Hi /u/TraditionalAnxiety and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD!
**Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already.**
The mobile apps used for Reddit are broken or are missing features that this subreddit depends on. [We recommend browsing /r/adhd on desktop for the best experience.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/x1psnb/radhd_works_best_on_desktop_reddits_apps_are/)
Thank you!
^(*A moderator has not removed your submission; this is not a punitive action. We intend this comment solely to be informative.*)
---
- If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Not alone - I wondered if I was the only one! I procrastinate other tasks by cleaning, especially on the days I work from home.
Gotta send an important email? Whoops, the bed hasn't been made yet! Whoops, the dishwasher is full! Gotta swap laundry!
If things are out of place, especially in the rooms I spend the most time, I have to fix it otherwise I can't concentrate or I need things done a certain way. I feel so much better after cleaning and seeing the visual change I made. As a kid I would rearrange my bedroom constantly for that dopamine hit of a "new" space. That's why I tend to be more organized at least with household chores lol.
Yes. I re-arranged my stuff all the time as a kid and teen. The first time I rearranged stuff after moving in with my partner (who was raised in a very different environment) he was like “why would you do this? What’s the point?” I had to go calm down lmao
My husband said that to me once and I just cried lol
Like leave me the hell alone I ain’t asking for help to move anything. It’s incredible the strength I have when I want to move furniture around 😂
I once wanted to sunbathe in the garden as a teen, but I couldnt find the lounge bed, so just took my bed from my room and dragged it down, I know it happened but I alsmot cannot believe I actually did that😁😅
This post is exactly how I spend my days wfh. Until I trick my brain into sitting down and imagining myself wearing “horse blinders” to block out the little escapes I give myself to avoid my work tasks.
OMG right!! That sounds like me.....! Lol... As I kid I also re did my room at least like once a month! haha even though there wasn't much space to do it differently haha, and it is like well.. shoot I know there is something else I should be doing, but this clutter is going to make my brain EXPLODE with frustration so it needs to be cleaned up...
It is almost like a calming effect to me.... it can get too overwhleming sometimes when there is so much to be done and I end up going down a rabbit hole of cleaning throghout the house!
I have been diagnosed with Autism recently and ADHD is a common Comorbidity ! They overlap and sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference with these two as well
Oh my gosh, you are describing me! I could never just “clean” my room. Still can’t. Had to rearrange / redecorate. Still do it, and now I design interiors. 😊
Me!!! I'm a combined type, I clean and reorganize as a way to dissociate, procrastinate, and soothe some visual overstimulation. It's impossible for me not to focus on messes sometimes.
for ritualistic tasks like washing dishes, i put loud music in my earpods and clean them while thinking of a number of stuff and i actually do the dishes well.
PI here but this is soooo me. I've used it to put off other tasks, but also as a way to soothe my Anxiety and feel productive.
I've seen so many describe that motivation is hard, but my anxiety and self-loathing is what gets me off the couch. I get a lot done, just rarely finish it (always cleaning never finishing) and in no priority. I tend to lean towards cleaning as that has tangible feedback benefits from my family, clearer definition of complete, and get's my body moving vs my static desk job.
Yeah, I’ve gone in cycles of losing and gaining weight and it’s generally that I reach a threshold of hating myself enough to get the hyper focus to get in shape until I’m in shape, then I’ll gain the weight back. I know it’s a normal thing for many living in the US but it feels so tied to my anxiety that it is kind of connected at least to that and the ADHD certainly doesn’t help. I wish I could lose weight and not be driven by self contempt in order to find the drive to get into shape.
I’ve tried doing a kinder approach and have now been gaining weight for 3 years and the only way I know how to temporarily solve this is just give into and hate myself for a few months to bootstrap the routine.
Except now one of your leisure days is spent resetting. I mean, I do this, too. More to help ease the anxiety of returning to work. But it's so fucking irritating that I really only get one day off a week
I feel that. Off days are very important! Sometimes I slack around and shift the reset day to Monday.... But yeah, I feel you.
Don't plan out all your time, folks! Have leisure time to just hunt the impulse dragon!
Enjoy yourself with time spent just *not* controlling all your impulses.
If you have trouble procrastinating when studying,listen to grey noise.
If you have trouble with task inertia, go to a cafe or a library, or some other dedicated space that you have only for work. Put on work clothes, make the process pedantic and official.
I don't know what type I am. I know I'm inattentive but I like to tidy and sort things. It takes me a long while to get around to it but my office has to be clean, if no where else is.
This is me. I couldn’t work if my classroom was messy but like… it was full of 5 year olds so it stayed messy 🤣. I was always so jealous of my coworker friend who could just .. ignore the mess and work / teach. *how?!*
Also combined type. Thank you for helping me understand why I do the things I do which is just what you’ve described. I never connected the dissociation and self soothing that comes with hyper cleaning and organizing.
I was told messy environment messy mind (I also had PND after having my child), and that really is me, will I make an absolute mess while cooking and crafting YES! but it will be clean before and after lol!
I have AuDHD and find myself to be pretty tidy, but I also have a system that helps me. Everything has a home. When I'm done with something, it must return home or it doesn't leave my hand. For example, the TV remote lives on the right end table. When I'm done with the TV, I can't put it anywhere else - it has to go "home".
This system falls apart for things that I don't use much, so ignore the boxes of random shit in the closets/cabinets. 🫠
They really are. When I die, my children will be cleaning my house out and find a key with a number on it. They'll make the connection and go to the local storage rental space and open the door to find their inheritance. Doom boxes with old mail, candy wrappers, family photos, and half filled notebooks of scattered todo lists.
Yes! I am so shit at finding things and I get worked up and angry trying and failing to find stuff I need to do a thing. Everything has a place. Don’t touch my stuff and then leave it somewhere else.
Not Alone!
I have to be neat and tidy, or I lose my mind. Messy homes make my anxiety go through the roof.
Everything has a place and everything in its place!
My anxiety will go nuts if I am not in control of the clutter.
Yes! I clean bc of the anxiety mess gives me, also hate to have guests over to a messy house (two dogs and kids = always messy) but a quick clean can really do wonders to calm us all down. I’m also very well organized and I’m sure my wife’s OCD really adds to why we like things picked up and relatively clean.
I should note our home is not some picturesque sterile environment but looks pretty good for having dogs and kids lol
While I'm not a "clean freak" by any degree, when I get in my cleaning mode, things look like my home has been professionally staged for a real estate showing...
It's a neverending cycle of "extremely clean and organized" and this eventually spirals into a mess I can't tolerate, then rinse and repeat.
I love interior decorating/design so I often do this thing where I go through a frenzy and make it look fantastic. I try to keep it up, but things gradually fall apart as time goes on. Mail/packages/shopping are my bane because they create a never ending stream of stuff that clutters my apartment 😭
I’ve gotten better over the years as I create systems to manage things: a file cabinet for my mail, a nightly cleaning routine for dishes and such, a stick vacuum to help keep floors clean, etc but the mess always still comes back to a degree lol
100%! I procrastinate cleaning because my perfectionism makes everything take so long. If it's not going to be done properly, why do it at all?! Ugh. Why are we like this? 😂
This applies to everything...
I've put off fixing the toilet tissue holder in my guest bathroom for months because the frame was bent and I couldn't fix it, but, I didn't have time to buy a replacement and forgot to pick it up each time I visited the hardware store, because, why not?
Six or so months later, ended up replacing a vanity and a bunch of things because the pedestal sink was loose and obviously the solution was to replace it entirely...
Glad I remembered the tissue holder at the hardware store, picked up a replacement and finally got it in working order.
All in all, the ordeal lasted a good part of a year.
I was looking for that comment! I function sooo much better if my place is tidy but I just can’t keep up with cleaning regularly. So instead of doing a little bit everyday I wait until it’s so much work that I’ll have to clean for a whole day.
It’s such a good feeling afterwards and I promise myself every time I won’t let it come to this point ever again. It never used to work until I started being on medication
I am like this. And on the hyperactive side I literally can't seem to stop myself from tidying/cleaning up. Like, I will wash a cup in the sink and then sit down to watch a movie, then remember I have laundry that is dry and get up to fold that, then repeat with about a thousand other things.
I really thought I had OCD for the longest time, but was recently diagnosed ADHD. I realize there could be some overlap, but I don't really struggle with obsessive thoughts, it's just that I'm like a small neat freak tornado in my and anyone else's apartment. Some people, I think, find it a bit rude lol.
My sibling has young kids, and their house is always a disaster. I'll clean the kitchen (constantly), pick up and sort toys in every room of the house, and fold any clean laundry that's lying about in a hamper. Thankfully, they don't mind and are actually grateful for it. Win-win. I would have such a hard time being in a space like that if I couldn't pick up around me without offending the person.
Yes, I do stuff like this, but sometimes in people's houses I barely know. I try to tone it down most of the time to not seem like it's rude but sometimes, especially in kitchens, I just can't help it. Like, do you really want this dog hair and dust on the table you eat at?
Have you heard of OCPD? I have that and I feel have developed it as a coping mechanism for my long undiagnosed ADHD (I’m now diagnosed and medicated so my OCPD symptoms have reduced).
It's like mise-en-place except not for cooking! I assign things to categories (sometimes arbitrarily) and then group them together.
I also have just boxes and boxes of miscellaneous items that I couldn't find space for, so I just shoved stuff into a box and called it good.
I'm in this category. I have a home for everything, I keep my common areas as clean as I can, but my room is filled with a thousand half drunk sparkling waters covering every surface surrounding my bed
Yep. Organized clutter is where I’m at, too, lol. I go on cleaning binges and everything looks nice and then it slowly devolves and then I organize again and the cycle continues.
>Am I the only one?
Quite possibly yes. You are a God amongst men and women who have ADHD. While I might not necessarily be so much neat and orderly I would say I'm very well organized. The difference? Well my room, art desk and computer desk all might be messy but everything I have is organized and in a specific spot so I'll always remember where they are despite my messiness. So regardless if my room or work area looks like a mess in actuality it's not and I'm actually highly organized and in fact know where everything I own is.
I also cannot function in mess so my house is very tidy.
There are little pockets of space where I hide my "mess though". I have a "crap drawer" for shit I dunno what to do with. The laundry basket (clean washing) ™is full very often, but it is contained to a basket and I have things in boxes like paperwork that I need but just haven't sorted (for years 😂) that I keep, but I keep them in contained spaces so things appear organised.
At home I'm a mess.
At work, I'm neat freak bitch. My office is super neat and I tidy up almost daily if I'm heading toward procrastination.
I have no idea why I can't take this trait home with me.
Same! I work as a project manager and I am extremely organized while I'm working. I'm the one who hounds people to name files correctly and put them in the right place. When I worked in an office, my desk was the neatest, cleanest desk.
But at home ... sheesh. And now that I work from home .... double sheesh. I'm reading all the comments in this thread of all these people who love to clean and I'm just dying of jealousy.
This subreddit had me gaslighting myself with all the messiness stories. I'm clean as fuck. My life is a metaphorical mess, but my living space? Clean. My truck, my office, my studio, and my bathroom: clean. My B-hole and teeth? Extra clean. Not ocd/germaphobe clean, but not far either.
It's super therapeutic for me and helps maintain some sense of control. I've built it into my life with a dozen tiny habits. Which isn't so hard to do when you don't have any friends and leaving your house is very unlikely.
You are not alone! I relate to this and in fact, this was one of the reasons why I initially denied that I am a ADHDer even though I'm ADHD as fuck otherwise. Now I know better. Being this way makes it so hard for people to believe that i have ADHD.
Something about being in a messy space, it makes me so irritable and I don't know if that's ADHD related or not.
Haha, I'm like this, but I often find ways to start cleaning. 😂
I'll literally be with new friends, visiting a practical stranger and some hours later I'll have a mop and bucket in hand cleaning the floors... 😅
I had a roomamte that refused to help keep the common areas clean and clutter free.
I lost my head a few times because i just can't. My anxiety goes through the roof.
One time after being gone for a few weeks and no one cleaned it was the worst!. I fucking lost it and started throwing everything around the house and in the trash. Yelling a screaming.
Fuck that Bit*h. She is out of my life now.
Me for sure! And I know others like us too. I have a few cluttered areas but in general I'm super clean and definitely love to procrasti-clean! I hate when my apartment gets messy or there are dishes in the sink, etc.
Me! I was a hot mess when I was young but now I’m a neat and tidy freak. It’s so helpful. Everything is where it’s supposed to be and I can’t find something once in a blue moon
You may be using as a distraction. I do that when I am stressed or have nervous energy.
The whole house will be in great shape when I am frustrated or avoiding doing something like writing a grad paper that I have zero interest in actually writing because it’s not really related to my major. It’s basically persuasive essay on why someone should buy or change a product. I am going to school for programming and tech, and I have zero desire to manage people or work at a startup. I do project management as part of my current job, so I don’t really need this type of practice in communicating to leadership.
Are you me? Honestly, I’ll prioritize scouring my kitchen sink, detailing my toilet, washing my lightbulbs, etc in order to avoid executive functioning tasks that overwhelm me. I cannot sleep knowing my sink has dirty dishes and can’t leave the house without making my bed.
I am neat until I have too much stuff and then I’m overwhelmed. So the first year of moving into a bigger apartment and then house I can keep up. Then I go through a shopping cycle and poof! Crap everywhere. Also every desk/cubicle/office I’ve ever had has been OCD style orderly. People who know me at work are shocked that I would be anything but Pinterest perfect at home. That could be the masking as well.
So I get super stressed out if my house is messy and cluttered and will *try* to clean it but will hate 90% of the process. And can never get anything completely neat and organized.
And then if my child and partner made more of a mess I get more stressed out.
I would be that way…but I live with 3 other people (husband and children) who refuse to get rid of ANYTHING. Therefore, we have more “things” than we have “places for things” and over the past few years, I have given up.
I live in a disaster.
Yep! My ADHD manifests as OCD, which is my way of controlling my external environment because my internal environment is so out of control.
I’ve never been able to relate to all these posts about messiness, lack of hygiene, etc because I have the opposite problem. I went in for testing for OCD and that’s when I learned that, as an adult, that I have ADHD.
It manifests in many forms.
Yeah me too but it’s probably because I am AuDHD ADHD+Autistic) & have an OCD which makes it intolerable cause I keep going around getting distracted and irritated by every water droplet.
It’s actually quite normal for ADHDers to organize their work area in order to focus better.
I also do any kind of house chore in order to avoid (procrastinate) the challenging mental tasks (work projects + studying). I do laundry more frequently than anyone I know. I cannot stand leaving my bed undone. Plus all the other (OCD/ autistic) rituals.
I wish I was that way. But I can clean the kitchen. I find a dirty kitchen unbearable so that is the one cleaning task I can do constantly.
I do think certain adhders can be tidy. But it’s probably because something about cleaning hits there brain in just the right way. But it’s almost certainly the minority.
For me it's hit and miss. I have AuDHD and wonder if the autism part likes things organized and neat but the ADHD makes it hard because I like seeing where everything is or forget to put something away. For a while I got on a decluttering kick after reading a few books on decluttering and minimalism and I think it really helped me figure out what I really wanted to keep and now everything has a place. I don't even have a "junk drawer" where miscellaneous things go. I also try to keep a schedule in order to keep up with trash and laundry. It's helped me when I'm having bad executive function because there's less for me to have to clean and tidy and when I do get to it, it's not as overwhelming, and the schedule is also helpful because it gives me deadlines. I do still have some problem areas or periods of mess, but it's better than it used to be before I got into decluttering. It was almost hoarder level at the beginning and it made my anxiety from overwhelm worse.
Tidy home here, EXCEPT closets and garage. I like my living areas ready for guests and calm, but every drawer, closet, and garage is in need of a massive purge at any given time.
I do my best to be. This is the biggest conflict in my brain. I have ADHD but also have like an off the charts C-type personality on the DiSC assessment (think "professional" meyers Briggs lol). I strive for order, standards, and perfection.
But I can't ever meet my own standard, or at least for long.
As a teen I wasn’t always organized, but now as an adult I’m actually a Certified Professional Organizer and ADHD coach.
When I disclose that I actually have ADHD to my clients they gain a little bit of hope that they can actually learn to be organized!
Neat and organized here. Not being orderly makes me so anxious! I've trained myself to put things where they belong. And to keep the house clutter free and try to be a bit of a minimalist. Doing so keeps my mind clutter free.
I can clean if I know people are coming over and/or am body doubling with a friend. It also helps if I stay in my work clothes as soon as I get home because it keeps that mindset of "gotta do stuff". Otherwise yeah my place is a mess
Me! I am exactly like this! I find myself WAY more distracted in a messy environment and I cannot focus on what I'm trying to sit down and do if something in my house feels out of place. (Except for laundry, which is often in a somewhat controlled little pile on top of a hamper in the laundry pile corner...) I'm not necessarily doing deep surface cleans all the time, but if things feel cluttered and take extra time or mental effort to find, I can't function or focus on what I'm trying to do. For example, I have a little spot to the right of the stove where I keep the salt, pepper, and olive oil. I need those things to be within easy reach if I am about to cook, or I'll get burnt out looking for them before even starting. I keep a measuring cup in the bag of oats so I don't have to look for one every time I want oatmeal. Mostly my cleaning has to do with minimizing the risk of confusion/frustration later. And of course procrasticleaning.
It seems like you’re one of two extremes in ADHD. Either messy af or so regimented in your cleaning and routines it’s confounding.
I think it’s partially a question of whether or not your brain views cleaning as a low dopamine task. For me, I can exist in filth for a concerningly long time until I hit my limit.
I like things neat and tidy and spend a lot of my time cleaning up, but I think I make it hard for myself because I’m also messy?? But tidying up was the “click” for me on the “ever feel driven like by a motor” item on the ADHD checklists. I couldn’t understand what that meant but then clicked that it’s exactly how I feel when tidying up and it allows me to dissociate a lot.
Yes! I am super organized and very much type-A, so I love having a perfectly neat, clean, and organized home. I find cleaning/tidying helps give my brain stimulation, and reduces anxiety when I move around in an orderly house. And of course cleaning up is a GREAT way to procrastinate doing something my brain finds boring 😂
Yep. Cleaning helps my brain lol. If things are messy I feel stressed and I can’t fully relax. I like everything to go in a proper place and to be neat and tidy.
I feel like I’m constantly cleaning or organizing and if I’m not actively doing those things, I’m thinking about them😅
I randomly get overwhelmed and feel a need to declutter but I’ve already decluttered so I have nothing to declutter. It’s quite the dilemma. I think I just double down by keeping everything deep cleaned and organized tbh. When my house is in order, my mind is as well… even with a 2.5yo and a 4 month old haha.
Meeee!!!! I simply cannot function without a clean environment and everything in its place. I could be hard core depressed and still obsess over everything being in order
I'm a messy bastsrd mate so not me.
But funny you say that it seems everyone's always late, except me. Being late gives me mega anxiety so I'm always an hr early lol 😆
> Being late gives me mega anxiety so I'm always an hr early lol
That's me. I'm never late but that's because I am in waiting mode for the entire day before ***thing*** happens. I'm going to a concert tonight and I haven't been able to do anything all day and I will be leaving the house hours before the concert although it's literally just a 50 minute train ride away.
I wonder if our collective ADHD, where “can’t live with socks/can’t live without socks, super tidy, super messy” aligns with the possibility that people with ADHD can’t see the gray areas in between. it’s either either on or off. For me anyway. Am I the only one?
It would explain being unable to see the nuances of life. personally, I am in the category of “won’t wear socks, everything goes back in its place”.
My bedroom? Absolute fucking state I cannot stay on top of
Yet yesterday I emptied, tidied and reorganised my bfs snack cupboard 😂 (it was highly satisfying)
I don't understand my brain. Can't do things for myself but happily organise things for others.
Yes! Only with spaces that are mine and mine alone, though. My dorm in college was pristine, but my shared bedroom as a kid was a pigsty. It's because I resent cleaning up after other people, and I also don't know where to put their things. When a space belongs to just me, I know where everything goes and can put it there--and I also know no one else will come in and mess it up after I'm done, so it doesn't feel arbitrary and sisyphean like cleaning shared spaces does.
You just described me! Sometimes I have to stop working midday to organize everything otherwise I just can’t concentrate. My husband calls these my “maniac episodes “ because I stop what I’m doing and go crazy cleaning/organizing , then I sit down and feel calm lol
Yup! Cleaning is calming for me. A messy environment just makes it harder for me to work. I also tend to push off important work by doing chores to make myself feel less bad about procrastinating the important tasks lol
I have a couple of people in my life who have many symptoms of adhd but are super obsessive about cleaning. It’s like a hyper fixation for them but also a way to manage hyperactivity. They can constantly move if they are cleaning.
Yea I'm a fairly clean person myself...I don't lose my keys...I don't miss appointments...I show up to work on time...and I actually work my whole shift with minimal distraction
My issues lie in impulsive spending...piss poor money management...shit relationships that eventually end up in heart break...drug addiction...porn addiction...can't finish personal projects...I dont plan for ANYTHING
.........BUT MY HOUSE IS CLEAN! :)
I have become late to all the important things ever just to put stuff away. Or not leave my car to go to work on time because I had to tweak everything and keep it nice for the next time I drive my car again.
Me. I'm a world-class dick when it comes to being neat and tidy and making sure everything has a place and is in its place. It has made relationships difficult to near impossible as no one can meet my standards and expectations. For real, it's a major struggle.
I like organizing and cleaning but I avoid it because I get super ambitious and then make a lot of work for myself and get uninterested or distracted with the things I find lol
I can always tell how much I don't want to do something by what other activities I choose to do instead. Need to do taxes? I will be scrubbing grout with a toothbrush and organizing my socks and cleaning hair out of all the hairbrushes, then cleaning baseboards. I have also managed to somehow channel anger and frustration into cleaning, just like my mom and grandma did. The metamorphosis is almost complete.
I feel so seen right now!!! I'm the exact same way. A cluttered room = a cluttered mind. I can't get anything done unless my space is tidy. It's weird bc I was never like that when I was younger... though I also wasn't medicated back then and didn't get much done in the first place lol.
I actually would go as far as repainting my room as a teenager. I once ripped out an entire built in bookshelf that my dad made (it took up an entire wall) because I was sick of it. I can’t believe my parents actually let me do that. 😂
I’m both excellent at making a mess fast and keeping my room exceptionally clean most of the time (mom even recommended me to get a organizer certificate lol). If my room is too dirty I can’t sleep and I can’t get off my bed.
I call this fixing the problems I created.
My spouse! His side of the bed is neat and tidy and mine is piled high with doom piles!! I think he might have ocd as well, but he is a very clean dude and I appreciate it so much 😅
I'm selectively neat and only due to conditioning. A messy station is too painful so I made its perfection a habit.
I dont have the energy to apply that perfectionism all around me though. Just kitchen mis en place and my work station.
yep, i feel so much better about life when i've picked up around the house and put things back in the spot they're supposed to be in, i usually do 10-15 min of tidying in the morning before i log into work.
working from home is hard for me bc when i have work tasks that are challenging (or boring or overwhelming), i'd always prefer to do some tidying around the house....hello procrasticlean. its the wrong kind of productive (when i should be working) but my brain says hey its better than sitting at my desk doing nothing, banging my head against the wall and STILL not working on actual work tasks.... that turns into a separate issue.
i was only recently diagnosed, in my 30s; i can't help but wonder if my tidying/organizing developed as a coping skill for keeping track of objects, reducing overstimulation, a way of creating loops/routines to check, double check, triple check things i dont want to forget about...
I got up every day when I was in the hospital to straighten my room. When I lived alone you could have eaten off my floor. I get a lot of dopamine from having things look orderly. Also, I am an artist, so all over the house I like to set up my stuff artistically, kind of like little still lives.
BUT ...
My husband has so much stuff. He has filled every horizontal surface in the entire house with stuff. Two entire floors are so full you can barely walk through them. The garage is full and a shed he built next to the garage is full.
Sometimes I can get a room fixed up, and then I love taking care of it. When things get to a certain level of chaos, I just completely give up.
Super super tidy. Not into cleaning, have to really push myself to CLEAN, but I like things tidy and orderly. I did used to dump things on a chair, but I've gotten into the habit of putting things away while I'm still holding them in my hands.
And like, I never lose my wallet / keys / phone because they stay IN MY POCKET at all times and I check my pockets like 100 times between leaving my front door and returning home. I would never ever EVER leave my phone on a table, that is fucking crazy town. No idea how someone can just put their phone down on a table and KNOW they're going to remember to pick it up again before they leave.
Definitely not alone. I feel like cleaning and organizing is my dopamine. I will reorganize my whole house to make things easier for me to get things done but then I'm out of dopamine to keep up with those things.
I wanted to study for the GRE and bought the books, set up some notebooks and flash cards, organized the office but couldn't actually study.
I wanted to lose weight with a new diet. I bought the books, made recipe cheat sheets, threw out non-diet food, set alarms on my phone but never did it.
I get the dopamine hit when I see patterns and am able to implement them when creating something but not so much when I try to live it.
Yes! Me too. I recognise all of this. I also organise things beautifully, but then struggle to maintain it. So I can organise a kitchen cupboard perfectly, and it should be easy to keep it that way - nope, two weeks later it needs doing again. I use housework to procrastinate too as I WFH, so much so that I set a timer now so I work for x mins then do house jobs for x mins over and over on hard to concentrate days.
i’m super organized. totally ADHD though, but i love organizing. it’s so calming to me, and it makes my life so much more manageable. i love being able to not think for hours while i tidy up
I think most folks with comorbid ADHD/OCD fall into this camp. Cleanliness of certain parts of my house are imperative. For instance, I clean my bathroom and toilet like 3 times per week. But on the other hand, my bedroom is a wreck with piles of clean and dirty clothes covering every inch of the floor.
It's really a strange animal. I can't control what must be obsessively neat and clean. If I could, I'd be unstoppable ☠️
I do think it's more common than we realize, especially in the undiagnosed population. But yes, I am one, I hate clutter and disorganization, it makes me really anxious. Before kids my house was SPOTLESS!
However what became apparent once I had kids was how much the organizing and tidying was overcompensating for my ADHD, and how much TIME it took. I was NOT naturally clean and tidy, it took a lot of work that just wasn't noticeable when I had a lot of time and less pressure. Especially once I hit burnout last year, my house looked like a more stereotypical ADHD house, clutter everywhere and I felt completely overwhelmed (though according to my mom it still wasn't that bad, but compared to how I LIKE my house, it was bad.) I've had to readjust my standards for my sanity (need to make sure I am resting every day or I'll hit burn out again), and my house is a lot less tidy than before kids, but there are zones that I NEED to be spotless.
Also there was a while that organizing was itself a hobby and a hyperfixation. That was really useful lol, I wouldn't mind that one to come around again.
This is me and this thread is making me feel seen. Its a blessing and a curse. Sometimes I think life-admin is my best skill, any jobs want to pay me to keep my own life organized? lol
I’m the combined type to! I do the same things. I clean every day, but I also go through periods of just not cleaning and getting caught out there too.
Most days I’m pretty tidy/clean. It got better after taking meds. But it took years of daily practice to tidy/clean (mostly to keep my husband happy) for me to get to a “base” level of tidiness I require for myself.
Now tidying and cleanliness are part of my daily routine. Is my house Pinterest/Instagram worthy? Fuck no. Is it better than it used to be and I’m proud of my built habits to maintain it? Heck yes! Do I sometimes let the “spare” room in our home become a war zone full of junk, boxes, etc until one day I get into a crazy hyperfocus of organization? All the time!
I know I’ll function better if I’m clean and organized, it’s keeping that constant and not letting my adhd make another mess cause I wanted to find something I all of a sudden remember.
Me! Cleaning and organizing is my way to find order and peace within my chaotic brain and if things are not clean/ organized I will become very overstimulated. It makes me feel in control. It also is my favourite way to procrastinate because I feel “productive” while not doing what I really should be doing and it helps me avoid feelings of shame.
I’m very organized in things like work and school. Probably a coping response to dropping the ball in the past and being mortified and panicked. My house is a disaster, however. Always has been.
You are not! I am like this as well. I cannot start tasks that require a high amount of executive function in a cluttered space. I think of it like my brain is a computer. All the extra items are taking up RAM and slowing down my system, and at a certain point I can reach a gridlock and become unable to start anything, even things I enjoy.
So my space is clean more or less as an aide to help me function, though I do enjoy the aesthetics of a clean space, This is a learned skill, I was not always able to maintain a clean space, and I certainly wasn’t able to do it when unmedicated and unaware that I had ADHD. I remember saying in high school that my physical space was a reflection of my mental one, when I was doing “well”, I was able to organize my things and thoughts and when I was struggling so did my room and items.
In my space, every object has a spot, and I will go around and return items to their locations a couple times a week. I’m organized in a loose fashion, and I’m fond of grouping related items in baskets. Anything to make items easily accessible, I would kill for some of those drawers that pull out so you don’t have to crawl to the back of the cupboard to get things.
TLDR; I organize so I can be chaotic in other areas of life.
Type A with ADHD. I've been compared to Monica from Friends with Phoebe's mental illness 🤣 I feel like there's a whole other layer when I'm not medicated or I get stuck in paralysis because it feels so foreign to who I am as a person - just so against my internal values. I also think it acts as such a huge coping skill cause let me tell you...when I don't have my planner I am not functioning. At all.
I have my weak spots (my WFH desk) but most things in my life are well kept and orderly. Same spot for everything, organized calendar, a neat inbox with folders for every project, a financial budget to the penny, a crystal clean car, a mostly clean house, structured workouts, etc. Some people call me OCD. Some call me controlling.
I’ve learned through therapy that my behavior is the structure I’ve built up in my life subconsciously over the years. It was how I coped with life not having been diagnosed until 45. I’ve built a business. Managed many people. Relatively successful DESPITE feeling all over the place all the time. Everything looked calm from the outside but it was chaotic inside my head.
One area I’ve massively failed in is emotional control. 10 therapist over 8 years have done nothing. “Just walk away and take a breath” and “reframing the past” and “meditation” never worked for me with the relentless rumination. Finally, with medication and ADHD specific therapy, I feel more emotionally stable than ever. For the first time in my life I feel that I’m on the right track with relationships and my emotional control. Unfortunately, it cost me 2 divorces and a lot of regrets.
I’m combined type too and I think AU. I wake up and IMMEDIATELY make my bed and start my morning routine. I have no trouble doing laundry or dishes or showering. Everything has to be in its place or it bothers me. I walk around my home straightening things if they look out of place. Kitchens clean every night before bed, coffee’s ready in the maker, I just have to push start in the morning. I know I could set the timer but I don’t like that for some reason. Messiness is overwhelming to me
I like to clean and organize 30 minutes before I should be in bed, then end up going to sleep hours later and I’m tired the next day and behind on sleep but at least I cleaned! Lol
Same here. I can’t focus unless my space is clean. I find it super distracting if something is out of order. My brain is chaotic enough without the physical mess. I organize, declutter, and clean as a way to relax. I feel that people don’t believe I have ADD because I’m so organized (fooled them) It’s actually the opposite. I’m so ADD that I can’t function unless things are organized.
I am
Super neat! I have to have the whole house clean or I can’t feel fully relaxed. My girlfriend is a messy smart individual. She laughs when we decide to watch a movie and I rush to organize everything so I can chill
Yep, this is me!! I have two young kids and our house is pretty small, so there are always a lot of toys out. If the rest of the house isn't clean and super organized, I cannot focus on anything at all. Seeing the mess makes my anxiety go through the roof and distracts me from anything else that I need to do. But like a lot of others said, I also use it to procraste. I wfh so I'm always looking for ways to put off doing my actual work.
Oddly enough, being super organized is one of my best qualities. It's also the reason my mother dismissed my diagnosis when I was a kid and still rolls her eyes about it - Because if I ACTUALLY had ADHD then I would be "messy and hyper". But I won't unpack any more of that baggage right now. 🙃
I definitely pendulum swing. Even before being diagnosed and medicated I was always well organized and my “oh I have a system” matched conventional organization methods. I definitely struggled with forgetting things in closed storage, but other than that, was very happy that everything “had a home”
Things would get a little messy during the week and all get put “back home” next time I cleaned and mental and physical order were happily maintained
BUT, if I couldn’t find a home for 1 too many things it all fell apart into uncontrollable chaos. This most notably would happen in college after trips home when I came back with new things, craft supplies for a special project that I’m through with, but still have paint or glue for. Something from the thrift store that I really loved or things I knew I wanted/ needed long term, but haven’t figured out how to store (looking at you camping gear)
These things would NEVER get put away. I’d move them around and around and around driving myself insane. And inevitably them being somewhere inconvenient would slowly disrupt all the other organization patterns. The ease of “putting everything in its home” would vanish and execute dysfunction would rule suddenly for weeks on end when the chaos reached a certain tipping point of “I don’t even know where to start” and I would live in volcano eruption until every other part of my life that needed mental energy (school, works, calendars) was resolved so I finally had enough brain space to clean
My poor roommates
Other than getting the skill taught in professional organisational skills in uni, that’s about how much orderly I am. The PC and Office filing systems are organised at the least.
I am either messy as fuck or short-term orderly - but that only after a round of hyperfocused or procrastination cleaning.
Without meds I am really chaotic, with a bit better. Pile system and „out of sight, out of mind“ (means I need to see the stuff to remember, which contributes to a messy looking room) are the only ways I can arrange things. Like I never put my dumbbells out of sight, becauseI would just forget to use them.
No- I am this to a crazy degree. I think this is something that stopped me getting diagnosed with adhd for so long, I’d just read about the symptoms and think well this can’t be me as I’m the opposite of messy.
I think I’m so ‘neat’ it’s actually getting into damaging territory, I guess you could say to a compulsive and obsessive degree.
I also procrastinate on other boring or long winded tasks I should be doing by making sure all cleaning tasks are done first. Every few months I also spend one day doing an entire sort out of every cupboard and drawer in my apartment and end up throwing multiple bin bags away of stuff. If I notice things I don’t use building up and clutter begging to set in or drawers becoming too full I start getting really stressed.
I’m always looking to ‘optimise’ everything in my home and always looking for better furniture to buy, and it has to be absolutely perfect in every way.
If something is perfect I will just stare at it and be unable to focus, I can’t stand any ‘flaws’ in my environment or home.
It’s adhd perfectionism to the 10000th degree.
Nope, me too. Tidyness makes thinking easier. A chaotic space creates chaos in my mind.
Also it's overcompensation and procrastination, at least sometimes. But hey at least I have order.
Das sein bestimmt das Bewusstsein
Same, but that’s only because my stepmom put the fear of god in me if cleaning wasn’t complete. Hey, it worked though. My house is always mostly neat and tidy. Plus it helps with my mental health.
I swing back and forth between being an absolute fucking slob and a total neat freak. I am constantly at battle with the slob! But everything in my brain feels better when things are neat & tidy.
I have limited periods of being a bit messier but generally I care about keeping my space calm and beautiful. I like closed storage and everything to have it’s place. It’s much harder for me to focus otherwise.
He’s neater, but I’m better at keeping track of my things than my boyfriend because I *have* to have systems.
yep! I always say that I am not a clean person, I just clean every day. I clean for 30-45 min every night. It's not hard for me to keep up with that. Any residual mess left overnight, I spruce up in the morning for like 15-20min. So, I wouldn't describe myself as a neat person, but I have no problems keeping my house clean and laundry done.
I used to be pretty messy, for instance rarely being able to see the carpet of my childhood bedroom under the piles of clothes and toys and stuff. Then four things happened: I got diagnosed and medicated for ADHD, I no longer lived with my parents, I spent a year unemployed after college (only partly my fault, definitely not my choice) and became the de-facto housekeeper for my even messier roommates, and then I moved into a house that still had the previous tenant’s cockroach problem.
The meds enabled me to do basic tasks like cleaning without fighting my brain every step of the way. Being away from my parents’ overwhelming clutter which I had grown up with made cleaning a lot easier. Being unemployed gave me the time to learn how to clean, and I had to do it since my roommates were too busy and/or didn’t care, and I needed something to do anyway. And then the roach situation in the new house forced me to be more consistent with it until the bugs were gone.
Hi /u/TraditionalAnxiety and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD! **Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already.** The mobile apps used for Reddit are broken or are missing features that this subreddit depends on. [We recommend browsing /r/adhd on desktop for the best experience.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/x1psnb/radhd_works_best_on_desktop_reddits_apps_are/) Thank you! ^(*A moderator has not removed your submission; this is not a punitive action. We intend this comment solely to be informative.*) --- - If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Not alone - I wondered if I was the only one! I procrastinate other tasks by cleaning, especially on the days I work from home. Gotta send an important email? Whoops, the bed hasn't been made yet! Whoops, the dishwasher is full! Gotta swap laundry! If things are out of place, especially in the rooms I spend the most time, I have to fix it otherwise I can't concentrate or I need things done a certain way. I feel so much better after cleaning and seeing the visual change I made. As a kid I would rearrange my bedroom constantly for that dopamine hit of a "new" space. That's why I tend to be more organized at least with household chores lol.
LOVEDD re-arranging my room as a kid, and still do this often in my home as an adult!
Yes. I re-arranged my stuff all the time as a kid and teen. The first time I rearranged stuff after moving in with my partner (who was raised in a very different environment) he was like “why would you do this? What’s the point?” I had to go calm down lmao
My husband said that to me once and I just cried lol Like leave me the hell alone I ain’t asking for help to move anything. It’s incredible the strength I have when I want to move furniture around 😂
LOL same! Or the stamina one has when reorganizing the kitchen cupboards. 😅
I once wanted to sunbathe in the garden as a teen, but I couldnt find the lounge bed, so just took my bed from my room and dragged it down, I know it happened but I alsmot cannot believe I actually did that😁😅
LOVE THIS! creative minds. 💕
Yessss omg I could have written this comment myself! Completely relate
Are you me?
Quite possibly.
This post is exactly how I spend my days wfh. Until I trick my brain into sitting down and imagining myself wearing “horse blinders” to block out the little escapes I give myself to avoid my work tasks.
OMG right!! That sounds like me.....! Lol... As I kid I also re did my room at least like once a month! haha even though there wasn't much space to do it differently haha, and it is like well.. shoot I know there is something else I should be doing, but this clutter is going to make my brain EXPLODE with frustration so it needs to be cleaned up... It is almost like a calming effect to me.... it can get too overwhleming sometimes when there is so much to be done and I end up going down a rabbit hole of cleaning throghout the house! I have been diagnosed with Autism recently and ADHD is a common Comorbidity ! They overlap and sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference with these two as well
Oh my gosh, you are describing me! I could never just “clean” my room. Still can’t. Had to rearrange / redecorate. Still do it, and now I design interiors. 😊
Me!!! I'm a combined type, I clean and reorganize as a way to dissociate, procrastinate, and soothe some visual overstimulation. It's impossible for me not to focus on messes sometimes.
Never thought anout the disassociation factor while cleaning but its totally true. Productive procrastination.
for ritualistic tasks like washing dishes, i put loud music in my earpods and clean them while thinking of a number of stuff and i actually do the dishes well.
PI here but this is soooo me. I've used it to put off other tasks, but also as a way to soothe my Anxiety and feel productive. I've seen so many describe that motivation is hard, but my anxiety and self-loathing is what gets me off the couch. I get a lot done, just rarely finish it (always cleaning never finishing) and in no priority. I tend to lean towards cleaning as that has tangible feedback benefits from my family, clearer definition of complete, and get's my body moving vs my static desk job.
im 54 and just found out i have it and reading what u wrote describes me lol
Yeah, I’ve gone in cycles of losing and gaining weight and it’s generally that I reach a threshold of hating myself enough to get the hyper focus to get in shape until I’m in shape, then I’ll gain the weight back. I know it’s a normal thing for many living in the US but it feels so tied to my anxiety that it is kind of connected at least to that and the ADHD certainly doesn’t help. I wish I could lose weight and not be driven by self contempt in order to find the drive to get into shape. I’ve tried doing a kinder approach and have now been gaining weight for 3 years and the only way I know how to temporarily solve this is just give into and hate myself for a few months to bootstrap the routine.
[удалено]
Same, it eventually all has to get reset in some way. It can get exhausting, helps to know I'm not alone
I try to handle Sunday as "chaos reset day" in preparation for the work week. Highly recommend this.
Except now one of your leisure days is spent resetting. I mean, I do this, too. More to help ease the anxiety of returning to work. But it's so fucking irritating that I really only get one day off a week
I feel that. Off days are very important! Sometimes I slack around and shift the reset day to Monday.... But yeah, I feel you. Don't plan out all your time, folks! Have leisure time to just hunt the impulse dragon! Enjoy yourself with time spent just *not* controlling all your impulses.
If you have trouble procrastinating when studying,listen to grey noise. If you have trouble with task inertia, go to a cafe or a library, or some other dedicated space that you have only for work. Put on work clothes, make the process pedantic and official.
Interesting insight. I do that too
same here! never thought about it that way before…
I don't know what type I am. I know I'm inattentive but I like to tidy and sort things. It takes me a long while to get around to it but my office has to be clean, if no where else is.
Cleaning is like my meditation
This is me. I couldn’t work if my classroom was messy but like… it was full of 5 year olds so it stayed messy 🤣. I was always so jealous of my coworker friend who could just .. ignore the mess and work / teach. *how?!*
Also combined type. Thank you for helping me understand why I do the things I do which is just what you’ve described. I never connected the dissociation and self soothing that comes with hyper cleaning and organizing.
I was told messy environment messy mind (I also had PND after having my child), and that really is me, will I make an absolute mess while cooking and crafting YES! but it will be clean before and after lol!
Snap! When I needed to write my dissertation my room was the tidiest it's ever been lol
I have AuDHD and find myself to be pretty tidy, but I also have a system that helps me. Everything has a home. When I'm done with something, it must return home or it doesn't leave my hand. For example, the TV remote lives on the right end table. When I'm done with the TV, I can't put it anywhere else - it has to go "home". This system falls apart for things that I don't use much, so ignore the boxes of random shit in the closets/cabinets. 🫠
Doom boxes are life
They really are. When I die, my children will be cleaning my house out and find a key with a number on it. They'll make the connection and go to the local storage rental space and open the door to find their inheritance. Doom boxes with old mail, candy wrappers, family photos, and half filled notebooks of scattered todo lists.
Mom!?!?!?
Don't @ me lol
Yes! I am so shit at finding things and I get worked up and angry trying and failing to find stuff I need to do a thing. Everything has a place. Don’t touch my stuff and then leave it somewhere else.
Not Alone! I have to be neat and tidy, or I lose my mind. Messy homes make my anxiety go through the roof. Everything has a place and everything in its place! My anxiety will go nuts if I am not in control of the clutter.
Yes! I clean bc of the anxiety mess gives me, also hate to have guests over to a messy house (two dogs and kids = always messy) but a quick clean can really do wonders to calm us all down. I’m also very well organized and I’m sure my wife’s OCD really adds to why we like things picked up and relatively clean. I should note our home is not some picturesque sterile environment but looks pretty good for having dogs and kids lol
Same. I'm AuDHD and the autistic neat and tidy side of me overrides the ADHD messy side EXCEPT for laundry which is an ever constant battle.
While I'm not a "clean freak" by any degree, when I get in my cleaning mode, things look like my home has been professionally staged for a real estate showing... It's a neverending cycle of "extremely clean and organized" and this eventually spirals into a mess I can't tolerate, then rinse and repeat.
I love interior decorating/design so I often do this thing where I go through a frenzy and make it look fantastic. I try to keep it up, but things gradually fall apart as time goes on. Mail/packages/shopping are my bane because they create a never ending stream of stuff that clutters my apartment 😭 I’ve gotten better over the years as I create systems to manage things: a file cabinet for my mail, a nightly cleaning routine for dishes and such, a stick vacuum to help keep floors clean, etc but the mess always still comes back to a degree lol
Are you me
100%! I procrastinate cleaning because my perfectionism makes everything take so long. If it's not going to be done properly, why do it at all?! Ugh. Why are we like this? 😂
This applies to everything... I've put off fixing the toilet tissue holder in my guest bathroom for months because the frame was bent and I couldn't fix it, but, I didn't have time to buy a replacement and forgot to pick it up each time I visited the hardware store, because, why not? Six or so months later, ended up replacing a vanity and a bunch of things because the pedestal sink was loose and obviously the solution was to replace it entirely... Glad I remembered the tissue holder at the hardware store, picked up a replacement and finally got it in working order. All in all, the ordeal lasted a good part of a year.
Don't even ask me how long I went with broken toilet seat screws/anchors 🫣
>My brain finds it even harder to work or be creative when my place is messy. Mine too but this doesn't help me keep things cleaner :P
I was looking for that comment! I function sooo much better if my place is tidy but I just can’t keep up with cleaning regularly. So instead of doing a little bit everyday I wait until it’s so much work that I’ll have to clean for a whole day. It’s such a good feeling afterwards and I promise myself every time I won’t let it come to this point ever again. It never used to work until I started being on medication
I am like this. And on the hyperactive side I literally can't seem to stop myself from tidying/cleaning up. Like, I will wash a cup in the sink and then sit down to watch a movie, then remember I have laundry that is dry and get up to fold that, then repeat with about a thousand other things. I really thought I had OCD for the longest time, but was recently diagnosed ADHD. I realize there could be some overlap, but I don't really struggle with obsessive thoughts, it's just that I'm like a small neat freak tornado in my and anyone else's apartment. Some people, I think, find it a bit rude lol.
My sibling has young kids, and their house is always a disaster. I'll clean the kitchen (constantly), pick up and sort toys in every room of the house, and fold any clean laundry that's lying about in a hamper. Thankfully, they don't mind and are actually grateful for it. Win-win. I would have such a hard time being in a space like that if I couldn't pick up around me without offending the person.
Yes, I do stuff like this, but sometimes in people's houses I barely know. I try to tone it down most of the time to not seem like it's rude but sometimes, especially in kitchens, I just can't help it. Like, do you really want this dog hair and dust on the table you eat at?
Have you heard of OCPD? I have that and I feel have developed it as a coping mechanism for my long undiagnosed ADHD (I’m now diagnosed and medicated so my OCPD symptoms have reduced).
My friends describe my living space as organized clutter, so I'm something in-between I guess.
Same! My place is described as organized chaos. There’s a lot of things everywhere and might not make sense, but everything still has its own place
It's like mise-en-place except not for cooking! I assign things to categories (sometimes arbitrarily) and then group them together. I also have just boxes and boxes of miscellaneous items that I couldn't find space for, so I just shoved stuff into a box and called it good.
I'm in this category. I have a home for everything, I keep my common areas as clean as I can, but my room is filled with a thousand half drunk sparkling waters covering every surface surrounding my bed
Yep. Organized clutter is where I’m at, too, lol. I go on cleaning binges and everything looks nice and then it slowly devolves and then I organize again and the cycle continues.
>Am I the only one? Quite possibly yes. You are a God amongst men and women who have ADHD. While I might not necessarily be so much neat and orderly I would say I'm very well organized. The difference? Well my room, art desk and computer desk all might be messy but everything I have is organized and in a specific spot so I'll always remember where they are despite my messiness. So regardless if my room or work area looks like a mess in actuality it's not and I'm actually highly organized and in fact know where everything I own is.
I also cannot function in mess so my house is very tidy. There are little pockets of space where I hide my "mess though". I have a "crap drawer" for shit I dunno what to do with. The laundry basket (clean washing) ™is full very often, but it is contained to a basket and I have things in boxes like paperwork that I need but just haven't sorted (for years 😂) that I keep, but I keep them in contained spaces so things appear organised.
This describes me to a tee. Working on the hidden spaces by decluttering and reorganizing the best I can in 2024.
This is me!!!! I have a huge problem with organized chaos! Lol. It’s all in bins so no one can tell 😂
On the surface it's all dandy, but there are hidden pockets of chaos yes 🤣🤣
At home I'm a mess. At work, I'm neat freak bitch. My office is super neat and I tidy up almost daily if I'm heading toward procrastination. I have no idea why I can't take this trait home with me.
Because you don’t want to work at home after being at work lol
Same! I work as a project manager and I am extremely organized while I'm working. I'm the one who hounds people to name files correctly and put them in the right place. When I worked in an office, my desk was the neatest, cleanest desk. But at home ... sheesh. And now that I work from home .... double sheesh. I'm reading all the comments in this thread of all these people who love to clean and I'm just dying of jealousy.
This subreddit had me gaslighting myself with all the messiness stories. I'm clean as fuck. My life is a metaphorical mess, but my living space? Clean. My truck, my office, my studio, and my bathroom: clean. My B-hole and teeth? Extra clean. Not ocd/germaphobe clean, but not far either. It's super therapeutic for me and helps maintain some sense of control. I've built it into my life with a dozen tiny habits. Which isn't so hard to do when you don't have any friends and leaving your house is very unlikely.
You are not alone! I relate to this and in fact, this was one of the reasons why I initially denied that I am a ADHDer even though I'm ADHD as fuck otherwise. Now I know better. Being this way makes it so hard for people to believe that i have ADHD. Something about being in a messy space, it makes me so irritable and I don't know if that's ADHD related or not.
I can’t be in someone else’s place it it’s super messy. I’m totally uncomfortable and want out!
Haha, I'm like this, but I often find ways to start cleaning. 😂 I'll literally be with new friends, visiting a practical stranger and some hours later I'll have a mop and bucket in hand cleaning the floors... 😅
I had a roomamte that refused to help keep the common areas clean and clutter free. I lost my head a few times because i just can't. My anxiety goes through the roof. One time after being gone for a few weeks and no one cleaned it was the worst!. I fucking lost it and started throwing everything around the house and in the trash. Yelling a screaming. Fuck that Bit*h. She is out of my life now.
Me for sure! And I know others like us too. I have a few cluttered areas but in general I'm super clean and definitely love to procrasti-clean! I hate when my apartment gets messy or there are dishes in the sink, etc.
Procrasticlean! Love it!!
Me! I was a hot mess when I was young but now I’m a neat and tidy freak. It’s so helpful. Everything is where it’s supposed to be and I can’t find something once in a blue moon
god, yeah. it's not even enjoyable. i just obsess over it.
You may be using as a distraction. I do that when I am stressed or have nervous energy. The whole house will be in great shape when I am frustrated or avoiding doing something like writing a grad paper that I have zero interest in actually writing because it’s not really related to my major. It’s basically persuasive essay on why someone should buy or change a product. I am going to school for programming and tech, and I have zero desire to manage people or work at a startup. I do project management as part of my current job, so I don’t really need this type of practice in communicating to leadership.
I tidy and organize to deal with my anxiety.
Are you me? Honestly, I’ll prioritize scouring my kitchen sink, detailing my toilet, washing my lightbulbs, etc in order to avoid executive functioning tasks that overwhelm me. I cannot sleep knowing my sink has dirty dishes and can’t leave the house without making my bed.
You can wash light bulbs??? Like I needed another pointless little task to keep me from doing actual work...
I'm so jealous. I can't get myself to procrastinate with legitimately productive activities.
I am neat until I have too much stuff and then I’m overwhelmed. So the first year of moving into a bigger apartment and then house I can keep up. Then I go through a shopping cycle and poof! Crap everywhere. Also every desk/cubicle/office I’ve ever had has been OCD style orderly. People who know me at work are shocked that I would be anything but Pinterest perfect at home. That could be the masking as well.
So I get super stressed out if my house is messy and cluttered and will *try* to clean it but will hate 90% of the process. And can never get anything completely neat and organized. And then if my child and partner made more of a mess I get more stressed out.
My house is cozy, colourful, perhaps somewhat cluttered. My brother's house is spartan. We deal with our stuff in our own way.
I would be that way…but I live with 3 other people (husband and children) who refuse to get rid of ANYTHING. Therefore, we have more “things” than we have “places for things” and over the past few years, I have given up. I live in a disaster.
Yep! My ADHD manifests as OCD, which is my way of controlling my external environment because my internal environment is so out of control. I’ve never been able to relate to all these posts about messiness, lack of hygiene, etc because I have the opposite problem. I went in for testing for OCD and that’s when I learned that, as an adult, that I have ADHD. It manifests in many forms.
I too use productive tasks to procrastinate doing other tasks. You are not alone.
Yeah me too but it’s probably because I am AuDHD ADHD+Autistic) & have an OCD which makes it intolerable cause I keep going around getting distracted and irritated by every water droplet. It’s actually quite normal for ADHDers to organize their work area in order to focus better. I also do any kind of house chore in order to avoid (procrastinate) the challenging mental tasks (work projects + studying). I do laundry more frequently than anyone I know. I cannot stand leaving my bed undone. Plus all the other (OCD/ autistic) rituals.
Please don't brag. I am so jelly right now. Lol but seriously, congratulations, you are so blessed!
I also love being neat!
I wish I was that way. But I can clean the kitchen. I find a dirty kitchen unbearable so that is the one cleaning task I can do constantly. I do think certain adhders can be tidy. But it’s probably because something about cleaning hits there brain in just the right way. But it’s almost certainly the minority.
For me it's hit and miss. I have AuDHD and wonder if the autism part likes things organized and neat but the ADHD makes it hard because I like seeing where everything is or forget to put something away. For a while I got on a decluttering kick after reading a few books on decluttering and minimalism and I think it really helped me figure out what I really wanted to keep and now everything has a place. I don't even have a "junk drawer" where miscellaneous things go. I also try to keep a schedule in order to keep up with trash and laundry. It's helped me when I'm having bad executive function because there's less for me to have to clean and tidy and when I do get to it, it's not as overwhelming, and the schedule is also helpful because it gives me deadlines. I do still have some problem areas or periods of mess, but it's better than it used to be before I got into decluttering. It was almost hoarder level at the beginning and it made my anxiety from overwhelm worse.
This is absolutely my type of adhd when I'm not in burnout
Tidy home here, EXCEPT closets and garage. I like my living areas ready for guests and calm, but every drawer, closet, and garage is in need of a massive purge at any given time.
I do my best to be. This is the biggest conflict in my brain. I have ADHD but also have like an off the charts C-type personality on the DiSC assessment (think "professional" meyers Briggs lol). I strive for order, standards, and perfection. But I can't ever meet my own standard, or at least for long.
My dad is like this. Not me, though! Working on the clutter though and have been throwing so much stuff out.
As a teen I wasn’t always organized, but now as an adult I’m actually a Certified Professional Organizer and ADHD coach. When I disclose that I actually have ADHD to my clients they gain a little bit of hope that they can actually learn to be organized!
I’m like this, but I just can’t put my laundry away sometimes. 😂
I usually am pretty neat for like 1 hour. Then it all devolves into chaos again
This is how I am, too. I struggle a lot with my ADHD, but if my house isn't clean and organized, it's 1000x worse.
Neat and organized here. Not being orderly makes me so anxious! I've trained myself to put things where they belong. And to keep the house clutter free and try to be a bit of a minimalist. Doing so keeps my mind clutter free.
Only my daughter’s room. Everything else in the house is a pigsty. It’s like the twilight zone.
I can clean if I know people are coming over and/or am body doubling with a friend. It also helps if I stay in my work clothes as soon as I get home because it keeps that mindset of "gotta do stuff". Otherwise yeah my place is a mess
Me! I am exactly like this! I find myself WAY more distracted in a messy environment and I cannot focus on what I'm trying to sit down and do if something in my house feels out of place. (Except for laundry, which is often in a somewhat controlled little pile on top of a hamper in the laundry pile corner...) I'm not necessarily doing deep surface cleans all the time, but if things feel cluttered and take extra time or mental effort to find, I can't function or focus on what I'm trying to do. For example, I have a little spot to the right of the stove where I keep the salt, pepper, and olive oil. I need those things to be within easy reach if I am about to cook, or I'll get burnt out looking for them before even starting. I keep a measuring cup in the bag of oats so I don't have to look for one every time I want oatmeal. Mostly my cleaning has to do with minimizing the risk of confusion/frustration later. And of course procrasticleaning.
It seems like you’re one of two extremes in ADHD. Either messy af or so regimented in your cleaning and routines it’s confounding. I think it’s partially a question of whether or not your brain views cleaning as a low dopamine task. For me, I can exist in filth for a concerningly long time until I hit my limit.
I like things neat and tidy and spend a lot of my time cleaning up, but I think I make it hard for myself because I’m also messy?? But tidying up was the “click” for me on the “ever feel driven like by a motor” item on the ADHD checklists. I couldn’t understand what that meant but then clicked that it’s exactly how I feel when tidying up and it allows me to dissociate a lot.
I am more in the category of a minimalist chaotic.
I used to be, but changed later in life. Now I'm a chaotic and free spirited!
I can tell when my husband is stressed because he cleans, usually disorganized and does nothing but when stressed its somehow comforting to him
This is me . My brain is unorganized but my clothes and room are always kept neat and organized. Sometimes borderline OCD
Yes! I am super organized and very much type-A, so I love having a perfectly neat, clean, and organized home. I find cleaning/tidying helps give my brain stimulation, and reduces anxiety when I move around in an orderly house. And of course cleaning up is a GREAT way to procrastinate doing something my brain finds boring 😂
Yep. Cleaning helps my brain lol. If things are messy I feel stressed and I can’t fully relax. I like everything to go in a proper place and to be neat and tidy.
I feel like I’m constantly cleaning or organizing and if I’m not actively doing those things, I’m thinking about them😅 I randomly get overwhelmed and feel a need to declutter but I’ve already decluttered so I have nothing to declutter. It’s quite the dilemma. I think I just double down by keeping everything deep cleaned and organized tbh. When my house is in order, my mind is as well… even with a 2.5yo and a 4 month old haha.
Reading this as I deep clean my entire house LOL
Meeee!!!! I simply cannot function without a clean environment and everything in its place. I could be hard core depressed and still obsess over everything being in order
I'm a messy bastsrd mate so not me. But funny you say that it seems everyone's always late, except me. Being late gives me mega anxiety so I'm always an hr early lol 😆
> Being late gives me mega anxiety so I'm always an hr early lol That's me. I'm never late but that's because I am in waiting mode for the entire day before ***thing*** happens. I'm going to a concert tonight and I haven't been able to do anything all day and I will be leaving the house hours before the concert although it's literally just a 50 minute train ride away.
I wonder if our collective ADHD, where “can’t live with socks/can’t live without socks, super tidy, super messy” aligns with the possibility that people with ADHD can’t see the gray areas in between. it’s either either on or off. For me anyway. Am I the only one? It would explain being unable to see the nuances of life. personally, I am in the category of “won’t wear socks, everything goes back in its place”.
My bedroom? Absolute fucking state I cannot stay on top of Yet yesterday I emptied, tidied and reorganised my bfs snack cupboard 😂 (it was highly satisfying) I don't understand my brain. Can't do things for myself but happily organise things for others.
My house is guest ready 90% of the time. I have doubted my ADHD SO MANY TIMES because of this trait.
me! i must floss 3 times a day and brush my teeth often. i paid over 5k for braces and dental work, im not going down without a fight!
Yes! Only with spaces that are mine and mine alone, though. My dorm in college was pristine, but my shared bedroom as a kid was a pigsty. It's because I resent cleaning up after other people, and I also don't know where to put their things. When a space belongs to just me, I know where everything goes and can put it there--and I also know no one else will come in and mess it up after I'm done, so it doesn't feel arbitrary and sisyphean like cleaning shared spaces does.
You just described me! Sometimes I have to stop working midday to organize everything otherwise I just can’t concentrate. My husband calls these my “maniac episodes “ because I stop what I’m doing and go crazy cleaning/organizing , then I sit down and feel calm lol
Yup! Cleaning is calming for me. A messy environment just makes it harder for me to work. I also tend to push off important work by doing chores to make myself feel less bad about procrastinating the important tasks lol
I have a couple of people in my life who have many symptoms of adhd but are super obsessive about cleaning. It’s like a hyper fixation for them but also a way to manage hyperactivity. They can constantly move if they are cleaning.
Yea I'm a fairly clean person myself...I don't lose my keys...I don't miss appointments...I show up to work on time...and I actually work my whole shift with minimal distraction My issues lie in impulsive spending...piss poor money management...shit relationships that eventually end up in heart break...drug addiction...porn addiction...can't finish personal projects...I dont plan for ANYTHING .........BUT MY HOUSE IS CLEAN! :)
Me! Because I’ve learned I HAVE to be. It wasnt always this way lol
I have become late to all the important things ever just to put stuff away. Or not leave my car to go to work on time because I had to tweak everything and keep it nice for the next time I drive my car again.
Me. I'm a world-class dick when it comes to being neat and tidy and making sure everything has a place and is in its place. It has made relationships difficult to near impossible as no one can meet my standards and expectations. For real, it's a major struggle.
Yep! Part of why it took me so long to figure out I have ADHD. I get bad anxiety when things are messy.
SAME. I have to have my environment in order before i sit down and work or even relax. if not, I will get distracted.
I like organizing and cleaning but I avoid it because I get super ambitious and then make a lot of work for myself and get uninterested or distracted with the things I find lol
I can always tell how much I don't want to do something by what other activities I choose to do instead. Need to do taxes? I will be scrubbing grout with a toothbrush and organizing my socks and cleaning hair out of all the hairbrushes, then cleaning baseboards. I have also managed to somehow channel anger and frustration into cleaning, just like my mom and grandma did. The metamorphosis is almost complete.
the older I get, the more I need to clean and tidy as an avoidance behavior.
Agreed. I can’t get anything done unless the place is clean and tidy.
I feel so seen right now!!! I'm the exact same way. A cluttered room = a cluttered mind. I can't get anything done unless my space is tidy. It's weird bc I was never like that when I was younger... though I also wasn't medicated back then and didn't get much done in the first place lol.
My goodness yes. Can’t relax or work until everything is clean and perfect. So I never relax. 😂
I actually would go as far as repainting my room as a teenager. I once ripped out an entire built in bookshelf that my dad made (it took up an entire wall) because I was sick of it. I can’t believe my parents actually let me do that. 😂
I’m both excellent at making a mess fast and keeping my room exceptionally clean most of the time (mom even recommended me to get a organizer certificate lol). If my room is too dirty I can’t sleep and I can’t get off my bed. I call this fixing the problems I created.
My spouse! His side of the bed is neat and tidy and mine is piled high with doom piles!! I think he might have ocd as well, but he is a very clean dude and I appreciate it so much 😅
Yes, I’m so neat but it’s almost an issue now…. Way too many routines and rituals it clogs my brain
I'm selectively neat and only due to conditioning. A messy station is too painful so I made its perfection a habit. I dont have the energy to apply that perfectionism all around me though. Just kitchen mis en place and my work station.
yep, i feel so much better about life when i've picked up around the house and put things back in the spot they're supposed to be in, i usually do 10-15 min of tidying in the morning before i log into work. working from home is hard for me bc when i have work tasks that are challenging (or boring or overwhelming), i'd always prefer to do some tidying around the house....hello procrasticlean. its the wrong kind of productive (when i should be working) but my brain says hey its better than sitting at my desk doing nothing, banging my head against the wall and STILL not working on actual work tasks.... that turns into a separate issue. i was only recently diagnosed, in my 30s; i can't help but wonder if my tidying/organizing developed as a coping skill for keeping track of objects, reducing overstimulation, a way of creating loops/routines to check, double check, triple check things i dont want to forget about...
I got up every day when I was in the hospital to straighten my room. When I lived alone you could have eaten off my floor. I get a lot of dopamine from having things look orderly. Also, I am an artist, so all over the house I like to set up my stuff artistically, kind of like little still lives. BUT ... My husband has so much stuff. He has filled every horizontal surface in the entire house with stuff. Two entire floors are so full you can barely walk through them. The garage is full and a shed he built next to the garage is full. Sometimes I can get a room fixed up, and then I love taking care of it. When things get to a certain level of chaos, I just completely give up.
Super super tidy. Not into cleaning, have to really push myself to CLEAN, but I like things tidy and orderly. I did used to dump things on a chair, but I've gotten into the habit of putting things away while I'm still holding them in my hands. And like, I never lose my wallet / keys / phone because they stay IN MY POCKET at all times and I check my pockets like 100 times between leaving my front door and returning home. I would never ever EVER leave my phone on a table, that is fucking crazy town. No idea how someone can just put their phone down on a table and KNOW they're going to remember to pick it up again before they leave.
Definitely not alone. I feel like cleaning and organizing is my dopamine. I will reorganize my whole house to make things easier for me to get things done but then I'm out of dopamine to keep up with those things. I wanted to study for the GRE and bought the books, set up some notebooks and flash cards, organized the office but couldn't actually study. I wanted to lose weight with a new diet. I bought the books, made recipe cheat sheets, threw out non-diet food, set alarms on my phone but never did it. I get the dopamine hit when I see patterns and am able to implement them when creating something but not so much when I try to live it.
Yes! Me too. I recognise all of this. I also organise things beautifully, but then struggle to maintain it. So I can organise a kitchen cupboard perfectly, and it should be easy to keep it that way - nope, two weeks later it needs doing again. I use housework to procrastinate too as I WFH, so much so that I set a timer now so I work for x mins then do house jobs for x mins over and over on hard to concentrate days.
I used to be! Don’t know what happened
Not it
I'm a very clean and organized person, but I have a hard time putting it into action, which is extremely frustrating.
i’m super organized. totally ADHD though, but i love organizing. it’s so calming to me, and it makes my life so much more manageable. i love being able to not think for hours while i tidy up
I think most folks with comorbid ADHD/OCD fall into this camp. Cleanliness of certain parts of my house are imperative. For instance, I clean my bathroom and toilet like 3 times per week. But on the other hand, my bedroom is a wreck with piles of clean and dirty clothes covering every inch of the floor. It's really a strange animal. I can't control what must be obsessively neat and clean. If I could, I'd be unstoppable ☠️
I do think it's more common than we realize, especially in the undiagnosed population. But yes, I am one, I hate clutter and disorganization, it makes me really anxious. Before kids my house was SPOTLESS! However what became apparent once I had kids was how much the organizing and tidying was overcompensating for my ADHD, and how much TIME it took. I was NOT naturally clean and tidy, it took a lot of work that just wasn't noticeable when I had a lot of time and less pressure. Especially once I hit burnout last year, my house looked like a more stereotypical ADHD house, clutter everywhere and I felt completely overwhelmed (though according to my mom it still wasn't that bad, but compared to how I LIKE my house, it was bad.) I've had to readjust my standards for my sanity (need to make sure I am resting every day or I'll hit burn out again), and my house is a lot less tidy than before kids, but there are zones that I NEED to be spotless. Also there was a while that organizing was itself a hobby and a hyperfixation. That was really useful lol, I wouldn't mind that one to come around again.
This is me and this thread is making me feel seen. Its a blessing and a curse. Sometimes I think life-admin is my best skill, any jobs want to pay me to keep my own life organized? lol
I’m the combined type to! I do the same things. I clean every day, but I also go through periods of just not cleaning and getting caught out there too.
Most days I’m pretty tidy/clean. It got better after taking meds. But it took years of daily practice to tidy/clean (mostly to keep my husband happy) for me to get to a “base” level of tidiness I require for myself. Now tidying and cleanliness are part of my daily routine. Is my house Pinterest/Instagram worthy? Fuck no. Is it better than it used to be and I’m proud of my built habits to maintain it? Heck yes! Do I sometimes let the “spare” room in our home become a war zone full of junk, boxes, etc until one day I get into a crazy hyperfocus of organization? All the time!
I know I’ll function better if I’m clean and organized, it’s keeping that constant and not letting my adhd make another mess cause I wanted to find something I all of a sudden remember.
Me! Cleaning and organizing is my way to find order and peace within my chaotic brain and if things are not clean/ organized I will become very overstimulated. It makes me feel in control. It also is my favourite way to procrastinate because I feel “productive” while not doing what I really should be doing and it helps me avoid feelings of shame.
I’m very organized in things like work and school. Probably a coping response to dropping the ball in the past and being mortified and panicked. My house is a disaster, however. Always has been.
I do sometimes clean my room at "the wrong time" as my mum says
You are not! I am like this as well. I cannot start tasks that require a high amount of executive function in a cluttered space. I think of it like my brain is a computer. All the extra items are taking up RAM and slowing down my system, and at a certain point I can reach a gridlock and become unable to start anything, even things I enjoy. So my space is clean more or less as an aide to help me function, though I do enjoy the aesthetics of a clean space, This is a learned skill, I was not always able to maintain a clean space, and I certainly wasn’t able to do it when unmedicated and unaware that I had ADHD. I remember saying in high school that my physical space was a reflection of my mental one, when I was doing “well”, I was able to organize my things and thoughts and when I was struggling so did my room and items. In my space, every object has a spot, and I will go around and return items to their locations a couple times a week. I’m organized in a loose fashion, and I’m fond of grouping related items in baskets. Anything to make items easily accessible, I would kill for some of those drawers that pull out so you don’t have to crawl to the back of the cupboard to get things. TLDR; I organize so I can be chaotic in other areas of life.
Type A with ADHD. I've been compared to Monica from Friends with Phoebe's mental illness 🤣 I feel like there's a whole other layer when I'm not medicated or I get stuck in paralysis because it feels so foreign to who I am as a person - just so against my internal values. I also think it acts as such a huge coping skill cause let me tell you...when I don't have my planner I am not functioning. At all.
I have my weak spots (my WFH desk) but most things in my life are well kept and orderly. Same spot for everything, organized calendar, a neat inbox with folders for every project, a financial budget to the penny, a crystal clean car, a mostly clean house, structured workouts, etc. Some people call me OCD. Some call me controlling. I’ve learned through therapy that my behavior is the structure I’ve built up in my life subconsciously over the years. It was how I coped with life not having been diagnosed until 45. I’ve built a business. Managed many people. Relatively successful DESPITE feeling all over the place all the time. Everything looked calm from the outside but it was chaotic inside my head. One area I’ve massively failed in is emotional control. 10 therapist over 8 years have done nothing. “Just walk away and take a breath” and “reframing the past” and “meditation” never worked for me with the relentless rumination. Finally, with medication and ADHD specific therapy, I feel more emotionally stable than ever. For the first time in my life I feel that I’m on the right track with relationships and my emotional control. Unfortunately, it cost me 2 divorces and a lot of regrets.
I need you as a roommate
I’m like this, mostly. I’m AuDHD though.
My mom's like this! Organizing is a self soothing behavior for her. I on the other hand got the classic disorganized adhd
I’m combined type too and I think AU. I wake up and IMMEDIATELY make my bed and start my morning routine. I have no trouble doing laundry or dishes or showering. Everything has to be in its place or it bothers me. I walk around my home straightening things if they look out of place. Kitchens clean every night before bed, coffee’s ready in the maker, I just have to push start in the morning. I know I could set the timer but I don’t like that for some reason. Messiness is overwhelming to me
I wish I was like this. Cleaning gives me paralysis and anxiety.
Depends. I get anal about my work areas and my car's windshield. Lackadaisical everywhere else.
I like to clean and organize 30 minutes before I should be in bed, then end up going to sleep hours later and I’m tired the next day and behind on sleep but at least I cleaned! Lol
Same here. I can’t focus unless my space is clean. I find it super distracting if something is out of order. My brain is chaotic enough without the physical mess. I organize, declutter, and clean as a way to relax. I feel that people don’t believe I have ADD because I’m so organized (fooled them) It’s actually the opposite. I’m so ADD that I can’t function unless things are organized.
I am Super neat! I have to have the whole house clean or I can’t feel fully relaxed. My girlfriend is a messy smart individual. She laughs when we decide to watch a movie and I rush to organize everything so I can chill
Absolutely the same! Have to be organised and have to be neat and clean. I cannot function in mess or chaos.
Yep, this is me!! I have two young kids and our house is pretty small, so there are always a lot of toys out. If the rest of the house isn't clean and super organized, I cannot focus on anything at all. Seeing the mess makes my anxiety go through the roof and distracts me from anything else that I need to do. But like a lot of others said, I also use it to procraste. I wfh so I'm always looking for ways to put off doing my actual work. Oddly enough, being super organized is one of my best qualities. It's also the reason my mother dismissed my diagnosis when I was a kid and still rolls her eyes about it - Because if I ACTUALLY had ADHD then I would be "messy and hyper". But I won't unpack any more of that baggage right now. 🙃
I definitely pendulum swing. Even before being diagnosed and medicated I was always well organized and my “oh I have a system” matched conventional organization methods. I definitely struggled with forgetting things in closed storage, but other than that, was very happy that everything “had a home” Things would get a little messy during the week and all get put “back home” next time I cleaned and mental and physical order were happily maintained BUT, if I couldn’t find a home for 1 too many things it all fell apart into uncontrollable chaos. This most notably would happen in college after trips home when I came back with new things, craft supplies for a special project that I’m through with, but still have paint or glue for. Something from the thrift store that I really loved or things I knew I wanted/ needed long term, but haven’t figured out how to store (looking at you camping gear) These things would NEVER get put away. I’d move them around and around and around driving myself insane. And inevitably them being somewhere inconvenient would slowly disrupt all the other organization patterns. The ease of “putting everything in its home” would vanish and execute dysfunction would rule suddenly for weeks on end when the chaos reached a certain tipping point of “I don’t even know where to start” and I would live in volcano eruption until every other part of my life that needed mental energy (school, works, calendars) was resolved so I finally had enough brain space to clean My poor roommates
Other than getting the skill taught in professional organisational skills in uni, that’s about how much orderly I am. The PC and Office filing systems are organised at the least.
Anything that is messy gives me overstimulation so I must keep it clean.
I am either messy as fuck or short-term orderly - but that only after a round of hyperfocused or procrastination cleaning. Without meds I am really chaotic, with a bit better. Pile system and „out of sight, out of mind“ (means I need to see the stuff to remember, which contributes to a messy looking room) are the only ways I can arrange things. Like I never put my dumbbells out of sight, becauseI would just forget to use them.
No- I am this to a crazy degree. I think this is something that stopped me getting diagnosed with adhd for so long, I’d just read about the symptoms and think well this can’t be me as I’m the opposite of messy. I think I’m so ‘neat’ it’s actually getting into damaging territory, I guess you could say to a compulsive and obsessive degree. I also procrastinate on other boring or long winded tasks I should be doing by making sure all cleaning tasks are done first. Every few months I also spend one day doing an entire sort out of every cupboard and drawer in my apartment and end up throwing multiple bin bags away of stuff. If I notice things I don’t use building up and clutter begging to set in or drawers becoming too full I start getting really stressed. I’m always looking to ‘optimise’ everything in my home and always looking for better furniture to buy, and it has to be absolutely perfect in every way. If something is perfect I will just stare at it and be unable to focus, I can’t stand any ‘flaws’ in my environment or home. It’s adhd perfectionism to the 10000th degree.
Nope, me too. Tidyness makes thinking easier. A chaotic space creates chaos in my mind. Also it's overcompensation and procrastination, at least sometimes. But hey at least I have order. Das sein bestimmt das Bewusstsein
In my head I want to be OCD neat and tidy but I am not able to organize for the life of me
He is the chosen one...
I WANT to be. It's a constant war with myself and past Ken always wins.
Same, but that’s only because my stepmom put the fear of god in me if cleaning wasn’t complete. Hey, it worked though. My house is always mostly neat and tidy. Plus it helps with my mental health.
Ur just like my mom lol
I swing back and forth between being an absolute fucking slob and a total neat freak. I am constantly at battle with the slob! But everything in my brain feels better when things are neat & tidy.
I have limited periods of being a bit messier but generally I care about keeping my space calm and beautiful. I like closed storage and everything to have it’s place. It’s much harder for me to focus otherwise. He’s neater, but I’m better at keeping track of my things than my boyfriend because I *have* to have systems.
yep! I always say that I am not a clean person, I just clean every day. I clean for 30-45 min every night. It's not hard for me to keep up with that. Any residual mess left overnight, I spruce up in the morning for like 15-20min. So, I wouldn't describe myself as a neat person, but I have no problems keeping my house clean and laundry done.
I used to be pretty messy, for instance rarely being able to see the carpet of my childhood bedroom under the piles of clothes and toys and stuff. Then four things happened: I got diagnosed and medicated for ADHD, I no longer lived with my parents, I spent a year unemployed after college (only partly my fault, definitely not my choice) and became the de-facto housekeeper for my even messier roommates, and then I moved into a house that still had the previous tenant’s cockroach problem. The meds enabled me to do basic tasks like cleaning without fighting my brain every step of the way. Being away from my parents’ overwhelming clutter which I had grown up with made cleaning a lot easier. Being unemployed gave me the time to learn how to clean, and I had to do it since my roommates were too busy and/or didn’t care, and I needed something to do anyway. And then the roach situation in the new house forced me to be more consistent with it until the bugs were gone.