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Wear Gloves for Cleaning!
If you hate cleaning, especially when it involves washing dishes, dealing with leftover food, or cleaning toilets and bathrooms, wearing gloves is a great ADHD cleaning hack to minimize the sensory nightmare of touching wet food and make cleaning surprisingly easier.
Doom Baskets for ADHD Cleaning
When it comes to staying tidy with ADHD, one of the best strategies is being realistic, and doom baskets are a top ADHD hack for cleaning and organization. I use doom baskets for those messy areas next to the couch, the bed, and the front door—areas that I know will always be a bit messy. If you embrace the doom basket, they can be functional, tidy, and helpful. The one next to my couch has my melatonin in it, so once I’ve hit the couch and my alarm goes off to remind me to take my melatonin, I don’t have to get up.
Keep the Clutter Down
Regularly do a sweep around the house and donate things that don’t spark joy. Clothes are an obvious one, but utensils, Tupperware, home decor items, and even books you know you’ll never read can contribute to clutter. Remember the objective is to fill the bag, not go through the entire closet or kitchen! If you feel your inner hoarder emerging, remind yourself it’s for charity, and there are people out there who might actually need the stuff.
Get a Body Double for Cleaning Accountability
Ask a friend, family member, or an overbearing neighbor to come and sit in your house while you clean. Having a body double is one of the best ADHD hacks for cleaning because it creates accountability and sets a deadline that’s harder to avoid.
Try the Five in Five Method
This one is talked about plenty in the ND community, and many ADHDers find it useful. Set a timer for five minutes and do five things in that time. Stop when the timer goes off or when you’ve completed the five things, whichever comes first. Or get on a roll and keep going.
Invite People Over to Create a Cleaning Deadline
One of the classic ADHD cleaning hacks is to invite people over. The pressure of having guests can give you the adrenaline boost you need to get your house sparkling clean. Ah, the joys.
Make an ADHD-Friendly Cleaning Checklist
Obviously, writing lists is something we’re all well acquainted with; writing an ADHD cleaning list is a fine art. Writing it in order can be a huge help. Writing the list to reflect how you actually clean is very helpful.
- ADHD Cleaning List
- Dry dust
- Dishes
- Wet dust
- Bathroom basin
- Toilets
- Vacuum
- Mop
- Tidy mop bucket and rinse mop
ADHDers sometimes struggle to break big tasks down, or sometimes we break them down too far and get overwhelmed by all the steps. Remember, if you know it’s a key step you will have to do (that will prevent you from moving onto the next step), put it on the list. If you’re just putting it on the list in the hope that you’ll feel better ticking off a longer list, don’t put it on the list.
Isolate Cleaning Tasks
A follow-on from the cleaning checklist: not everything needs to go on the list, and not everything needs to be included in the cleaning. The fridge is its own island, and it’s closed. It doesn’t HAVE to be cleaned out when you’re doing the dishes if it’s going to overwhelm the whole list. The same goes for the wardrobe cleanout. Compartmentalize them in your brain and ignore them until another day. If that fails, put them at the bottom of your list and make yourself do the list in order.
Outsource It
If you’re lucky enough to afford a cleaner, it can be really worth it. Having ADHD makes things so much harder sometimes; prioritizing the cost of the cleaner is something neurodivergents should be empowered to do. If cleaning takes you hours on top of days of anxiety-inducing procrastination and you can possibly squeeze it into your budget, think of it as the ADHD equivalent of getting your car serviced, nails done, or a massage. Even once a month to help you stay on top of the big stuff could lighten the load.