Making Your Space Work for You (and your ADHD)
If you have ADHD, your space can really impact how challenging your day is. When everything is scattered all over the place, somebody else in the house moved your “pile” to be helpful, and you’re running late, it can be easy to forget important things you need for your day or to make yourself even more late. And you can establish some norms for yourself that mitigate the uncertainty throughout your day, as well.
This can look like, storing important daily items (ie. wallet, keys, etc) right next to the door. This can also look like having organization strategies set up that make sense for you (not what you think should make sense for you). In this article, Aarushi Agni, has several examples of how to create a space that best fits their needs, as well as research about why it’s helpful. Some of my big take aways include creating zones where you work, create, cook, relax, etc. When we use an area for one task, we can be more primed to do that task in that area. Another take away is optimizing a “point of performance,” meaning that items that function together should be stored together. This helps to keep you from getting distracted while you attempt to retrieve the next item needed to complete your task.
Another example presented by Agni, is creating a dedicated space for items you want to donate as a strategy for minimizing clutter. I want to add that for Portland folks, Ridwell it is a great way to help ease the pressure of reducing waste, if you have access. Along the lines of organizing your home, KC Davis has great resources on helping to create systems to increase the functionality of your space in ways that work for you.
If you want more examples, here are some blogs (The Simple Daisy and ADHD Organized) that have great ideas for organizing. I definitely recommend at least trying to do this slow, as systems take time to make create and adding a bunch of new systems at once is a great way to get overwhelmed and not have them work at all. The key is finding what’s right for you.
As always, take what is helpful and leave the rest. I hope you have the week you need.
