday Life Mindfulness Exercises (phone-friendly, zip file) | Begin to be mindful in everything you do and build a lifelong healthy habit | 1-5 min | Medium |
| Practicing Boundaries Boundary Statements (phone-friendly, zip files) | Learn how to design meaningful boundaries for your space and maintain them | 20-30 min | High |
| Meditation for Reducing Stress Meditation Exercises (phone-friendly, zip file) | Techniques to learn how to ground yourself from the inside to reduce stress from the outside | 5-20 min | Low |
| Affirmations for Strength & Hope Affirmations & Reminders (phone-friendly, zip file) | Challenge negative beliefs, rebuild your sense of self, and remember what’s true even when everything feels hopeless | 5-10 min | Low |
| Future Me Letter | Write to your future self about the home you want | 20-30 min | High |
| The Unstuck Toolbox | Strategies for motivation and overwhelm, when you feel like you can’t do anything | Varied | Low |
Checklists
These may seem super detailed and like they’re a lot of work, but they are designed to help you build healthy habits. You don’t have to do every step, and you don’t have to do them perfectly.
- My Daily Basics: Morning/evening routines you can control
- Backpack Organization: Build healthy habits starting with your backpack
- Laundry Day Basics: Simple reminders for doing laundry
- Food Safety: Quick guide to see what’s okay and what to toss
- Safety Check: Simple walkthrough for household hazards
- Before a Friend Comes Over: Quick tidy priorities and other things to keep in mind
- Keeping My Corner Calm: Easy checklist to keep your Calm Corner calm
- Weekly Reset: Larger upkeep tasks for when you have energy
- Self-Care Check: Make sure you’re taking care of YOU
- Building Independence: Checklist to walk through what you need for future success
Please see Disclaimers page.
More Than Messy 