Chaos, Confusion & Chutzpah

Have you ever 

taken a ride on the 

Clutter-Go-Round?

Have you ever heard the saying, a cluttered mind is the sign of a cluttered life? If you are a person living with ADHD, the opposite can also be true…a cluttered life can be the sign of a cluttered mind. ADHD symptoms such as procrastination, forgetfulness, poor time management, and general disorganization are a huge challenge to people living with ADHD. As a result, tasks, both simple and complex, often lead to an unwanted collection of chores, bills, and things. A cluttered mind and a cluttered life, working in tandem, can create a vicious circle of clutter…a clutter-go-round that never stops to let its passengers off.

ADHD and clutter, both physical and emotional, often go hand in hand. For a person with an ADHD brain, physical clutter + emotional clutter =CHAOS! The chaos resulting from all this “stuff” can be very damaging to your life and relationships. Both types of clutter can cause you to lose focus and have difficulty concentrating, which can lead to you having to work longer to complete simple tasks. Clutter can cause injuries, missed deadlines, lost objects and chronic lateness. Yes, clutter can adversely affect your productivity and eat away at your time, which usually results in feelings of frustration and anger.

If you are someone with ADHD, clutter isn’t necessarily confined to your home; it likely spills over into every aspect of your life, professionally and socially. Clutter can affect your performance at work. Clutter can impair your ability to manage your children’s school activities, ordinary business transactions, and interactions with those in your community. Clutter can negatively influence relationships with friends and family. Clutter can keep you socially isolated as well…because you don’t want others to see the pandemonium in which you exist. A disorganized environment can make you feel overwhelmed, which often leads to stress and/or anxiety.  

So why not attack your clutter? The simple answer is…a person with ADHD doesn’t function in the same way that a non-ADHDer does. As much as your friends and family advise you to de-clutter, not understanding how you can live in such chaos, most ADHDers cannot look at a disorganized room and just decide to do something about it. All those self-help books that you bought because “this was the one that was going to work” only add to the clutter. What works for the masses, simply does not work for you. Not only is the cleaning process confusing and time consuming, but it is also emotionally draining.

If you are like me, you have read enough books about eliminating/organizing clutter to make your ADHD head spin. You have purchased planners, organizers, bins, shelves, containers, and whatever else would help you put your environment in order once and for all. I bet it has cost you a lot of money over the years…without helping. I can’t tell you how to de-clutter your life, because mainstream organizing tips do not work with an ADHD mind, and there is not a one-size-fits-all method of de-cluttering an ADHD life. I can, however, offer some suggestions to get you started.

Again…I am not going to give you cleaning or organizing tips…because they won’t work. The only thing that will help you de-clutter your life is to come up with YOUR OWN game plan to sort things out. That being said, here are a few steps you can take to de-clutter your life.

1.   Own the clutter – make it yours. You have to accept your clutter in order to come up with your own perfect solutions. Ask yourself how the clutter got there in the first place, and then attack the very behavior that is causing the pile-up.

2.   Ask yourself…if you could have things just the way you would like to have them…what would that do for you. What would an organized environment feel like, both environmentally and emotionally? What are you missing out on because of the clutter in your life?  Visualize a de-cluttered life. Imagine, as specifically as you can, how you will feel. Imagine what it will be like not to waste hours looking for missing keys and papers. Imagine what you can do in all the free time you will gain by not digging through piles of stuff. I bet it feels pretty good.

3.   Identify the barriers you are facing regarding eliminating the clutter in your life. Figure out what is causing you to get stuck. What is getting in your way and preventing you from living an uncluttered life. Is it lack of storage, laziness, time? There is a very real chance that you are in denial about what might actually causing you to be stuck, and you won’t be able to change your habits until you are ready to face them head on.

4.   Ask yourself…what impact is this clutter having on you, your relationships, your business, etc? What is the worst part about having all this clutter? How long have you been living a cluttered life? What are you losing because of your clutter? Time, money, a chaos-free life? If you don’t do something about the clutter, what else will you lose?

5.   Imagine yourself living a clutter-free life. Be specific with the details. How will your life be different? How will it feel?

You aren’t alone. There are many, many people, with and without ADHD, whose lives are being controlled by clutter. YOU can take back the control by having crystal clear written goals, developing an action plan, having greater personal awareness and identifying your hidden challenges. Add a shot of extreme motivation, and you will be on your way to finally getting off the clutter-go-round!