You’re not a pig or slob I haven’t been diagnosed with anything but it’s likely I have ADHD. A lot of the people in my family have it and I relate in large amounts to almost every symptom I’ve seen. I know a lot of people don’t get it and to a lot of people I guess cleaning regularly is a normal task. I don’t know if you struggle with this but usually what happens to me is I get something out a task, then hyper focus on it, and once that hyper fixation breaks I usually feel bored or tired, especially if I was focused on it for hours, and once that breaks, I don’t have the will or energy to clean it up and i tell myself to clean it up later, which happens, 3-6 months later. Do that a few more times and suddenly it’s a wreck. Then I get too overstimulated to clean everything up and give up. Finally I have a burst of motivation and am able to get it picked up but it takes a while. What I like to do to clean is clean in sections, this usually takes FOREVER because I get distracted by something but sometimes I’ll get it done.
I’d say:
- first, tackle clothes, fold them or put them in the laundry
- Then, literal trash. Wrappers, tissues, random papers, etc.
- For the random items you don’t know what to do with, I don’t know what to do with them either so good luck
- Once you’ve cleared the floor enough, sweep it!
If it’s mostly random junk everywhere, sweep it all up into a big pile and pick out only the stuff you actually want to keep, then throw the rest away
The idea to put away 5 things each time you come in is a good one. But it will take a long time, and may not keep up with the production of mess.
I would say start by cleaning the floor. Get all of the laundry and trash off of the floor, and taken care of if possible. Once you can see the floor, everyone is easier.
Next get a huge trash bag. Throw away as much stuff as you can. The less you have to sort, the less you will get frustrated.
Now get everything off of the bed, bedding and all, get fresh bedding on there.
At this point you will have to choose where to focus. Laundry, surfaces, ect. I usually like to go with an area and work on that, but it might work better for others to choose their task differently.
Lots of great tips. So, I’m just gonna say the biggest thing for me was picking a cleaning soundtrack. I’m old, so I’d put on my Madonna-Immaculate Collection CD, loud. And just let the energy some music can give, propel me through. It was always the same CD. To this day, my grown daughter plays that CD to get through cleaning. It’s just what we did. It might help to have something you wear each time. For me, it was a bandana holding my hair up out of the way.
Finding things that work is a process. Hang in there.
I don’t have adhd but I totally understand this!! I’m trying to get better about cleaning too, but I also go months without cleaning, you can never see my floor, and it takes weeks to fully clean my room :’)
What helps me is I turn on some music that I really like, and kinda just get into the mood if that makes sense? It makes me happier when I’m cleaning and just makes it all better :>
And then once it is clean, I’ve been trying to make myself clean my room every Saturday, because I don’t have the motivation to do it everyday, but if u do it at the end of the week it’s not too messy and then it’s easier to keep clean <3
Hi! ADHD here also. I took baby steps with ADHD paralysis. I started by simply making my bed then second I get out of it in the morning. Make it a habit and start small. You don’t like to clean because it’s too routine and doesn’t give you the dopamine you want. Start small and do one chore a day, the same time every day. No excuses. The easiest way to start is by making your bed when you get up in the morning. Time yourself if you have to. You will feel satisfied and want to keep going if you make it a week. Once you don’t mind making your bed every morning, add another task after you make your bed, and slowly grow your task lists.
Hi! I like to turn cleaning into a game. I have an app called finch and it’s essentially a virtual pet that I take care of by completing tasks. I don’t know if it’ll help you but it helps me. :)
I have ADHD too and I know that it’s hard to clean what I normally do when that happens is I pick up a section or 1 small area then take a 10 or 15 minute break and do something else then repeat that till the mess is cleaned up then it doesn’t feel like it’s as much work it kind of tricks your brain
I swear genuinely that I am not trying to be patronizing. I think you’re very brave for actually saying something I’ve got the exact same problem and I’m hoping that reading through the replies and following some of the advice you’re being given will help me too <3 Good luck with managing your space
I have ADHD and have always been a low energy person. My best strategy is to just pick ONE thing, a “small thing,” and tell myself just to do that one thing. I often will end up doing more but even if I only do that one thing, that’s okay. Personally, I hate having things in the sink so cleaning/tidying the kitchen enough so there’s nothing in the sink is my priority - there can be dishes stacked next to it, just not inside the sink. Some days maybe it’s just unloading and then loading the dishwasher (we have a countertop dishwasher so this is a quick task). Some days it’s literally just take a shower. Getting started is usually the hardest part, so just pick something that is an easy task for you and/or that is a priority for you. Alternatively, I’ve seen some people say they either set a timer or put on a song, and just try to do as many things as they can in the time limit. That can be a good way to override your brain being overwhelmed
Hi I also struggle with ADHD and I use bucket for a lot of my things.
Hii I have trouble like this two you are not a pig and not a slob.I have not deep cleaned my room in a while.its really bad. What I do is drown out the world with music. I mean that sounds kinda bad,but my family is loud and it just helps me chill and clean.tbh with you I try to get all these bins for my hobbies and um let’s just say they end up on the floor all the time 
But I do believe in you.good luck
No judgement at all! I have friends and a sister with ADHD who usually has a very messy room and another with OCD who has a spotless room and I’m somewhere in the middle
I know something that helped my sister (the ADHD one) was getting organazationial tubs and a bed with storage underneath. (They are both really cute and fun, so she enjoys it more!) Having a place for everything made it easier for her to pick up her room! I hope that helped even a little bit, and that the cleaning goes quickly for you! Also, be encouraged! You’ve already taken the first step, you’re setting goals and starting to make a change about how your room is by asking others for advice and that is super awesome!!!
I am you. Dyslexia and disorganized ADHD among other things. I love this post and am needing to seriously clean up and organize. I will have to have an electrician in my home so there is a push to clean up my front room. Unfortunately, I find I usually need the extra adrenaline push of leaving it till nearly the deadline
( I never could get a term paper done early). I have picked up a couple tips and will try them. Wishing you the best.
Something I do is put on an audio book and zone out .
I get it…completely. Something that I do (it usually works for me but everyone is different) is the O.H.I.O. method. It stands for Only Hold It Once. In other words, if you pick something up, instead of just moving it, immediately put it where it goes. I hope this helps!
I play this game with socks we’re I time myself paring them and putting them away and keep record of my times if I beat my time I get to treat myself with a chocolate bar then I also roll i dice and whatever it lands on is the number of things I clean
Hey! You are not a slob or a pig, your brain just works differently and that’s ok!
One thing I have found helpful is trying to do a 5, 10, or 20 item pickup every day. One thing I like about this method is that you can adapt it based on your needs, So if you for instance are sick one week and you have a bunch of tissues lying around you can pick up 20 tissues and put them in the trash and call that your 20 item pick up. I personally struggle a lot with taking a rest and if I actually take a rest I feel lazy so sometimes I’m just not up for cleaning up a lot of stuff but if I tell myself out loud that yes I picked up 20 tissues and that is my clean up for the day that kind of tricks my brain into thinking that I did it.
Another thing I have found helpful is to have a trash bag and to go through whatever space I’m cleaning and just pick up the trash because trash is very easy to see because it’s usually papers that I don’t need or plastic or something that is very obviously trash I don’t need any more and trash is not something that I have to use my brain power to decide if I want to keep it or not because it’s trash I don’t need it. So whenever I clean a space I start with the trash because that takes at least brain power and it gives me enough motivation to continue further.
I don’t like trying to clean a whole room I like trying to clean stations. So I tell myself that I will clean my dresser or my desk or I will clean the top shelf of my closet or I will clean up one part of my floor that way the space I’m cleaning is smaller and therefore less overwhelming.
In order to try not to feel motivated especially if my floor is a mess I try to look for clothes that can easily be either put in the wash or put away. Kind of the same thing with the trash If I know that I wore that piece of clothing a while ago and it’s dirty I can easily just throw it in the hamper.
Since you’ve talked about feeling really overwhelmed and then kind of losing motivation I think an important thing to keep in the back of your mind is brain power and how much each task you’re doing is brain power that’s why I like to start with easy things like the trash or clothes because trash is easier for me and clothes are easier for me and then I look at the space that I’m cleaning and I see if I can find things that I know exactly where they go so if I see a skein of yarn on my floor and I have a dedicated space on my bookshelf for yarn I can just go and put that yarn skein on the bookshelf and that takes less brainpower because if you start with something that takes more brain power you’ll be more tired, and then it just starts the whole cycle.
When looking at things and trying to figure out if I should donate them I ask myself questions like, “if this went missing tomorrow would I notice that it went missing would I look for it or would I just continue with my life.?” “Do I use this regularly?” Things like that.
If you prefer time, you can use the 5, 10, or 2o item pickup but it’s 5, 10, or 20 minutes.
I like watching those preppy clean room videos, it gives me motivation and something to watch when I’m folding clothes.
I think the biggest thing here is to try to break the big things into smaller, more manageable tasks. This is a really long post, but breakign it into paragraphs makes it more pleasing to they eye and gives our eyes a respite because they like space. if I did this in one whole paragraph, people would probably skim, but smaller blocks of text make it more manageable.
And sometimes, I push myself to clean up even 1 thing, because often, I find one thing turns into 2, and then 2 into 5, and you get the idea.
Also, I’m sorry for the runn-on sentences, I did most of this through voice-to-text, but I hope this helps!
Thank you all so much to everyone else who has commented their support and advice! I wish I had the time to reply to each and every one of you, because you are all amazing!
Unfortunately, I got sidetracked doing stuff with the family yesterday (plus a lack of sleep), and didn’t get any cleaning done.
I almost forgot again today because I was busy working on a comission. However, after dinner, I mqde the decision that I as going to clean until the sun went down, which I knew wouldn’t be too long. In that time, I managed to clean the one and a half square feet of floor in front of my one set of bookcases! I was pleasantly surprised to get that much done, considering I also had to fix what I had managed to undo in one day of cleaning.
So it may be slow, but I am getting there!
I understand where you are coming from, the longer you wait to clean, the more the mess piles up, and the more you won’t know where to start cleaning and it just repeats over and over again. Currently in the process of cleaning my room due to me getting a new desk, not very productive at the moment, but usually I’ll start cleaning by first turning on whatever song or playlist and listen to it on loop and make a “list”. But I’ll use the list as a guide without strictly following it allowing to hop between things as long as i’m still cleaning.
Some organizational things that I’m trying out are under bed totes. I’m still trying to figure out what does and doesn’t work for me, so far they are working, if anything they prevent small things from getting pushed underneath the bed.