Transcript of Home Organization for my ADHD loves

listen you may or may not have ADHD but if you're chronically overwhelmed by home organization how to organize your home how to upkeep systems that actually work for you and can actually be maintained this video is for you I myself recently got a diagnosis for ADHD fair enough pretty much everybody in my family has it I don't really know what it means to me all I know is that when I put food in the oven and the Bell goes off the timer goes off I have a 1 and A2 second window to decide I'm going to go and get that thing out of the oven if I resist that 2C window it's gone forever there's no memory no awareness that I was even using the oven or that I was even trying to eat food until about 6 hours later when the smoke alarm goes off and that's why I don't cook is that ADHD I don't really know but let's talk home organization [Music] also feel like I've been researching for this my whole life long before I got my own diagnosis people always commented on my videos that my tips helped them with ADHD things so here we are and this is what I know if you have ADHD a lot of your motivation needs to come from genuine interest or some like cheating hacks to fabricate interest ADHD is dopamine driven not disciplin driven the motivation for people with ADHD to organize it it's not about willpower it's not about not having enough willpower so if someone tries to shame you about that it's not a willpower thing it's really about interest it's not about a lack of willpower so some of the things we're going to talk about here is how to figure out what can be interesting to you about home organization what can drive you and Propel you in a positive way but before we dive into all the nitty-gritty details let's all just take a breath cuz I can feel people getting overwhelmed you don't have to do all of these things if you want to watch this video Let's breathe baby and maybe think about one thing maybe two things two tips that feel like they resonate with you and feel like they're worth incorporating and remember you can quit at any time I know overwhelm is a a big inhibitor of getting organizing done getting your tasks done you do not have to do this whole list and it's up to you to decide if there's one or two that you feel like incorporating you don't have to do more than that let's kick it so number one thing to remember is that there's really two parts to home organization there is the physical setup are you going to have closed storage open storage shelves boxes bins baskets tags Etc the stuff but then there's also the syst systems you have for maintaining order when I walk in the door I immediately know I need to put my phone and my keys in the same place the systems for maintaining order also need to be systems that are easy for you to maintain okay so a couple of tips that are going to hit both the physical setup the stuff and also the system for your ADHD brain number one I want you to lean into your natural tendencies I know all the adhders out there have someone in their life who's tried to come in and impose an organization system on you has told you this is how you label things this is where you put things this is how I do it and if their brain doesn't work the same as yours those systems are going to be completely unhelpful completely unhelpful because it's working with their natural tendencies and not yours so you want to pay really close attention to what your natural tendencies are we're going to work with those not against them the whole point is to like eliminate friction here not build more of it I know a lot of adhders what's a better way to say that attention attention whatever I know a lot of adhders swear by needing to spread out I think this is a big ADHD thing is like needing to have everything spread out on a Surface so you can see it like uh filing cabinets often don't really do the job but a large tabletop where I can just spread out all my piles of various papers that really does it for me and that's why I prefer to work at a large dining table instead of a desk I need the spread I need all my piles out here and I'm here with all my piles and everything's okay so if you're trying to force yourself to make like filing cabinets work and it's just not working I think it's okay to accept I need a spread my filing cabinet is the surface spread okay and find the place that you can designate to do your spread cuz I know we all like that and having your designated spread surface is very different than having the spread all over your home you know I think it's all about compromise knowing that I do my spreads I do my spreads over here on this countertop or on this desk or on this dining table that's where I like to do my spreads and I'm just someone who's always going to do her spreads and that is okay and it's contained to here next tip the everything box one of my favorites this can be a large basket a large bin a large box a large drawer and when your bedroom's feeling untidy and you're disappointed in it you're just going to throw that stuff right in the bin throw it in the everything bin and I want that bin to be big because I want to literally be able to throw it from across the room I can pick up that throw it pick up that throw it pick up that throw it it's in the bin and I do not need to take the time to put everything away in its home right now but you get stuff in the everything bin the everything bin needs to be large it needs to be easily accessible and then you can decide when you want to go and empty the everything bin maybe that's once a week maybe it's twice a month the everything bin is a way that you can minimize clutter in your space without having to be constantly cleaning it goes in the everything bin okay and then we can find an allotted time at whatever interal you want to empty stuff out side note this tip also works really well for uh kids toys if you're living with children you can have that toy bin that maybe you put at the foot of the stairs and when there's too many toys scattered about you just put them in the bin you can teach your kids toys go in the bin and when that bin fills up then we're putting toys away okay I will say I think I discovered that a lot of these ADHD organization tips also apply really well to Children Here We Go next tip if it's always laying there give it a home there that pile of mail that's always piling up right in your entryway and the mail never ends up in your back office in the filing system the filing system needs to be in your main Entry Way put a letter holder a card holder a box a basket in the front entry way great now instead of clutter I'm putting it where it belongs bring the home to the the place the Clutter always lands does your crafting art supplies always end up scattered all over the couch and instead of the back art room put a home for the art supplies next to the couch find a storage area there instead of trying to force a habit change work with your systems with your patterns I am filming today from my parents home yes I am I'm here dog sitting Koda and my mom walked by and she was like what video are you filming and I was like oh it's going to be home organization for my ADHD loves or something like that and she goes can you send it to your father sending this to you Dad o tip number two or whatever I never I don't really know how to like enumerate these tips next section of tips I want you to think about dedicating different spaces for different energy states so I in my home have designated my mess making area and it's my dining table on my dining table I always have crafts going on I always have work going on I've got you know hard drives and chargers and papers and envelopes and craft supplies and scissors and flowers and whatever and it's contained it's on the dining table that's where I do my mess making okay and I do it like it's my job so have your designated mess making area children may call this a playroom I'm just saying there's a lot of crossover but give yourself your playroom and if you don't have a separate room like me make it just a designated Zone you also want to be able to preserve your workstation your relaxation Zone my dining table is my playroom I'm allowed to have mess there I'm allowed to be chaotic there the standard for me is not that there can be no mess at any time I think in a lot of my videos it looks like there's no mess cuz like yeah I've cleaned up and I'm ready to work and I'm ready to film stuff but most of the time the dining table is covered in mess but it's contained and I've decided it's okay to be there decide where your mess making zones are a next tip that I love habit stacking what okay habit stacking it's kind of more of a system and it gets a little silly and Sassy so for me I have medication I take every day and spoiler I forget to take it lots of those days and for me it is a major mistake to keep my bottle of meds in the medicine cabinet it is a major mistake to keep it in the bathroom or with other medicine because I it just doesn't work for me I don't remember it but if I stack the habit of taking my meds with a habit I naturally love like my morning coffee I never forget to get my morning coffee never and I don't have to try to remember to get my coffee I don't have to think about it it's just something I'm genuinely interested in and love so now I keep my morning meds right by the coffee machine so wake up in the morning what do I have to do today I don't know can't remember anything I'm supposed to do but I know I want coffee go over to the coffee oh meds that's interesting oh yeah I'm supposed to take those taking the meds taking the coffee and ever since I started doing that I never forget to take my medicine so stack a habit that you're like oh I wish I could solidify this as a habit stack it with a habit that you don't have to work to keep stack it with that habit that you're just genuinely intrinsically excited to do every day like making your morning coffee habit stacking listen life is all about organization sometimes you got to organize your home sometimes you got to organize your schedule sometimes you got to organize your boobs this video is made possible by skims and that was a Flawless segue let's talk about boob organization skims is my favorite way to organize my boobs and my underwear because I have suffered in the past before skims I have lived through the dark ages of over padded bras uncomfortable bras that exacerbated my scoliosis back pain and straight up just disrespectful bras that could not accommodate any of the cuts of my shirts I'm over it but then I found skims and everything changed literally my friend Alexandra Nelly you might watch her YouTube channel gave me a skim bra one day and was like try this and I never went back boob organization exhibit a this is the fits everybody plunge bra this is a great bra for sure shirt like this that has like a lower wider cut it's like it was designed just for me no digging no sagging no stretching no poking into you it's just incredibly soft incredibly buttery fabric that gives great support and like works with my actual wardrobe let's get a little before and after let's take it in right ain't nothing good happening I literally need to take the microphone off or it will pull my whole shirt down not a lot to write home about boys and wow wow queen of boob organization I keep this bra in multiple colors I think this one is Sienna it'll change your life speaking of changing your life if you want to life change I would check out the fits everybody full brief let's watch some of this magic buttery stretchy as hell I like this one cuz there's the high waistband and this really nice high cut here super buttery soft I wish you could feel do you see can you see The Buttery I feel like you can see The Buttery this is a full coverage moment that actually stays put under jeans dresses anything no adjusting just smooth snatching buttery comfort that you feel really cute in even though it's like one of your full coverage pieces that's how I feel about it if you have trust issues with bras and underwear like I did I suggest you check out skims check out the link in my description to shop skims best Intimates including the fits everybody collection and if you want to be extra nice to me let them know that I sent you when you go to check out click YouTube and then select my channel in the draft down thank you to them you won't regret it ooh here are some other tips I love think about systems that remove friction from your life we want the least number of steps possible we want the least number of decisions possible to minimize the overwhelm I call this minimizing your subtypes so a tip that came directly from one of my loved ones was that they really benefited from making sure they only had two types of socks they had their gym socks and they had their dress socks and that was it this is a huge win for them it means that all of their socks can just be thrown in the drawer they don't all have to be folded they don't all have to be paired and then also when you're taking them out easy to get to that match love it I think you can do a similar thing with dishes do you really need five different size bowls maybe if you love bowls great do it it's probably of interest to you then not a problem but if you're someone who's like annoyed by always trying to find the right bold and match this and this and that and blah blah blah get a plate get a bowl you can have two types of dishes and that's plenty and it's not hard to put them away it's not hard to figure out where they go minimize your subtypes fewer decisions equals less overwhelm okay oh this is the fun part let's make it a game gamify it make it fun baby earlier I mentioned how a lot of ADHD motivation comes from genuine interest and passion a sense of novelty when things are new and also when there's a challenge or urgency you might experience the urgency motivation when you have like a week to do a task and you could do it that whole week but you have no interest in doing that task until it's right at the deadline and that's because you've almost fabricated for yourself a sense of urgency fabricating a deadline fabricating a hammer that's going to come down on you and then it's more much more easy to do the task and get it over with I'm hot I'm hot I'm getting hot okay so if we can fabricate any of those things fabricate some urgency such as the Pomodoro method is a method I've talked about before where you set a timer for 25 minute intervals I use it for work but people can use it for cleaning too I'm going to do 25 minutes of cleaning or I'm going to do 15 minutes of cleaning and then I get to take a 5 minute break or turning it into a challenge I like to turn my cleaning and home organization declutters into a game I literally bought a timer that would like count down dramatically and ring an alarm when it goes off and I try to make it into a game like can I declutter this Closet in less than 6 minutes I did a whole video All About That or can I clean this room before the Spotify playlist ends and I think really the kicker there is like fabricating urgency make it into a game it's fun and of course you can't always fabricate passion for home organization or cleaning but again stacking the activity the cleaning or the declutter you dread with an activity you really enjoy such as that's when I get to listen to my favorite podcast that's when I get to play my most indulgent most vapid YouTube videos it makes it enjoyable to me and actually then I kind of don't want the declutter to end or make a little reward for yourself you do 10 minutes and then you get a little reward adorable I think another really important version of this is breaking tasks down into their smallest form so instead of telling yourself okay I have to clean this room just decide I'm going to empty the trash can I'm going to empty the trash can or I'm going to declutter that one drawer that junk drawer and no it's not the whole room but that junk drawer always annoys me and I can declutter one drawer I can do that I'm not a prisoner I'm free I can leave at any time reminding yourself you're allowed to stop at any time you are you're in charge you can stop after one step if you want you can just do that drawer and call it a day and I promise you you will still get a really good sense of accomplishment of momentum you don't have to do that like shame spiral beating yourself up cuz oh my God I didn't do anything and then you're more overwhelmed just pick one drawer you want to declutter as a bonus I would say a lot of the time you start cleaning more than that but that's not even the goal the goal is just to clean that one drawer break down your task into their smallest form ooh another favorite tip this one's a cute one store it where you use it okay so if this means you want to have a cleaner bathroom the Clorox wipes have to live in the bathroom clorex wipes are right under the sink or maybe they're on the sink I do not want those 12 extra steps to go to the hallway look for the Clorox wipes forget while I'm there turn on the radio start cooking half a chicken breast and leave the apartment while my home burns down I can't afford those extra steps Clorox wipes live where I use them in the bathroom and if I need Clorox wipes in the kitchen there's going to be other Clorox wipes living there too this is also why my duster does not live in the closet it is hung up in the middle of the hall I see it about 5,000 times a day it is on the wall where I can see it and then I'm like oh yeah dusting I remember that in addition my little bristle brush for cleaning Grime and Gunk off the sink it's in my bathroom and a tangential tip for both the duster and the bristle brush is that these cleaning items are pretty I've invested in the pretty aesthetic cleaning items which a makes it more likely that I'll put them out as Decor somewhere I can see them not a away in a closet I'll remember to use them more and also it makes it more fun to use them it builds a little bit of interest for me oh look at that cute little duster I get a cosplay as a sweet little Cinderella fairy chipmunk and that's fun to me that'll get me to clean think about what will make it a little more fun a little more enticing and think about storing the items where you use them okay motivation and mindset shifts this was a tip articulated to me by my sister Julia who is very spicy in the brain I would say and she said that something that really helped her was reframing you know whatever task you're avoiding the decluttering you're avoiding the folding laundry you're avoiding or the organizing you're avoiding and instead reframing it as not what you're avoiding but what are you moving towards she really struggles with organization but she told me that when she can take a moment to focus on the person she wants to be this person who has this really cute aesthetic like elfish little cutely decorated home moving towards that can feel very motivating as opposed to I have to clean my room now or focusing on I want my space to be cute or peaceful or functional or like what's the reason that brought you to this video there's a reason you clicked on this video and that's the thing you can remind yourself you're moving towards so focusing on what are you moving towards not just what is the thing I'm avoiding kot's squeaking Kota squeak squeak squeak remember it is is not about perfection it's about what works for you and if you can get really good and honest about noticing your patterns your flows your systems and then working with those in a creative way I think that alone builds a lot of uh motivation a lot of Pride and that itself can kind of be a fun game like to me hacking how to remember to take my medicine every morning I feel proud of that it's it's like a fun puzzle I got to solve and that kind of gets at like the challenge motivation that I'm I kind of crave and just remember that there's no failure State here we're all just trying things we're all just trying things that's all it is I do know that certain tips really resonate with people other tips really resonate with others so I I would really like to hear a what is one of your biggest ADHD organization struggles uh or one of biggest ADHD organization tips please leave that in the comments so other people watching this video can look in the comments for good tips and upvote ones they like have really helped them blah blah blah and I'm what else do I want to say I don't think I want to say anything else I think I'm done saying I think I'm getting a haircut tomorrow my mom just looked over at me are you interested I think I'm going to get long layers or short layers I don't know that would be pretty I think that will be pretty we'll see could be cute you're cute anyway turn you thank you she shows I'm cute anyway all right we'll see you soon bye oh here's a little bonus treat I realized I haven't talked about this in a YouTube video at all but uh I'm in a movie I'm in a movie and many of you know uh my first career was as an actor and then it didn't really take off so I quit after like a decade or so but about a year ago my very best friend Tessa who I often talk about on my podcast um she wrote directed and produced a featurelength film it was her first featurelength film with her boyfriend and they asked me to play a role in it I have like one scene just kind of For Old Times Sake and uh I did agree to do it but it was actually a really hard decision for me just I felt so nervous going back to acting and I was really afraid of like ruining my best friend's film was like such an important project of her it was very scary for me but in the end I'm really glad I did it it was like really special to do with my best friend it was a really amazing experience and mostly like the reason I decided to do it is cuz a is my best friend and because she's like the funniest person I know so I knew whatever film they made would be very funny did the film and then just recently the film got accepted into the South by Southwest Film Festival which like if you know anything about the film industry that is insane it's like an insane achievement for her and it's also insane that it's her first feature film that got in anyway I am trying to support my best friend any way I can I just think she's like the most talented person I've ever met which is why I did it if you want to support the film and you want to support me and you want to support my friend this is what you can do the will eventually be available online and um whether it ends up on Netflix or Amazon Prime or whatever that all depends on like how much hype there is online about the video or about the movie so um literally the best thing you can do to go support is just go watch the trailer the trailers on YouTube uh the views on that trailer will play a big role on whether like Netflix sper or Amazon Prime or somebody else Hulu I don't know so just go watch the trailer it's a great trailer and I'm going to let you guys know when you can see the film hopefully sooner than later it is a comedic buddy comedy it's called Caper and it's about this group of friends that like go on this adventure of hij jinkx basically to help their friend who gets into some trouble with the sex gone wrong it's just a very fun movie there's so many amazing comedians in it it's just fun I literally think that's like why it stood out and got into the festivals a it's a great movie but I also think it's just like I feel like people don't make movies like this anymore that're just like a fun adventure to go on and it's just like a Feelgood like weirdo fun movie I feel like people are really craving that recently and yeah I genuinely feel like they like don't really make movies like this much anymore and uh it's a great time so stay tuned I will definitely be sharing updates about the film and um go watch the trailer it helps more than you know thank you for supporting my friends film and of course also for supporting me mAh [Music]