An ADHD Guide to Cleaning

So… a lot has happened in the time it’s taken me to get back on this blog. I’ll spare you the gritty details, but to summarize: school is going poorly, I quit my internship, I’ve been on a lot of different medications, and I was professionally diagnosed with ADHD and ASD! But this is not about that; this is about cleaning! Now, this is some pretty specific advice for someone in a pretty specific situation (which seems to happen to me quite frequently). So if you want to know if this post will be helpful for you, ask yourself these questions:

1. Are you disorganized?
2. Do you tell yourself that you’re organized by referring to your mess as “organized chaos”?
3. Do you often find one or more surfaces of your living space piled high with things that do not belong there?
4. Do you often find your floor piled high with things that do not belong there?
5. Are you currently staring at one of those piles right now?
6. Do you leave suitcases on the floor and progressively take things out as you need them until your suitcase is empty as your primary unpacking method?

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, congratulations, this blog post is for you! Now, notice that one of those questions was not “do you have ADHD”. This is because these steps may be helpful to you even if you do not have ADHD, but are formatted in a way that is proven to make work easier for ADHD brains. What is that way, you ask? Lists!

Step 1: Pick a pile
If, like me, you have so many things to clean you don’t know where to start, this must be your first step: PICK ONE. It can be the smallest. It can be the biggest. It can be in a bag. It can be on your dresser. The only requirement is that you make a decision. Once you have selected ONE pile, you may move on.

Step 2: Sort the pile
I have used this method for much longer than I’ve known I had ADHD. Sorting the pile makes it SO much easier to tackle because now you have some smaller piles, and hey, that pile only has six things in it, I can take care of those six things! You can sort them any way you want, but this is the way I generally use:

• Trash: put anything in this pile that must be thrown away. If you’re not sure whether or not it’s trash, put it in a different pile. (Recycling counts!)
• Does not belong here: put anything in this pile that does not belong in the room in which the pile originated. For example, if there are five empty glasses and a chip clip on your nightstand (this is a self call-out), those do not belong in your bedroom and would go in this pile.
• Belongs here: put anything in this pile that will stay in that room.

Step 3: Take out the trash
Alert: this does NOT mean to take out the trash entirely. You are simply taking the trash pile you created in the last step and disposing of it in whatever way you see fit. Take it to the kitchen trash, put it in the bin or a dumpster, or just put it in the trash can in that room! Just make sure it is being disposed of.

Step 4: Return objects to their homes
More often than not, you know where all of the items in the “does not belong here” pile go. You know that dirty bowls go in the dishwasher. You know that the half-eaten bag of chips goes in the cabinet. You know that the shampoo you brought into the bedroom two weeks ago because you needed to look up the brand and then forgot to put back goes in the shower. Before tackling anything that does belong in the room, get rid of everything that does not.

Step 5: Sort the remaining items
Once again, we’re breaking a pile into smaller piles! Now that the only pile you have left is all things that belong in the room where you started, you can break that pile down into where all of those things belong: clothes go in the closet/dresser, jewelry goes in the jewelry holder/box/dish/etc., books go in the bookshelf. But there is always a pile for miscellany, right? Random little things you put on that surface/pile in the first place because they don’t have a home? Well, now it’s time for…
Sub-step 5A: What do you do with all the random crap?
Random crap can also be separated into categories:

• Is it important?: this category includes things like business cards (on which your doctor has written the date of your next appointment), bank statements, birthday cards, and your most recent glasses prescription. You should probably already have a place for these things, but if you don’t, make one. (These can also be divided into subcategories in terms of what you will need sooner rather than later, what has sensitive information and must be kept safe, what others are relying on you to keep track of, etc.)
• Are you convincing yourself that it’s important?: this category includes things like receipts from dinner six weeks ago with the link to that survey you keep meaning to fill out for the coupon you won’t use; that card game you know someone is going to want to borrow at some point; and empty boxes/plastic bags that you’ll use for something soon, you promise! If you’ve read this far, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Be realistic with yourself, friend. Odds are, you really don’t need that thing.
• Do you know you need to keep it but you don’t have any immediate use for it?: these are common floaters. Emergency medications, writing implements, extra chargers and sets of headphones you have lying around just in case, decorative sentimental items that barely fit on top of the bookshelf anymore. For this category, I recommend…

Sub-step 5B: The miscellany drawer!
I know what you’re thinking – a miscellany drawer?! But that’s what got me into trouble in the first place! Not to worry, dear reader, for I have a system. The miscellany drawer is not to be feared, but to be utilized. The qualities of a good miscellany drawer are as follows:

• Empty the drawer and re-sort the items frequently (once every four to six weeks is good). This will prevent the drawer from becoming the mess you fear.
• Use dividers or small bins to keep the items apart. Charging blocks can be kept separate from medications, pens can be kept separate from ticket stubs, and so on. This keeps the contents more manageable when it comes time to redistribute.
• Keep it small. If your miscellany drawer is two feet deep, you’ll never see the bottom again.

Also, a little tip: your miscellany drawer doesn’t necessarily have to be a drawer. It can be a shoe box, a bowl, a basket – whatever works.

Step 6: Maintenance
This is always the big question: how do you keep everything clean once you’ve cleaned it? Well… I don’t know. I know how to do The Big Clean, but I’ve never quite figured out a good system for keeping it up. Most people would say “just put the things where they belong in the first place!”, but we all know that’s not how this whole thing works. If I figure it out, I’ll let you know, but until then, happy cleaning!