For a women with ADHD decluttering is an important part of simplifying your home and your life. It is also important to establish habits and routines to keep your home clutter free and will be so much easier to manage. Giving you more time to live and enjoy your life, not just clean up after it! Today I want to share four ways to help you maintain a clutter-free home now and in the future!
What Are Your Most Common Causes For Your Clutter & Make A Plan– I have heard from many of the women that I coach often say that the same types of items are the biggest cause of their clutter in their home (clothes, dishes, keys/phones/wallets, etc.) As you go about your day, notice the common causes of clutter and what is usually sitting out on your surfaces and around your home. Once you know your most common sources of clutter, first start decluttering and simplifying those groups of items. When you own less, it makes keeping up with and managing the stuff so much easier. Then, make a plan to deal with the common causes of clutter. Find or make homes for all the items that normally cause clutter around your home. Make sure their homes are logical, ideally keeping things close to where you use them. And make sure their homes are easily accessible. If it takes too much work to put something away, it likely won’t get put away.
Create A Declutter Paperwork System – Another common challenge I hear from women with ADHD is how to deal with paper clutter. The flow of paperwork can be fairly constant whether it’s mail, to do lists, things that need our attention or action, etc. You cant forget the flat surfaces in our homes seem to be magnets for paper clutter. It’s easy to set one thing down to deal with later, but because clutter attracts clutter, before you know it, you have a whole pile! The best way to keep paper clutter from piling up to is having a good system in place to deal with it before it has a chance to pile up. To be effective, your paper management system needs to be quick to use and easy to maintain. My favorite way to deal with my paperwork is to use a command center. It doesn’t have to be fancy or elaborate. In fact, the simpler the better! Set up a command center to work with your lifestyle and habits. Then, instead of dropping paperwork on any available surface in your home, you can quickly and easily put it away, find it when you need it and avoid the dreaded piles of paper clutter!
Have A Place For Each Item- One of the best ways to maintain a clutter free home is to have a specific spot for each of your items in your home and to get into the habit of putting it away once you are done using it. But when everything has a designated place to keep it, it makes it much easier to maintain a clutter-free home. If an item doesn’t have any a home or you can’t find a good place to keep it, either do some decluttering until you can find a home for it. Or ask yourself if the item really needs to stay in your home. I like to remind myself of the “one-touch rule” which means you aim to touch things one time. Instead of putting something down to deal with later (often leaving you with a lot of clutter, or a big pile of stuff to deal with at the end of the day), just put it away right then. Another way to remember it is this: don’t put things down, put them away! Of course, sometimes you get busy or life happens and things won’t always get put away immediately. But the more you get in the habit of putting things away in their home after you’re done using them, the easier it will be to keep your home tidy and clutter-free.
Decluttering Your Kitchen – Growing up in my house the kitchen was the heart of our home. It was a place where my family and friends hung out and played cards on Saturday night. Because it’s such a hardworking, well used room, getting in the habit of keeping your kitchen tidy and clutter-free will impact the feel of the whole house. There are many simple ways to get in the habit of keeping your kitchen tidy. You can try cleaning as you cook, quickly cleaning up after each meal, reusing the same drinking glass throughout the day, etc. Even meal planning can help keep food from causing clutter in your kitchen. Another important part is clearing your flat surfaces is an especially important part to remember. Flat surfaces, like kitchen counters, kitchen tables seem to be magnets for clutter. Again, the more frequently you stay on top of clearing off these surfaces, the easier it will be to keep them clear.
For a women with ADHD establishing new habits and routines can take time. You don’t have to try to do them all at once. Aim to add one new habits at a time. Once you feel like you’ve mastered those habits, add in one more. Going slow will help increase your chances of sticking to your new habits and routines. And remember, it’s more important to aim for progress, not perfection. If you miss a few days, don’t beat yourself up. Start where you are, get back on track and keep moving forward!
What is your favorite habit or routine to help keep your home tidy and clutter-free? Which of these habits and routines do you think will help make it easier to keep your home tidy and clutter-free moving forward