The Best ADHD-Friendly Hacks for Staying Organized

Welcome, neurodivergents, to this great big list of cleaning and organizing hacks. As someone that has struggled with ADHD my whole life, I’ve experienced my fair share of tutoring, organization techniques, and countless medications. Even when you’ve basically mastered being an adult—staying on top of cleaning, working, remembering to eat, and having a social life—it can be really hard to self-motivate when it comes to the little things (staying on top of errands, time management, and even just your keys) when there’s a million other things going on in life. I’m kind of an all or nothing gal—I’m either grinning amongst my slop or I’m cleaning the shower with a toothbrush while my dog looks on in fear. So if you’ve spent 30 minutes looking for your phone, only to find it in the freezer, join me on this journey of working with your brain's little quirks to make the most out of your space.

I know how difficult it can be to focus and streamline your personal best practices—which is why I've accumulated these solutions through hours upon hours of scrolling, reading, and hyperfixating. From one TK person to another (or, to anyone hoping for better management of their time, tasks, and possessions), these are the best organization products and ADHD cleaning hacks I’ve tested and found to be useful for motivating yourself to do things you don't wanna. 

How many times have you stopped what you’re doing to go find something in another room—only to abandon the process completely—or gotten distracted by a new and more novel thought, leaving your task to languish? If you said 0, you’re perfect, and I wish I could experience your brain for one day. If you had to re-read that sentence because you got distracted, welcome to this much-needed “let it out space”. 

Easy solution: Get a notebook to be the holding place for all the thoughts that leave your post-pandemic traumatized brain too quickly to digest. And if you get a lot of shower epiphanies, a waterproof Aqua Notes pad might change your life. 

Some people swear by dry erase boards, but they can feel a little office-y. Write directly on your favorite mirror that you can’t erase until it’s done; instant peer pressure to complete your goals, courtesy of an inanimate object (yay!). 

Regardless of how much space you have at home, the demands of the daily grind means things will get misplaced. If you have a short attention span, you probably forget where you’re going or what you’re doing, delaying tasks if you don’t know where to put something. Stash ~aesthetic~ bins in the corner of every room to create drop-zones for the random stuff that accumulates, so you don’t have to stand there, frozen in indecision, disrupting your creative flow, cleaning spree, or workday. 

A spot by the door for keys and wallets is essential—add hooks for coats and dog gear so you can unload all your crap when you get home without making a huge mess.

When you can’t find that one tiny thing (keys, remote, wallet) use a tracker or AirTags to make them trackable through an app on your phone—and therefore make your life 1,000 times easier (as long as you don’t lose your phone). 

One of the best #adhdlifehacks I’ve learned from TikTok is to set 10 to 15 timers for myself to see how much I can get done in the allotted time—sort of a race against the clock, when I’m lacking internal motivation. If using a timer on your phone threatens your ability to stay within your screen time limits, you can always invest in a fun little egg timer to cheer yourself up, or opt for something like an Amazon Echo, so you can boss around Alexa and ask her to remind you about things like your own personal assistant.

If you’re someone that will procrastinate until you reach the point of desperation or inconvenience, some folks swear by wearing task bracelets. You know those jelly bracelet key rings? Imagine wearing 10 of them at once…. and just how badly you’d want them off. Now assign each one a specific chore or task that you only get to remove once it’s complete, and you’ll be itching to get done. 

Throw on some Medieval lo-fi beats and turn your hyperfixation towards a clean apartment. 

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