I never really considered my self ADD, but I was recently sharing my organization process with a friend and it really helped her ADD brain connect some dots. Over the years I’ve learned small tricks here and there as I pay attention to how my brain works and accept it’s limitations and strengths. What I have learned above all else, is that my anxiety levels are unmanageable in unorganized environments for long periods of time, and when things do get unorganized, I find it very difficult to focus enough to regain order. If this sounds like you, keep reading to see a few tricks that have worked for me.
The first and most important step is to stop making impulse purchases! Seriously, stop buying stuff. If I don’t know exactly how I will use an item, and where I will store it when it is not actively being used, it stays at the store. I will not bring anything in to my home that doesn’t have an immediate use. The hardest part of this rule is having 4 kids who love accumulating things, but we teach them to evaluate the usefulness of things as well. It will serve them well in the long run to have the skill of saying no to impulse buys.
Secondly, get rid of things you know you are not going to use. This one is a hard one for my very sentimental husband. If we haven’t used something in 12 months or more, odds are, will aren’t going to. Just let it go. If you have to sort through an unorganized mess to find that one scrap of wood you saved from 6 years ago, odds are you aren’t going to find it and will end up having buy what you need anyway.
Once you’ve got your “stuff” down to what you actually need and will use, find simple ways to keep it in it’s place. I have found that the more simple a solution is, the more likely I am to stick to it. We don’t have a ton of storage in our home, and the closet space we do have doesn’t have fancy built ins to organize things, but we’ve found ways to make it work for us. The biggest factor I have found for myself is that I need clear storage containers so that I can see what items are inside. Here’s a few of our favorite ways to organize:
We love the clear sterilite storage bins for SO many things. I’ve got these in every room in our house, and have even transitioned all of our attic storage to clear bins. I have them stacked in closets, slid under beds, and on shelves in the attic. Each bin is also labeled to easily see what category it is intended for.
These mDesign clear acrylic bins are a game changer for smaller areas like the pantry and kitchen cabinets. Just slipping a piece of paper in the front of it to label it’s category is really helpful. Again, having clear bins that you can see the contents of just works with my brain.
These water bottle storage shelves seemed like an unnecessary splurge, but they helped more than I expected. We have 4 kids with sports practices every day, so we go through a lot of water bottles. Having these has prevented the clutter of knocked over and rolled around water bottles all over the pantry.
I love these rubbermaid plastic containers for shelf stable pantry items that need to be stackable. It has cleaned up our shelves so much to get all of the random sized bags/boxes of stuff into containers that stack neatly. Bonus points is that the kids are much more likely to close these correctly than leaving them in their original packaging. It is an extra step to wash the containers, but worth it for us. I’ll post some of my favorite organizing tools below:
*disclaimer: Some of the below links are affiliate links. Meaning that I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase from my links, at no additional expense to you. Thanks for helping our homeschool family bring in a little income.
