When you have ADHD, it can be insanely hard to get anything done, ever. That goes for keeping your house clean and organized too. It can be hard when you need to adult every day, but your brain just won’t have it. So I found some methods to work with the quirks my brain has. I adapt my daily tasks according to what I know about myself and it shows some results. I hope some of this will help you too.
1. Know your priorities
My energy is very limited right now, so I did some thinking about what is the most important to do and what can wait. I decided that feeding myself, drinking enough water, and sleeping enough come absolutely first, as they are biological needs, and I would break down if I didn’t take care of them. The same applies to my mental health care. After that comes personal hygiene. Then comes work. Then comes cleaning and organizing the space where I live. Etc. etc.
Because of that, things like cooking and eating lunch are the highest priority tasks, as is taking time to lie in my bed, tune out the world, and rest. For example, if I have to decide between cooking lunch and washing my hair, I cook the lunch and simply make peace with the fact that my hair isn’t washed. But if I’m deciding between sweeping the floor and washing my hair, my hair gets washed and the floor can wait. I’m in long-term burnout right now and I have very low energy and executive functioning, so I just had to accept that not everything gets done.
I work from home part-time, and obviously, work is very important, but it always comes after my biological needs. Otherwise, I wouldn’t do much work anyway. I set a rule for myself: first rest, then work, not the other way around. Rest gives me the energy to do the work. (And yes, I realize that not everyone can afford to do it like this, and I’m privileged. But I also think not being able to take care of yourself leads to burnout, and then your body and mind stop you from working anyway. It is worth it to try to find ways to care for yourself before that happens.)
2. Do one chore for 15 minutes a day
I set a timer for 15 minutes and during that time, do whichever unpleasant task that needs doing — like washing the dishes. If I told myself that I would wash dishes and clean the kitchen for an hour, I couldn’t find the motivation to begin. But I can bear doing it for just 15 minutes.
It’s much easier to finish a short task. And if you do this every day, you clean most of the things that need to get cleaned and do most of what needs to be done. Also, I like to listen to energetic music while doing household chores and other low-concentration tasks and it helps me keep my energy up.
3. Task switching
This point is a bit similar to the previous one — with a twist. I set a timer for 15–20 minutes and work on one chore during that time. But after that time passes, I switch to another task. After another 20 minutes, I can go back to the first thing, or pick a totally different one. I alter between several chores this way until I run out of energy — but by then, even if the tasks aren’t completely finished, a significant portion of the work is done. This rapid task-switching ensures that my brain won’t get bored. I discovered that sometimes I can work for hours, as long it’s something different every 20 minutes. Who would have thought?
4. One step at a time
I was always postponing things like putting the dishes in the dishwasher or hanging the clothes to dry. Sometimes I had to rewash the clothes three or four times because I couldn’t make myself hang them.. I didn’t know how to make myself just DO the damn thing.
And then it dawned on me.
I don’t hang up the clothes because there are still clothes hanging from the previous washing. It feels like too long and difficult a task to first put them down, fold them and put them where they belong, and then put the newly washed clothes up. So I only do one thing at a time.
I put the dry clothes down. Sometime after, I fold them and put them away. And another time, I do the laundry and I’m able to hang the freshly washed clothes because it’s just one task instead of two or three.
Now, I don’t even start the washing machine if the clothes hanger isn’t empty. Much better! The same with the dishwasher. First, the clean dishes go out. That’s doable. Later, I can add the dirty ones as I go and put them to wash.
5. Habit stacking
As a person with ADHD, I’m bad at routines. Seriously bad. But as an autistic person, I crave them. So I make a compromise: I observe what I’m inclined to do during my day, experiment, and think about any small tweaks that I could implement.
I try to insert various tasks at various times of my day or attach them to other routines I have already down. I keep what works and discard what doesn’t. I try to do things in a way that feels easy for me.
For example, I decided to add writing my morning pages directly after my usual morning relaxation over a cup of tea. The morning pages are a method of creating a writing habit and tackling the writer’s block that is described in The Artist’s Way. It’s pretty easy — you just write whatever comes to mind and let your thoughts flow on the paper. It helps me with my mental health — I can sort my thoughts and feelings on paper, realize what makes me tick, and find solutions to problems.
I observed I was getting very stressed and unsettled when I finished my morning tea because I felt I should get to work right away. But I never felt like it yet, and I wanted to create some gentle transition. It worked. Now I finish my tea and breakfast, write a few pages, ride the stationary bike for a few minutes, and then I can start to work calmer and more refreshed.
You can add a small task, like unloading the dishwasher, wiping the sink, picking up 5 things, to a habit you already have, like brushing your teeth. Drink your coffee and then do a few stretches. After a few days, you will start doing it on autopilot.
If you struggle with having any habits at all (hello, ADHD), there is still one thing you regularly do – waking up. You can try attaching the new things to the moment you get out of bed.
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These are the things that help me manage my daily load. I’m still disorganized, messy, and nowhere close to where I would like to be, but at least I can keep the explosion that is my life somewhat in control. Yay!
Do you know any useful hacks and tips for ADHD/neurodivergent housekeeping? Help others out and write them in the comments! I would love to hear more advice to add to my repertoire!
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My laundry hacks:
I have separate bags and baskets for different kinds of clothes that need to be washed separately (white – red- dark – fine – hankerchiefs – linens), so I sort them by putting them in the right basket right away and avoid the extra time of sorting later. As a byproduct of this, our socks stopped going missing. Also I can tell at a glance which bag is the most full and needs to be washed. We do not have one large basket, but a dedicated cupboard with shelves for this purpose, where the bags and baskets live. It brings me great satisfaction, because it just *works*.
When I hang clothes, I start with the big stuff and go according to size, so the last thing left are socks. We have a lot of colourful pairs, so they are easy to match as I hang them next to each other. Like this I can avoid the task of matching them later. When they are dry, I just take the pairs off the line and fold them right away. When they are already matched and folded, it feels like no extra job to put them away.
Something similar can be done with hanging panties or trunks front side down with the line down the vertical middle. It folds them in two and when they are dry, you just grab them as they are and stack them – and voilá – no folding necessary. Ready to put away.
I don’t actually use this method anymore, because I have tried to konmari my drawers. I fold panties into squares, so I could find easier the pair I’m looking for. But I find the process of folding them rewarding and soothing and it gives me a sense of having control (of something in my life), which I appreciate more at the moment, rather then the time-save I used to prefer when I was a teenager.
My method for vacuuming was made better by an extension cord. I realised that the thing I hated the most about vacuuming was stopping in the middle of yoing it to un-plug and re-plug the cord into a different socket each time I enter a new room. Now I just plug once and do not have to stop and trudge back and go here and there with a cord, which I find extremely annoying.
Another hack I love is just keeping the stuff you need for cleaning the room directly in the room. I just detest going back and forth trying to find cleaning supplies and where have I or the other occupants of our flat left them last… So I just get it more times. One handy disinfectant for the bathroom, one handy disinfectant for the washbasin at the restroom, one disinfectant for the kitchen. When things are handy, it reduces the friction of doing the thing that needs to be done.
Another hack is getting rid of stuff that is in the way. Just make it easier on you. It’s not the cleaning that I hate – it’s the useless chore of moving stuff out of the way all the time.
Also I have noticed how having the right equipment makes it so much more pleasant. Sometimes we think we just have to use what we have… But if one hats touching dirty wet rags, then it makes so much more sense to get a flat mop, perhaps with the pedal system and find a pair of gloves one doesn’t hate.
Putting things in the dishwasher – if one has one – I find that just getting used to putting it in the washer straight away saves so much time… If one still has wooden cutting boards or kitchen utensils with wooden handles, unsuitable for dishwasher, but struggles with washing them, one can just replace them with something, that can go in the washer (usually plastic or stainless steel). Just load it all inside, use an eco-program and be done with it. Phew!
For washing the bathroom I found a great hack in a book. During the week, whenever one replaces towels, use them to go around the washbasin and the bathtub and gather most of the dust. As a byproduct, battub won’t feel like it is so dirty, so one might have less resistance towards cleaning then. It will feels like all it needs is a bit of a wipe with a cleaning solution and one is done, it’s no biggie. It works on me.
I appreciate your texts a lot and I am looking forward to reading more of them. I am rooting for you and wish you much success with your struggles. I struggle a lot with feeling overwhelmed by tasks on a daily basis. I love hacks because they help me reframe a task I don’t like doing and shift my attention to satisfaction from “hacking it”. I am not diagnosed, but I suspect I might have ADD. Take care, Helen.
Hi, a lot of great tips here! Thank you so much. I’m rooting for you too!
Your socks don’t go missing in the laundry? What kind of magic is this? I always thought there was a mandatory number of socks that get lost per household 😀
And you don’t need a diagnosis to know your own brain. If hacks help and something resonates, that’s reason enough. I’m really glad you’re here and hope you keep finding things that make life a little easier.