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ADHD Home Management

by | Oct 24, 2019

 

ADHD home management

Very old, but very accurate photo of how I manage my home.

Several years ago when I was writing more posts about homemaking someone suggested I produce an ADHD Home Management binder. I laughed. A lot. Because I am absolutely not an expert on managing a home with or without ADHD.

But I will say I’ve come to terms with how ADHD affects my ability to manage my home. And I’ve developed systems that work FOR ME. I don’t claim to know how to help everyone.

In this podcast episode I discuss simple household management and cleaning schedules. Both of these posts are older but still get quite a bit of traffic.

Here is the recorded version of this post for your convenience.

Whether you work from home, outside the home, or you work as a stay-at-home-mom, you are working. We all want to create a clean, calm, and supportive refuge for our families.

But living with ADHD presents some barriers to that.

In this post I break down five ways to simplify your home management, including:

  • Plan less. Stop making massive to-do lists. Instead, create an action list each day with three (no more than four) items you would like to get done. Do those items, and then enjoy the personal satisfaction.
  • Cook less. Simplify your meal planning and cooking.
  • Choose just one planner or calendar. Stop purchasing multiple planners and trying to align them using pens, stickers, and washi tape. It’s fun but not a good use of your time.
  • One day per week take a break from household chores. Don’t clean anything or attempt to organize anything. Give yourself a breather to regroup.
  • Limit your use of apps on your phone. The more apps you have to check-in with each day, the more time you will spend on said apps. Feel free to choose one or two and drop the rest without guilt.

The second part of the podcast is around cleaning schedules.

I have women ask me every day for specific cleaning schedules, tips, hacks etc.

This is basically a request for me to tell you what to do. Though I was once a teacher I’m not currently in the business of giving marching orders. All I can do is show you what works for me, which in a nutshell is this:

  • Divide your home into domains/areas. Bathrooms, living spaces, bedrooms, kitchen etc.
  • Choose one area to tackle each day. For example, Mondays could be bathrooms.
  • Do only the, “area of the day.” Do not spend hours in each area. Keep it simple – floors, surfaces, dusting.
  • If you do a once over in all the areas of your house you won’t feel the need to freak out or try to clean the entire house under pressure. (The same goes for condos, apartments)

Deep cleanings such as furniture, carpets, whole refrigerators, curtains, and the like do not have to happen every week. In fact, unless you have a serious infestation or allergies you can probably get away with just a couple times per year.

***Just saying.***

I’ve said this a million times and I will say it again.

You shouldn’t compare yourself to other women all the time. You have no idea what their toilets look like when there are not guests.

You don’t get to see what goes on in their lives and what they struggle with. Even neurotypical women struggle to juggle career, children, and home maintenance. They just don’t feel the struggle as acutely as we do because they have better executive function.

When it comes to ADHD Home Management a good rule of thumb is Do What You Can, When You Can.

If you have any home management tips send them my way, and I’ll make another podcast episode from them! Like I always say, we are stronger together.

50 Quick House Cleaning Tasks

The Naked Truth About How ADHD Affects Women in the Home

  This is the book that I couldn’t recall in the podcast! (See my disclosure)

The Clutter Bug – I LOVE this woman. That’s all.

A Slob Comes Clean – Another very fun resource and she has a book!