7 Cures For Your ADHD Clutter Blindness
We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post. Read a really boring disclaimer above to learn more!
Disclaimer: This site contains affiliate links; click here to read the full disclaimer.
It can be so hard when you have a dirty house due to adhd clutter blindness!
As someone with ADHD I understand how difficult it is to keep my house clean (especially my bedroom). But these tips and tricks I have found along the way have helped me when I have felt overwhelmed.
This post is all about ADHD Clutter Blindness!
How To Avoid ADHD Clutter Blindness
1. Keep Shared Spaces Clean
It can help you to notice when a space is dirty when there is a direct comparison! Figuring out what is dirty and what is clean can help you be more aware of personal spaces and when they have too much clutter.
My Recommendations:
- Keep very few things in shared spaces, with ADHD we tend to want everything we could possibly want with us at all times, but that isn’t realistic when trying to be tidy!
- Work on one habit at a time, spend a week doing dishes every day then the next week vacuum/sweep every day! Just choose something to practice in a shared space where you will feel more satisfaction!
2. Take 15 Minutes Every Morning or Night to Clean
When you are forced to look around and find something to clean every day, you will start to notice what is dirty!
Taking 15 minutes is also great for time-blind people with ADHD because often, we expect a task to take so much longer than it does. So, setting a 15-minute timer will give us a short and achievable goal. You could start with 5 minutes and work your way up, and you will notice such a difference immediately!
My Recommendations:
- Get a visual timer to look over and see that there isn’t much time left! It also helps with time blindness… This is a great tool to have for everyone with ADHD!
- Make a list of all the things that can help you be more focused when you get the chance to clean.
3. Learn What Things Go ‘Together’
Sometimes, it’s hard for people with ADHD clutter blindness to know what things should be put together when they are put up. If you know and think about where things should be, it will make it easier to put things up quickly and efficiently.
My Recommendations:
- Think of the function of an item and keep things with similar functions together. Maybe you keep an exacto knife in the same drawer as scissors because they both cut.
- Once things are put with their similar items, start throwing away unnecessary products.
4. Keep A Journal In Every Room
Be prepared to write down your to-do lists at any moment. Having a journal on hand can help you keep your thoughts straight, especially as someone with ADHD!
Journaling can be therapeutic, but it can also be super helpful for someone with ADHD when it comes to clutter blindness. Remembering what you want to clean and why you want to clean it can help you improve how you see clutter!
My Recommendations:
- Get a lined journal and not a bullet journal! Bullet journals can be too challenging to stick to with ADHD because they can be a lot of tasks.
- Write down things you are stressed about, what you need to clean, and other to-do lists because it will help you keep your head straight!
5. Put Things Where They Go, Don’t Set Things Down
As someone with ADHD, we tend to set things down and forget where! It’s important to start setting a habit of putting things away and never simply setting things down. If we start to put things where they go, then there would potentially be no clutter!
My Recommendations:
- Keep cute baskets around the house to put clutter away more quickly. Put clutter away as you see it, but if you don’t have the energy then put it in a basket and when the basket gets full you put it all away.
- You will be forced to learn where things go and find a place for everything if you can’t put it down until it is put away!
6. Scan The Room in A Systematic Order
It is easy to get tunnel vision when cleaning and actually make no progress because you move from one thing to another too quickly! Start by making a zig zag motion with your eyes starting on one side of the room and moving to the other. Clean up whatever your eyes see!
My Recommendations:
- Make a path from your bedroom door so you can easy take stuff out as you clean! It will be hard to throw away things if you have no where to go.
- Throw away multiples of things when you only need one. If you keep too much stuff then no amount of cleaning will ever feel like enough.
7. Buy Less Stuff
When you have ADHD you tend to become a maximalist, when it can be more useful to be a minimalist. We often have a tendency to buy things we don’t need and spend money we don’t have with ADHD, and having all that stuff can really add onto the clutter!
My Recommendations:
- Keep a budget for every area of your life. Set a budget for food, fun, and gas and try to stick with it as best you can. Set it lower than you think you can handle so that if you go over you have some wiggle room!
- Take notice of what you already have and keep things in their place so you never buy duplicates.
This Post Was All About ADHD Clutter Blindness!
It is easy to let everything slide when you have adhd and ignore a huge mess (out of sight of out mind am I right?)
Take some of these tips and tricks so you can deal with your clutter blindness and prevent big messes in the future as well!
