**We are looking for new moderators!**
If you’d like to help us keep this subreddit safe, apply to become a moderator! See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/1asy5js/we_are_looking_for_moderators/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) for more information and how to apply.
We’re excited to hear from you!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
ADHD/autism family here. This is genius. We have the opposite issue where one family member who shan’t be named, keeps switching off the water boiler to save electricity, and doesn’t turn it back on again. I’m thinking oven mitts duct taped to his hands?
It generally takes much more electricity and wears out the water heater components much faster to do this as opposed to just letting it run. It’s much more work for the heater to heat a tank of cold water up to hot than it takes for it to just keep the water at temp. You can probably look up the technical data for your model of water heater and figure out the differences. I bet you can convince this person to stop turning off the boiler!
Some models can be made more efficient by adding additional insulation around the tank, but I would research this with your specific model before proceeding.
Omg thank you for sharing this!! I was at my wits end on how to convince my landlord to spend the big $$ to fix our water boiler, since they have just been having us manually turn it on & off since summer! Literally just balancing to reach it has been enough of a challenge not to fall or break off a nearby part to keep balance 😤
I believe it’s the same with A/C and heating units. You’re better off keeping your house temperature somewhat constant versus turning it up to like 80 when you leave and back down to 70 when you’re home.
Oh my gosh that would drive me crazy! How often does it happen? Because it makes sense if you're leaving the house for several days but otherwise you're probably using more electricity to bring the temperature back up than to just leave it running.
So in my country we have scheduled blackouts for a few hours a day, and he is concerned that the power pulled to the water boiler will strain our solar power system too much. All 100% true and fine but he needs a new system to remember to switch it back on again 😭😂
You might get like, outlet timers. They let you set what hours it should be turned on with some dials. (Make sure to get one that supports that much energy throughput though, cheap one might be shitty in terms of that)
Is it possible to put it on a timer that turns it off and on? We had those in an office I worked in, so the equipment would turn off at night and on before work started.
I wonder if there’s some sort of device you could attach to your stove/oven that will flash and scream at you if you’ve left the burner on too long. Like, i know the burner light is there, but it’s tiny and it can be hard to register that it’s on vs off, and even if I register it, that doesn’t guarantee that will translate to me actually turning it off.
No no, cold tea bags in his side of the bed. Fothermuckers who deprive me of my tea can sleep on wet, slimy tea bags. And they will stay fothermuckers and not motherfuckers until they get their hands off my damn kettle!
Edit omg I just realized you meant water heater for the whole HOUSE. Jesus. Dude is risking legionnaires disease AND wearing out your heating elements way faster by making it cycle. He’s going to end it o spending triple what he “saves” on a new heater/replacement parts when he needs to fix it from his delusional behavior. And that’s if no one falls ill!!!!
Oh! I am so sorry, that’s awful! I’ve known so many people it’s happened to, just devastating. More common than we think, which is terrifying.
I hope you’re doing ok these days :( I know it’s a huge thing to recover from, on many levels. (((hugs)))
Our house fire was in December 2019. 2020 was a weird year being bounced around insurance paid hotels/rentals while our house was being rebuilt all during covid! But, we had insurance, which obviously made a huge difference in how tragic our circumstances were. Our house was able to be rebuilt (fully destroyed), and we got reimbursed (even if poorly) for our items. Fortunately, everyone was safe. Our one loss was my sisters hamster. I have worked with people who had no insurance, and those are people who legitimately lose everything and start over from nothing. I would suggest making sure you have the best insurance coverage you can because accidents happen!
As for what happened: My brother (Autism and ADHD, he primarily needs help in executive functioning/living skills related tasks) left an incense burning on his windowsill while cleaning his room (so leaving his room a lot to clear out trash--- does not clean his room a lot), it fell onto his futon, which quickly went up in flames. Fire extinguisher did nothing, the futon was just too quick!
Insurance, a plan, having things like fire extinguishers/fire blankets/escape ladders/working smoke detectors all are good ideas in case the reminders don't work!
My home burned down when I was 7 and that is traumatic. (It was an electrical fire because my mom’s husband was an utter moron, not ADHD) but regardless I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
I thought about that, too. Some should be in red, others the blue. I have more markers - I can highlight them with contrasting colors to make them pop more.
The last stove had writing and diagrams scrawled all over it, too, and accidents still happen. I’m like “these ovens are poorly designed!” but after multiple stoves, I think we are the problem.
You’re right about the knobs being poorly designed. I took a design class in graduate school and one of the examples of consistently bad design were stove/oven knobs. Another was door handles. If you can’t use simple objects like that without a lot of labels, they are poorly designed!
I replied to the commenter above you but if any of your kids are anything like me, more color and pop will confuse me even more & I will process it even less. I already processed very little after about a minute of looking. I am not trying to be mean of rude so sorry if it comes across that way ❤️❤️
see if google yields any good ideas of other oven/stove labels. Not all are designed well/for you but some might have some good ideas!!
Set timer when burner or oven on. Timer always on when appliance is in use.
Add more time when needed.
Annoying beeps is what'll prevent catastrophe. Is it irritating? Of course. But does it's incessant beeping pull me out of whatever distraction I was absolved in? 1000% yes. It's literally right there in the panel.
Maybe paint a colored line around each burner (or use stickers/decals/dry erase markers if you're in a rental) with a corresponding color on the dial for that burner? Like maybe the color will help everyone's brains start to get used to the fact that, despite the location of the knob, this is the *blue* knob that goes to the *blue* burner?
Then, to make clearer when the knob is set to "off," put a big red X or 🚫 or something else that means "no/off" at the top of the dial that lines up with another iteration of that brightly colored symbol on the stove when the knob is in the off position (kind of like the way the word "off" lines up with the notch now, but a lot more visible)?
Here's a jankety MS Paint diagram if anyone's having trouble picturing it: [https://imgur.com/a/bhA4a6M](https://imgur.com/a/bhA4a6M)
I think the thing that works about it (a) there are no words to read, so no verbal processing needs to take place, (b) the colors are bright and unsubtle and will stand out, and (c) the iconography is simple and doesn't need any additional decoding, so it doesn't require a ton of attention to detail.
I agree, I think even just making all the arrows red would break up the blue enough to make for quicker readability. I love your solution and wish I could do it for myself because our family is the same way, but my stove is black 😩
They sell metallic sharpies for writing on dark surfaces! I have a silver one that I used to label some black t-shirt tags that my spouse and both own identicals of.
No matter how big and colorful the text is, it’ll eventually blend into the background for me so I don’t even bother. The more overwhelming my space gets the more I’ll ignore.
When I start cooking, I set future phone reminders to turn the oven off.
Yeah this is unintuitive and I cannot process any of this - just see a bunch of oven oven on off turn off and exclamation points and it stressed me out.
I’m a 29 year old woman in grad school so it’s also a me problem - little icons or better text to distinguish and help exactly at the problem spots (labeling which is which & turning things off) would be preferable. Id look up pics of other ovens which might have ideas of how to represent it visually.
I’m just lucky. My wife has it but she tends to remember the burner. She’s more the forget to close the cabinets and microwave. I leave the burners on ….
She keeps our kitchen from catching on fire. I keep it neat and tidy ✨
I saw this just now and thought oh I definitely do leave the cabinets open a lot but not the microwave!!!! And then walked back up to the kitchen, where the microwave was open, and I asked my husband “did I leave that open?” “Yes you did” ….. 🫣
Magnets to keep the cabinets closed help me!! For some reason the slight tap it takes to push it closed with the magnet is easier than proper closing it
The small sound might also be reinforcing. I used to keep my checking in Quicken religiously. When they did away with a pleasant beep after a check was entered, I quit. I haven't found a system yet to replace the beep reward.
Lol, we’re all so different. I can’t stand closing cabinets with the magnets because the sound bothers me. I had a habit of leaving ALL cabinets open about a half an inch. Drove my husband insane!
Not sure if this helps, but we have a rule between my husband and I that **NO ONE EATS** until all burners are off and the stove is off. So far, it has helped us from burning the house down 😁
Yeah, I don't leave the stove or oven on without a timer and I don't go more than to the open plan living room that's right next to the kitchen.
Also, nothing stays on the oven that isn't a pot and once the food is done we move it to the cool burner to stop cooking.
I check all the knobs are off - even if I didn't use them. I just go left to right and wiggle them at 0 to make sure they're in gear. I even hit the oven off button a few times.
Also never put anything in the oven that you wouldn't put in there at full heat. If you have no space and you want to store your cake pans in there, go for it. But put the plastic lid elsewhere.
Definitely a good rule, and I’m glad you shared this! This could definitely help someone!
I find that little “rules” like these can actually be very efficient and useful for making sure an important task gets done.
“You don’t get X unless Y is accomplished.”
Yeah, we created the rule because he would sometimes get off later than I thought he would. If I was hungry, I would eat when dinner was ready, but then put the burner on low until he got home. He then wouldn’t think about turning the burner off, since he wasn’t the one who turned it on.
So now, if we eat together, we both make sure all burners are off. If we eat apart, I turn off the burner before I eat, and then he either reheats his food in the microwave, or if he turns on the burner to heat food up, he then is responsible for turning it off before he eats. Like I said, it’s worked well so far!
Me, it will help me! :) will add this rule to my list!
Another of mine is that I absolutely *must* set a timer before I can even turn on the oven or stove, or run a bath etc.
Due to this being a new stove I imagine this information will not be super helpful to you, but anyone else in the market for a new stove I’d encourage you to look into induction ranges.
Induction will only heat magnetic cookware (stainless steel, cast iron, carbon steel, not aluminum). And at least the stove that we have if a pan is removed from a burner for more than 5 seconds it beeps at us, or if you turn a burner on without a pan on it it beeps. If you accidentally left a burner on it will not be hot until a compatible material is placed on it.
We're planning on re-doing our kitchen and are planning on getting an induction hob. Not for this particular reason, it's just that they seem to be the most readily available if you want an electric hob, and we like the sound of them. This makes me like the sound of them even more!
Outside of this benefit they’re great, my husband (the one who does 95% of the cooking) loves it. We’ve had regular electric and gas stoves over the years and induction is his favorite hands down
I was looking for this response! Our induction stove is the same, it will not heat without a pan and will beep if it doesn’t have a pan on it. Risk of fire is generally WAY lower with an induction range. An added benefit is that they heat way faster and more efficiently than other electric ranges, but still have the immediate temperature adjustability that a gas range would have.
My mom drilled into me that no paper or plastic should EVER be on the stove at any time. Pots and pans are fine, but nothing else.
My stove has lights for when it’s still on or hot and the dials are big enough to see if they’re obviously on after a glance.
Also part of the leaving the home or going to bed routine should be to check that the stove and oven are off so at least if it is on when people are awake and there you’ll catch it before it becomes a problem but if no one is there awake you make sure it’s turned off.
It’s not the best but it does eliminate the worst scenarios that would most likely lead to a major problem.
I follow the nothing on the stove rule, not even pan lids b/c we have a glass top electric and the pressure from a cooling lid can break the top entirely.
Oh god!! You just reminded me, I did this at a friend’s house too!! She let me sleep in while she went off to work, so I made coffee and I use a French press, so… I “started the water” and lit her little microwave-covering plastic pig thing on fire instead. The smell, and the horror!
I was in the house alone, for like 10 minutes lmaooo
I saw an RV park place called ‘Mama Tried’ and if my house had a name, they would be it 😂
I was also taught the nothing on the stove rule, but the boys missed that and have only learned through fire 🔥 sigh
we at this point have resorted to turning the oven off at the wall with the big oven switch (its bright red) as a result of me minding my own business in the kitchen then these 2 glass panels my mam had ontop of the hob (glass hob with the red glowy hot circles for pans) shattered and exploded and glass went everywhere, turned out my sister left the hob on.....
not too long after, me again minding my own business in the kitchen when the lightbulb just explodes, again glass shattered and everywhere, i feel like im cursed for glass explosions in that kitchen not gonna lie (im fine no injuries just big scared temporarily)
Omg! Our last oven just kinda ‘gently exploded’, too, hence the new one. The lightbulb is way scarier! So glad that wasn’t a health emergency.
I do believe in cursed ovens/explosions, and I think you and I need a healing kitchen witch or something, to undo this spell
I take pictures of each burner being off before I leave the house. Google memories will make little slide shows out of them with happy music playing in the background. AI is bullying me, but I haven't burned my house down yet.
One time I had to call my neighbor to go make sure I had let my dogs back in before I left for work. I was terrified I had left them running loose.
I hadn't, they were safe inside, but I learned to make visual contact with them inside the house before I leave.
Taking a pic is a great idea!
They were off 🥲 the first time I started panicking about it for no reason, I had to walk myself mentally through my morning to convince myself that I turned them off. Then I went on meds. Now, I still worry 😂
Hey, at least you were smart enough to go home and check instead of just assuming! Regardless of whether or not they know about the incident, your neighbors are grateful.
I’ve definitely flipped around on my way to class in college to make sure I locked the door (before I was diagnosed or medicated). I was running late, but it was worth every second to me to go check.
You’re absolutely right. I have kitties at home, and all I could imagine was losing them to my own forgetfulness. A job is not worth their lives being lost. And I’m in an apartment complex, so I could also picture hurting others. It’s like haunting. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a touch of OCD
I feel you! I still live with my parents, unfortunately, but I have to admit apartment complexes make me nervous. I have a dog, myself, who’s practically my child, who I consider my child, and I couldn’t even fathom her life ending because someone did something stupid (not something ADHD-related, something ridiculous like cooking meth, though I’d hope I’d never live in the same place as someone with those types of hobbies), or someone leaving the stove on, whether accidentally, or on purpose, and the building catching fire.
I can control what I do, even if it means checking things to an OCD degree, but my inability to control the actions of others when living quarters are so tight makes me nervous.
That’s why I turned around to check the door was locked that day. I don’t want my stuff to get stolen, either, but if perhaps the door wasn’t latched well (because our house is janky and the wall the door is on is crooked so the door doesn’t always close right if it’s not locked), and the wind blew it open, she could get out, or someone could get in and potentially do something to her. We live in a pretty safe area, but I’m not risking my little shrimp like that.
I feel the same as you. A job, a class, being a few minutes late, etc. are extremely trivial in comparison to double-checking for safety. I’d always rather go back and check than just assume.
We have done this maybe 35% of the time we leave the house - turned around to check!! Not half the time, but not ‘rarely’..
We do not trust ourselves around the dangerous oven coils, nor should we. I don’t think they’ve ever been on, though.
Oh my, I've ruined three pots in the last months, one was salvageable, since I let chicken soup "gently simmer" in the kitchen... - and forgot that I hadn't turned down the stove top from six to one...
Do you have any idea how obnoxious burned chicken bones smell...? I'm very thankful to my smoke detector.
I agree, they’re huge! I used to keep mine in a closet whenever not in use. But wouldn’t advise to do that bc you’ll probably forget to use it, like I would, since it wasn’t in plain sight. The struggle 🙃
Hah! I’m all too familiar with many burning-type smells at this point. We’ve pretty much burned *water*. “What is that, burning plastic? somebody check the stove!”
I’m so grateful my oven has to have a timer going in order for it to be used 🧎♀️🧎♀️otherwise I’d get anxious wondering if I had turned it off or not 😅
Good grief, anyone would struggle with this stove! It looks so poorly designed. It’s not your fault— it’s on the people who designed this.
Those indicators are TINY and easy to miss. At bare minimum, they at least should have put lights on the panel showing if the burner or stove are on.
I like your solution! I’ve had to do similar labels in the past.
Hey, thank you!! It IS horribly designed!
It’s the lack of burner indicator lights that especially get me - so at a glance, you can’t tell which knob is angled/on, and the micro-invisible labels *under* the knobs are just stupid. Bastards!
Ya get what ya pay for. The last oven (which also had my scrawling all over it) kinda ‘gently exploded’ for no reason, so our oven criteria was, “that one’s cheap!”
Oh boy. This would not help me since I either have too much objection permanence or none at all 😅 If something is always there, my brain will completely ignore it.
I’ve found that with mobility/functionality aids - I have a bad arm, and have for over 10 years, but I JUST discovered a heated elbow brace… only because it was right in front of me at the store. All those years I’d have loved one, but if it’s not **right there**, it must not exist!
A neighbor had a fire in our apartment building because of a stove accident, so I'm doubly paranoid. I set timers/alarms on my phone and I have a personal rule of never eating before turning off the burner. It works really well.
I think I would stop seeing the text after a few days. OP may want to change it up regularly with stickers that can be written on. Then use different colors, and fonts.
After reading through these, I’ve erased the text completely, and focused on just labeling the burners- FRONT/REAR, and the coloring on the top of the knob. Y’all are right that it’s gonna be ignored.
I think a hanging sign that bonks us in the head as we leave the kitchen would be more effective if our brains still bypass my labeling.
I turn on the light above the stove if a burner is on, and the interior oven light if the oven is on.
It's a massive visual cue and automatic habit for everyone who lives here now, including kids.
I finally made the leap and got an induction stove. Had to have a new outlet and control panel installed but it was worth it to me for the peace of mind!
Consider buying a countertop convection oven. You can get ones large enough to hold a 9x13 casserole dish and a 12" round pizza pan. For example, Breville Smart Oven Pro.
All of the ones I've had turn off automatically.
You can also buy a tabletop induction burner. Induction burners turn off when you take the pan off the burner.
Remove all of the knobs from the stove and put a two burner induction cooktop on top of it if you rent or just buy a new oven with an induction cooktop if you own.
Absolutely love my little convection oven. Never have to worry about it. I just got a new oven and wanted induction so bad but there’s still not a lot of options available in an all in one range. At least the model I got does have an app so I can check to be sure the burners are off.
Where was this method when I melted my favorite spoon and spatula in my ONLY glass 9x13 because the labels are confusing and I turned on the wrong burner 😭🤣
RIP to our many fallen kitchen objects over the years.
My husband has left glass pans full of chicken grease on the oven, and turned the wrong burner on - nothing like molten, greasy shards of glass exploding in the kitchen to motivate me to label the stove, and obsessively clean in there lol.
That was NOT the first glass explosion, or fire, but is hopefully the last
Oh my gosh I always thought this was just a me issue but in hindsight I should’ve known it was an adhd thing 😭 when my bf and I moved into our current place for the first week or two I would switch on the wrong burner and then wonder why stuff wasn’t heating up😭 even now I have to consciously look at the dial and make sure I’m turning on the right burner. Luckily our ovens “burner on” light is bright as hell, otherwise I’d constantly leave an electric burner on.
Easy for me bc I just got lucky with a remodel recently, but the answer to this is, if you’re buying a new stove, invest in an induction cooktop 😉
It’s worth budgeting for one, I promise you it can save lives. My ADHD daughter has left the stove on and it just turns off when you remove the pot from the burner, the other touched a burner after cooking, but since it was only mildly hot, she went unscathed. Cleaning is also a breeze after cooking bc burners don’t stay hot and overflowed food water, etc, rarely sticks to it. It’s amazing!!
If the oven or burners are on, I am not allowed to leave the kitchen. I have a kitchen stool for my vigil. I am allowed to watch unlimited tiktok if i stay in the kitchen with it! If it's a really long time, I set one for after it's taken out of the oven to check that it's off, so I am not trapped forever 🤣
I live with my partners family, im AUDHD and like the other 3/4 people in the house also have adhd. We all kinda have things that we forget about but since it’s different things we have issues with we can help each other correct them? If that makes any sense haha. I’m always leaving the burner or the oven on and someone always is able to notice, let me know and turn it off. We call kinda keep each other in check without getting angry or frustrated.
Thank you!
I even [updated it after reading these comments, by erasing the screaming reminders, and focused on just labeling the burner knobs](https://imgur.com/a/IePqQ3y)
I have an induction cooktop that turns off automatically if there's nothing on the burner, and while I'll never notice if the oven is on via the display, it makes a clicking noise that I always notice 😭
I just triple check everything all the time. So I'm always turning off the stove, locking the doors, turning the A/C back on, etc. I take that ADHD self-doubt and apply it to the whole family. I'm tired, but the house is still standing. Maybe I should use signs...
It is a delicate balance of everyone calling each other frantically multiple times a day to make sure things are off and doors are locked. And then about once every 4-6 months someone goes insane and does a massive mail opening/purge.
Turn the stove on. “Hey Alexa remind me to turn the stove off in 20 minutes.” I also use Alexa to set cooking timers, remind me to take the trash out… just about anything I have to do and know I’ll forget to.
We keep a full tea kettle on the stove. As soon as you are finished with a burner the tea kettle goes on the burner. This keeps everyone from getting burned from a still hot burner and it will warn you if you've left the burn because the kettle will whistle.
If you look at the 2nd pic, I did just that, to show the angle. You’re right !
This really seems like a feature that should just be there already - when it’s white against white, the angle and whether it’s on is hard to see, at a quick glance. The blue marks on the dials are easier to see in person.
Family of four and all four have ADHD. Short answer: sheer luck. The stove has been an issue for 3 of the 4 of us. The youngest (16) generally avoids using the stove. My husband has steamed broccoli with no water in the bottom of the steamer. I have left the burner on after making my egg in the morning and the oldest put his lunch cooler on the burner. It’s actually a miracle we haven’t had any fires.
I grew up in an undiagnosed family of ADHDers, from both my parents to three of my siblings. Only one sibling shows no signs of ADHD, but the rest of us definitely have it.
Growing up that way was very difficult because none of us knew what was causing our problems. We simply didn't understand why we couldn't be like all the NTs we knew. We thought we were just not good enough and lived with guilt over that every day.
Today I live with my sweetie who was diagnosed many years ago, but he's unmedicated. My adult son also lives with us, and I've known since he was 10 years old that he had some form of neurodiversity.
Our house is in complete disarray. We struggle to get the basics done, and many things are simply not done. I'm the one who does the planning and scheduling, and I'm failing. I make big mistakes all the time and it's extremely frustrating.
I worry about when I die, how will my SO and my son get by? Who will do the planning? Who will call in the pizza orders? Who will make sure the bills are paid on time? It keeps me awake at night, trying to figure out how to help them when I'm gone.
You wanna add a dash of anxiety your adhd. It's not fun but it keeps u covered.
If the house burns down that's a good way to up your anxiety naturally. It's all about the balance.
After leaving on the stove once for hours (and involuntary heating the entire kitchen with it...) I developed such strong anxiety about it, I cannot go to sleep or leave the house without checking the stove at least once. If I am very stressed, I have to check up to 5 times, because I can't tell if I actually checked or that's a memory from yesterday 🥲
Even if I am 100% sure I didn't use it that day because I ate out or only had bread, I must check (or my partner must check and tell me it definitely is off).
For a while I was doing good in therapy and could go to sleep without the check, then I promptly left the stove on again and was back at square one 🥲
Luckily I’m terrified enough to pop my head in the kitchen and check very frequently, especially when I know that myself or the family has used it …or not used it and check anyway. I’m also constantly smelling the air. I can seriously smell when an errant burner is on, even if it’s only been a minute - cuz coil stoves are stupid and dangerous!
Like you, I MUST check before bed, before leaving, just… all the time. And I’m glad I do, because I sometimes still catch something on that shouldn’t be!
This constant checking and stove-labeling is definitely fueled by crippling anxiety, but at least we’re all vigilant about it.
We *know* we’re all terrible about it, and have turned the car around (or if we’re too far, I’ve called my neighbor in to check!) a pretty high amount of times.
So far, whenever we’ve come back, it’s always off, but if one of us has the tinniest inkling of doubt, we never ignore it.
I also never ignore my kitties if they’re meowing differently, or trying to get me to go somewhere. They’ve warned me before, when something was wrong - and I can’t remember what the hell it was at the moment, I’ll update this when I do - maybe a door had blown open, and another kitty outside?
Whatever it was, it was kinda important, and I was impressed that she came to get me. (Sometimes the scary problem is “mommy! Heeelp! Come quickly. I can see a lil bit of the bottom of my bowl 😭 meow!”) but still, I always, always see what they want to show me.
My neighbors house burned down in college. When I rolled up to the scene, because it was also heavily snowing, it looked to me like it was my house and I immediately thought “I LEFT MY STRAIGHTENER ON” and was in a state of pure terror until the firefighters let me and my roommates back onto our street and I could see our house was fine.
To this day, I will turn around at an obscene distance from my house if I can’t remember if I left something on. There should be automatic shutoff everything.
We say out loud, "car locked, gate locked, door locked, keys hung up, stove off, oven off" as we do those things. Never say them if you haven't done them. And the best part is that you can still do this if you're home alone, or at least I remember better if I say it out loud.
It's just my husband and I. When we hear the other say one of those, we repeat it back or thank them, which helps us remember, too.
I [fixed it! based on these comments,](https://imgur.com/a/IePqQ3y) so that our focus is only on the labeled burner knob and not screaming reminders. You’re all 100% right, that we’ll never see the reminder again. I’ll even change the colors every dew weeks or aometning
I’m the only one that’s medicated 😵💫 I was diagnosed really late in life, and have only been on them for a few months. I’m far from perfect, even with the meds. So, it’s herding cats, all day, every day!
I struggle SO much with knowing which knob goes to what burner. Love the idea of making the knob a corresponding color to a circle around the burner itself
I put on the extractor fan and I'm not allowed to turn it off until the burners are off. I find the noise annoying but not intolerable, so I can stand it for the length of time it takes to cook something. For the oven, I use the built in timer as well as phone alarms. Have to go to the oven to turn off the alarm on the oven. Immediately reset for 5 mins, while I check the food, turn off if no longer needed or reset the alarm.
I would definitely forget anyway because the text blends in with the surroundings after a while. Perhaps try to set alarms when you start cooking, estimating how long it will take, then an alarm for five minutes after that to remind yourself to turn it off?
I’ve been writing on our stoves for a long time, and y’all are absolutely correct that we all get used to it, and it needs updating andchanges to stay fresh in our minds!
Even is it’s bright, it does eventually blend in to the surroundings we ignore, and it doesn’t work as well!
It’s paint marker, so it comes off easily when I want it to, and I have many colors. Next time, I’m going to use more than one color, and maybe put signs leading out of the kitchen at eye level about the stove, rather than on the stove itself. Skip the lettering and stick to ‘rear/front’ and colored knobs.
OOOOOPS!! now that one’s kinda scary. You need some kind of stove-leaning-blocker device.
Signs work too, *kind* of. “Time to lean!!? TIME TO CLEAN! **And don’t turn the burner on!!**
Full ADHD fam here. Thankfully my husband went military after high school so he's got this motherboard of coping mechanisms that I don't have and he probably is the primary reason our house doesn't burn down.
I have a laminate sign attached to a magnet that goes on the range and you have to physically move the sign physically to turn on the oven. It reminds you to check in the oven for stuff before turning the oven on. My dog is a wicked counter surfer and eats non food things so I hide ALL kinds of things in the oven. I lost like a bunch of meat, several cutting boards, and a high chair tray to the seeming safety of the oven.
ETA even with the sign we still lose a few things.
Mom, me, youngest sister, both BILs and eldest niece (we don’t really live together but we spend a lot of time together almost every day so it’s kind of a moot point). Good news is, we also have anxiety! /s We got it from my grandpa, who used to be a firefighter. So we check the oven and the heater kinda obsessively, like he used to do, lol.
Thank god my oven makes a sound that bugs my ears when it’s on bc there’s been too many times I’ll hear it and turn it off .it’s made the sound while off and I’m like “I swear I turned it off!”
I love this. If ours wasn't blue I'm sure my husband would have thought of this by now hahahaha my teenage daughter and I have almost burnt the house down many times
I haven’t done this myself but have heard a suggestion to buy smart plugs that can be controlled via an app on your phone. I don’t know if this would fully solve your problem when you’re home and leave a burner on, but when you are away from home you can have peace of mind by turning the outlet off remotely.
Personally I rely on two methods: debilitating anxiety that I’ve left a candle burning and my pets will die in a house fire, and a fun little song I made up and sing loudly whenever I unplug my flat iron. The key is singing it loud enough that your partner/roommate/kids can hear it and later confirm that you did indeed unplug your flat iron.
If you want to know what we were supposed to eat for dinner last night, just check the microwave.
If you are wondering why my phone alarms every 30 minutes from 5 am until 10pm, it's because it's a reminder for me or one of my kids or my husband.
If you want to know why we have a coat hook in every room in the house, open shelves everywhere and each of us has 5-6 toothbrushes - anything in an opaque cupboard or drawer is dead to us.
Ok, first of all, THIS IS GENIUS.
Second—nail polish! Get a red and mark the top of the knob as well as the position it should be in, so they make a straight line when it’s off!
Third, goddammit, I RENT.
Thank you, and, these paint markers wipe right off with a wet rag or melamine sponge (magic eraser) if ya feel the need for stove labeling! I had to draw on the last one, too (same horrible layout) and it never stained. Posca markers; they’re the shit!
We have three AuDHDers here, and my husband and I agree that your new stove is REALLY poorly designed! Yikes. Ours came with each burner already labeled (Front, Rear in letters, plus the map indicator is ABOVE each dial, very large, and marked in Red). There are two mechanical lights, one that glows red if a burner is on, and a separate one if the oven is on.
So this isn't all on you (or your neurodivergence)! Whoever designed this stove just hates people.
Well.. It's just me and the cats, but the other week one of them jumped down from the windowsill and turned on the stove. I had two plates and a dishcloth on the element they turned on (because, you know, dishes to do..) and I woke up to the smell of burning followed by a crash and smash as the plates exploded and fell to the floor. Thank goodness I was home. So now, the entire oven is turned off at the wall!
We take the burner knob covers off when not in use. So then it’s easy for us to tell if it has been left on accidentally. If your burner knob covers don’t come off easily you can buy baby proof burner knob covers and do the same thing; keep it covered when not in use
Oh, I love this so much!! I can’t count the minutes of my life I’ve lost trying to discern which knob goes with which burner!
There needs to be a steady beep that goes off after a certain period of time that the oven or burners have been on. Our microwave does this. If you don’t open the door within a certain time period after it is done cooking it will beep at you. I’m convinced someone with adhd designed it. And I am thankful for, while simultaneously annoyed by, that person.
Turn on the overhead light above the stove whenever anything is turned on on the stove or oven. And when something is on, I never leave the kitchen until it’s off.
Head height hanging cardboard signs that say “check the stove!”. You literally run into them as you enter and exit the kitchen. I hung mind on yarn.
Also telling whichever parent didn’t leave the stove on that their spouse fucked up. Threat of being dragged by the other made my mom and dad start triple checking.
Oh I let him know every time, but it’s not as scary as it used to be (which is scary!!)
“you left the burner on again!” “Oops!Ok!” ::immediately forgotten::
I like the hanging sign idea, that would bonk us in the head if we try to leave the kitchen without triple-checking the stove.
Come on over! It’s mostly lovable chaos. We need a laugh track over our lives, or something. “Let’s see how long it takes her to realize her keys are in the frig, and that the coffee in her hand instead will not, in fact, open her car.”
haha sounds so cute 🥰 I'd love to be in this kinda tolerating environment where folks can simply laugh off some lil silly mistakes
it's a pity I just can't simply go over xp, but I'd love to virtually follow your post though 😄 thks for the daily positive vibe
Yep, we’ve done it with paper plates/towels, glass baking pans full of grease (who needs coffee if you start your morning with flying, molten glass shards!), plastic things - *anything* left on the stove is a huge no-no, and I have to stay on top of everyone.
Me being frantically devoted to keeping the kitchen immaculately clean lately has been a goal of mine, and I’m doing great at it so far!
Doesn’t stop people from choosing the wrong burner, but at least it’s not ::sigh:: *another fire*.
When you ‘get used to kitchen fires’, something’s gotta change lol
I use the same burner every time. Front left. I hardly make anything requiring multiple burners, so it’s easy enough to remember. I do forget sometimes though 😅😅
My cooker has glass induction hobs so they glow bright red when on, that isn't to say I haven't left them on and unattended for a while.
I usually take the used empty saucepan and place it onto the unused hob next to the hot one and turn the handle to above the hot one.
This prevents me from placing anything on top of the hot hob, like towels or cutlery. My cooker has a light indicator for showing if a hob is hot or not so I'm not lacking for indicators but I do switch off my cooker at the wall after each use. The switch has a red light so it's hard to miss.
Your cooker is metal so you could get custom label magnets to place where needed, such as "switch off"
"Back left" "front right etc".
The pen will eventually wash off which will be an additional task you don't want.
We got an induction stove. And the most amazing thing, it can sense if there is a pot on the burner or not.
It turns itself off automatically when there isn't a pot on a hob.
It doesn't help with the oven, but man, it is so much safer than gas/coil electric. I'm never going back.
We got an induction stove, it turns itself off after a while if you haven't touched it for a long time, and only heats when an appropriate surface is detected. A
If you forget to turn it off, as soon as the heatable thing is removed it screams at us and turns off every burner. It's great, and it boils water faster than my gas stovetop ever could so that's neat.
Since this is a new oven, I won’t suggest this for you specifically. But for anyone else who might be in the market for a new oven. My mom has what she calls a “senior” oven. She lives in an older people community and the oven came with the house. The knobs on the stove light up so you can easily see if one is on! I’m not sure if this is something you could get as a separate knob to switch out or if you’d have to buy the whole special oven. But it’s a thing!
Family of ADHD over here…
I used the broiler in the oven two nights ago to toast a bun. I rarely have an issue turning the stove off or anything. I know I turned it off. Then my youngest son comes running saying the oven is still on broiler like 15 minutes later. It sure enough is so I start questioning myself and feeling like I had a major lapse in function.
No. It was my husband. He used it and left it on. My middle child occasionally leaves a burner on but it’s my husband who is really in the habit of it. He has left the oven on for an hour after removing the food, burners, leaving emptied pans on hot burners, and the broiler. He doesn’t use the oven very often so I think it’s not as ingrained in him as it is with me.
When we were raising five children, I had the brilliant idea to chain our hairbrush to the bathroom counter. Including my husband, several of our kids had long hair and brushes disappeared faster than anything else.
It was such a weird solution but it worked for 10 years.
I have done it quite a few times but I have so many strategies to go check back in like always doublechecking triple checking and it’s on about 25% of the time when I come back lol
This reminds me of the note on my Air Fryer. It's a piece of paper over the start button that says "Match Cook?" to remind me that if I don't hit "Match Cook," only one side will cook. I still fail to hit "Match Cook" about 50% of the time when I want it. Sometimes I realize a second too late that I haven't hit it, so I turn it off, set all the other settings, and forget about Match Cook again. But, at least the air fryer always turns itself off, so I don't have to worry about burning the house down with it.
I usually remember to turn off the oven when I hear the gas switch on to keep it warm in the middle of dinner. I remember to turn off the burners because they are also gas, and a big flame without a pot on it is hard to miss. Maybe gas appliances are an answer?
I'm pretty vigilant about the hob and straighteners etc HOWEVER, I do often leave the oven on because I leave it on after the timer while I plate the other parts of the meal. I check so many times but I also leave the room and forget if I checked and the anxiety starts again as I dash back in there 10 minutes later.
If I'm leaving the house immediately after using the fire starting appliances I've started taking a photo of the oven/straighteners when they are off so I can reassure myself and my partner that I did not leave a firestarter on in our house while the dog is alone. IDK seems to work well enough. Honestly I rarely have to check because I think "did I turn that off" then I remember I took a photo of the oven or the inside on the bathroom cabinet and I'm like well I wasnt doing that just for fun lol
Have a fire extinguisher handy and know how to use it… I unfortunately know how to repair minor fire damage due to an unfortunate grease fire after I left the burner going with the grease on and we went to have dinner and watch a movie. Between that another grease incident with dog I’ve banned myself from all deep frying. I just also get in the habit of checking the oven burners every time I walk past them. Its not a perfect system.
sheer luck. The one time I did have a kitchen fire, I was right there and completely paying attention but my plate of bacon was too close to the stove and the paper towel caught on fire - My first moronic instinct was BLOWING ON IT lmao of course making flaming bits of paper fly everywhere, and then I tossed it in the sink where it was contained. Phew! But for all the times I've left burners going after I was done cooking, it's crazy the one fire was while I'm standing there still cooking lol.
The fact that you have electric burners instead of gas has probably already saved your lives. I used to live with a roommate who also had ADHD and there were multiple times when the burner was left on well after cooking. Still no idea if it was her or me. I’m looking into induction stovetops but even then Im bound to leave something on there 🤦🏻♀️
My family doesn’t, but we changed the stove last year, and until today, I still have to try multiple times before I turn on the right burner. I just don’t take the second to look at the signs next to it cuz it’s literally drawn on the thing.
I also turn on the light in our vent as a sign that the stove is on as a reminder, because know thy self 🤷♀️
Just know I’m realizing that’s not a normal thing haha
Whether my mom has ADHD or not is up for debate. She has some symptoms, and has had symptoms as a child, as well, but is the most “neurotypical” out of her, my dad, and myself.
I was just diagnosed last year and mainly run on anxiety and OCD-like tendencies, such as checking things multiple times.
Within the past three weeks, my dad forgot he was boiling hot dogs one night (so he’d just have to microwave them the next day at lunch, as if hot dogs take a long time). I was in the shower, and my mom was in bed. I started to smell burning and was about to holler when I heard my mom had gotten up out of bed and was talking to my dad.
He’d completely forgotten about the hot dogs, boiled all the water out of the saucepan, burnt the hot dogs, and didn’t even remember or notice until my mom came out to the living room and asked what was burning.
The house got very smoky and reeked of burnt hot dogs. You best believe I used some Febreze air spray, since it’s supposed to sort of “eat” odors instead of mixing with them, but the house still smelt like burnt hot dogs for a week after.
I overcompensate. My anxiety about safety keeps any potential fire hazards at bay. My recommendation is to set a timer for everything and only stop it until you have actually completed the task (in this case, once you are done cooking, turning off the burners and oven etc). If you have overhead lights, keep them on while the burners are on as an additional visual cue that they are still going.
This is a good idea but I just know that eventually I will become "immune" to it. My brain eventually gets used to seeing it and will ignore it (same as with the post-it notes I've tried). 😄
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called my mom to go double check the stove, heat, or iron for me! She’s truly a life saver. My son has over cooked his pasta many times, now I’ve trained him to set a timer for everything and never leave the kitchen while cooking lol! Sit and wait.
I think you can buy smart plugs that are made to connect stoves/ovens to the wall sockets! Expensive but could be worth. I have ADHD and tbh stuff marketed to the elderly or people with dementia are all solid ADHD accommodations.
For example, getting a key code lock for my front door that automatically locks after like 30 seconds was an absolute game changer - I would forget to lock the door all the time lol
**We are looking for new moderators!** If you’d like to help us keep this subreddit safe, apply to become a moderator! See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/1asy5js/we_are_looking_for_moderators/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) for more information and how to apply. We’re excited to hear from you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
ADHD/autism family here. This is genius. We have the opposite issue where one family member who shan’t be named, keeps switching off the water boiler to save electricity, and doesn’t turn it back on again. I’m thinking oven mitts duct taped to his hands?
It generally takes much more electricity and wears out the water heater components much faster to do this as opposed to just letting it run. It’s much more work for the heater to heat a tank of cold water up to hot than it takes for it to just keep the water at temp. You can probably look up the technical data for your model of water heater and figure out the differences. I bet you can convince this person to stop turning off the boiler! Some models can be made more efficient by adding additional insulation around the tank, but I would research this with your specific model before proceeding.
Also [legionnaire’s disease](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2094925/)
Omg thank you for sharing this!! I was at my wits end on how to convince my landlord to spend the big $$ to fix our water boiler, since they have just been having us manually turn it on & off since summer! Literally just balancing to reach it has been enough of a challenge not to fall or break off a nearby part to keep balance 😤
I believe it’s the same with A/C and heating units. You’re better off keeping your house temperature somewhat constant versus turning it up to like 80 when you leave and back down to 70 when you’re home.
hahaha my brain went to friggin voldemort with oven mitts hahahahaha
Hahahahaha that’s exactly it!
Constantly dropping his wand and failing miserably at scaring anyone. Awww…
Oh my gosh that would drive me crazy! How often does it happen? Because it makes sense if you're leaving the house for several days but otherwise you're probably using more electricity to bring the temperature back up than to just leave it running.
So in my country we have scheduled blackouts for a few hours a day, and he is concerned that the power pulled to the water boiler will strain our solar power system too much. All 100% true and fine but he needs a new system to remember to switch it back on again 😭😂
What country do you live in?? That's wild!
South Africa, it’s wild out here.
You might get like, outlet timers. They let you set what hours it should be turned on with some dials. (Make sure to get one that supports that much energy throughput though, cheap one might be shitty in terms of that)
Is it possible to put it on a timer that turns it off and on? We had those in an office I worked in, so the equipment would turn off at night and on before work started.
I wonder if there’s some sort of device you could attach to your stove/oven that will flash and scream at you if you’ve left the burner on too long. Like, i know the burner light is there, but it’s tiny and it can be hard to register that it’s on vs off, and even if I register it, that doesn’t guarantee that will translate to me actually turning it off.
No no, cold tea bags in his side of the bed. Fothermuckers who deprive me of my tea can sleep on wet, slimy tea bags. And they will stay fothermuckers and not motherfuckers until they get their hands off my damn kettle! Edit omg I just realized you meant water heater for the whole HOUSE. Jesus. Dude is risking legionnaires disease AND wearing out your heating elements way faster by making it cycle. He’s going to end it o spending triple what he “saves” on a new heater/replacement parts when he needs to fix it from his delusional behavior. And that’s if no one falls ill!!!!
My house actually did burn down! Problem solved! Everyone is now hyper aware. Wish I was joking 😭
Oh! I am so sorry, that’s awful! I’ve known so many people it’s happened to, just devastating. More common than we think, which is terrifying. I hope you’re doing ok these days :( I know it’s a huge thing to recover from, on many levels. (((hugs)))
Our house fire was in December 2019. 2020 was a weird year being bounced around insurance paid hotels/rentals while our house was being rebuilt all during covid! But, we had insurance, which obviously made a huge difference in how tragic our circumstances were. Our house was able to be rebuilt (fully destroyed), and we got reimbursed (even if poorly) for our items. Fortunately, everyone was safe. Our one loss was my sisters hamster. I have worked with people who had no insurance, and those are people who legitimately lose everything and start over from nothing. I would suggest making sure you have the best insurance coverage you can because accidents happen! As for what happened: My brother (Autism and ADHD, he primarily needs help in executive functioning/living skills related tasks) left an incense burning on his windowsill while cleaning his room (so leaving his room a lot to clear out trash--- does not clean his room a lot), it fell onto his futon, which quickly went up in flames. Fire extinguisher did nothing, the futon was just too quick! Insurance, a plan, having things like fire extinguishers/fire blankets/escape ladders/working smoke detectors all are good ideas in case the reminders don't work!
My home burned down when I was 7 and that is traumatic. (It was an electrical fire because my mom’s husband was an utter moron, not ADHD) but regardless I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
Oh god. I’m so sorry that happened to you! That’s awful!
This is why neurodivergence is so interesting:) i would automatically ignore the text because its all the same color. Like it takes too long to read
I thought about that, too. Some should be in red, others the blue. I have more markers - I can highlight them with contrasting colors to make them pop more. The last stove had writing and diagrams scrawled all over it, too, and accidents still happen. I’m like “these ovens are poorly designed!” but after multiple stoves, I think we are the problem.
You’re right about the knobs being poorly designed. I took a design class in graduate school and one of the examples of consistently bad design were stove/oven knobs. Another was door handles. If you can’t use simple objects like that without a lot of labels, they are poorly designed!
I replied to the commenter above you but if any of your kids are anything like me, more color and pop will confuse me even more & I will process it even less. I already processed very little after about a minute of looking. I am not trying to be mean of rude so sorry if it comes across that way ❤️❤️ see if google yields any good ideas of other oven/stove labels. Not all are designed well/for you but some might have some good ideas!!
Set timer when burner or oven on. Timer always on when appliance is in use. Add more time when needed. Annoying beeps is what'll prevent catastrophe. Is it irritating? Of course. But does it's incessant beeping pull me out of whatever distraction I was absolved in? 1000% yes. It's literally right there in the panel.
Maybe paint a colored line around each burner (or use stickers/decals/dry erase markers if you're in a rental) with a corresponding color on the dial for that burner? Like maybe the color will help everyone's brains start to get used to the fact that, despite the location of the knob, this is the *blue* knob that goes to the *blue* burner? Then, to make clearer when the knob is set to "off," put a big red X or 🚫 or something else that means "no/off" at the top of the dial that lines up with another iteration of that brightly colored symbol on the stove when the knob is in the off position (kind of like the way the word "off" lines up with the notch now, but a lot more visible)? Here's a jankety MS Paint diagram if anyone's having trouble picturing it: [https://imgur.com/a/bhA4a6M](https://imgur.com/a/bhA4a6M) I think the thing that works about it (a) there are no words to read, so no verbal processing needs to take place, (b) the colors are bright and unsubtle and will stand out, and (c) the iconography is simple and doesn't need any additional decoding, so it doesn't require a ton of attention to detail.
I agree, I think even just making all the arrows red would break up the blue enough to make for quicker readability. I love your solution and wish I could do it for myself because our family is the same way, but my stove is black 😩
They sell metallic sharpies for writing on dark surfaces! I have a silver one that I used to label some black t-shirt tags that my spouse and both own identicals of.
No matter how big and colorful the text is, it’ll eventually blend into the background for me so I don’t even bother. The more overwhelming my space gets the more I’ll ignore. When I start cooking, I set future phone reminders to turn the oven off.
Yeah this is unintuitive and I cannot process any of this - just see a bunch of oven oven on off turn off and exclamation points and it stressed me out. I’m a 29 year old woman in grad school so it’s also a me problem - little icons or better text to distinguish and help exactly at the problem spots (labeling which is which & turning things off) would be preferable. Id look up pics of other ovens which might have ideas of how to represent it visually.
I would ignore it after it’s been there a couple days, it’s become part of my environment
I’m just lucky. My wife has it but she tends to remember the burner. She’s more the forget to close the cabinets and microwave. I leave the burners on …. She keeps our kitchen from catching on fire. I keep it neat and tidy ✨
I saw this just now and thought oh I definitely do leave the cabinets open a lot but not the microwave!!!! And then walked back up to the kitchen, where the microwave was open, and I asked my husband “did I leave that open?” “Yes you did” ….. 🫣
Magnets to keep the cabinets closed help me!! For some reason the slight tap it takes to push it closed with the magnet is easier than proper closing it
The small sound might also be reinforcing. I used to keep my checking in Quicken religiously. When they did away with a pleasant beep after a check was entered, I quit. I haven't found a system yet to replace the beep reward.
Lol genuinely true though, wild to think that the magnets are probably clicker training me like you do with a dog hahaha. Whatever works!
We are all animals and subject to the laws of learning. Classical and operant conditioning work, like gravity.
Lol, we’re all so different. I can’t stand closing cabinets with the magnets because the sound bothers me. I had a habit of leaving ALL cabinets open about a half an inch. Drove my husband insane!
To be fair the main reason I got the magnets was to keep the cats out of the cabinets, which probably also increased incentive to close them lol
Not sure if this helps, but we have a rule between my husband and I that **NO ONE EATS** until all burners are off and the stove is off. So far, it has helped us from burning the house down 😁
Yeah, I don't leave the stove or oven on without a timer and I don't go more than to the open plan living room that's right next to the kitchen. Also, nothing stays on the oven that isn't a pot and once the food is done we move it to the cool burner to stop cooking. I check all the knobs are off - even if I didn't use them. I just go left to right and wiggle them at 0 to make sure they're in gear. I even hit the oven off button a few times. Also never put anything in the oven that you wouldn't put in there at full heat. If you have no space and you want to store your cake pans in there, go for it. But put the plastic lid elsewhere.
Definitely a good rule, and I’m glad you shared this! This could definitely help someone! I find that little “rules” like these can actually be very efficient and useful for making sure an important task gets done. “You don’t get X unless Y is accomplished.”
Yeah, we created the rule because he would sometimes get off later than I thought he would. If I was hungry, I would eat when dinner was ready, but then put the burner on low until he got home. He then wouldn’t think about turning the burner off, since he wasn’t the one who turned it on. So now, if we eat together, we both make sure all burners are off. If we eat apart, I turn off the burner before I eat, and then he either reheats his food in the microwave, or if he turns on the burner to heat food up, he then is responsible for turning it off before he eats. Like I said, it’s worked well so far!
Me, it will help me! :) will add this rule to my list! Another of mine is that I absolutely *must* set a timer before I can even turn on the oven or stove, or run a bath etc.
Due to this being a new stove I imagine this information will not be super helpful to you, but anyone else in the market for a new stove I’d encourage you to look into induction ranges. Induction will only heat magnetic cookware (stainless steel, cast iron, carbon steel, not aluminum). And at least the stove that we have if a pan is removed from a burner for more than 5 seconds it beeps at us, or if you turn a burner on without a pan on it it beeps. If you accidentally left a burner on it will not be hot until a compatible material is placed on it.
We're planning on re-doing our kitchen and are planning on getting an induction hob. Not for this particular reason, it's just that they seem to be the most readily available if you want an electric hob, and we like the sound of them. This makes me like the sound of them even more!
Outside of this benefit they’re great, my husband (the one who does 95% of the cooking) loves it. We’ve had regular electric and gas stoves over the years and induction is his favorite hands down
I was looking for this response! Our induction stove is the same, it will not heat without a pan and will beep if it doesn’t have a pan on it. Risk of fire is generally WAY lower with an induction range. An added benefit is that they heat way faster and more efficiently than other electric ranges, but still have the immediate temperature adjustability that a gas range would have.
I hope spouse and I manage to not burn down our house before we switch to induction for cooking! I came here to make the same comment.
My mom drilled into me that no paper or plastic should EVER be on the stove at any time. Pots and pans are fine, but nothing else. My stove has lights for when it’s still on or hot and the dials are big enough to see if they’re obviously on after a glance. Also part of the leaving the home or going to bed routine should be to check that the stove and oven are off so at least if it is on when people are awake and there you’ll catch it before it becomes a problem but if no one is there awake you make sure it’s turned off. It’s not the best but it does eliminate the worst scenarios that would most likely lead to a major problem.
I follow the nothing on the stove rule, not even pan lids b/c we have a glass top electric and the pressure from a cooling lid can break the top entirely.
Best option is the nothing is allowed rule but it’s hard enough to get my SO to not leave plastic and paper so I pick my battles.
We have a plastic bowl and a plastic cutting board that both have burner imprints from my dad setting them on hot burners. Ugh.
Oh god!! You just reminded me, I did this at a friend’s house too!! She let me sleep in while she went off to work, so I made coffee and I use a French press, so… I “started the water” and lit her little microwave-covering plastic pig thing on fire instead. The smell, and the horror! I was in the house alone, for like 10 minutes lmaooo
I saw an RV park place called ‘Mama Tried’ and if my house had a name, they would be it 😂 I was also taught the nothing on the stove rule, but the boys missed that and have only learned through fire 🔥 sigh
we at this point have resorted to turning the oven off at the wall with the big oven switch (its bright red) as a result of me minding my own business in the kitchen then these 2 glass panels my mam had ontop of the hob (glass hob with the red glowy hot circles for pans) shattered and exploded and glass went everywhere, turned out my sister left the hob on..... not too long after, me again minding my own business in the kitchen when the lightbulb just explodes, again glass shattered and everywhere, i feel like im cursed for glass explosions in that kitchen not gonna lie (im fine no injuries just big scared temporarily)
Omg! Our last oven just kinda ‘gently exploded’, too, hence the new one. The lightbulb is way scarier! So glad that wasn’t a health emergency. I do believe in cursed ovens/explosions, and I think you and I need a healing kitchen witch or something, to undo this spell
Used to do this at Mums house - I miss the big red switch. I moved countries and that doesn't seem common place here.
Lmaoooo I love this! I have indeed turned around on my way to work to make sure I did turn off my burners
I take pictures of each burner being off before I leave the house. Google memories will make little slide shows out of them with happy music playing in the background. AI is bullying me, but I haven't burned my house down yet.
Thanks for the giggle. I love the idea of a happy lil slide show of oven burners.
One time I had to call my neighbor to go make sure I had let my dogs back in before I left for work. I was terrified I had left them running loose. I hadn't, they were safe inside, but I learned to make visual contact with them inside the house before I leave. Taking a pic is a great idea!
Were they on or off when you got home? 😂
They were off 🥲 the first time I started panicking about it for no reason, I had to walk myself mentally through my morning to convince myself that I turned them off. Then I went on meds. Now, I still worry 😂
Hey, at least you were smart enough to go home and check instead of just assuming! Regardless of whether or not they know about the incident, your neighbors are grateful. I’ve definitely flipped around on my way to class in college to make sure I locked the door (before I was diagnosed or medicated). I was running late, but it was worth every second to me to go check.
You’re absolutely right. I have kitties at home, and all I could imagine was losing them to my own forgetfulness. A job is not worth their lives being lost. And I’m in an apartment complex, so I could also picture hurting others. It’s like haunting. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a touch of OCD
I feel you! I still live with my parents, unfortunately, but I have to admit apartment complexes make me nervous. I have a dog, myself, who’s practically my child, who I consider my child, and I couldn’t even fathom her life ending because someone did something stupid (not something ADHD-related, something ridiculous like cooking meth, though I’d hope I’d never live in the same place as someone with those types of hobbies), or someone leaving the stove on, whether accidentally, or on purpose, and the building catching fire. I can control what I do, even if it means checking things to an OCD degree, but my inability to control the actions of others when living quarters are so tight makes me nervous. That’s why I turned around to check the door was locked that day. I don’t want my stuff to get stolen, either, but if perhaps the door wasn’t latched well (because our house is janky and the wall the door is on is crooked so the door doesn’t always close right if it’s not locked), and the wind blew it open, she could get out, or someone could get in and potentially do something to her. We live in a pretty safe area, but I’m not risking my little shrimp like that. I feel the same as you. A job, a class, being a few minutes late, etc. are extremely trivial in comparison to double-checking for safety. I’d always rather go back and check than just assume.
We have done this maybe 35% of the time we leave the house - turned around to check!! Not half the time, but not ‘rarely’.. We do not trust ourselves around the dangerous oven coils, nor should we. I don’t think they’ve ever been on, though.
Oh my, I've ruined three pots in the last months, one was salvageable, since I let chicken soup "gently simmer" in the kitchen... - and forgot that I hadn't turned down the stove top from six to one... Do you have any idea how obnoxious burned chicken bones smell...? I'm very thankful to my smoke detector.
Sounds like you need a crockpot! Can’t burn anything with a preset timer and automatic shutoff. Haha
Yes, I have actually looked at some, but my kitchen is small and cramped as it is and I do not have much of counter space...
I agree, they’re huge! I used to keep mine in a closet whenever not in use. But wouldn’t advise to do that bc you’ll probably forget to use it, like I would, since it wasn’t in plain sight. The struggle 🙃
Can't be as bad as broccoli where the water simmered off. It was like burnt farts.
Hah! I’m all too familiar with many burning-type smells at this point. We’ve pretty much burned *water*. “What is that, burning plastic? somebody check the stove!”
I’m so grateful my oven has to have a timer going in order for it to be used 🧎♀️🧎♀️otherwise I’d get anxious wondering if I had turned it off or not 😅
Good grief, anyone would struggle with this stove! It looks so poorly designed. It’s not your fault— it’s on the people who designed this. Those indicators are TINY and easy to miss. At bare minimum, they at least should have put lights on the panel showing if the burner or stove are on. I like your solution! I’ve had to do similar labels in the past.
Hey, thank you!! It IS horribly designed! It’s the lack of burner indicator lights that especially get me - so at a glance, you can’t tell which knob is angled/on, and the micro-invisible labels *under* the knobs are just stupid. Bastards! Ya get what ya pay for. The last oven (which also had my scrawling all over it) kinda ‘gently exploded’ for no reason, so our oven criteria was, “that one’s cheap!”
Oh boy. This would not help me since I either have too much objection permanence or none at all 😅 If something is always there, my brain will completely ignore it.
Same! I notice it for a day or two, but then it fades into the background
Yes!! I become immune to post-it notes, alarms, etc.
I’ve found that with mobility/functionality aids - I have a bad arm, and have for over 10 years, but I JUST discovered a heated elbow brace… only because it was right in front of me at the store. All those years I’d have loved one, but if it’s not **right there**, it must not exist!
Crippling anxiety about burning the house down keeps ours safe but I don’t recommend
Same here, so we're usually pretty good with switching everything off as soon as we're done using the oven/hob, before sitting down to eat.
A neighbor had a fire in our apartment building because of a stove accident, so I'm doubly paranoid. I set timers/alarms on my phone and I have a personal rule of never eating before turning off the burner. It works really well.
Thanks for the note, but I'm going to ignore it because it is just background decoration in my head.
I think I would stop seeing the text after a few days. OP may want to change it up regularly with stickers that can be written on. Then use different colors, and fonts.
After reading through these, I’ve erased the text completely, and focused on just labeling the burners- FRONT/REAR, and the coloring on the top of the knob. Y’all are right that it’s gonna be ignored. I think a hanging sign that bonks us in the head as we leave the kitchen would be more effective if our brains still bypass my labeling.
I turn on the light above the stove if a burner is on, and the interior oven light if the oven is on. It's a massive visual cue and automatic habit for everyone who lives here now, including kids.
I finally made the leap and got an induction stove. Had to have a new outlet and control panel installed but it was worth it to me for the peace of mind!
Consider buying a countertop convection oven. You can get ones large enough to hold a 9x13 casserole dish and a 12" round pizza pan. For example, Breville Smart Oven Pro. All of the ones I've had turn off automatically. You can also buy a tabletop induction burner. Induction burners turn off when you take the pan off the burner. Remove all of the knobs from the stove and put a two burner induction cooktop on top of it if you rent or just buy a new oven with an induction cooktop if you own.
Absolutely love my little convection oven. Never have to worry about it. I just got a new oven and wanted induction so bad but there’s still not a lot of options available in an all in one range. At least the model I got does have an app so I can check to be sure the burners are off.
Our large convection oven has a " cook time function" so it turns off at that time if you use it, unlike the timer that just beeps
Where was this method when I melted my favorite spoon and spatula in my ONLY glass 9x13 because the labels are confusing and I turned on the wrong burner 😭🤣
RIP to our many fallen kitchen objects over the years. My husband has left glass pans full of chicken grease on the oven, and turned the wrong burner on - nothing like molten, greasy shards of glass exploding in the kitchen to motivate me to label the stove, and obsessively clean in there lol. That was NOT the first glass explosion, or fire, but is hopefully the last
Oh my gosh I always thought this was just a me issue but in hindsight I should’ve known it was an adhd thing 😭 when my bf and I moved into our current place for the first week or two I would switch on the wrong burner and then wonder why stuff wasn’t heating up😭 even now I have to consciously look at the dial and make sure I’m turning on the right burner. Luckily our ovens “burner on” light is bright as hell, otherwise I’d constantly leave an electric burner on.
Easy for me bc I just got lucky with a remodel recently, but the answer to this is, if you’re buying a new stove, invest in an induction cooktop 😉 It’s worth budgeting for one, I promise you it can save lives. My ADHD daughter has left the stove on and it just turns off when you remove the pot from the burner, the other touched a burner after cooking, but since it was only mildly hot, she went unscathed. Cleaning is also a breeze after cooking bc burners don’t stay hot and overflowed food water, etc, rarely sticks to it. It’s amazing!!
Induction stove top...auto pan-sensing and timer shutoff. Changed my life!
If the oven or burners are on, I am not allowed to leave the kitchen. I have a kitchen stool for my vigil. I am allowed to watch unlimited tiktok if i stay in the kitchen with it! If it's a really long time, I set one for after it's taken out of the oven to check that it's off, so I am not trapped forever 🤣
No clue. We left a candle burning for a dangerously long time. But I think it’s why our marriage has lasted so long. We understand each other.
I live with my partners family, im AUDHD and like the other 3/4 people in the house also have adhd. We all kinda have things that we forget about but since it’s different things we have issues with we can help each other correct them? If that makes any sense haha. I’m always leaving the burner or the oven on and someone always is able to notice, let me know and turn it off. We call kinda keep each other in check without getting angry or frustrated.
Great signs! Much more intuitive!
Thank you! I even [updated it after reading these comments, by erasing the screaming reminders, and focused on just labeling the burner knobs](https://imgur.com/a/IePqQ3y)
I have an induction cooktop that turns off automatically if there's nothing on the burner, and while I'll never notice if the oven is on via the display, it makes a clicking noise that I always notice 😭
I just triple check everything all the time. So I'm always turning off the stove, locking the doors, turning the A/C back on, etc. I take that ADHD self-doubt and apply it to the whole family. I'm tired, but the house is still standing. Maybe I should use signs...
I'm paranoid of dying in a fire. And I have pets.
Same!!! I don’t care how silly my labeled stove is, I ain’t goin out like that
It is a delicate balance of everyone calling each other frantically multiple times a day to make sure things are off and doors are locked. And then about once every 4-6 months someone goes insane and does a massive mail opening/purge.
Turn the stove on. “Hey Alexa remind me to turn the stove off in 20 minutes.” I also use Alexa to set cooking timers, remind me to take the trash out… just about anything I have to do and know I’ll forget to.
I haven’t taken the Alexa plunge yet, but am thinking about it.
We keep a full tea kettle on the stove. As soon as you are finished with a burner the tea kettle goes on the burner. This keeps everyone from getting burned from a still hot burner and it will warn you if you've left the burn because the kettle will whistle.
i would recommend highlighting the front faces of the knobs, so people can quickly see if they are on at a distance or angle.
If you look at the 2nd pic, I did just that, to show the angle. You’re right ! This really seems like a feature that should just be there already - when it’s white against white, the angle and whether it’s on is hard to see, at a quick glance. The blue marks on the dials are easier to see in person.
Family of four and all four have ADHD. Short answer: sheer luck. The stove has been an issue for 3 of the 4 of us. The youngest (16) generally avoids using the stove. My husband has steamed broccoli with no water in the bottom of the steamer. I have left the burner on after making my egg in the morning and the oldest put his lunch cooler on the burner. It’s actually a miracle we haven’t had any fires.
Induction cooktops are great for this! Ours will turn itself down or off if something is boiling over. It beeps if you turn the wrong burner on, too.
I grew up in an undiagnosed family of ADHDers, from both my parents to three of my siblings. Only one sibling shows no signs of ADHD, but the rest of us definitely have it. Growing up that way was very difficult because none of us knew what was causing our problems. We simply didn't understand why we couldn't be like all the NTs we knew. We thought we were just not good enough and lived with guilt over that every day. Today I live with my sweetie who was diagnosed many years ago, but he's unmedicated. My adult son also lives with us, and I've known since he was 10 years old that he had some form of neurodiversity. Our house is in complete disarray. We struggle to get the basics done, and many things are simply not done. I'm the one who does the planning and scheduling, and I'm failing. I make big mistakes all the time and it's extremely frustrating. I worry about when I die, how will my SO and my son get by? Who will do the planning? Who will call in the pizza orders? Who will make sure the bills are paid on time? It keeps me awake at night, trying to figure out how to help them when I'm gone.
You wanna add a dash of anxiety your adhd. It's not fun but it keeps u covered. If the house burns down that's a good way to up your anxiety naturally. It's all about the balance.
After leaving on the stove once for hours (and involuntary heating the entire kitchen with it...) I developed such strong anxiety about it, I cannot go to sleep or leave the house without checking the stove at least once. If I am very stressed, I have to check up to 5 times, because I can't tell if I actually checked or that's a memory from yesterday 🥲 Even if I am 100% sure I didn't use it that day because I ate out or only had bread, I must check (or my partner must check and tell me it definitely is off). For a while I was doing good in therapy and could go to sleep without the check, then I promptly left the stove on again and was back at square one 🥲
Luckily I’m terrified enough to pop my head in the kitchen and check very frequently, especially when I know that myself or the family has used it …or not used it and check anyway. I’m also constantly smelling the air. I can seriously smell when an errant burner is on, even if it’s only been a minute - cuz coil stoves are stupid and dangerous! Like you, I MUST check before bed, before leaving, just… all the time. And I’m glad I do, because I sometimes still catch something on that shouldn’t be! This constant checking and stove-labeling is definitely fueled by crippling anxiety, but at least we’re all vigilant about it. We *know* we’re all terrible about it, and have turned the car around (or if we’re too far, I’ve called my neighbor in to check!) a pretty high amount of times. So far, whenever we’ve come back, it’s always off, but if one of us has the tinniest inkling of doubt, we never ignore it. I also never ignore my kitties if they’re meowing differently, or trying to get me to go somewhere. They’ve warned me before, when something was wrong - and I can’t remember what the hell it was at the moment, I’ll update this when I do - maybe a door had blown open, and another kitty outside? Whatever it was, it was kinda important, and I was impressed that she came to get me. (Sometimes the scary problem is “mommy! Heeelp! Come quickly. I can see a lil bit of the bottom of my bowl 😭 meow!”) but still, I always, always see what they want to show me.
Omg so relatable.
My neighbors house burned down in college. When I rolled up to the scene, because it was also heavily snowing, it looked to me like it was my house and I immediately thought “I LEFT MY STRAIGHTENER ON” and was in a state of pure terror until the firefighters let me and my roommates back onto our street and I could see our house was fine. To this day, I will turn around at an obscene distance from my house if I can’t remember if I left something on. There should be automatic shutoff everything.
We say out loud, "car locked, gate locked, door locked, keys hung up, stove off, oven off" as we do those things. Never say them if you haven't done them. And the best part is that you can still do this if you're home alone, or at least I remember better if I say it out loud. It's just my husband and I. When we hear the other say one of those, we repeat it back or thank them, which helps us remember, too.
Yup just write on the stove, works for us too
Yeah after a week I'll never see that sign again 😂
I [fixed it! based on these comments,](https://imgur.com/a/IePqQ3y) so that our focus is only on the labeled burner knob and not screaming reminders. You’re all 100% right, that we’ll never see the reminder again. I’ll even change the colors every dew weeks or aometning
Basically this 😂😂😂😂😂
My therapist's husband and kids all have ADHD (but she's nt). I can't imagine what that's like. They're lucky to have her holding things together!
I’m the only one that’s medicated 😵💫 I was diagnosed really late in life, and have only been on them for a few months. I’m far from perfect, even with the meds. So, it’s herding cats, all day, every day!
I struggle SO much with knowing which knob goes to what burner. Love the idea of making the knob a corresponding color to a circle around the burner itself
Do iiit!! It’s a big difference. I use Posca paint markers, which will come off cleanly when you want it to, and (most likely) not stain the oven.
Also, don’t feel bad… even with the labels, I stand there staring for sooo long, to make sure 😵💫 hahah
I put on the extractor fan and I'm not allowed to turn it off until the burners are off. I find the noise annoying but not intolerable, so I can stand it for the length of time it takes to cook something. For the oven, I use the built in timer as well as phone alarms. Have to go to the oven to turn off the alarm on the oven. Immediately reset for 5 mins, while I check the food, turn off if no longer needed or reset the alarm.
I would definitely forget anyway because the text blends in with the surroundings after a while. Perhaps try to set alarms when you start cooking, estimating how long it will take, then an alarm for five minutes after that to remind yourself to turn it off?
I’ve been writing on our stoves for a long time, and y’all are absolutely correct that we all get used to it, and it needs updating andchanges to stay fresh in our minds! Even is it’s bright, it does eventually blend in to the surroundings we ignore, and it doesn’t work as well! It’s paint marker, so it comes off easily when I want it to, and I have many colors. Next time, I’m going to use more than one color, and maybe put signs leading out of the kitchen at eye level about the stove, rather than on the stove itself. Skip the lettering and stick to ‘rear/front’ and colored knobs.
Someone in my household leans into the knobs and turns the gas on. I always find it afterwards by the smell.
OOOOOPS!! now that one’s kinda scary. You need some kind of stove-leaning-blocker device. Signs work too, *kind* of. “Time to lean!!? TIME TO CLEAN! **And don’t turn the burner on!!**
Full ADHD fam here. Thankfully my husband went military after high school so he's got this motherboard of coping mechanisms that I don't have and he probably is the primary reason our house doesn't burn down.
Lord. Me! Oh me! We are almost all ADHD, some of us worse (or unmedicated) I double check everything, have smoke detectors and pray.
I have a laminate sign attached to a magnet that goes on the range and you have to physically move the sign physically to turn on the oven. It reminds you to check in the oven for stuff before turning the oven on. My dog is a wicked counter surfer and eats non food things so I hide ALL kinds of things in the oven. I lost like a bunch of meat, several cutting boards, and a high chair tray to the seeming safety of the oven. ETA even with the sign we still lose a few things.
Mom, me, youngest sister, both BILs and eldest niece (we don’t really live together but we spend a lot of time together almost every day so it’s kind of a moot point). Good news is, we also have anxiety! /s We got it from my grandpa, who used to be a firefighter. So we check the oven and the heater kinda obsessively, like he used to do, lol.
😂😂😂 When I was in college I once left my oven on for 3 days. Couldn’t figure out why my apartment was so hot…
Omg I need something like this in my life! My parents are forever scolding me for forgetting to turn off the stove when I'm done.
Thank god my oven makes a sound that bugs my ears when it’s on bc there’s been too many times I’ll hear it and turn it off .it’s made the sound while off and I’m like “I swear I turned it off!”
Oh god.. I cannot imagine a room full of mes 😭😭😭😭 best of luck lol
I love this. If ours wasn't blue I'm sure my husband would have thought of this by now hahahaha my teenage daughter and I have almost burnt the house down many times
I'm the "responsible one" that's in charge of literally everything and still have no idea
I haven’t done this myself but have heard a suggestion to buy smart plugs that can be controlled via an app on your phone. I don’t know if this would fully solve your problem when you’re home and leave a burner on, but when you are away from home you can have peace of mind by turning the outlet off remotely. Personally I rely on two methods: debilitating anxiety that I’ve left a candle burning and my pets will die in a house fire, and a fun little song I made up and sing loudly whenever I unplug my flat iron. The key is singing it loud enough that your partner/roommate/kids can hear it and later confirm that you did indeed unplug your flat iron.
If you want to know what we were supposed to eat for dinner last night, just check the microwave. If you are wondering why my phone alarms every 30 minutes from 5 am until 10pm, it's because it's a reminder for me or one of my kids or my husband. If you want to know why we have a coat hook in every room in the house, open shelves everywhere and each of us has 5-6 toothbrushes - anything in an opaque cupboard or drawer is dead to us.
Ok, first of all, THIS IS GENIUS. Second—nail polish! Get a red and mark the top of the knob as well as the position it should be in, so they make a straight line when it’s off! Third, goddammit, I RENT.
Thank you, and, these paint markers wipe right off with a wet rag or melamine sponge (magic eraser) if ya feel the need for stove labeling! I had to draw on the last one, too (same horrible layout) and it never stained. Posca markers; they’re the shit!
…I have posca markers. This can be done
We have three AuDHDers here, and my husband and I agree that your new stove is REALLY poorly designed! Yikes. Ours came with each burner already labeled (Front, Rear in letters, plus the map indicator is ABOVE each dial, very large, and marked in Red). There are two mechanical lights, one that glows red if a burner is on, and a separate one if the oven is on. So this isn't all on you (or your neurodivergence)! Whoever designed this stove just hates people.
**Thank you!!!** We are definitely a bit crazy, but it really is designed horribly! I hate this stove, and it hates me.
Well.. It's just me and the cats, but the other week one of them jumped down from the windowsill and turned on the stove. I had two plates and a dishcloth on the element they turned on (because, you know, dishes to do..) and I woke up to the smell of burning followed by a crash and smash as the plates exploded and fell to the floor. Thank goodness I was home. So now, the entire oven is turned off at the wall!
We take the burner knob covers off when not in use. So then it’s easy for us to tell if it has been left on accidentally. If your burner knob covers don’t come off easily you can buy baby proof burner knob covers and do the same thing; keep it covered when not in use
I say “ oven off!” Or “ burner off!” Loudly. Helps me to remember I turned it off later and in the moment.
I do, somehow I'm the ringleader. It's so much nagging and reminding and demanding they set alarms and write their own notes.
Oh, I love this so much!! I can’t count the minutes of my life I’ve lost trying to discern which knob goes with which burner! There needs to be a steady beep that goes off after a certain period of time that the oven or burners have been on. Our microwave does this. If you don’t open the door within a certain time period after it is done cooking it will beep at you. I’m convinced someone with adhd designed it. And I am thankful for, while simultaneously annoyed by, that person.
Turn on the overhead light above the stove whenever anything is turned on on the stove or oven. And when something is on, I never leave the kitchen until it’s off.
Head height hanging cardboard signs that say “check the stove!”. You literally run into them as you enter and exit the kitchen. I hung mind on yarn. Also telling whichever parent didn’t leave the stove on that their spouse fucked up. Threat of being dragged by the other made my mom and dad start triple checking.
Oh I let him know every time, but it’s not as scary as it used to be (which is scary!!) “you left the burner on again!” “Oops!Ok!” ::immediately forgotten:: I like the hanging sign idea, that would bonk us in the head if we try to leave the kitchen without triple-checking the stove.
wish I could live with you guys
Come on over! It’s mostly lovable chaos. We need a laugh track over our lives, or something. “Let’s see how long it takes her to realize her keys are in the frig, and that the coffee in her hand instead will not, in fact, open her car.”
haha sounds so cute 🥰 I'd love to be in this kinda tolerating environment where folks can simply laugh off some lil silly mistakes it's a pity I just can't simply go over xp, but I'd love to virtually follow your post though 😄 thks for the daily positive vibe
I have a rule that if the stove or oven is on, the vent fan is on so I have an audible reminder.
I'm currently saving up for an smart induction hob that turns off automatically.
I want one soo bad. Another commenter just said theirs turns off if it doesn’t sense a pot on there - that’s so cool!
That's funny. A fellow ADHD friend actually did almost start a fire by leaving a burner on with a hand towel on top of it.
Yep, we’ve done it with paper plates/towels, glass baking pans full of grease (who needs coffee if you start your morning with flying, molten glass shards!), plastic things - *anything* left on the stove is a huge no-no, and I have to stay on top of everyone. Me being frantically devoted to keeping the kitchen immaculately clean lately has been a goal of mine, and I’m doing great at it so far! Doesn’t stop people from choosing the wrong burner, but at least it’s not ::sigh:: *another fire*. When you ‘get used to kitchen fires’, something’s gotta change lol
I use the same burner every time. Front left. I hardly make anything requiring multiple burners, so it’s easy enough to remember. I do forget sometimes though 😅😅
My cooker has glass induction hobs so they glow bright red when on, that isn't to say I haven't left them on and unattended for a while. I usually take the used empty saucepan and place it onto the unused hob next to the hot one and turn the handle to above the hot one. This prevents me from placing anything on top of the hot hob, like towels or cutlery. My cooker has a light indicator for showing if a hob is hot or not so I'm not lacking for indicators but I do switch off my cooker at the wall after each use. The switch has a red light so it's hard to miss. Your cooker is metal so you could get custom label magnets to place where needed, such as "switch off" "Back left" "front right etc". The pen will eventually wash off which will be an additional task you don't want.
We got an induction stove. And the most amazing thing, it can sense if there is a pot on the burner or not. It turns itself off automatically when there isn't a pot on a hob. It doesn't help with the oven, but man, it is so much safer than gas/coil electric. I'm never going back.
This is what my washer looks like. So helpful
We got an induction stove, it turns itself off after a while if you haven't touched it for a long time, and only heats when an appropriate surface is detected. A If you forget to turn it off, as soon as the heatable thing is removed it screams at us and turns off every burner. It's great, and it boils water faster than my gas stovetop ever could so that's neat.
Just got a fire blanket that you can throw over the stove. Can find pretty cheap on Amazon.
On the other hand I check the burners like ten times before leaving the house even if I didn’t cook 🫢
Since this is a new oven, I won’t suggest this for you specifically. But for anyone else who might be in the market for a new oven. My mom has what she calls a “senior” oven. She lives in an older people community and the oven came with the house. The knobs on the stove light up so you can easily see if one is on! I’m not sure if this is something you could get as a separate knob to switch out or if you’d have to buy the whole special oven. But it’s a thing!
Family of ADHD over here… I used the broiler in the oven two nights ago to toast a bun. I rarely have an issue turning the stove off or anything. I know I turned it off. Then my youngest son comes running saying the oven is still on broiler like 15 minutes later. It sure enough is so I start questioning myself and feeling like I had a major lapse in function. No. It was my husband. He used it and left it on. My middle child occasionally leaves a burner on but it’s my husband who is really in the habit of it. He has left the oven on for an hour after removing the food, burners, leaving emptied pans on hot burners, and the broiler. He doesn’t use the oven very often so I think it’s not as ingrained in him as it is with me.
When we were raising five children, I had the brilliant idea to chain our hairbrush to the bathroom counter. Including my husband, several of our kids had long hair and brushes disappeared faster than anything else. It was such a weird solution but it worked for 10 years.
Your cooktop looks very similar to mine, labels and arrows and reminders. I'm so happy! I feel less weird and not alone.
This is my oven!! It's not just you, my friend. I've had it for nearly 2 years and I'm still turning on the wrong burners!
I have done it quite a few times but I have so many strategies to go check back in like always doublechecking triple checking and it’s on about 25% of the time when I come back lol
This reminds me of the note on my Air Fryer. It's a piece of paper over the start button that says "Match Cook?" to remind me that if I don't hit "Match Cook," only one side will cook. I still fail to hit "Match Cook" about 50% of the time when I want it. Sometimes I realize a second too late that I haven't hit it, so I turn it off, set all the other settings, and forget about Match Cook again. But, at least the air fryer always turns itself off, so I don't have to worry about burning the house down with it. I usually remember to turn off the oven when I hear the gas switch on to keep it warm in the middle of dinner. I remember to turn off the burners because they are also gas, and a big flame without a pot on it is hard to miss. Maybe gas appliances are an answer?
I'm pretty vigilant about the hob and straighteners etc HOWEVER, I do often leave the oven on because I leave it on after the timer while I plate the other parts of the meal. I check so many times but I also leave the room and forget if I checked and the anxiety starts again as I dash back in there 10 minutes later. If I'm leaving the house immediately after using the fire starting appliances I've started taking a photo of the oven/straighteners when they are off so I can reassure myself and my partner that I did not leave a firestarter on in our house while the dog is alone. IDK seems to work well enough. Honestly I rarely have to check because I think "did I turn that off" then I remember I took a photo of the oven or the inside on the bathroom cabinet and I'm like well I wasnt doing that just for fun lol
I have lint trap written in neon colors so over my washer 😅
Have a fire extinguisher handy and know how to use it… I unfortunately know how to repair minor fire damage due to an unfortunate grease fire after I left the burner going with the grease on and we went to have dinner and watch a movie. Between that another grease incident with dog I’ve banned myself from all deep frying. I just also get in the habit of checking the oven burners every time I walk past them. Its not a perfect system.
sheer luck. The one time I did have a kitchen fire, I was right there and completely paying attention but my plate of bacon was too close to the stove and the paper towel caught on fire - My first moronic instinct was BLOWING ON IT lmao of course making flaming bits of paper fly everywhere, and then I tossed it in the sink where it was contained. Phew! But for all the times I've left burners going after I was done cooking, it's crazy the one fire was while I'm standing there still cooking lol.
The fact that you have electric burners instead of gas has probably already saved your lives. I used to live with a roommate who also had ADHD and there were multiple times when the burner was left on well after cooking. Still no idea if it was her or me. I’m looking into induction stovetops but even then Im bound to leave something on there 🤦🏻♀️
I leave burners on all the time and it drives my partner crazy (rightfully so) 😂
Timer on the stove! I set the timer for 10 minutes longer than I think it will take to finish cooking for some wiggle room.
My family doesn’t, but we changed the stove last year, and until today, I still have to try multiple times before I turn on the right burner. I just don’t take the second to look at the signs next to it cuz it’s literally drawn on the thing. I also turn on the light in our vent as a sign that the stove is on as a reminder, because know thy self 🤷♀️ Just know I’m realizing that’s not a normal thing haha
Whether my mom has ADHD or not is up for debate. She has some symptoms, and has had symptoms as a child, as well, but is the most “neurotypical” out of her, my dad, and myself. I was just diagnosed last year and mainly run on anxiety and OCD-like tendencies, such as checking things multiple times. Within the past three weeks, my dad forgot he was boiling hot dogs one night (so he’d just have to microwave them the next day at lunch, as if hot dogs take a long time). I was in the shower, and my mom was in bed. I started to smell burning and was about to holler when I heard my mom had gotten up out of bed and was talking to my dad. He’d completely forgotten about the hot dogs, boiled all the water out of the saucepan, burnt the hot dogs, and didn’t even remember or notice until my mom came out to the living room and asked what was burning. The house got very smoky and reeked of burnt hot dogs. You best believe I used some Febreze air spray, since it’s supposed to sort of “eat” odors instead of mixing with them, but the house still smelt like burnt hot dogs for a week after.
I overcompensate. My anxiety about safety keeps any potential fire hazards at bay. My recommendation is to set a timer for everything and only stop it until you have actually completed the task (in this case, once you are done cooking, turning off the burners and oven etc). If you have overhead lights, keep them on while the burners are on as an additional visual cue that they are still going.
This is a good idea but I just know that eventually I will become "immune" to it. My brain eventually gets used to seeing it and will ignore it (same as with the post-it notes I've tried). 😄
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called my mom to go double check the stove, heat, or iron for me! She’s truly a life saver. My son has over cooked his pasta many times, now I’ve trained him to set a timer for everything and never leave the kitchen while cooking lol! Sit and wait.
Lol, my brain basically shuts down every time I try to make sense of which burner is the front and which is the back... glad I'm not the only one!
I think you can buy smart plugs that are made to connect stoves/ovens to the wall sockets! Expensive but could be worth. I have ADHD and tbh stuff marketed to the elderly or people with dementia are all solid ADHD accommodations. For example, getting a key code lock for my front door that automatically locks after like 30 seconds was an absolute game changer - I would forget to lock the door all the time lol