ADHD Awareness Month

October is ADHD Awareness Month, so I thought I’d dedicate a blog post to the topic. 

It should come as no surprise to the neurodivergent, that struggling with clutter and having ADHD often go hand in hand.  Think about some typical ADHD characteristics – the laser focus, creativity, imagination, problem solving and boundless energy are all awesome, but the bored ADHD brain easily goes off in a different direction and presents unique executive function challenges such as disorganisation, distractibility, and difficulty focusing – and you’ll soon realise why:

-          planning and organising: where should I keep things and how do I stay organised?

-          different visual interpretation: if I can’t see it, it’s not there

-          memory challenges: where did I put that blender?  Did I even have one?

-          sentimentality: I can’t get rid of this, it was given to me by my third cousin Lucy

-          impulsivity: I’ve bought this thing to help solve my issues with organisation

These characteristics can often lead to unhelpful “solutions” such as buying duplicates, buying more than you need or keeping unnecessary items.  In time, the clutter can become overwhelming and get in the way of work, relationships and even your mental health. 

If this sounds like you, I’d like to offer you a few strategies that might help you to get on top of decluttering:

-          most importantly: own less – the more you have, the harder it is to keep organised

-          label shelves, drawers, etc – this makes it harder to chuck random items in together

-          start to throw out a few items a week, then increase the number of items each week

-          make big decisions, e.g. getting rid of an entire category of items, and act on them fast

-          anything you decide to get rid of needs to be taken to its final destination immediately

-          join a group such as Clutterers Anonymous

-          hire a professional organiser to help you stay focused and be objective about decluttering

I’d really love to add to this list to help more people out and would love to hear from you. What strategies have you implemented that have helped you to stay clutter free?