ADHD and the Burden of Possessions
10 Things You Think You Need to Organize, But Should Minimize Instead°
The list has things like toiletries, tupperware, towels, kitchen gadgets, clothing and shoes. All things that I spend a lot of time organising when I should probably be minimising.
My ADHD complicates and makes things worse. Every item has an oversized effect. The burden of storing it, cleaning it, and organising it is immense.
ADHD folk should live simply and minimally. But instead we impulse buy and pick up a new hobby every month.
So we end up with unneeded things haunting us for years. We stuff it into the back of cupboards and closets, when we should just admit defeat and throw it away.
We cling to clutter for silly reasons:
- “I’ll sell it someday.” (No, we won’t.)
- “I’ll restart that two-week hobby.” (No, we won’t.)
- “It’s too big for the bin and requires a tip run.” (So, just do it.)
- “I can’t be bothered right now.” (So, just do it.)
We only eventually throw it away when we have an overstimulated panic about it.
I’m known in my family for ‘squirrelling’ things away – pilling things up in closets instead of organising or chucking them. And when I do that one of two things happen:
- I totally forget about the item until I stumble upon it again in 6 months.
- I think about the item daily. It’s difficult to explain, but it takes up space in my brain. Whilst it’s unorganised in a closet my brain is constantly ‘aware’ of it and it somehow uses up my limited brain power.
So I should just throw things away. And I will. At some point anyway.
Read this next: ADHD and the Struggle With Internal Expectations