ADHD Decluttering MythBusters

As ADHD and clutter are well known to go together, there’s a lot of info out there on ADHD decluttering and organising, including some common myths that can hold you back from getting started. There’s also of course some good advice that can help you move forward with your ADHD home organisation. Many of the same advice that’s helpful for those of use with ADHD can also be great if you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed by clutter; although ADHD and mess are seen as going together, it's not exclusively an ADHD thing.

But first – why is ADHD decluttering a blog topic for an anxiety counsellor?

Well, as a woman with late diagnosed ADHD, I’ve been working on decluttering my home (and my life & brain!) over the last few years since my diagnosis. And as a counsellor I want to share what works and what doesn’t. Of course, there’s no one size fits all; what I’m sharing is what I’ve found, and what has helped many clients (whether they have an ADHD diagnosis or not).

Myth number 1 is something that comes up a lot when people are talking about making changes in their lives; it’s a biggie that I want to tackle first up.

Myth number 1 - ‘I need to get motivated to get started’           

FALSE – let’s just bust this one straight away!

We often wait for motivation to kick in before starting a task or working on a new habit, but motivation doesn’t come, and then we’re stuck. In the book “Atomic Habits” author James Clear emphasises the power of change coming from consistent small decisions rather than relying on sudden spikes of motivation.

Don’t wait for motivation to strike – instead let’s move on to number 2.

Myth number 2 - ‘Five minutes matters’           (this one’s True)

If you’ve watched a few YouTubers talk about ADHD decluttering, you may very likely have heard the expression ‘5 minutes matters’. It’s pretty much the opposite of waiting for motivation to strike.

At its essence, it simply means do something for 5 minutes. Set a timer for 5 minutes and start folding laundry, or putting away laundry, or clearing stuff off the kitchen bench, or pulling obvious junk out of the junk drawer and throwing it in the bin etc. At the end of 5 minutes when the timer goes off you can stop and feel pleased (and likely surprised) with what you’ve managed to do in 5 minutes. You might also choose to keep going for another 5 minutes – or longer.

Basically it’s the power of getting started, or ‘The power of Small Steps’

Getting started, doing a little bit, taking a small step helps to build motivation – the actions come first – not the motivation.

5 minutes matters, or the power of small steps, is something that I talk about a lot in general. A big goal, something like clearing out a garage, or a wardrobe, or a kid’s room, is just too big for many of us to contemplate; we can’t see how we would ever get from here to there. Take smaller steps; break things down into chunks (or ‘goldilocks goals’ – not too big, not too small, just enough of a stretch). In practical terms this could be picking everything red up from your floor, or putting away all tops, or sorting one kitchen drawer at a time.

5 minutes matters can also apply to things like getting started on work or study (read for 5 minutes, answer emails for 5 minutes, come up with ideas and do a mind map for 5 minutes etc). And to habits like exercise – walk for 5 minutes, jog for 5 minutes, dance around your living room for 5 minutes.

I personally find this one so helpful; I’ve bought a couple of pomodoro type timers that help both me and my ADHD kid (5 minutes of homework can sound a lot more doable!).

Myth number 3 - ‘I need too much stuff to get started’

(Spoiler; you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on perfectly matching containers)

While I love watching some of the home organising type shows, even the ones where they organise everything by colour, I also recognise that this type of ‘ideal’ can be really unhelpful. One of the worst things we can do to ourselves is to compare with others; especially as there’s no one correct way to organise things.

The basics needed for any decluttering are:

·      A bin bag or similar to throw rubbish into,

·      A cardboard box or bag to put donation items into, and

·      Another box (preferably*) or bag for ‘not sure yet’.

‘Not sure yet’ are simply things that you don’t know if you want to keep. Rather than getting stuck and then derailed by trying to decide, put them into the box and then label it with a date (generally in no more than 3 months) when you will go through that box and either keep, toss, or donate.

Having different storage containers, folders, tubs etc is definitely helpful with organising things once we have decluttered, but they don’t have to be super expensive or matchy matchy. I’ve used the little buckets that laundry powder comes in to organise things like socks and knickers, and empty cereal boxes can be cut into the same basic shape as paper trays and magazine folders if you have paper to organise and store.

Myth number 4 - ‘Less is more’

This is no myth – this is so true. The more stuff we have, the more overwhelmed we can get. That’s why this blog is about decluttering rather than organising. And also why I love the idea of becoming less consumerist; buying less and consuming less is not only good for the planet (and our bank balances!). It’s also good for our wellbeing – when we have less stuff we tend to have less clutter and feel less overwhelmed.

 Myth number 5 - ‘I’m not an organised person’

I’m not going to ‘MythBust’ this one as such – as it’s simply irrelevant

I could (& maybe will) do a whole separate blog on this. When we say ‘oh but I’m not organised’ or ‘I’ve got a bad memory’ or ‘I’m no good with money’ or any of these types of things – we’re not doing ourselves any favours. These sorts of statements tend to become absolute and part of the ‘it’s just too hard’ pile. But for the purposes of this blog, on decluttering, I’m going to simply point out that it’s irrelevant.

Decluttering, organising etc – they’re not about changing who you are. They’re about changing behaviours, making changes to what you do, in ways that matter to you!

While I could say so much more about decluttering, I’m aiming to go ‘less is more’ with the wordiness here! So whether you have ADHD clutter or general stress or overwhelm, I’ll finish with challenging you to get started. Pick one pile or drawer, grab bags/boxes, set a timer for 5 minutes and off you go!