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If you have ADHD, a messy house is a seemingly never ending problem. It’s one of the more frustrating parts of our lives. Yes, we are MESSY! But organizing and cleaning with ADHD CAN get easier when you learn how to make it work with your unique brain. Scouts honor.
Most tips for organizing and cleaning with ADHD aren’t very helpful
A quick google search shows that most of the advice out there seems like it’s geared toward neurotypicals even when it says otherwise. Any time I see an article saying, “do this organization thing and then keep it like that” I just want to slap someone. That just doesn’t work for those of us with ADHD–the “keep it like that” is the problem, people.
So if you also aren’t a “keep it that way” kind of person (as you can tell, I am not), keep reading. I’ve searched high and low for the best organizing and cleaning with ADHD tips out there (ACTUALLY for ADHD) and I’m sharing what I’ve found.
Organizing & Cleaning with ADHD: 2 Most Important Principles
- Things must be as easy to put things back where they belong as it is to just leave them lying around. It makes it easier to keep it organized.
- Maintaining ADHD Home Organization is just about impossible if you have a lot of stuff. You don’t have to get rid of everything, but be prepared to purge.
Here’s what those two principles mean:
ADHD friendly Organization is about efficiency
Most expert organizers place a higher emphasis on creating organization that is beautiful, and they sacrifice some of the efficiency in the process. That’s one of the reasons their strategies don’t work well for those of us with ADHD. Our ways absolutely must be based on what is most efficient.
I always say that the ADHD brain is always on the edge of being overwhelmed (and underwhelmed at the same time). If we have to add in a couple extra steps to keep something organized beautifully, we’ll stop doing it. It might sound crazy, but those extra steps just push us off the edge and straight into overwhelm.
So that means we need to ignore the pretty spice jars and decorative flour/sugar containers and keep those in their original packaging. It means we should keep the trashcan in the place that it is the easiest for us to use rather than behind a closed door or cabinet. We need our organization to have the fewest number of steps possible to use. We need it to be as efficient as possible.
How to decide what to keep and what to toss
If you’ve been following the Konde Marie method, you know her framework for getting rid of stuff is whether or not it sparks joy. It may be the ADHD talking but I’m probably going to overthink that: hmmm define joy… Sheesh.
No, I ask myself a different question: If I made myself 100% take care of this item exactly as I’m “supposed to” (for clothes think wash, dry, fold, put away…along with all the other clothes) every single day, would it be worth all the effort?
Answering this question has significantly cut down on how much I keep around my house. Anything I can’t say an enthusiastic YES! to or don’t otherwise have to keep, gets trashed or donated. The less stuff I keep, the less time I have to spend trying to keep it clean and organized.
If you take nothing away from this post, the biggest things you could do is reduce the amount of stuff you have to keep your space clean and organized. It is so much easier to keep my space cleaner now that I don’t have so much stuff cluttering it.
Strategies to Keep Your ADHD Home Organized and Clutter Free
In the spirit of those two guiding principles, here are some of the specific tips I swear by for organizing and cleaning with ADHD. If you don’t find what you are looking for, or you need more strategies, you’ll find those in the “More tips for Organizing and Cleaning with ADHD” section at bottom of the page.
Solving the trash problem
Look at the places in the house that tended to collect the most trash and put a trash can as close as you can get to that place. Don’t use a trash can with a lid and don’t hide it away in a cabinet or closet, leave it out in the open.
In our house, we had a lot of trash on the end table by the couch because we like to eat there. So we put a trashcan beside the end table. Now, when we’re watching tv, it’s just as easy to throw away that empty yogurt container as it is to leave it on the end table. Now, the end table is generally trash free.
Solving the clothes problem
For discarded clothes that aren’t yet ready to be washed…
Use over the door clothing hooks for clothing you plan to wear again before you wash. I place these in the areas I’m most likely to change clothes. That makes it almost as easy to keep the clothes off the floor as it is to just leave them there. This has helped calm the ADHD clutter.
I particularly like these:
For dirty clothes piling up on the floor and furniture…
Keeping a laundry basket in the areas you are most likely to change clothes helps keep them off the floor. I keep a basket in my room, bathroom and laundry room. Those are the areas I’m most likely to need them.
I keep a few specifically for clean clothes before I fold them to prevent them from finding a home on the floor or with dirty clothes. That winds up being more than a few laundry baskets but clear floors, chairs, beds, etc…
Solving the kitchen counter top clutter problem
Check your countertops and identify the biggest clutter culprits. For me, Coffee accessories were one of the biggest counter top clutter problems in my kitchen. They were supposed to be stored in a cabinet, but once we pulled them out to make coffee, they rarely made their way back in the cabinet.
To solve this problem, I created a coffee basket that sits beside the coffee pot. It holds everything we need and use to make coffee. Now, instead of just leaving everything out on the counter, it’s just as easy to put it back in the basket.
I had the same problem with spices. I have a basket in my pantry that holds all my spices but once I pull them out to cook, they rarely ended up back where they belonged. So I took the spices I use the most and put them in a small basket beside my oven. A Viola! Problem solved.
How to Identify your biggest problem areas & solve them
With these examples you can see how I’ve identified my biggest clutter problems and answered the question how can I make it easier on myself? It’s time for you to do the same for your home.
Follow the steps:
- Look around your house. What makes up the majority of the problem? Clothes? Trash? Shoes? Random stuff without a home? Paper? Junk mail? Rank in order of what is causing the biggest amount of clutter. (I suggest writing it down). Next, you’ll tackle each problem one at a time.
- Pick an area and start getting rid of stuff using whatever framework works best for you in getting rid of the most significant amount of stuff. Joy, ease, whatever principle you prefer.
- Now, with the stuff you have left, ask yourself, What could I do that would make this problem easier on me to keep uncluttered?
Make sure whatever strategies are as efficient as possible. The fewer steps it takes to put something away, the better. So, for instance, use a laundry hamper without a top, and save yourself an extra step.
The ADHD Kitchen Organization Workbook is HERE!
The ADHD Kitchen Organization WORKBOOK! Need a little extra help getting your kitchen organized? This step by step guide helps walk you through the process. Created by an ADHD brain for other ADHD brains.
More Tips for Organizing & Cleaning with ADHD
- How to Organize the Kitchen and keep it clean when you have ADHD
- 9 affordable amazon finds that basically clean the house for your
- 7 Devastating Organization Mistakes you are making if you have ADHD
- The ADHD Speed Cleaning Checklist
Let’s Connect!
What are some of your best strategies for keeping your ADHD house clean and organized? What areas do you struggle the most with? Comment below!
This is great! Thanks for giving us some real tips that will work!
You’re welcome! Glad to help 🙂
I like your ideas. My husband has ADHD and does exactly what you described. Before reading your blog, I did what you suggested with the trash cans & baskets. They work for me but not him. The wrappers still are left less than a foot from the trashcan and the clothes are left where he took them off. Any suggestions?
When I first started implementing this, my husband did the same thing. I let him know that I was adding laundry baskets and trashcans anywhere that I saw the greatest need for them in an effort to make it easier to keep it clean and asked him to use them. He still forgot at first, so I gently reminded him that I’d put the trashcan right beside him to make it easier and the landry basket on his side of the bed to make it easier, etc…he eventually caught on and uses it more frequently. With ADHD, we may always get off track–I certainly to. I’m not sure there’s a system out there that will keep us from ever having clutter again. This system just helps it take longer for things to get into disarray. Which is helpful 😛
Other than that, I might try making it as easy as possible to throw things away and as hard as possible to leave them out. It’s not fool proof but one thing I considered doing with my husband was removing the end table from his side of the couch. That’s where he tends to pile stuff up. If that table was gone and a trashcan was in it’s place, it would be even easier to throw his trash away and harder to pile it up. Does that make sense? Not fool proof–he can and has just left it on the couch but he’s more often going to use the trashcan (though he’ll still forget at times).
It can be helpful too, because we forget, to have a routine before bed time where we collect anything we forgot to throw away and put it in the trashcan and where we grab the clothes we left on the floor and throw them in the nearest laundry basket. That way, anything we forgot to throw away or in a basket, gets specific attention. That’s a difficult habit for us to develop at first but I’d set a reminder on the phone to get it done.
Hope that helps!
Hi
Thanks for all the tips in these posts. I am a husband to a ADHD, and is struggling with the fact that nothing is put back where it belongs.
And when I remind my wife, it is never appreciated and the effect is almost going in the wrong direction, because I “nagg” her in her own words.
As I see it, 1; she dont understand that this is the problem, and 2; she says she has not got time to put things back.
(She is a stay home mum. And I work full time away from 4.00 to 17.00 everyday…so the house is fairly messy when I arrive home…everyday…)
Any suggestions?
Hi Sam! It’s hard to give great suggestions with the limits we have talking in comments online. The best I can really say is it sounds like it would be really helpful for you and your wife to sit down and try to better understand what works and what doesn’t, get on the same page and experiment with new strategies. Sometimes frustration can get in the way of being able to work together. You might even go through strategies like these or those in the book I recommend together and look at things you guys might experiment with. For me, the key is to be open with each other, when you talk with each other make the goal to be to better understand, and be willing to experiment. Hope that’s helpful.
ADHD runs in my brother-in-law’s family. My sister is concerned that her kids will have it. So, I liked that you pointed out that keeping things organized will help her kids deal with ADHD. That does seem like a simple thing that she could do to help her kids if they do get ADHD.
Thank you for your feedback! I’m glad to be helpful 🙂
Your specific step by simplified step is going to arrive at my apartment quite soon. Two day delivery. Thank you.
Love you.
It’s such a fantastic book! My house is way cleaner and easier to get clean faster since I implemented the strategies from that book. It still gets messy but it takes way longer and doesn’t get nearly as bad as it used to. I call that a success. I hope you find it as fantastic and helpful as I did!
I have struggled with ADHD all my life. I think the most effective strategy people with ADHD can do to stay organized is to:
# 1. label everything! Even the shelf’s inside your cabinets like a kindergarten classroom.
# 2 Have a place for everything in your house… or get rid of it!
#3 acceptance! Even if you have a place for everything, you will have bad weeks/days. Within one minute, we can blowup an entire room with clothes, makeup, purses, the 5 outfits you tried on last nightbefore you went out for dinner, your kids things that you made not easily acessable for them or you to put away , the mail, miscellaneous items ?, and unfinished projects.
# 4. The key is to have an extremely organized house and labeled garage. If it only takes you 15 minutes to get all your things back in it’s specified place, your ADHD brain gets the immediate reward of accomplishing tidying up, and therefore your more likely to not delay straighten up any room in your house because you know… it won’t take more than 15 minutes to reduce to shame and defeat one feels when you have ADHD
# 5. Our goal is always to pass as normal functional adults, by attending to our household, workplace, and other activities of daily living . If it requires you to hire a professional organizer one time, it’s worth every penny. Just think of it as the most effective copping skill you can employ outside of medication to reduce you, and your family suffering from this debilitating condition
Great ideas! Thank you so much for sharing. I love having community like this because we can learn so much from each other. 🙂
Which book are people referring to in the comments? I don’t see any links or references in this post, or anywhere on the site.
Hi Kay! Looks like my post lost the link so I updated it but you can find a link here, too: https://amzn.to/2IR8TZb
Love your suggestions and I’m always looking for creative ways to simplify and make it easier to manage an ADD household. Just reading through the comments inspired a new idea to make a side table with a decorative garbage can base and a wood top. Maybe with a circular hole cut on top to slide the trash into. Like I’ve seen on kitchen counter tops or at the doctor’s office. A piece of wood could even just be set on top crossways for easy trash access too. Way better than looking at the trash cans I have around the house. So many possibilities lol! Thanks for the inspiration!
Love it! I love when suggestions inspire something related but totally different and exactly what you’re looking for 😛 Glad we could help 😉
Thank you so much! I’m finding your articles very helpful. I spent my 47 undiagnosed years wondering why i cant just “do it” & keep doing it like other ppl. I’m slowly finding actual ADHD helpful articles like yours which are making small impacts
Hi Cheyenne!
I’m so glad that I’ve been able to help! Makes me so happy to be able to make a difference. Thank you so much for your comment!
Hi Tia!
Wow, i am very impressed! Thank you so much for this wonderful article. As soon as i started reading it i that feeling of isolation and loneliness disappeared. I had a stroke at 30 and since then ADHD is only one of my ” adoring ” ?problems.
You give practical advice that are achievable.
Thank you.
I’m so happy to help, Monique! I love being able to help people feel less alone or overwhelmed and I’m so glad this article was able to help.
Omg! You are my motivation! This post was me!! It’s so hard to talk to other people about this issue. My friends right me off as lazy and unmotivated. When that’s just not the case!! Lmao If one more person tells me everyone has ADD I’m just done? No, everyone does not! I love all of these tips and your advice?? Also, I wish I had a husband to blame the mess on…..NOPE! Just me!???
Hehe, I feel like if someone doesn’t understand the clutter struggle, they don’t get me or ADHD! Nah, there are ADHDers who don’t struggle as much with clutter but I feel like they are unicorns. Most of the time, if you think you have ADHD and you get in my car and are blown away that it’s as messy as it is….well, you know ?
OMG, someone actually gets it. I’ve never been officially diagnosed with ADHD but every single symptom you listed was me to a T. The solution suggestions you offered were things I could also see helping me. So I’m going to implement some of your ideas and see if they can help me keep my home in order. Thank You!!
Hi Flo! So glad I could help <3
I have a process for getting started when the house is a mess, I’m overwhelmed and don’t know where to start! Instead of going room by room (when I look at a very messy &/ dirty room, I get very overwhelmed!), I pick about 3 rooms and go through them once with a trash bag and get all the trash. Then I go through with a laundry basket and get all the laundry. The gather all the dirty dishes. Then all the mail/paper. I do this until there isn’t much left of things of like kind. Then I pick up/ clean floors, then surfaces, etc. It works for me. This also helps my tendency to get side tracked and into “give a mouse a muffin” mode. Hope this helps someone else!
Great ideas here Holley! Thank you for sharing them!
These are great ideas. Thanks!
Totally welcome!
HI! Thank God for your site! One silly (Old me would say stupid) question. what is your decluttering book that you refer to and how do i get it? CCW
Hi christine! You can find it here: https://amzn.to/2NNOU1F
Hi whats your book that is referred to and how do i get it? CCW
Hi Christine! It’s called Organizing Solutions and you can find it here: https://amzn.to/2NNOU1F
*deep breath*
FINALLY. Someone who speaks my language. <3
*tears of relief*
<3
Love you ideas and this is definitely a relief to know I am not the only one. Just a question: how do you keep open trashcans with dogs? It’s a great idea until I have to clean the trash from all over the floor.
Surprisingly, unless there is meat in the garbage (which is rare), my dogs have stopped caring about the can. If you’ve got pups that like to get in the trash can, you might try the automatic cans that “sense” you are aproaching and open for you.
Omg!!! I am so glad I found this and I am so happy to find out that I am not alone in this. Thank you!!
I realize this is old, but it just popped up in my feed. I couldn’t not leave a comment. I’m 50, and I’ve struggled with ADD my entire life. My house tends to revolve around a million cardboard boxes containing whatever crafting project I have stumbled upon that month, then got bored with. I’ve been married to my husband for 25 years who is the opposite of ADD, and eventually just piles my boxes in my craft room, making it too messy to work in, so it’s all his fault. Haha. Thank you so much. It’s awesome to have someone that truly understands. I need to start purging.
I started doing things like this, but with having lost almost everything multiple times, i have been slowly rebuilding the trash can/ basket collection. Me,my 2 boys, and probably my husband have ADD/ADHD and my mom has hoarding tendencies. This post makes me feel like i was doing things in the right direction. Thank you
YESSSSS! As an ADHD LSCSW living in a multigenerational household with multiple ADHD people, YES! This is spot on. I cannot thank you enough for your wisdom, straight forward, real life solutions. You, my lady are getting printed and posted for all to see!