Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD, 2nd Edition-Revised and Updated: Tips and Tools to Help You Take Charge of Your Life and Get Organized

by Susan C. Pinsky

For someone with ADHD, even the simplest task takes much more energy than it takes for others. To shower, get dressed, and get out the door in the morning can require the kind of care and concentration that average people expend over their entire day.

Inventory (i.e., your “stuff”) must conform to storage. In the ADHD home especially, inventory MUST NOT fill storage. • Don’t keep building storage—reduce your inventory.

When an area becomes messy, the person with ADHD must ask herself: Has the number of my possessions been reduced enough, and my organizational system simplified enough, that it can be cleaned in a matter of minutes?

Frugality at the expense of time, space, and peace of mind can get in the way of an organized life.

FOR LARGER TASKS, OR TASKS THAT REGULARLY RESIST YOUR EFFORTS TO COMPLETE, SPENDING MONEY TO GET HELP MAY WELL BE THE SIMPLEST, MOST CONVENIENT SYSTEM.

like cleaning people!!!

we should learn to be resourceful with less and resilient enough to do without. Being resourceful is the more efficient system because preparing yourself for every possible eventuality is just too cumbersome.

tedious maintenance chores are a waste of their precious attention. For them, “being prepared” with an outsized inventory of every tool for every job will lead to clutter and chaos, but being resourceful with the few tools at hand will keep clutter at bay while playing to one of their greatest strengths—ingenuity.

for those who truly need it, a coupon is a welcome necessity, but for the rest of us, paying a little bit more can actually help us buy less and spend less in the long run.

It is far more efficient (and fun) to occasionally go back to the store and pick up a needed object whose particulars you’ve pre-determined work in your space than it is to slog through constant returns of mistaken acquisitions.

Worried it won’be be there later? Remember, there is almost nothing on the planet that you can’t replace, improve on, or live without.

Adhering to a shopping list eliminates the ruinous habit of shopping as recreation.

the straightest path to efficiency is reduction.

Although good storage is important, cutting back on inventory is more effective.

embrace a greener, more spartan lifestyle.

you will be forced to perform small jobs more often, rather than large jobs infrequently, but there is no net increase in work, just in the style of the work. And this frequent small job model is a more suitable system for those with ADHD.

The decision to keep things for future use or resale value earns you little but the weighty burden of micromanagement.

Don’t worry about running out of something—running out is a triumph of organization! It means that you didn’t tie up your money in overstock or clutter your cabinets with excess; it means that you are frugal, resilient, and resourceful enough to cheerfully work though the toast when the cereal is gone.

A container of disinfecting wipes along with a wastebasket should live in just about every room in your home. While it is doubtful that you will make the effort to fetch and then put away a bucket and damp rag for wiping down a smudged bureau top in the guest room, you might make a quick swipe if there is a wet wipe within easy reach, which you can then wing into a convenient wastebasket.