Hi, I'm dysfunctional.

been the first episode to

be murder, she did

Putting a coat on the back of a chair by the door is fine, but if you prefer, use coat hooks and a large catch-all basket for dropping keys, hats, gloves.

Small bookcase end-table next to the couch to store craft projects, books, and other things being worked on for easy access.

Add a storage unit near the dining room table to transition between eating and working there.

Daily toiletry items should be stored in a basket that you can move easily

Extra toiletries and medicine cabinet items go in open shelf/basket storage so they can be seen and used easily. If items no longer fit, purge the excess. Don’t obscure the view!

If you disrobe in the bathroom, place a tall hamper in there.

Keep a set of cleaning supplies in each bathroom

For once, a NT author sat down and took the time to really understand adhd and rearranged their whole methodology just to fit, and it shows. She explicitly says that a well-organized adhd house will not look like a well-organized NT house, and that is absolutely fine. Organization has to be about what works for you.

BUT! This shit WORKS. And I want/need our home to work for all of us.

So the solution has been figuring out what spaces really need what solutions. Like…I don’t go hang out in the bathroom, so that’s a good space for transparent organization to work- with me taking the opaque drawers for my use because the others don’t like them. The play room is an obvious space to prioritize my daughters needs, to. If I want her to be able to clean up after herself, then I need to make that easy for her to learn to do herself, in a space that works for her.

But the livingroom, where I relax, and where people come over, is a space mostly free of these techniques. Instead, we take turns doing 10 minute clean up’s per night. Since it’s only one comparatively small space and we have a well established and shared routine, that always keeps it easy to tidy. Also, most objects that might have accumulated there have a well established other home to go to.

The kitchen had to be a compromise zone. If there’s stuff all over the counters the space feels upsetting and unusable to me. But things that are in opaque cabinets functionally cease to exist for the other two. The compromise turned out to be keeping some visually not too busy items on the counter, like spaghetti, in a clear container, but to otherwise keep the countertops clutter free. Items like spices, ladles and stuff were replaced with cheap but reasonably aesthetic versions and put on shelves. See, organizing them in a pretty way isn’t just to make my kitchen instagramish. Use of things like grouping, pattern, respect for color harmony, and material reduce the amount of visual noise, which leaves me ok having them visible, without them being hidden.

I want/need our home to

work for all of us.