Keeping House with ADHD
Things to try:
Delegate? It has to get done but does it have to be done by you? Hire a person, an appliance, or an app, to do it for you. There’s no “cleanliness” morality scale here, we’re not better people because we do all the things. Seriously - Hire a cleaning crew, enlist help from your roommates (including spouses and children). Get a roomba (throw some googly eyes and halloween teeth on it and tell the kids it will eat anything in its path nomnomnom).
Invite people over :) This can be a great motivator to just get it done
Cleaning Saturdays. Put on a great playlist, and just start. You can pick just one room or do the whole house. Something is more than nothing. Our goal here is not perfection. It’s just to clean more than before you started. Then quit. Seriously.
Pair preferred with non-preferred tasks. Can you sweeten the deal? Gamify it, give yourself points for each room or section and create a prize list for yourself. Put on your fav podcast or show, surround yourself by your favorite people, how can you make the process easier and more enjoyable?
Leverage downtime. When you’re microwaving or waiting for the oven to preheat, can you play a little game to race the clock? How many dishes can you put away? Can I wipe the counters? We don’t need to pay attention to the dust on the lights, just throw that one thing you think is making the fridge smell funky and count your W’s.
Tools:
Skylight digital calendar for family management
Goblin.tools to help break down tasks for yourself or the young people in your house
