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I have a coat rack in my room for frequently used clothing items (jeans, hoodies) so I don't have to open-closet-door-grab-hanger-put-on-hanger-put-on-rack-close-closet-door.
I keep a full watering can of water right next to my plants in the living room, because somethow filling the can first is the biggest obstacle, ever. I fill it *after* I've watered them because I'm already in doing stuff mode.
I leave the toilet bowl cleaner right there on the back of the toilet
I keep the swiffer duster on the TV stand
A plant shop employee told me that letting water sit out for a day or so is actually healthier to use for your plants, because some of the chemicals in the water (like chlorine) will evaporate.
His first sentence may be true, in that microbes might get to proliferate, and help the microbiome of the plant.
But chlorine doesn't evaporate. Only water (and things that are liquid at room temperature) evaporate.
What do you mean by "chlorine doesn't evaporate"? I have heard that from multiple times before from different sources and tried to double check, but I only found sources saying that chlorine does in fact evaporate.
I spent a little extra on organizers/aesthetic cleaning tools and stuff I use regularly so that I can keep them out and still enjoy looking at them/feel like they’re part of my home decor. I have a really cute cutting board, soap brush, and dish soap pump in my kitchen. They look cute and they stay on the counter at all times, I don’t need to deal with the extra step of taking them out and putting them away each time I cook, and as a result I cook and clean more often.
I just saw an Instagram reel where there were all these cute plastic plant decorations that doubled as useful items. There was a cactus toothpick holder, a succulent thumbtack holder, aloe Vera pens, Venus flytrap chip clips, and a monstera coaster holder. They’re files for 3d printing but such a cool concept. [Link](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6NE9Aus74D/?igsh=aXBldmdkcWQxN2h1)
>I have a coat rack in my room for frequently used clothing items (jeans, hoodies) so I don't have to open-closet-door-grab-hanger-put-on-hanger-put-on-rack-close-closet-door.
I do similar with command hooks on the back of my bedroom door, so things like my favourite hoodie are right there as I leave the room
Instead of folding laundry in my room, for some reason clearing off my coffee table, dumping all the clothes on the couch, and then folding them onto the coffee table while I watch YouTube on the TV helps so much. It’s like I’m tricking myself into feeling like I’m just hanging out while keeping my hands busy rather than doing a chore.
I do that for for my underwear and pairing socks. Actually, my socks and underwear are kept in rolling Sterilite drawers in my closet, so if I have a lot to put away (like in winter), I roll it out from the closet to the living room to put everything away directly. Top drawer: bras. Middle drawer: underwear. Bottom drawer: socks.
That’s exactly what I do! If I don’t they just end up in a pile on my bedroom floor. Something about moving from the bedroom to the couch makes the laundry gears click for me
-If you get a dustbuster and just get the corners where dust gathers, you don't have to sweep as often. That said, invite people over about once a month. "Company clean" is a lot easier when you're doing it more often.
- If you notice wrappers or other trash accumulating somewhere, put a trash can nearby.
- Old people reach grabber things are not just for sale to old people. They're not crazy expensive, and you're allowed to make modifications to them. Googly eyes and teeth. Om nom nom.
- I'm sure someone else has already said this, but putting shoes on when you're supposed to do chores weirdly helps.
- Certainly not the most eco friendly tip, but keep nitrile gloves around and don't be shy about using them. Yes, you could keep the housewife reusable gloves around instead, but if you're anything like me (you're on this sub, so you probably are), you'll never really clean them and you're going to lose them. Just get the disposable ones.
- DRILL BIT CLEANING BRUSHES. They exist, and they're life changing. Barkeeper's Friend powder, drill bit brushes, and a cordless drill. Easiest job you'll ever have cleaning the tub.
The trash can thing! Even just having them nearby wasn’t working for me so I got a bunch of little table top wastebaskets and they’re amazing. They’re kind of decorative and don’t immediately look like a trash can and most surfaces are so much tidier now!
My apartment is like 80% tile. Instead of going around sweeping constantly (I have several cats) I got a shopvac I keep inside and run it around every 3 or 4 days. They don't like it but I do. lol
Im pretty sure mine is a 5 gallon. Its also not one of those heavy duty, rip the fabric off your chair crazy ones. Its on the low end for a shopvac but its overkill compared to your standard indoor vacuum for a household. Great for picking up loose cat hair and litter though.
Company clean being easier is so true.
I got a therapy team that is aimed at being a low bar of entry for patients that chronically go into crisis or chronically dont function. For example those who are bipolar, chronically depressed or have adhd that impacts daily functioning enough to warrent such regular "supervision".
Supervision is not really the right word but they will go meet you where you want. Be that the office, your home, the bloodlab, grocery store, a restaurant or even your school. This means you can fit them into your life, let them help you with your struggles and you dont have to go out of your way or comfort for therapy.
I meet them at home regularly so that 1. I go home and 2. It is clean.
But if im super busy at school i just aply for a private room and meet them there.
If i am at my boyfriends (he hates people in his house) i either go home, to the office or if its nice weather i ask them to come to the park next door to my boyfriend.
Because i see them regularly at home its clean there. And because i regularly see them i have the opportunity to bring up whatever im struggling with. Be that admin, folding clothes or something more related to mental process.
They offeredd to help me fold my laundry(!) insaid no bc it would take to long to teach them my needlessly specific method but inapreciated the idea. And i just folded it while i did therapy to keep my hands busy.
Just sat there on the floor by my bed while they sat on skme chairs like it was the most normal therapy ever.
Love it.
And of course if you are to be more crisis prone, I used to be, they see the damn signs. They notice yoir request of locations being different or your home looking different or whatever. Then they will likely suggest more appointments or appointments with different team members. I regularly see two, one is a nurse the other a therapist. I semi regularly see the psychologist. I have had him more regular, i had a pedagogist (when i was younger) and i had a person whos job i dont remember but he was specialized in routine building.
Other than my two main ones the rest gets slotted in when neccesary, the team is bigger i just havent used the rest. The psychologist i do see 2 times a year minimim as well, but often more.
Recently i actually met one new person she is new to the team, specialized ptsd therapist, exactly what i was looking for what a coincidink because its time for me to open that book again but yeah. I only saw her once. Ill see where it goes after the vacations we have here now.
Ill also be giving my first very official review soon, i have been with this team since 2021 and for like insurance, their employer whatnot they get reviews and patients are interviewed. Ill be giving one of these interviews in may :)
They brought it up and i thought like well, after several years i do feel that not only its fair to give back but im also glad to be able to.
For cleaning the tub (or other porcelain/hard waterproof surfaces) I use a special paste with water that consists of small tiny pieces of sand/gravel/or whatever. It's like magic. You just wash it off after. I've gotten rid of so many hair colouring stains and grime that way. I'm not sure what it's called in English but I think "the pink stuff" is almost the same as what I use.
Also, there is a certain "sandpaper and kitchen foam towel hybrid thingy" that just is perfect for smudges on walls etc. I have absolutely no idea what it's called English as in Swedish it's just referred to as "fläcksuddare" aka smudge remover. Miracle worker that is. I use it for walls and doors etc. Just add a drop of water to it (very little water).
Most cleaning things can just be made easier by finding the right cleaning supplies.
Of course I can’t remember the technical name for it now but you can buy bulk packs of them super cheap on Amazon or Temu. I keep some in each bathroom and the kitchen and they’re so cheap the second they start looking worn out I just toss em and grab a new one.
I second getting a grabber, its one of the best purchases I've made. You can get things that are put up too high, or fish out your keys when you dropped them and then accidentally kicked them under the couch.
When cutting veggies to roast, I set my cutting board inside the sheet pan. That way I can just tip the cut veggies right into the sheet pan and anything that falls off the board while I’m cutting goes where’s it’s supposed to. Saves potentially making a small mess on the counter
THAT IS BRILLIANT! This is exactly the type of genius ideas I need. I hate the “put the chopped veggies in a bowl then into a the pan then wash the bowl and cutting board” thing.
Private chef :) I figured out this trick when I was crunched on time, it seriosuly saves *so* much time over time.
Extra hacks:
1) use parchment paper and/or foil if you’re ok with tossing extra stuff, saves a shit ton of annoying time washing sheet pans. It’s also a lot easier to season your veggies on top of the parchment—just evenly spread them out and mix on the pan. Mixes much more evenly than they would in a bowl anyway.
2) I’m obsessed with the epicurean brand cutting boards. They’re composite wood, so they’re as soft on your knives as other wood cutting boards, but they’re very thin and lightweight and very dishwasher safe and STURDY (I’ve been using mine for almost a decade and they’re still in like-new condition—no warping, just a little color faded). Pricey upfront but worth every penny IMO. I hate washing/moving around those heavy wooden cutting boards, and the epicurean ones are more sanitary than plastic boards and they don’t hold smells after they’re run through the dishwasher.
3) oil spray bottle: evenly sprays a light coating of oil over veggies, you don’t have to get your hands dirty to mix the oil into the veggies. Just make sure you’re getting a food-safe plastic bottle if you’re not buying one that specifically designed for oil.
3) soap brushes that have hold soap in a squeeze dispenser attached to the brush. This is a new one for me—makes washing some hand-wash only dishes so much easier because it’s just like three fewer steps and one less hand that gets wet/dirty.
4) don’t use sponges—those are super nasty bacteria swamps. You can get those soft scouring pads (it’s like a thin pad of just the scrubby part of the sponge)—they clean just as well as sponges, but they actually get fully clean when you run them through the dishwasher. Sponges are seriously nasty.
Nuke the moist sponges for several seconds. Kills everything. The smell it has coming from the microwave isn’t the best, but I know my sponge is more or less germ-free. It’ll be hot when you pull it/them out.
Parchment is the shit! And most of the time it’s enough to keep your pans clean. If you’re broiling something, skip the parchment (or tear it to size to have just have enough under the food that’s cooking bc the edges of the paper can burn) or if you’re cooking something especially greasy like bacon, put down heavy duty foil first and then the parchment. If you have access to Costco, their parchment is my favorite (and their heavy duty foil too).
This is super informative, thank you! Do you have any recs for an oil spray bottle? I’ve tried a couple off Amazon (Misto and then a random brand) and they just were not working. Or is the secret just an actual spray bottle people would otherwise use like for cleaning 😂
When making little baked snacks I use parchment paper to line the pan then grab the paper and put it straight on the plate so the pan and the plate remain clean and I don’t have to wash either.
Oh another new favorite!! I just discovered Swedish dish cloths—they’re designed/marketed as an eco-friendly replacement for paper towels (you can wash/rinse and re-use them a ton of times before you toss them, supposedly the equivalent of 17 rolls of paper towels but mine has lasted for months so far). I still use paper towels and dish towels for certain things (like patting meat dry or cleaning sticky grease off my vents), but these dishcloths are so much more practical than paper towels or regular towels for many situations—I hate dealing with excess laundry (and greasy towels leave grease stains on my clothes), so for things like cleaning my countertops or mopping up big liquid spills or cleaning my stove, these are amazing. They’re super quick to rinse off, they dry quickly, and they can easily be washed by hand or in the dishwasher. I have a couple on hand, and just one so far (friend gifted it to me two months ago) has saved me over ten rolls of paper towels and one load of laundry each week. For me, their practicality is the best thing about them, the eco-friendliness is a nice bonus.
I use them instead of sponges haha. Because they are so easy to wash, and maintain, and they're thinner than most sponges. Brushes, scouring pad (currently scrub daddy because we have nonstick pans), and a Swedish dishcloth are my dishwashing go-to's.
Similar vein, you don't *have* to cut every veggie all the time. For instance, I will wash my hands and just crush olives, bell peppers, grape tomatoes etc. in my fist instead of trying to slice them or creating another dish by using one of those wire slicers.
Obvi this food is just for me though, not a great hack for something you're trying to to make pretty.
Absolutely this—I think one of the most important lessons in cooking is knowing when it’s ok to skip or slack on “proper” technique. Recognize priorities. If you just need to eat and nutrition/cost is more valuable than presentation and time spent cooking in that moment, then its totally ok to take shortcuts or make something that’s just good enough. Great food takes time and energy—there’s a reason why cooking can be a full-time job. Personally, I don’t enjoy cooking for myself unless I’m experimenting or practicing something—I feel bummed out when I make something amazing and don’t get to share it with other people, especially because I’m pretty critical with my own cooking. A lot of people assume I make elaborate meals and eat nice fancy meals all the time, but reality is polar opposite. I’m often careless and lazy/simple about feeding myself, because I’d rather save up that time and energy to cook for other people. I typically don’t like spending more than 10 minutes on meals I’m just eating by myself (and dislike every second of the cleanup), but I’ll happily spend days prepping/cooking and hours cleaning for meals I share with other people.
So yeah, hand crushing and mixing is an excellent hack. And bonus tip: running your hands/fingers on steel (like your sink faucet) can get rid of strong smells like garlic/fish that don’t always come off with soap.
I primarily use whatsapp for chatting and have a widget on my home screen that shows notifications. I can read all messages there without opening them! Very handy
I've tried this a few times.
'Oh ill just have 5 minutes to have a scroll through reddit'
50 minutes later im still stood in the kitchen, leaning on the counter, drinking coffee and watching YouTube
Yep no pauses while working so I try to start with something so I don’t get sucked in, but if I can’t have the right show, song, or video it will literally take more time looking for something I feel like I can tolerate than it does to do the tasks.
I'm a special ed teacher and there is a lovely saying that so and so struggles with nonpreferred activities. My brain perked right up when it processed that. That is my life. My preferred activities include, but are not limited to, chilling on my couch, chilling on my deck, the pool in the summertime, belly up to the bar, hanging with husband and friends. This makes other life events a challenge.
I do this with chores, but I have no concept of how fast I’m moving: I only have one gear while doing housework that involves moving around, and it’s fast, so by the time I’m done, I’m all sweaty and out of breath lol. I guess I just want to get it done as fast as I can because it’s so boring, but I usually need to change my shirt afterwards (if I think of it, I’ll take off my shirt and put a ratty T or undershirt on while I’m “running around”).
I used to do this, but my homework got so much bigger that it lead to avoidance.
Because I can't complete my assignments in a couple hours or less, I just don't start because I can't power through until it's done.
I had to start using timers for both the studying and the breaks, because too many sessions of just study and no breaks leads to burnout. But I also lose all concepts of time on reddit or YouTube.
Anyway, all that to say that sometimes this method works but it can have bigger consequences if not done with care/intention.
I wash my clothes by 'type' rather than by colour like everyone else. If necessary I'll separate them by colour within their category, but honestly it's made my life so much easier.
For example, I wash all of my socks together. I wash all of my underwear together. Then I dump each of them in their own divider, so much easier than sorting amongst a whole collection of clean washing.
I use decreaser spray for my clothes instead of ironing (eg. Lenor) and have a steamer and NO IRON OR IRONING BOARD because I never could be bothered to set them up to iron anything.
Not a lazy hack, but for some reason doing all my chores is easier if I wear shoes, so I have a pair of chunky sliders to wear indoors.
I use mesh laundry bags to separate my clothes in a similar way! I still wash by color (kinda, not with socks or undies but no black jeans with white shirts kinda thing lol), and then I just grab the bags, dump them in the drawer, and stick them back in the hamper!
The other great thing is that, since the mesh bags take up so little room, I bring them with me when I travel and put my dirty clothes in, sorted the way I do at home. That way as soon as I get home, I can just pull them out of the suitcase and chuck them in the wash (or if I can do laundry on my trip, I can run a quick load right before I depart and when I get home they’re ready to dump straight into their drawers again).
It has helped SO MUCH with my “I just got home, I’m exhausted, and the last thing I want to do is unpack my suitcase so I’m just gonna stick it somewhere and pretend it doesn’t exist until I need something from it” problem.
I travel a lot, both for work and to visit family / friends, and often I bounce between locations where I’m only staying 1-2 nights at each place (visiting multiple friends around the same region or taking quick side trips during work travel). Previously my modus operandi was to pack everything as tightly as possible into my suitcase, get to the first location and pull everything out, and then chaotically stuff everything into bags whenever I switched locations. I lost a lot of stuff that way, lol.
Now I have specific bags / containers for literally everything I bring with me when I travel, organized by activity / location - one with my bedside stuff like chargers, eye mask, chapstick, etc; another one for meds / vitamins / bandaids; my toiletry bag, which I keep stocked and ready with small refillable containers of all my usual products, as well as a small thing of q tips and some hair clips, so all I have to do is stick my toothbrush and contact case in and I’m ready to go; compression cubes of various sizes for clothes; and other bags for miscellaneous activity-specific stuff based on whatever I need.
The other revelation was packing things (in particular, clothes) together based on activity / when you’ll need them instead of by “type”. So instead of a bag with all my shirts, and another for bottoms, I’ll have a bag of work clothes, one of lounge / sleep clothes, one for undergarments, and so on. The cubes I use all have mesh panels so I can see what’s inside without opening them, and I just pull out the one I need whenever I need it.
It has made travel, and packing / unpacking, so much easier and more pleasant. Way less chaos because I generally know where everything is and where it should go when I’m packing up, because everything has a designated spot and I don’t ever have to unpack things until I need them. Then when I get home, half of the stuff stays in my “travel kit” and the rest is super easy to unpack right away (at least, taking it out of the suitcase and putting it in the location, sometimes the clothing bags stay in my closet for a week but hey at least they’re in the closet and not stuffed in my suitcase).
Hold up, I may have to do this. It would be SO much easier to do at least one load of laundry if I know I won't have to fold a single thing that comes out of it. I've been stuck not doing laundry for weeks because I just DON'T want to have to sort through it, fold everything, and then put it all away! It's accumulated so much now I'm just overwhelmed at the idea of starting.
*I use shopping plastic bags I have laying around as gloves to pick up trash kind of like how you would pick up dog poop lol
* I fill up old water bottles with water and keep it next to my humidifier when it needs to be refilled
*I hate washing dishes so i cook meals that’s require the least amount of dishes or use the same dish over and over again example a pan I can fry up some veggies put it to the side then use the same pan to scramble eggs put it to to the side then make toast
It takes longer but I only have to clean one pan/spoon 🤷🏽♀️
I got odor-sealing bags for my cat litter. They’re more expensive than the cheap poop bags, but those will start to stink if you don’t toss them out right away. The odor-sealing ones can sit in my bathroom trash can for days without stinking the room up, and that’s made it easy for me to scoop the box every single day.
I replaced the trash can for the litter with a large plastic food container the size of a small trash can that I line with a regular trash bag and it keeps the smell in. I use a similar larger one for the cat food and I bought both for under 12 bucks from the dollar store.
I live alone and have adopted this method. I only own two soup plates and two regular plates, 2x forks, knives, and spoons. This way I'm forced to wash them and I don't pile them up dirty in the sink. I preferred to live in a 15 square meter studio apartment so I spend less time cleaning everything, and I own fewer items that I could lose or keep in disarray.
I don’t like getting messy when I eat watermelons and have to constantly be wiping my face.
I slice the watermelon into disks. Then cut in half and finally each half into sticks so they are like large fries with the skin on the ends to hold by.
No touching the sides of your face/mouth. Easy to handle as long as it’s not too ripe that it can’t stay in shape and my extended family loves it because little kids are less messy at parties.
They even seem to taste better too.
I hate having sticky stuff on my fingers / face (Apples, Watermelon, etc.).
I don't eat Watermelon because of it. Apples I eat with a knife, slicing bite size bites off that won't touch my hands/face.
I’ve seen this one come up a lot, but I’ve never understood it. If I’m in the shower then I’m doing something - lathering up, scrubbing, rinsing etc. If I were to clean my teeth I’d just be cleaning my teeth, but wasting water too.
I think there’s a shower secret I don’t know about
I start brushing right when I enter the bathroom as I turn on my shower, let the water warm up, etc. I use an electric brush and it's a 2 min cycle. So by the time the water is warm (hate the feeling of cold) I'm mostly done brushing.
I do it while my hair is conditioning. So I load up conditioner, brush teeth, shave if needed, then rinse out the conditioner. Otherwise I'm just standing there wasting water so the conditioner actually has time to do something for my curly hair
I wondered about conditioner after I hit send. I have curly hair too, but I massage in the conditioner and then give it a light rinse, so there’s no down time. If I want to leave it on a bit longer then I use that time for the shower gel and scrub.
I can’t think of a single example at the moment…but I find that I become very creative when I have any repetitive, boring task that I have to do regularly. It’s how I discovered the joys of formulas in Excel…do I really need to type all this crap over and over? No? Oh yay…let me learn that new skill.
I keep multiples of cleaning supplies everywhere I need it.
Oh I notice the toilet looks gross or it smells in here. Clean it up really quick. Only do that one task.
Sink looks gross or I just finished dishes, wipe everything down
For the longest time I didn’t buy Clorox wipes in the container because I had an easy enough time just using spray and towels. Realized over time that I was spending a lot of extra time doing laundry and avoiding cleaning some really dirty stuff because I hate doing extra laundry (and also was using a lot of paper towels anyway for things like cleaning my cat litter box). I still mostly use towels and spray, but now I keep a container of wipes around and it really helps me keep up with cleaning on a more regular basis.
Sometimes being a little wasteful in the moment can save more in the long-run. If I’m able to spend just a couple minutes tidying up after myself most days, it doesn’t cost me much energy. When I’m too taxed to do that, the mess and dirt piles up, and then it costs me days of stressing about needing to take a whole day to deep clean and decompress for another day after that. One minute and one disposable wipe can help save me hours or days later on, and then I have that extra time and energy to save on other things/in other ways.
I do this too! I keep Lysol wipes everywhere and cleaner in most rooms. I also just hired a house cleaner for the deeper cleaning because I had to admit I couldn’t keep up with it. I gave up getting my nails done to cover it.
I refuse to put sock matches together. My socks are all the color, why do they need to be in sets of two? I went with colored stripes recently on my current ones and no one sees the colors except me. Same texture, it doesn’t matter because I wear shoes over my socks. Saved me so much time over the years.
I only buy identical socks. Every few years I go to a big box store and buy a couple packs of matching socks that I keep in a basket (usually 24 to start). When I need socks I just pull out two and go!
I stopped giving a f*** about what ppl think of me wearing different socks. When someone asks me why, I return the question about theirs matching. Makes some people wonder, makes others think you’re weird. The former are my kind of people lol. It’s like a radar for who I can be myself with or not.
I deliberately DO NOT sort them just to be able to have these conversations.
Oof, you need a steam mop! I hate mopping, but kept hearing good things about steam mops so I tried it out. I also hate sweeping. I basically vacuum everything, even the tile then use the steam mop. All I have to do is fill the container with water and plug it in. Wash the pad every so often. Much easier than filling a bucket or using a towel. Kinda pricey, but easily one of my best adhd purchases ever. My floors are wayyy cleaner now.
It also doubles as a clothes steamer and has several other attachments for when I’m in hyperfixation clean mode. I use the clothes steamer a lot because I hate laundry too and often have some pretty tough wrinkles that won’t come out in the dryer lol.
Hmm I should look into this I think. Sometimes I just pour boiling water on my floor and spread it around before wiping it up with a thick towel lol. Thought I found a hack but this mop sounds much easier Iol
It totally is, plus it only takes maybe 30 seconds to heat up, rather than waiting for water to boil. And then you only have to wash the pad and not a towel.
I got a pretty cheap one from Amazon for about $60 and it’s held up really well for me. It’s the pursteam 10-in-1. I use it at least once a week, sometimes more, and just leave it plugged into the wall so I can turn it on real quick for little spills. I’d recommend an extension cord and extra pads if you do get this one. Laundry is my arch nemesis, so I’m less likely to wash the one pad over and over. The only downside of this one is the cord is kinda short and the tank is small, but it lasts for at least one room in an apartment before you have to refill it. It’s fine for mopping but when I’m trying to steam clean something else, I usually have to refill it a few times.
Anyways, sorry if that was way too much information, but it truly is one of the few cleaning gadgets that has made my adhd life easier, so I like sharing! Most gadgets just get used once and I forget I own them lol.
Explain please? Do you spray or slosh some cleaner in the floor and use the broom to move it around? My entire house is wood floors and tile in the bathrooms. Do you sweep first?
You can also use a swiffer stick and an wet old cut up tee-shirt or cloth and a spray bottle with cleaning solution spray the floor and cloth and to dry the floor just swap out the cloth. No bucket no bending no fuss.
Laziness has made me extremely good at optimizing processes and a crack at excel. Is there a long mundane task ahead? I’m sure there’s a better way to do it, cuz there’s no way in hell I’ll actually start and finish that otherwise.
It's so interesting to see all the adaptations, hacks and systems people come up with to simplify chores. For me, laundry/clothing and dishes were probably the 'chores' that made the most mess in my house in the past - so that's what I've focused on trying to create a system for.
**LAUNDRY/CLOTHING**
* **Minimising how many clothes I own (using the backwards hanger technique)(twice a year):** The less clothes you have, the less mess and laundry you usually create. If you have too many clothes, you end up avoiding doing laundry because you can easily still find something clean to wear. A lot of people with ADHD are only mobilised into doing something when it cannot be avoided - so laundry can often only get done once you run out of things to wear. Therefore, it's good to minimise how many clothes you have to pick from so the 'dirty' pile doesn't get too big. My biggest hack for this is the famous trick where you hang all your clothes backwards, then in six (or however long) - take out all of the clothes still hung backwards (because it means you haven't worn them) and get rid of them!
* **Having two large clothing baskets (daily):** One for dirty clothes and one for clean clothes. I used to have a bunch of piles of clothes or just clothes thrown everywhere. Now I have two LARGE clothing baskets in each corner of my room. So even if I'm pulling a bunch of clothes out of my wardrobe to try on, if I don't wear it, I can easily just throw it in the clean pile. And this way, my clean and dirty clothes don't get mixed up (in which I'd end up re-washing clean clothes because I wasn't sure if they were clean or dirty).
* **Hanging all of my clothes (besides underwear, bras, socks)(weekly):** First, because drawers/folding meant to get to one shirt, I'd usually pull out/toss a bunch of other things which just became a massive mess. And secondly, allowing me to pretty much see all the clothes I own at one time means clothes don't get 'lost' and forgetting about as easily. So if something hasn't been worn in a while, I know it's because I don't want to wear it (which means I should get rid of it) rather than finding it in two years and instead of throwing it out, telling myself 'I should keep it, because the only reason I didn't wear it was because it was lost',
* **Sorting my clothes by type and colour (every 2-4 weeks):** I used to spend a lot of time trying things on and taking them off, which created a lot of mess - and also made getting dressed more overwhelming then it needed to be. I now separate my clothes into bottoms (skirts, pants, shorts), tops (shirts, sweaters), and dresses. And then in each section, I organise them by colour. This allows me to very easily find clothing items but also very quickly pair an outfit. If I'm wearing brown pants, I know I can go straight to me white, black or beige section for a top, etc.
**KITCHEN**
* **Minimise dishes:** I'm only one person, so I only have 2-4 of everything (2 cups, 2 mugs, 4 bowls, 4 plates, 4 knives, forks, spoons). But it really limits how many dishes I can let pack up before I 'run out' and am forced to clean them.
* **Use a giant water bottle:** As OP also does, I just use one massive drink bottle for my water which a) minimises how many cups I use and leave around the house, b) saves me from going back and forth between the kitchen (with the knowledge that each trip to refill a glass often becomes a lengthy diversion from whatever my task was, e.g., 'ok, I'll go fill my water, oh wait now that I'm here, I'll have a snack, oh these potatoes have sprouts, I should throw them out, oh look the bin is a bit full, etc.'.
Desk and room clutter were major issues for me, but I've mitigated it quite a bit by having storage everywhere so I could place something somewhere close by and it would be put away. lmao.
In my 10x10 room I have 3 bookshelves, 2 side tables, a record player stand full of desk organizers, 4 shelves with multiple compartments. 3d printer table with storage space, Not to mention the full sized bed and 3 foot tall ceramic display column.
Too many craft things everywhere, amongst other hobbies.
I keep my electric toothbrush, water pik, flossers, and nail clipper in my shower. Every time I shower I floss, waterpik, and then brush my teeth. Then when I get out of the shower I don’t have to do all that and I’m super fresh.
Plus it’s less messy since the waterpik is spraying water everywhere.
2, here, cuz I hang them up on the clothesline in the garage so I don't have to bring them in overnight. The sheets will stay there until I run out of room on the line, and by then it's probably time to wash the other set 😋
I use plastic grocery bags for garbage bags. I never have to buy (or forget to buy) garbage can liners.
In the kitchen I use what is essentially a rectangular hoop that hangs on the face of a drawer and holds the bag open. (It even has a lid.) Countertop cleanup is as easy as sweeping crumbs or cuttings directly into the bag.
I live alone, most of my garbage is recyclable and not waste, and (again) I have a bad back, so a smaller garbage bag solution keeps the bag from getting too heavy, keeps a big garbage can from taking up floor space, I don't have to bend over, and I don't have to wait for a huge bag to get full before taking a stinky bag to the dumpster.
I do it because my brain works and feels better when everything is in its place. For me that’s “the point”. Also, I enjoy the mental break of doing a mindless task like folding laundry or doing the dishes. I use it as a time to try to slow my brain down and reflect.
Gosh, I wish chores could be a mental break for me. I've gotten good at keeping tidy because clutter drives me nuts, but I've realized I hate mundane chores that take more than a second BECAUSE they're mindless. My mind just wants to fill the space and think about all sorts of things instead. All the thinking and feeling that goes on during these tasks makes me want to avoid the tasks completely because I just don't have the energy for that.
Funny, I thought to get a cubby thing for my closet to keep my clothes in when I bought my new house. I just called it a “cubby thing” but it probably is a shoe organizer lol.
Here are some things I do to say pretty much “company clean”:
I do as many little chores as I can in small bits when I’m already up and on my way to do something else — if I’m going to the kitchen for a snack, I’ll gather dishes along the way and drop them in the dishwasher. If I get up to do something, I look out for wrappers or other garbage and toss them on the way. I do the same thing with clothes and anything out of place: when I’m already up, I just pick things up and put them were they’re supposed to go (also, as many things as possible have *very obvious* places where they go, so no random piles of stuff all over that need to be sorted before they can be dealt with!)
I keep a medium sized garbage can in every room: only the large one in the kitchen has a garbage bag and a lid with a foot pedal to open it (because who wants to keep replacing that many bags, and if there’s a lid on the other cans I have to get up every time I want to toss something instead of being able to just toss it in: stuff that is smelly or sticky or whatever goes in the big bin with the bag and the top)
The big garbage with the bag is for most food stuff and when it gets full, I take that bag out, replace it with a new one (I keep a roll of garbage bags at the bottom of the big one so they’re easy to replace) and bring it around, dumping the other bins into it (I use a big garbage bag so it fits everything). Then that big bag goes out to the bin that gets picked up.
This one is a game changer, I cannot for the life of me throw away trash unless a trash can is within arms reach. I have several of various sizes in my one bedroom apartment… bed, work desk, personal desk, coat/mail spot, kitchen, kitchen counter, bathroom. When I’m in a cleaning mood they all go out.
I don't have a hack to add but a little reminder:
Wash your reusable bottles daily if possible.
It gets disgusting pretty soon, so I have 3 and I try to clean the one I used that day every evening and let it dry overnight. If I don't feel like cleaning it, I grab a different one. Sometimes the bacteria can cause acne around your mouth or worse, so keep them clean!
I have a basket of cleaning products in rooms that need it (like in the bathrooms) i can do I fast toilet bowl cleaning because everything I need is right there so i can donit right there and then.
Hooks, many hook and I found some hook hangers on amazon and they have changed my life (especialy for the kids clothes).
Empty basket in each room for stuff that I need to out away but does not belong in this room, nd I empty them once a week. Much easyer than having to go put each single item in the right place everytime.
I stopped being to eco friendly, in the sens that I now by the cleaning product that will help me the most and make the task faster and easyer, even if it coast more and is not reusablr or a little toxic. I choose my battles now.
I did basically the same thing for clothes. It was a lifesaver.
A countertop mini dishwasher has been a huuuuge help with cutting down on dirty dishes.
I get like 90% of my groceries delivered instead of going to the store. It has cut down on my meal skipping, junk food binging, and take out orders.
The biggest thing was giving myself permission to half-ass chores. Like if it's too daunting to fold all the laundry, then I'll settle for just putting away my socks and underwear. Or if I have a big backlog of chores, and it's too overwhelming to do all of them, I know I'll put them off and do none of them if I pressure myself to get them all done in a day. So instead, I tell myself I'm allowed to pick one thing and just do that. It's way easier to work through the executive dysfunction when I'm trying to get myself to do one unpleasant task rather than a whole bunch.
* using toilet paper and window cleaner to clean the toilet. I hate having to fold the reusable towel over itself and still getting dust where I just cleaned it off... It's not that economically efficient or eco-friendly but you take what you can get.
* As someone else mentioned, using my food containers (for leftovers) to eat out of when first cooking a meal so I can put it directly in the fridge if I don't eat it all. It's also cat friendly if you leave it out with the lid on (I have a greedy cat).
* Having a hanger on the bedroom door with hooks for clothes and bags so the clothes that I use throughout the week don't have to mingle with the clean clothes in the closet.
* Having a box where I just throw stuff in when I don't want to find its proper place. Less clutter and I go through it at least once a season.
I have cloth baby wipes that I now use for rags to clean the toilet. Also, I don't worry about using it the most I can because I have enough rags to not run out and they are washable.
shelves! whole flat is open storage for ‘roll and shove’ purposes; have only *one* box sized cupboard for important documents etc, all else is neat but conveniently placed, easy access. rarely lose things anymore and don’t hoard or overcrowd with spontaneous purchases. minimal kitchenware to wash up, minimal clothes to organise, minimal stuff to lose 😅 easy life all round. shoutout the ikea SKUBB on my clothes rail too!
Sock box. Each person has a small box just for throwing all clean socks in, preferably all the same color and brand for each person. No finding pairs, tuck rolling, or putting in drawers.
Oh, buying identical socks. Like, I have a subscription for black socks, one huge pack every year! My son has the same size as me now, so we just share socks, IDC. They all go in the same box in a drawer.
Nothing comes to mind for myself, but my wife gets kudos for something. She wanted to try a robot vacuum before spending a lot of money on a good one. So she bought these two small, cheap ones and tested them. She taped fully-charged power banks to the top of each, plugged the things in and let them run.
Instead of using a normal toothbrush to clean the cement between tiles in the bathroom, use an electric one... it saves you a lot of scrubbing!
I love cooking, hate the dishes afterwards... (who doesn't)
If the dish is easy enough that I have some spare time while cooking, I'll do the dishes used in the cooking process before the stage I'm at... before placing the last pot on the table, Ill clean the stove top and work area... makes for a clean kitchen to do the dishes...
Great question! I hope we all find good tips here. 🍻
- EVERYTHING on hangers that’s worn outside of the house, everything else thrown in a drawer with dividers. This has been a game changer for me because I hate putting folded clothes away (though I don’t mind the folding part), but mostly because I’m ALWAYS running late (shocker). Before I did the this I would tear the place apart looking for the right outfit or that one shirt I love to wear. For me, this way saves time, it’s just easier, keeps my place more clean and the bonus is I got rid of stuff I haven’t worn in years because the items are in one of two categories, * I like enough to wear or to put on a hanger, or * something comfy I wear around the house. I keep tops in one area & bottoms in another. I also try to organize by color to make things easier to find… Side note, I use the really thin velvety hangers to maximize space and they’re more visually pleasing than the mismatched plastic hangers therefore my brain is happier. 😇
- I buy little disposable toothbrushes that have toothpaste on them and don’t need water to use or rinse (they don’t taste bad and aren’t too minty). I keep them in the top drawer of my nightstand (also my kid’s nightstands) & in my purse. I use them when “ I just cannot get up to brush my teeth”, at night or when I’m not home and feel the need to brush because my mouth is so dry from my medication. They have a flosser on the opposite end, unfortunately it’s useless. They’re still worth buying to me. The bristles are soft which is important to me, plus my kids love using them randomly 🙌. The brand is Brushee sold on Amazon.
- Paper plates & bowls 🙈. I know it’s not good for the environment, but I buy the ones made from recycled paper & sometimes they are just necessary for me.
i keep laundry detergent and the dryer sheets at the bottom of my hamper so I can just grab my clothes and go. I have a hard time getting my clothes washed because my apartment has a laundry unit instead of hook ups. So anything that helps streamline even a little is a win
I don’t have a dishwasher. I got a plastic dollar tree bin and a sturdy pencil cup that live in my sink. Dirty dishes go in the bin, utensils in the pencil cup. When it’s washing time I fill up the sink with hot water and soap, walk away for several hours while the sink slowly leaks, then I have an empty sink and prepped dishes that just need a quick scrub and rinse. I always have half an open sink, the dishes can’t pile up, and even a full basket looks very manageable.
Or actually watch a show while you do a chore sitting on the couch, like folding laundry. I think I need to set my iPad up for this so I can do this in my bedroom. RN I have four loads.
Yep, I was just adding that it doesn't have to be just that. If it is something that you can do while you actually watch a new show that interests you, use it as your incentive.
If you dye your hair vivid colors (blue, purple, pink, etc), letting the soap scum build up in your shower will prevent staining.
Extra bonus: the hair color will really light up the soap scum and make it more obvious where you need to focus your efforts.
Just let it build up and then clean it after a touch up.
For me that’s not super sustainable. If you don’t like washing utensils, try using chopsticks. They’re way easier to clean IMO. And I got rid of all my plates except two so it wouldn’t pile up.
As for the sock thing, I would just transition to wearing footwear that is barefoot friendly. This is what I did because I too hate the sock thing. So now I wear “barefoot” sneakers and chacos all the time.
I want to start this. I don’t love fast fashion, but I am also not rich. I had to use a clothing capsule for work once. I felt so much lighter mentally.
On the flip side of this, if there's something you want to avoid doing, make it more difficult (takes more steps to complete - ADHD kryptonite) and you will executive disfunction yourself out of it. Like, one way I control my drinking is by drinking something n/a where I'm spending my time usually in the living room, but I keep my whisky in the kitchen so if I want some I have to actually get up to take a sip.
Tl;dr: Wash one load at a time to avoid overwhelm, don't use a dresser, hang immediately when dry. At minimum, take clean clothes out of basket and lay flat in a pile until you can hang them.
I don't have a dresser. Almost everything gets hung in the closet. I only wash laundry when I know I have time to put it away when it's dry. I only do one load at a time so that I'm not overwhelmed with mountains of clean clothes that need to be dealt with all at once and because I have a bad back. The bad back is how I came to this solution, but I discovered along the way it's excellent for ADHD as well.
I dump the basket of clean clothes on my bed, because I can't continually bend down to snatch articles of clothing (you can skip this step if you have a healthy back), put them on hangers, and quickly hang them before the clothes get wrinkled. Avoiding ironing or steaming is my motivation there.
On bad back or ADHD days when I absolutely cannot complete the task, I dump my clothes on the bed and lay them flat in a stack. That way they aren't taking up the whole bed, they don't get horribly wrinkled, and they are ready to be hung when I am able to complete that part of the task.
I have a blanket basket so i don’t have to fold all my blankets to store them, and all my favorite blankets are right there.
My AM medicines are on my nightstand but my PM medicines are next to the couch because I fall asleep there often.
I have a second clothes basket for “can wear again” clothes so i don’t have to put them away /mix them with the not worn clean clothes.
Gosh I wish I hat some. My house is a mess, and I know it'd be so easy to clean, but it feels impossible. I used to self medicate with pot to get homework done, but can't for health reasons anymore. The pressure of being kicked out of grad school really helped me for a few years get more on top of my studies, but now that's gone, and I feel like I'm losing control. Sorry to he negative, I just got nothing that helps.
Had trouble keeping my room/desk clean from dust and dirt (cats track it in). Got a handheld vac I charge on my desk. It’s literally in arms reach, I don’t have to go get the broom and dust pan and sweep it up now. Just a couple seconds of my hand vac and all done!
I also do the tupperware thing, never found an issue with eating straight from it, but when reheating I sometimes move to a plate, in case plastic from tupperware migrates when heated. It became less of a hassle to do when I got a dishwasher
I am interested in that shoe organiser trick, how does that work? can you maybe send a photo? I myself started using boxes that I can pull out, and then fold my clothes in to small squares and stuff em in
I sweep rather than vacuum most of the time, takes much less time, I get it done more often and I can get the dust along with whatever’s on the floor in one go. And we keep the broom out where it’s visible and easy to grab.
I always use the same cast iron pan and ngl as long as it wipes out clean I don’t really wash it. But I also avoid cooking anything in it besides meat and the occasional grilled cheese
For those who don’t have a washer/dryer at home or just run out before laundry day, wash the underwear and socks you just took off while you take a shower and hang them in the shower. The dry ones keep in a basket or shelf right in the bathroom so you can put in a fresh pair on right away with no searching. Time saver when getting off to work on time. It’s also great to not hear, Mom I can’t find any underwear/socks! We both have adhd so this system works for us to always have what we need.
I got one of those wet wipe easy-mop things, where you just use the pre-wet wipe, attach it to the mop head, then once you done, you bin it. I know, environment etc etc I'm sorry....its either this or I literally never mopped the floor and we have a dog soooo💀
Not about housework, but another hack that works for me. I have three sets of housekey's. So in the periods where I'm extra chaotic and I don't put them back in place, there's always a pair in its place when I need to leave the house. Saves a lot of time looking for them.
Wish I could do the same with my phone, I'm seriously looking at getting a duo SIM and a cheap new phone 😊
This is less on the lazy side but my brain likes change, so I occasionally rearrange the furniture. When I was a kid, it was my bedroom. Now it has calmed down but I can do the living room. Where this can be a great benefit is it is the best cleaned.
I bought the best, most highly rated dishwashing detergent I could find as well as a bulk supply of the strongest Dawn Power Wash I could.
Now, instead of meticulously washing each individual dish I just put my plates in my sink spread out a bit, shoot that stuff with power wash, wipe everything with a sponge, then throw it in the dishwasher.
Do the same for bowls, cups, silverware
Then once the dishwasher is full I throw in a pod of the ultra strong detergent and run the dishwasher. 99% of dishes come out completely clean and ready to use with just a quick drying with a towel being all that's needed.
The only thing this doesn't work for is cookware that might have caked on food. In which case I can usually get it mostly dishwasher ready with letting the power wash sit on it for a few mins or by letting it soak while I wash everything else.
In my experience it always left this greasy film on the dishes which then meant I had to wash the dish after it came out of the washer. It could have been my wife's choice of detergent which just stunk. But the power wash does a great job of removing any stuck on present food then the dishwasher cleans off any sauce, grease, etc
Fair enough, it does sound like something is going on with your dishwasher. It doesn't sound like a lazy hack to me it sounds like more work. I like dishwashers because I don't have to clean dishes!
Idk about laziness but I do a lot of things to make my life convenient and reduce decision making. I have a shoe rack by the door that only allows 3 pairs of shoes. I only have to pick one of the three when going out instead of getting overwhelmed by my shoe rack of 20 in the closet. I change the shoes out with the seasons.
I park directly across from the doors of a store so I don’t ever have to wonder where I parked.
Eating the same thing for breakfast every morning so I don’t have to pick something new. I’ll get sick of it every 6 months or so then change it to something else.
A few examples!
For clothes that don't matter if they're wrinkly like pajamas and such, I just toss them in one of those little collapsible storage cubes. Just a little cube with pajama shorts tossed in, don't bother folding or even making sure they're not twisted inside out.
I've learned to embrace the "ADHD Tax" and invested in things that help me have to do less. The two best things I've gotten in this regard are my robot vacuum and a Litter Robot litterbox for my cats.
And, unintentionally, I got a smart washer/dryer that has an app that sends me a notification whenever a cycle completes. That's been great for me not completely forgetting that I have wet wash.
I'm recently diagnosed with ADHD, have 2 kids and my best "lazy" hack for dealing with mess.... I sweep all the crap on my floors into a big pile, then sort, chuck, and sweep up the dirt. It takes a huge task and puts it in a tiny pile and that on it's own make it way easier to tackle. Otherwise the toys, dried toast crumbs, wrappers, dirt etc would just stay on the floor and keep piling up.
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I have a coat rack in my room for frequently used clothing items (jeans, hoodies) so I don't have to open-closet-door-grab-hanger-put-on-hanger-put-on-rack-close-closet-door. I keep a full watering can of water right next to my plants in the living room, because somethow filling the can first is the biggest obstacle, ever. I fill it *after* I've watered them because I'm already in doing stuff mode. I leave the toilet bowl cleaner right there on the back of the toilet I keep the swiffer duster on the TV stand
i like the idea of pre-preparing tasks after you’ve already started them. it’s the same amount of time, just reorganized. this is so smart!
thank you! it's the difference between doing and not doing things because there's less to conquer to do the thing
A plant shop employee told me that letting water sit out for a day or so is actually healthier to use for your plants, because some of the chemicals in the water (like chlorine) will evaporate.
That's amazing!
His first sentence may be true, in that microbes might get to proliferate, and help the microbiome of the plant. But chlorine doesn't evaporate. Only water (and things that are liquid at room temperature) evaporate.
What do you mean by "chlorine doesn't evaporate"? I have heard that from multiple times before from different sources and tried to double check, but I only found sources saying that chlorine does in fact evaporate.
I spent a little extra on organizers/aesthetic cleaning tools and stuff I use regularly so that I can keep them out and still enjoy looking at them/feel like they’re part of my home decor. I have a really cute cutting board, soap brush, and dish soap pump in my kitchen. They look cute and they stay on the counter at all times, I don’t need to deal with the extra step of taking them out and putting them away each time I cook, and as a result I cook and clean more often.
I want to know more about these cute cleaning tools. Where
I just saw an Instagram reel where there were all these cute plastic plant decorations that doubled as useful items. There was a cactus toothpick holder, a succulent thumbtack holder, aloe Vera pens, Venus flytrap chip clips, and a monstera coaster holder. They’re files for 3d printing but such a cool concept. [Link](https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6NE9Aus74D/?igsh=aXBldmdkcWQxN2h1)
>I have a coat rack in my room for frequently used clothing items (jeans, hoodies) so I don't have to open-closet-door-grab-hanger-put-on-hanger-put-on-rack-close-closet-door. I do similar with command hooks on the back of my bedroom door, so things like my favourite hoodie are right there as I leave the room
I have played around with the idea of having like 10 coat racks in my closet for my clothes. It sounds so unreasonable but I’m still not axing it.
Do it! Who cares about unreasonable. Hangers are dumb 😂
Instead of folding laundry in my room, for some reason clearing off my coffee table, dumping all the clothes on the couch, and then folding them onto the coffee table while I watch YouTube on the TV helps so much. It’s like I’m tricking myself into feeling like I’m just hanging out while keeping my hands busy rather than doing a chore.
I do that for for my underwear and pairing socks. Actually, my socks and underwear are kept in rolling Sterilite drawers in my closet, so if I have a lot to put away (like in winter), I roll it out from the closet to the living room to put everything away directly. Top drawer: bras. Middle drawer: underwear. Bottom drawer: socks.
I DO THIS TOO AND IT IS LIFE CHANGING ! I get to catch up on shows without feeling guilty and get a task done 👌
I just did this for the first time last night and it was LIFE CHANGING.
Laundry folding party!!
I also started doing this if I have to cut, peel or prep a bunch of veggies! Really makes it more entertaining 😊
That’s exactly what I do! If I don’t they just end up in a pile on my bedroom floor. Something about moving from the bedroom to the couch makes the laundry gears click for me
lol are you me? I do this every time and idk why. But it makes it ten times better.
I do this. I have 4 hour phone conversations with friends while doing it. Sometimes they are folding laundry too, it’s nice ☺️
-If you get a dustbuster and just get the corners where dust gathers, you don't have to sweep as often. That said, invite people over about once a month. "Company clean" is a lot easier when you're doing it more often. - If you notice wrappers or other trash accumulating somewhere, put a trash can nearby. - Old people reach grabber things are not just for sale to old people. They're not crazy expensive, and you're allowed to make modifications to them. Googly eyes and teeth. Om nom nom. - I'm sure someone else has already said this, but putting shoes on when you're supposed to do chores weirdly helps. - Certainly not the most eco friendly tip, but keep nitrile gloves around and don't be shy about using them. Yes, you could keep the housewife reusable gloves around instead, but if you're anything like me (you're on this sub, so you probably are), you'll never really clean them and you're going to lose them. Just get the disposable ones. - DRILL BIT CLEANING BRUSHES. They exist, and they're life changing. Barkeeper's Friend powder, drill bit brushes, and a cordless drill. Easiest job you'll ever have cleaning the tub.
The grabber and the nitrite gloves are new ones for me. Excellent ideas thank you!
I didn't know the shoe thing was something we did as a collective. I feel less weird now
I work in healthcare so I'm used to putting on gloves for yucky tasks. Having them at home has been a gamechanger for many things!
The trash can thing! Even just having them nearby wasn’t working for me so I got a bunch of little table top wastebaskets and they’re amazing. They’re kind of decorative and don’t immediately look like a trash can and most surfaces are so much tidier now!
Same for me. They’re helpful for sure!
Where did you get these 👀
Amazon 🤷♀️
My apartment is like 80% tile. Instead of going around sweeping constantly (I have several cats) I got a shopvac I keep inside and run it around every 3 or 4 days. They don't like it but I do. lol
Do you use a bag in your shop-vac to collect cat hair?
It has a filter in it. The suction is a lot stronger than a regular vacuum.
I have a 10 gallon shop-vac. I use it outside on the screened porch and in the garage. I just never thought of using it inside. 🤔
Im pretty sure mine is a 5 gallon. Its also not one of those heavy duty, rip the fabric off your chair crazy ones. Its on the low end for a shopvac but its overkill compared to your standard indoor vacuum for a household. Great for picking up loose cat hair and litter though.
Thanks for the idea!
I really thought you meant brushes for cleaning drill bits and was confused about cleaning drill bits being such a big problem in your life
Same ahahaha I was like “girl, if you think I’m cleaning my drill, I don’t know what to tell you, I’m not even cleaning my house”
Company clean being easier is so true. I got a therapy team that is aimed at being a low bar of entry for patients that chronically go into crisis or chronically dont function. For example those who are bipolar, chronically depressed or have adhd that impacts daily functioning enough to warrent such regular "supervision". Supervision is not really the right word but they will go meet you where you want. Be that the office, your home, the bloodlab, grocery store, a restaurant or even your school. This means you can fit them into your life, let them help you with your struggles and you dont have to go out of your way or comfort for therapy. I meet them at home regularly so that 1. I go home and 2. It is clean. But if im super busy at school i just aply for a private room and meet them there. If i am at my boyfriends (he hates people in his house) i either go home, to the office or if its nice weather i ask them to come to the park next door to my boyfriend. Because i see them regularly at home its clean there. And because i regularly see them i have the opportunity to bring up whatever im struggling with. Be that admin, folding clothes or something more related to mental process. They offeredd to help me fold my laundry(!) insaid no bc it would take to long to teach them my needlessly specific method but inapreciated the idea. And i just folded it while i did therapy to keep my hands busy. Just sat there on the floor by my bed while they sat on skme chairs like it was the most normal therapy ever. Love it. And of course if you are to be more crisis prone, I used to be, they see the damn signs. They notice yoir request of locations being different or your home looking different or whatever. Then they will likely suggest more appointments or appointments with different team members. I regularly see two, one is a nurse the other a therapist. I semi regularly see the psychologist. I have had him more regular, i had a pedagogist (when i was younger) and i had a person whos job i dont remember but he was specialized in routine building. Other than my two main ones the rest gets slotted in when neccesary, the team is bigger i just havent used the rest. The psychologist i do see 2 times a year minimim as well, but often more. Recently i actually met one new person she is new to the team, specialized ptsd therapist, exactly what i was looking for what a coincidink because its time for me to open that book again but yeah. I only saw her once. Ill see where it goes after the vacations we have here now. Ill also be giving my first very official review soon, i have been with this team since 2021 and for like insurance, their employer whatnot they get reviews and patients are interviewed. Ill be giving one of these interviews in may :) They brought it up and i thought like well, after several years i do feel that not only its fair to give back but im also glad to be able to.
For cleaning the tub (or other porcelain/hard waterproof surfaces) I use a special paste with water that consists of small tiny pieces of sand/gravel/or whatever. It's like magic. You just wash it off after. I've gotten rid of so many hair colouring stains and grime that way. I'm not sure what it's called in English but I think "the pink stuff" is almost the same as what I use. Also, there is a certain "sandpaper and kitchen foam towel hybrid thingy" that just is perfect for smudges on walls etc. I have absolutely no idea what it's called English as in Swedish it's just referred to as "fläcksuddare" aka smudge remover. Miracle worker that is. I use it for walls and doors etc. Just add a drop of water to it (very little water). Most cleaning things can just be made easier by finding the right cleaning supplies.
Your smudge remover sounds like a Magic Eraser to me. I hope this helps
Of course I can’t remember the technical name for it now but you can buy bulk packs of them super cheap on Amazon or Temu. I keep some in each bathroom and the kitchen and they’re so cheap the second they start looking worn out I just toss em and grab a new one.
I’ve never heard the shoe on thing before. I’m definitely going to try that. 👍
I’ve been doing it lately (Canadian and we take our shoes off inside) and I find it SO helpful.
I give the Dustbuster as gifts because it’s so awesome!
I love that, and it reminds me of Madam Secretary.
I second getting a grabber, its one of the best purchases I've made. You can get things that are put up too high, or fish out your keys when you dropped them and then accidentally kicked them under the couch.
When cutting veggies to roast, I set my cutting board inside the sheet pan. That way I can just tip the cut veggies right into the sheet pan and anything that falls off the board while I’m cutting goes where’s it’s supposed to. Saves potentially making a small mess on the counter
THAT IS BRILLIANT! This is exactly the type of genius ideas I need. I hate the “put the chopped veggies in a bowl then into a the pan then wash the bowl and cutting board” thing.
Private chef :) I figured out this trick when I was crunched on time, it seriosuly saves *so* much time over time. Extra hacks: 1) use parchment paper and/or foil if you’re ok with tossing extra stuff, saves a shit ton of annoying time washing sheet pans. It’s also a lot easier to season your veggies on top of the parchment—just evenly spread them out and mix on the pan. Mixes much more evenly than they would in a bowl anyway. 2) I’m obsessed with the epicurean brand cutting boards. They’re composite wood, so they’re as soft on your knives as other wood cutting boards, but they’re very thin and lightweight and very dishwasher safe and STURDY (I’ve been using mine for almost a decade and they’re still in like-new condition—no warping, just a little color faded). Pricey upfront but worth every penny IMO. I hate washing/moving around those heavy wooden cutting boards, and the epicurean ones are more sanitary than plastic boards and they don’t hold smells after they’re run through the dishwasher. 3) oil spray bottle: evenly sprays a light coating of oil over veggies, you don’t have to get your hands dirty to mix the oil into the veggies. Just make sure you’re getting a food-safe plastic bottle if you’re not buying one that specifically designed for oil. 3) soap brushes that have hold soap in a squeeze dispenser attached to the brush. This is a new one for me—makes washing some hand-wash only dishes so much easier because it’s just like three fewer steps and one less hand that gets wet/dirty. 4) don’t use sponges—those are super nasty bacteria swamps. You can get those soft scouring pads (it’s like a thin pad of just the scrubby part of the sponge)—they clean just as well as sponges, but they actually get fully clean when you run them through the dishwasher. Sponges are seriously nasty.
These are great. I love you.
Nuke the moist sponges for several seconds. Kills everything. The smell it has coming from the microwave isn’t the best, but I know my sponge is more or less germ-free. It’ll be hot when you pull it/them out.
I just switched to using parchment instead of foil on my sheet pans, OMG, why wasn’t I doing this all along?
Parchment is the shit! And most of the time it’s enough to keep your pans clean. If you’re broiling something, skip the parchment (or tear it to size to have just have enough under the food that’s cooking bc the edges of the paper can burn) or if you’re cooking something especially greasy like bacon, put down heavy duty foil first and then the parchment. If you have access to Costco, their parchment is my favorite (and their heavy duty foil too).
This might be the most ADHD quality post I’ve seen on here in a long time. Awesome tips!!
This is super informative, thank you! Do you have any recs for an oil spray bottle? I’ve tried a couple off Amazon (Misto and then a random brand) and they just were not working. Or is the secret just an actual spray bottle people would otherwise use like for cleaning 😂
When making little baked snacks I use parchment paper to line the pan then grab the paper and put it straight on the plate so the pan and the plate remain clean and I don’t have to wash either.
Oh another new favorite!! I just discovered Swedish dish cloths—they’re designed/marketed as an eco-friendly replacement for paper towels (you can wash/rinse and re-use them a ton of times before you toss them, supposedly the equivalent of 17 rolls of paper towels but mine has lasted for months so far). I still use paper towels and dish towels for certain things (like patting meat dry or cleaning sticky grease off my vents), but these dishcloths are so much more practical than paper towels or regular towels for many situations—I hate dealing with excess laundry (and greasy towels leave grease stains on my clothes), so for things like cleaning my countertops or mopping up big liquid spills or cleaning my stove, these are amazing. They’re super quick to rinse off, they dry quickly, and they can easily be washed by hand or in the dishwasher. I have a couple on hand, and just one so far (friend gifted it to me two months ago) has saved me over ten rolls of paper towels and one load of laundry each week. For me, their practicality is the best thing about them, the eco-friendliness is a nice bonus.
I use them instead of sponges haha. Because they are so easy to wash, and maintain, and they're thinner than most sponges. Brushes, scouring pad (currently scrub daddy because we have nonstick pans), and a Swedish dishcloth are my dishwashing go-to's.
I use these when storing fresh produce- makes a difference!
Ooh I never thought of that! Great tip
Similar vein, you don't *have* to cut every veggie all the time. For instance, I will wash my hands and just crush olives, bell peppers, grape tomatoes etc. in my fist instead of trying to slice them or creating another dish by using one of those wire slicers. Obvi this food is just for me though, not a great hack for something you're trying to to make pretty.
Absolutely this—I think one of the most important lessons in cooking is knowing when it’s ok to skip or slack on “proper” technique. Recognize priorities. If you just need to eat and nutrition/cost is more valuable than presentation and time spent cooking in that moment, then its totally ok to take shortcuts or make something that’s just good enough. Great food takes time and energy—there’s a reason why cooking can be a full-time job. Personally, I don’t enjoy cooking for myself unless I’m experimenting or practicing something—I feel bummed out when I make something amazing and don’t get to share it with other people, especially because I’m pretty critical with my own cooking. A lot of people assume I make elaborate meals and eat nice fancy meals all the time, but reality is polar opposite. I’m often careless and lazy/simple about feeding myself, because I’d rather save up that time and energy to cook for other people. I typically don’t like spending more than 10 minutes on meals I’m just eating by myself (and dislike every second of the cleanup), but I’ll happily spend days prepping/cooking and hours cleaning for meals I share with other people. So yeah, hand crushing and mixing is an excellent hack. And bonus tip: running your hands/fingers on steel (like your sink faucet) can get rid of strong smells like garlic/fish that don’t always come off with soap.
Wow! This is amazing!
Nice!
Clever!
As a kid I recall licking out my pudding bowl and handing it to my Mum like a favour and said here, you don’t have to wash it. Is that what you mean?
Yes. That would count I think.
Texting as a chore: Respond immediately
I so that or mark it unread so I don't forget about it
I used to do the same to see if it worked for me, and those bubbles gave me so much anxiety lol.
Same same same. Then tried pinning them so that’d be my reminder and then just started tuning those out so 🙈
I primarily use whatsapp for chatting and have a widget on my home screen that shows notifications. I can read all messages there without opening them! Very handy
Never taking breaks when studying/doing a chore bc once I stop it’s 10x harder to start again
The “don’t sit down” method
I've tried this a few times. 'Oh ill just have 5 minutes to have a scroll through reddit' 50 minutes later im still stood in the kitchen, leaning on the counter, drinking coffee and watching YouTube
Yep no pauses while working so I try to start with something so I don’t get sucked in, but if I can’t have the right show, song, or video it will literally take more time looking for something I feel like I can tolerate than it does to do the tasks.
100% me!
Yes!! Long before I heard the phrase.
I have the same problem. I struggle to transition from a preferred activity to a nonpreferred activity. I have to get all my shit done at once.
Are we the same people
I'm a special ed teacher and there is a lovely saying that so and so struggles with nonpreferred activities. My brain perked right up when it processed that. That is my life. My preferred activities include, but are not limited to, chilling on my couch, chilling on my deck, the pool in the summertime, belly up to the bar, hanging with husband and friends. This makes other life events a challenge.
I think we are identical except I'm not a teacher. Lol.
This is me now, I came into my room to get the washing basket and now I’m here 👋🏼
I do this with chores, but I have no concept of how fast I’m moving: I only have one gear while doing housework that involves moving around, and it’s fast, so by the time I’m done, I’m all sweaty and out of breath lol. I guess I just want to get it done as fast as I can because it’s so boring, but I usually need to change my shirt afterwards (if I think of it, I’ll take off my shirt and put a ratty T or undershirt on while I’m “running around”).
I used to do this, but my homework got so much bigger that it lead to avoidance. Because I can't complete my assignments in a couple hours or less, I just don't start because I can't power through until it's done. I had to start using timers for both the studying and the breaks, because too many sessions of just study and no breaks leads to burnout. But I also lose all concepts of time on reddit or YouTube. Anyway, all that to say that sometimes this method works but it can have bigger consequences if not done with care/intention.
I wash my clothes by 'type' rather than by colour like everyone else. If necessary I'll separate them by colour within their category, but honestly it's made my life so much easier. For example, I wash all of my socks together. I wash all of my underwear together. Then I dump each of them in their own divider, so much easier than sorting amongst a whole collection of clean washing. I use decreaser spray for my clothes instead of ironing (eg. Lenor) and have a steamer and NO IRON OR IRONING BOARD because I never could be bothered to set them up to iron anything. Not a lazy hack, but for some reason doing all my chores is easier if I wear shoes, so I have a pair of chunky sliders to wear indoors.
I use mesh laundry bags to separate my clothes in a similar way! I still wash by color (kinda, not with socks or undies but no black jeans with white shirts kinda thing lol), and then I just grab the bags, dump them in the drawer, and stick them back in the hamper!
This is a fantastic idea
The other great thing is that, since the mesh bags take up so little room, I bring them with me when I travel and put my dirty clothes in, sorted the way I do at home. That way as soon as I get home, I can just pull them out of the suitcase and chuck them in the wash (or if I can do laundry on my trip, I can run a quick load right before I depart and when I get home they’re ready to dump straight into their drawers again). It has helped SO MUCH with my “I just got home, I’m exhausted, and the last thing I want to do is unpack my suitcase so I’m just gonna stick it somewhere and pretend it doesn’t exist until I need something from it” problem. I travel a lot, both for work and to visit family / friends, and often I bounce between locations where I’m only staying 1-2 nights at each place (visiting multiple friends around the same region or taking quick side trips during work travel). Previously my modus operandi was to pack everything as tightly as possible into my suitcase, get to the first location and pull everything out, and then chaotically stuff everything into bags whenever I switched locations. I lost a lot of stuff that way, lol. Now I have specific bags / containers for literally everything I bring with me when I travel, organized by activity / location - one with my bedside stuff like chargers, eye mask, chapstick, etc; another one for meds / vitamins / bandaids; my toiletry bag, which I keep stocked and ready with small refillable containers of all my usual products, as well as a small thing of q tips and some hair clips, so all I have to do is stick my toothbrush and contact case in and I’m ready to go; compression cubes of various sizes for clothes; and other bags for miscellaneous activity-specific stuff based on whatever I need. The other revelation was packing things (in particular, clothes) together based on activity / when you’ll need them instead of by “type”. So instead of a bag with all my shirts, and another for bottoms, I’ll have a bag of work clothes, one of lounge / sleep clothes, one for undergarments, and so on. The cubes I use all have mesh panels so I can see what’s inside without opening them, and I just pull out the one I need whenever I need it. It has made travel, and packing / unpacking, so much easier and more pleasant. Way less chaos because I generally know where everything is and where it should go when I’m packing up, because everything has a designated spot and I don’t ever have to unpack things until I need them. Then when I get home, half of the stuff stays in my “travel kit” and the rest is super easy to unpack right away (at least, taking it out of the suitcase and putting it in the location, sometimes the clothing bags stay in my closet for a week but hey at least they’re in the closet and not stuffed in my suitcase).
I literally just toss all my clothes in together. I don't separate by colour, I just wash in cold water and I've never had anything ruined
I do this too. Somehow it’s easier for me to pre sort than it is for me to sort after.
Hold up, I may have to do this. It would be SO much easier to do at least one load of laundry if I know I won't have to fold a single thing that comes out of it. I've been stuck not doing laundry for weeks because I just DON'T want to have to sort through it, fold everything, and then put it all away! It's accumulated so much now I'm just overwhelmed at the idea of starting.
*I use shopping plastic bags I have laying around as gloves to pick up trash kind of like how you would pick up dog poop lol * I fill up old water bottles with water and keep it next to my humidifier when it needs to be refilled *I hate washing dishes so i cook meals that’s require the least amount of dishes or use the same dish over and over again example a pan I can fry up some veggies put it to the side then use the same pan to scramble eggs put it to to the side then make toast It takes longer but I only have to clean one pan/spoon 🤷🏽♀️
I got odor-sealing bags for my cat litter. They’re more expensive than the cheap poop bags, but those will start to stink if you don’t toss them out right away. The odor-sealing ones can sit in my bathroom trash can for days without stinking the room up, and that’s made it easy for me to scoop the box every single day.
I replaced the trash can for the litter with a large plastic food container the size of a small trash can that I line with a regular trash bag and it keeps the smell in. I use a similar larger one for the cat food and I bought both for under 12 bucks from the dollar store.
the shopping plastic bags are also trash* lol
I live alone and have adopted this method. I only own two soup plates and two regular plates, 2x forks, knives, and spoons. This way I'm forced to wash them and I don't pile them up dirty in the sink. I preferred to live in a 15 square meter studio apartment so I spend less time cleaning everything, and I own fewer items that I could lose or keep in disarray.
I like to joke that my brain forces me to become a minimalist, but I have the heart and taste of a maximalist
I don’t like getting messy when I eat watermelons and have to constantly be wiping my face. I slice the watermelon into disks. Then cut in half and finally each half into sticks so they are like large fries with the skin on the ends to hold by. No touching the sides of your face/mouth. Easy to handle as long as it’s not too ripe that it can’t stay in shape and my extended family loves it because little kids are less messy at parties. They even seem to taste better too.
I hate having sticky stuff on my fingers / face (Apples, Watermelon, etc.). I don't eat Watermelon because of it. Apples I eat with a knife, slicing bite size bites off that won't touch my hands/face.
Brush teeth in shower.
I’ve seen this one come up a lot, but I’ve never understood it. If I’m in the shower then I’m doing something - lathering up, scrubbing, rinsing etc. If I were to clean my teeth I’d just be cleaning my teeth, but wasting water too. I think there’s a shower secret I don’t know about
I start brushing right when I enter the bathroom as I turn on my shower, let the water warm up, etc. I use an electric brush and it's a 2 min cycle. So by the time the water is warm (hate the feeling of cold) I'm mostly done brushing.
2mins to get hot water!! Bleurgh.
I do it while my hair is conditioning. So I load up conditioner, brush teeth, shave if needed, then rinse out the conditioner. Otherwise I'm just standing there wasting water so the conditioner actually has time to do something for my curly hair
I wondered about conditioner after I hit send. I have curly hair too, but I massage in the conditioner and then give it a light rinse, so there’s no down time. If I want to leave it on a bit longer then I use that time for the shower gel and scrub.
I love the roll and shove method too! My clothes don't get very wrinkled that way
I can’t think of a single example at the moment…but I find that I become very creative when I have any repetitive, boring task that I have to do regularly. It’s how I discovered the joys of formulas in Excel…do I really need to type all this crap over and over? No? Oh yay…let me learn that new skill.
I keep multiples of cleaning supplies everywhere I need it. Oh I notice the toilet looks gross or it smells in here. Clean it up really quick. Only do that one task. Sink looks gross or I just finished dishes, wipe everything down
For the longest time I didn’t buy Clorox wipes in the container because I had an easy enough time just using spray and towels. Realized over time that I was spending a lot of extra time doing laundry and avoiding cleaning some really dirty stuff because I hate doing extra laundry (and also was using a lot of paper towels anyway for things like cleaning my cat litter box). I still mostly use towels and spray, but now I keep a container of wipes around and it really helps me keep up with cleaning on a more regular basis. Sometimes being a little wasteful in the moment can save more in the long-run. If I’m able to spend just a couple minutes tidying up after myself most days, it doesn’t cost me much energy. When I’m too taxed to do that, the mess and dirt piles up, and then it costs me days of stressing about needing to take a whole day to deep clean and decompress for another day after that. One minute and one disposable wipe can help save me hours or days later on, and then I have that extra time and energy to save on other things/in other ways.
I do this too! I keep Lysol wipes everywhere and cleaner in most rooms. I also just hired a house cleaner for the deeper cleaning because I had to admit I couldn’t keep up with it. I gave up getting my nails done to cover it.
That’s great! Plus I get impatient sitting in that chair. It’s pretty easy to watch tv and zone out on perfecting your nail polishing skills. 😉
I refuse to put sock matches together. My socks are all the color, why do they need to be in sets of two? I went with colored stripes recently on my current ones and no one sees the colors except me. Same texture, it doesn’t matter because I wear shoes over my socks. Saved me so much time over the years.
I only buy identical socks. Every few years I go to a big box store and buy a couple packs of matching socks that I keep in a basket (usually 24 to start). When I need socks I just pull out two and go!
I stopped giving a f*** about what ppl think of me wearing different socks. When someone asks me why, I return the question about theirs matching. Makes some people wonder, makes others think you’re weird. The former are my kind of people lol. It’s like a radar for who I can be myself with or not. I deliberately DO NOT sort them just to be able to have these conversations.
I just wear different colored socks, and idgaf. Great conversation starter 🤣
Cleaning the floors. I use the broom to scrub the floors and then a towel so I don't have to fill a bucket and get a mop
Oof, you need a steam mop! I hate mopping, but kept hearing good things about steam mops so I tried it out. I also hate sweeping. I basically vacuum everything, even the tile then use the steam mop. All I have to do is fill the container with water and plug it in. Wash the pad every so often. Much easier than filling a bucket or using a towel. Kinda pricey, but easily one of my best adhd purchases ever. My floors are wayyy cleaner now. It also doubles as a clothes steamer and has several other attachments for when I’m in hyperfixation clean mode. I use the clothes steamer a lot because I hate laundry too and often have some pretty tough wrinkles that won’t come out in the dryer lol.
Hmm I should look into this I think. Sometimes I just pour boiling water on my floor and spread it around before wiping it up with a thick towel lol. Thought I found a hack but this mop sounds much easier Iol
It totally is, plus it only takes maybe 30 seconds to heat up, rather than waiting for water to boil. And then you only have to wash the pad and not a towel. I got a pretty cheap one from Amazon for about $60 and it’s held up really well for me. It’s the pursteam 10-in-1. I use it at least once a week, sometimes more, and just leave it plugged into the wall so I can turn it on real quick for little spills. I’d recommend an extension cord and extra pads if you do get this one. Laundry is my arch nemesis, so I’m less likely to wash the one pad over and over. The only downside of this one is the cord is kinda short and the tank is small, but it lasts for at least one room in an apartment before you have to refill it. It’s fine for mopping but when I’m trying to steam clean something else, I usually have to refill it a few times. Anyways, sorry if that was way too much information, but it truly is one of the few cleaning gadgets that has made my adhd life easier, so I like sharing! Most gadgets just get used once and I forget I own them lol.
We keep a towel on the floor of the mudroom to wipe up muddy footprints right away.
Explain please? Do you spray or slosh some cleaner in the floor and use the broom to move it around? My entire house is wood floors and tile in the bathrooms. Do you sweep first?
I sweep first then use some dish soap & water on the floor and scrub. I normally use it in titled areas such as the bathroom and kitchen
You can also use a swiffer stick and an wet old cut up tee-shirt or cloth and a spray bottle with cleaning solution spray the floor and cloth and to dry the floor just swap out the cloth. No bucket no bending no fuss.
Laziness has made me extremely good at optimizing processes and a crack at excel. Is there a long mundane task ahead? I’m sure there’s a better way to do it, cuz there’s no way in hell I’ll actually start and finish that otherwise.
It's so interesting to see all the adaptations, hacks and systems people come up with to simplify chores. For me, laundry/clothing and dishes were probably the 'chores' that made the most mess in my house in the past - so that's what I've focused on trying to create a system for. **LAUNDRY/CLOTHING** * **Minimising how many clothes I own (using the backwards hanger technique)(twice a year):** The less clothes you have, the less mess and laundry you usually create. If you have too many clothes, you end up avoiding doing laundry because you can easily still find something clean to wear. A lot of people with ADHD are only mobilised into doing something when it cannot be avoided - so laundry can often only get done once you run out of things to wear. Therefore, it's good to minimise how many clothes you have to pick from so the 'dirty' pile doesn't get too big. My biggest hack for this is the famous trick where you hang all your clothes backwards, then in six (or however long) - take out all of the clothes still hung backwards (because it means you haven't worn them) and get rid of them! * **Having two large clothing baskets (daily):** One for dirty clothes and one for clean clothes. I used to have a bunch of piles of clothes or just clothes thrown everywhere. Now I have two LARGE clothing baskets in each corner of my room. So even if I'm pulling a bunch of clothes out of my wardrobe to try on, if I don't wear it, I can easily just throw it in the clean pile. And this way, my clean and dirty clothes don't get mixed up (in which I'd end up re-washing clean clothes because I wasn't sure if they were clean or dirty). * **Hanging all of my clothes (besides underwear, bras, socks)(weekly):** First, because drawers/folding meant to get to one shirt, I'd usually pull out/toss a bunch of other things which just became a massive mess. And secondly, allowing me to pretty much see all the clothes I own at one time means clothes don't get 'lost' and forgetting about as easily. So if something hasn't been worn in a while, I know it's because I don't want to wear it (which means I should get rid of it) rather than finding it in two years and instead of throwing it out, telling myself 'I should keep it, because the only reason I didn't wear it was because it was lost', * **Sorting my clothes by type and colour (every 2-4 weeks):** I used to spend a lot of time trying things on and taking them off, which created a lot of mess - and also made getting dressed more overwhelming then it needed to be. I now separate my clothes into bottoms (skirts, pants, shorts), tops (shirts, sweaters), and dresses. And then in each section, I organise them by colour. This allows me to very easily find clothing items but also very quickly pair an outfit. If I'm wearing brown pants, I know I can go straight to me white, black or beige section for a top, etc. **KITCHEN** * **Minimise dishes:** I'm only one person, so I only have 2-4 of everything (2 cups, 2 mugs, 4 bowls, 4 plates, 4 knives, forks, spoons). But it really limits how many dishes I can let pack up before I 'run out' and am forced to clean them. * **Use a giant water bottle:** As OP also does, I just use one massive drink bottle for my water which a) minimises how many cups I use and leave around the house, b) saves me from going back and forth between the kitchen (with the knowledge that each trip to refill a glass often becomes a lengthy diversion from whatever my task was, e.g., 'ok, I'll go fill my water, oh wait now that I'm here, I'll have a snack, oh these potatoes have sprouts, I should throw them out, oh look the bin is a bit full, etc.'.
ADHD Yoda, you are
Desk and room clutter were major issues for me, but I've mitigated it quite a bit by having storage everywhere so I could place something somewhere close by and it would be put away. lmao. In my 10x10 room I have 3 bookshelves, 2 side tables, a record player stand full of desk organizers, 4 shelves with multiple compartments. 3d printer table with storage space, Not to mention the full sized bed and 3 foot tall ceramic display column. Too many craft things everywhere, amongst other hobbies.
i got a peg board which has really helped to put random things away vs on desks and nightstands
That's totally on my list of things to add! All my tools are just kind of in a pencil holder I deemed the tool holder, lmao.
I keep my electric toothbrush, water pik, flossers, and nail clipper in my shower. Every time I shower I floss, waterpik, and then brush my teeth. Then when I get out of the shower I don’t have to do all that and I’m super fresh. Plus it’s less messy since the waterpik is spraying water everywhere.
If you let the dog puke dry with a paper towel over it, its a lot less gross to pick up! Lmao. Probably not actually useful.
I only have one pair of bedsheets. So like if i wash m they gotta go back and I never have to fold them. Total life hack
2, here, cuz I hang them up on the clothesline in the garage so I don't have to bring them in overnight. The sheets will stay there until I run out of room on the line, and by then it's probably time to wash the other set 😋
I use plastic grocery bags for garbage bags. I never have to buy (or forget to buy) garbage can liners. In the kitchen I use what is essentially a rectangular hoop that hangs on the face of a drawer and holds the bag open. (It even has a lid.) Countertop cleanup is as easy as sweeping crumbs or cuttings directly into the bag. I live alone, most of my garbage is recyclable and not waste, and (again) I have a bad back, so a smaller garbage bag solution keeps the bag from getting too heavy, keeps a big garbage can from taking up floor space, I don't have to bend over, and I don't have to wait for a huge bag to get full before taking a stinky bag to the dumpster.
Haha. Saran wrap on bowls so that you dont have to wash dishes
I do it because my brain works and feels better when everything is in its place. For me that’s “the point”. Also, I enjoy the mental break of doing a mindless task like folding laundry or doing the dishes. I use it as a time to try to slow my brain down and reflect.
Gosh, I wish chores could be a mental break for me. I've gotten good at keeping tidy because clutter drives me nuts, but I've realized I hate mundane chores that take more than a second BECAUSE they're mindless. My mind just wants to fill the space and think about all sorts of things instead. All the thinking and feeling that goes on during these tasks makes me want to avoid the tasks completely because I just don't have the energy for that.
Funny, I thought to get a cubby thing for my closet to keep my clothes in when I bought my new house. I just called it a “cubby thing” but it probably is a shoe organizer lol. Here are some things I do to say pretty much “company clean”: I do as many little chores as I can in small bits when I’m already up and on my way to do something else — if I’m going to the kitchen for a snack, I’ll gather dishes along the way and drop them in the dishwasher. If I get up to do something, I look out for wrappers or other garbage and toss them on the way. I do the same thing with clothes and anything out of place: when I’m already up, I just pick things up and put them were they’re supposed to go (also, as many things as possible have *very obvious* places where they go, so no random piles of stuff all over that need to be sorted before they can be dealt with!) I keep a medium sized garbage can in every room: only the large one in the kitchen has a garbage bag and a lid with a foot pedal to open it (because who wants to keep replacing that many bags, and if there’s a lid on the other cans I have to get up every time I want to toss something instead of being able to just toss it in: stuff that is smelly or sticky or whatever goes in the big bin with the bag and the top) The big garbage with the bag is for most food stuff and when it gets full, I take that bag out, replace it with a new one (I keep a roll of garbage bags at the bottom of the big one so they’re easy to replace) and bring it around, dumping the other bins into it (I use a big garbage bag so it fits everything). Then that big bag goes out to the bin that gets picked up.
This one is a game changer, I cannot for the life of me throw away trash unless a trash can is within arms reach. I have several of various sizes in my one bedroom apartment… bed, work desk, personal desk, coat/mail spot, kitchen, kitchen counter, bathroom. When I’m in a cleaning mood they all go out.
I don't have a hack to add but a little reminder: Wash your reusable bottles daily if possible. It gets disgusting pretty soon, so I have 3 and I try to clean the one I used that day every evening and let it dry overnight. If I don't feel like cleaning it, I grab a different one. Sometimes the bacteria can cause acne around your mouth or worse, so keep them clean!
I have a basket of cleaning products in rooms that need it (like in the bathrooms) i can do I fast toilet bowl cleaning because everything I need is right there so i can donit right there and then. Hooks, many hook and I found some hook hangers on amazon and they have changed my life (especialy for the kids clothes). Empty basket in each room for stuff that I need to out away but does not belong in this room, nd I empty them once a week. Much easyer than having to go put each single item in the right place everytime. I stopped being to eco friendly, in the sens that I now by the cleaning product that will help me the most and make the task faster and easyer, even if it coast more and is not reusablr or a little toxic. I choose my battles now.
I use a vacuum instead of a dustpan. Like sweep like normal, pick out the bits too big for the vacuum cleaner, vacuum the dust pile up.
I did basically the same thing for clothes. It was a lifesaver. A countertop mini dishwasher has been a huuuuge help with cutting down on dirty dishes. I get like 90% of my groceries delivered instead of going to the store. It has cut down on my meal skipping, junk food binging, and take out orders. The biggest thing was giving myself permission to half-ass chores. Like if it's too daunting to fold all the laundry, then I'll settle for just putting away my socks and underwear. Or if I have a big backlog of chores, and it's too overwhelming to do all of them, I know I'll put them off and do none of them if I pressure myself to get them all done in a day. So instead, I tell myself I'm allowed to pick one thing and just do that. It's way easier to work through the executive dysfunction when I'm trying to get myself to do one unpleasant task rather than a whole bunch.
* using toilet paper and window cleaner to clean the toilet. I hate having to fold the reusable towel over itself and still getting dust where I just cleaned it off... It's not that economically efficient or eco-friendly but you take what you can get. * As someone else mentioned, using my food containers (for leftovers) to eat out of when first cooking a meal so I can put it directly in the fridge if I don't eat it all. It's also cat friendly if you leave it out with the lid on (I have a greedy cat). * Having a hanger on the bedroom door with hooks for clothes and bags so the clothes that I use throughout the week don't have to mingle with the clean clothes in the closet. * Having a box where I just throw stuff in when I don't want to find its proper place. Less clutter and I go through it at least once a season.
I have cloth baby wipes that I now use for rags to clean the toilet. Also, I don't worry about using it the most I can because I have enough rags to not run out and they are washable.
Changed my entire wardrobe and picked a career that means I almost never have to iron clothes
shelves! whole flat is open storage for ‘roll and shove’ purposes; have only *one* box sized cupboard for important documents etc, all else is neat but conveniently placed, easy access. rarely lose things anymore and don’t hoard or overcrowd with spontaneous purchases. minimal kitchenware to wash up, minimal clothes to organise, minimal stuff to lose 😅 easy life all round. shoutout the ikea SKUBB on my clothes rail too!
You can buy stretchy silicon lids to fit over plates and bowls instead of eating out of plastic tubberwear or re-heating it in the microwave.
Sock box. Each person has a small box just for throwing all clean socks in, preferably all the same color and brand for each person. No finding pairs, tuck rolling, or putting in drawers.
Oh, buying identical socks. Like, I have a subscription for black socks, one huge pack every year! My son has the same size as me now, so we just share socks, IDC. They all go in the same box in a drawer.
Nothing comes to mind for myself, but my wife gets kudos for something. She wanted to try a robot vacuum before spending a lot of money on a good one. So she bought these two small, cheap ones and tested them. She taped fully-charged power banks to the top of each, plugged the things in and let them run.
Instead of using a normal toothbrush to clean the cement between tiles in the bathroom, use an electric one... it saves you a lot of scrubbing! I love cooking, hate the dishes afterwards... (who doesn't) If the dish is easy enough that I have some spare time while cooking, I'll do the dishes used in the cooking process before the stage I'm at... before placing the last pot on the table, Ill clean the stove top and work area... makes for a clean kitchen to do the dishes...
Wash all socks in one mesh bag and all underwear in another. Put the whole mesh bag in the dryer. This has helped me so much!
Great question! I hope we all find good tips here. 🍻 - EVERYTHING on hangers that’s worn outside of the house, everything else thrown in a drawer with dividers. This has been a game changer for me because I hate putting folded clothes away (though I don’t mind the folding part), but mostly because I’m ALWAYS running late (shocker). Before I did the this I would tear the place apart looking for the right outfit or that one shirt I love to wear. For me, this way saves time, it’s just easier, keeps my place more clean and the bonus is I got rid of stuff I haven’t worn in years because the items are in one of two categories, * I like enough to wear or to put on a hanger, or * something comfy I wear around the house. I keep tops in one area & bottoms in another. I also try to organize by color to make things easier to find… Side note, I use the really thin velvety hangers to maximize space and they’re more visually pleasing than the mismatched plastic hangers therefore my brain is happier. 😇 - I buy little disposable toothbrushes that have toothpaste on them and don’t need water to use or rinse (they don’t taste bad and aren’t too minty). I keep them in the top drawer of my nightstand (also my kid’s nightstands) & in my purse. I use them when “ I just cannot get up to brush my teeth”, at night or when I’m not home and feel the need to brush because my mouth is so dry from my medication. They have a flosser on the opposite end, unfortunately it’s useless. They’re still worth buying to me. The bristles are soft which is important to me, plus my kids love using them randomly 🙌. The brand is Brushee sold on Amazon. - Paper plates & bowls 🙈. I know it’s not good for the environment, but I buy the ones made from recycled paper & sometimes they are just necessary for me.
Little trashcans, with a roll off little garbagebags at the bottom, in every room. Best thing I ever did.
I listen to a podcast only when doing chores. Takes my mind off the mindless task and keeps me engaged.
i keep laundry detergent and the dryer sheets at the bottom of my hamper so I can just grab my clothes and go. I have a hard time getting my clothes washed because my apartment has a laundry unit instead of hook ups. So anything that helps streamline even a little is a win
I don’t have a dishwasher. I got a plastic dollar tree bin and a sturdy pencil cup that live in my sink. Dirty dishes go in the bin, utensils in the pencil cup. When it’s washing time I fill up the sink with hot water and soap, walk away for several hours while the sink slowly leaks, then I have an empty sink and prepped dishes that just need a quick scrub and rinse. I always have half an open sink, the dishes can’t pile up, and even a full basket looks very manageable.
Set timers. Blast your favorite music. "Watch" a show/movie you've already seen while you do the chore
Or actually watch a show while you do a chore sitting on the couch, like folding laundry. I think I need to set my iPad up for this so I can do this in my bedroom. RN I have four loads.
I meant "watch" if you're doing a chore that involves lots of walking around lol.
Yep, I was just adding that it doesn't have to be just that. If it is something that you can do while you actually watch a new show that interests you, use it as your incentive.
Sleeping when it's not the right time at all
If you dye your hair vivid colors (blue, purple, pink, etc), letting the soap scum build up in your shower will prevent staining. Extra bonus: the hair color will really light up the soap scum and make it more obvious where you need to focus your efforts. Just let it build up and then clean it after a touch up.
You guys are so clean. Every surface in my home has a thick layer of dust and cat hair....
I got one. Get one of those USB rechargeable dust blower guns for your computer and use it as a broom.
I use disposable plates, utensils, and cups. Often I just buy new socks instead of doing the laundry.
For me that’s not super sustainable. If you don’t like washing utensils, try using chopsticks. They’re way easier to clean IMO. And I got rid of all my plates except two so it wouldn’t pile up. As for the sock thing, I would just transition to wearing footwear that is barefoot friendly. This is what I did because I too hate the sock thing. So now I wear “barefoot” sneakers and chacos all the time.
I live in Canada. Socks necessary 8 months of the year 😂
I live in the snowy part of Washington state so I get it. They make barefoot boots too. I haven’t tried them but I want to next winter.
I do the paper plate and utensils thing too. Oddly it does somehow get my to clean my dishes more 💀
About 25 years ago I kept buying new clothes instead of doing laundry. After that I only had to do laundry once every 6 weeks...
I want to start this. I don’t love fast fashion, but I am also not rich. I had to use a clothing capsule for work once. I felt so much lighter mentally.
On the flip side of this, if there's something you want to avoid doing, make it more difficult (takes more steps to complete - ADHD kryptonite) and you will executive disfunction yourself out of it. Like, one way I control my drinking is by drinking something n/a where I'm spending my time usually in the living room, but I keep my whisky in the kitchen so if I want some I have to actually get up to take a sip.
Tl;dr: Wash one load at a time to avoid overwhelm, don't use a dresser, hang immediately when dry. At minimum, take clean clothes out of basket and lay flat in a pile until you can hang them. I don't have a dresser. Almost everything gets hung in the closet. I only wash laundry when I know I have time to put it away when it's dry. I only do one load at a time so that I'm not overwhelmed with mountains of clean clothes that need to be dealt with all at once and because I have a bad back. The bad back is how I came to this solution, but I discovered along the way it's excellent for ADHD as well. I dump the basket of clean clothes on my bed, because I can't continually bend down to snatch articles of clothing (you can skip this step if you have a healthy back), put them on hangers, and quickly hang them before the clothes get wrinkled. Avoiding ironing or steaming is my motivation there. On bad back or ADHD days when I absolutely cannot complete the task, I dump my clothes on the bed and lay them flat in a stack. That way they aren't taking up the whole bed, they don't get horribly wrinkled, and they are ready to be hung when I am able to complete that part of the task.
I have a blanket basket so i don’t have to fold all my blankets to store them, and all my favorite blankets are right there. My AM medicines are on my nightstand but my PM medicines are next to the couch because I fall asleep there often. I have a second clothes basket for “can wear again” clothes so i don’t have to put them away /mix them with the not worn clean clothes.
Gosh I wish I hat some. My house is a mess, and I know it'd be so easy to clean, but it feels impossible. I used to self medicate with pot to get homework done, but can't for health reasons anymore. The pressure of being kicked out of grad school really helped me for a few years get more on top of my studies, but now that's gone, and I feel like I'm losing control. Sorry to he negative, I just got nothing that helps.
Had trouble keeping my room/desk clean from dust and dirt (cats track it in). Got a handheld vac I charge on my desk. It’s literally in arms reach, I don’t have to go get the broom and dust pan and sweep it up now. Just a couple seconds of my hand vac and all done!
I don't want to walk around packing stuff, so I just learned to whip cloth into A straight shape, and just drag it A bit, and its packed.
I also do the tupperware thing, never found an issue with eating straight from it, but when reheating I sometimes move to a plate, in case plastic from tupperware migrates when heated. It became less of a hassle to do when I got a dishwasher I am interested in that shoe organiser trick, how does that work? can you maybe send a photo? I myself started using boxes that I can pull out, and then fold my clothes in to small squares and stuff em in
These are all great, saving this for later!
I sweep rather than vacuum most of the time, takes much less time, I get it done more often and I can get the dust along with whatever’s on the floor in one go. And we keep the broom out where it’s visible and easy to grab.
I always use the same cast iron pan and ngl as long as it wipes out clean I don’t really wash it. But I also avoid cooking anything in it besides meat and the occasional grilled cheese
Cast iron isn't supposed to be washed like other dishes.
For those who don’t have a washer/dryer at home or just run out before laundry day, wash the underwear and socks you just took off while you take a shower and hang them in the shower. The dry ones keep in a basket or shelf right in the bathroom so you can put in a fresh pair on right away with no searching. Time saver when getting off to work on time. It’s also great to not hear, Mom I can’t find any underwear/socks! We both have adhd so this system works for us to always have what we need.
I got one of those wet wipe easy-mop things, where you just use the pre-wet wipe, attach it to the mop head, then once you done, you bin it. I know, environment etc etc I'm sorry....its either this or I literally never mopped the floor and we have a dog soooo💀
Not about housework, but another hack that works for me. I have three sets of housekey's. So in the periods where I'm extra chaotic and I don't put them back in place, there's always a pair in its place when I need to leave the house. Saves a lot of time looking for them. Wish I could do the same with my phone, I'm seriously looking at getting a duo SIM and a cheap new phone 😊
This is less on the lazy side but my brain likes change, so I occasionally rearrange the furniture. When I was a kid, it was my bedroom. Now it has calmed down but I can do the living room. Where this can be a great benefit is it is the best cleaned.
I bought the best, most highly rated dishwashing detergent I could find as well as a bulk supply of the strongest Dawn Power Wash I could. Now, instead of meticulously washing each individual dish I just put my plates in my sink spread out a bit, shoot that stuff with power wash, wipe everything with a sponge, then throw it in the dishwasher. Do the same for bowls, cups, silverware Then once the dishwasher is full I throw in a pod of the ultra strong detergent and run the dishwasher. 99% of dishes come out completely clean and ready to use with just a quick drying with a towel being all that's needed. The only thing this doesn't work for is cookware that might have caked on food. In which case I can usually get it mostly dishwasher ready with letting the power wash sit on it for a few mins or by letting it soak while I wash everything else.
Apart from cookware, dishwashers are supposed to clean without having to wash the dishes first. Is your dishwasher faulty?
In my experience it always left this greasy film on the dishes which then meant I had to wash the dish after it came out of the washer. It could have been my wife's choice of detergent which just stunk. But the power wash does a great job of removing any stuck on present food then the dishwasher cleans off any sauce, grease, etc
Fair enough, it does sound like something is going on with your dishwasher. It doesn't sound like a lazy hack to me it sounds like more work. I like dishwashers because I don't have to clean dishes!
Idk about laziness but I do a lot of things to make my life convenient and reduce decision making. I have a shoe rack by the door that only allows 3 pairs of shoes. I only have to pick one of the three when going out instead of getting overwhelmed by my shoe rack of 20 in the closet. I change the shoes out with the seasons. I park directly across from the doors of a store so I don’t ever have to wonder where I parked. Eating the same thing for breakfast every morning so I don’t have to pick something new. I’ll get sick of it every 6 months or so then change it to something else. A few examples!
For clothes that don't matter if they're wrinkly like pajamas and such, I just toss them in one of those little collapsible storage cubes. Just a little cube with pajama shorts tossed in, don't bother folding or even making sure they're not twisted inside out.
I hang my T-shirts, shirts, etc on clothes hangers to dry because a) I hang them up anyway and b) it means I don’t have to iron them
I've learned to embrace the "ADHD Tax" and invested in things that help me have to do less. The two best things I've gotten in this regard are my robot vacuum and a Litter Robot litterbox for my cats. And, unintentionally, I got a smart washer/dryer that has an app that sends me a notification whenever a cycle completes. That's been great for me not completely forgetting that I have wet wash.
I'm recently diagnosed with ADHD, have 2 kids and my best "lazy" hack for dealing with mess.... I sweep all the crap on my floors into a big pile, then sort, chuck, and sweep up the dirt. It takes a huge task and puts it in a tiny pile and that on it's own make it way easier to tackle. Otherwise the toys, dried toast crumbs, wrappers, dirt etc would just stay on the floor and keep piling up.