Looking for ADHD cleaning hacks? How to have a functional home that’s neurodivergent –friendly? This simple strategy will take you far!
The story.
As my six-month-old baby nestled against me, I glanced around the large living room in despair. Why had I thought I could handle cleaning a house this big?
Well, I could… before my son came along. My demanding, short-nap-taking, forever-breastfeeding son.
I remembered one of the La Leche League leaders telling the group that “the dust will always be there.” It was no consolation to me now. It was all I could do to stay on top of the dishes these days. I wasn’t about to ask my husband to pitch in, since he was working hard at his job.
Dirt was slowly piling up all around me. Clutter – which I normally couldn’t stand – was slowly growing in small piles throughout the house.
Tears pooled behind my eyelids. I should be able to figure this out. What was wrong with me? I was such a failure.
Executive dysfunction and housekeeping: a dance of irony and oxymorons.
Whether you’re a woman with a highly sensitive baby, a woman with ADHD, or a postmenopausal woman struggling to have enough energy to put water onto boil, certain aspects of housekeeping probably want to make you bury your head under your pillow and cry. That’s because the messages from mainstream society tell you to be “the best version of yourself,” which means having everything all together all the time.
Including a neat and clean house.
If you’re a Christian, you’ve been told to do everything “with excellence.” Meaning, if you don’t have a perfect home, you’re a lousy excuse for a believer.
In my post about keeping your home tidy despite executive function or energy issues, I provided an overview of how to go about it. Here and now, I want to discuss the single most important tactic to help you maintain a functional home without causing yourself more stress.
It’s about turning your chore chart into a sequence of habits, habits that you can adhere to. How do you get to that point? Four steps.
Step 1: The essential mindset shift – function over perfection.
You first have to determine to get out of the paradigm that your home is supposed to be ever-ready to be photographed for the cover of a home magazine. Or that it should come anywhere near that.
Likely as not, your home doesn’t, but the guilt over it has weighed on you like a sandbag on a mosquito. Therefore, here’s what you need to do:
Stop.
Feeling.
Guilty.
Embrace “good enough” cleaning. Your goal in housekeeping is not to maintain a Pinterest-perfect home. Rather, it’s to create a home that is functional so that it reduces your stress and executive function load.
To aid you in that, store cleaning tools where you use them, rather than in a room a hundred feet away. Designate simple, open storage where possible. This makes it easier to find what you need, and easier to remember to get the tasks done. If you have to (or prefer to) use closed storage, label boxes, drawers, and cabinets clearly.
Then, use chunking for a dopamine hit. That’s the next step.
Step 2: Break down task paralysis.
There are three aspects to this step.
First, harness the power of micro-steps, or chunking. Instead of telling yourself to clean the bathroom, for example, break the job down into smaller, more specific tasks. For example:
- Wipe the counter.
- Clear one shelf.
- Scrub the toilet bowl.
- Spray the shower walls with cleaner.
I used to mentally command myself to dust. Even in the small home we live in now, the prospect of dusting can be intimidating. So I’ve changed the internal talk to, “I’m going to dust the pantry shelf today,” or, “I’m going to dust the Great Room.” It’s made dusting a lot less dreadful than it used to be.
The second aspect of breaking down task paralysis is the Five-Minute/One-Minute Rule. That is, if a task takes less than either five minutes or sixty seconds – depending on your current energy and executive function load – go ahead and do it now.
For example, if the dishwasher is full of clean dishes and you pass it by, go ahead and empty it. If there’s a dirty coffee cup and plate on the coffee table in the living room when you enter it, pick them up and set them in the sink.
Taking care of small tasks as you go prevents overwhelm later.
Third, consider using a physical chart or sticky note to create a visual checklist. This is where a Home Command Center comes in handy.
Checking off a task from the list provides an immediate reward in the form of a dopamine hit, which is crucial for ADHD motivation… as well as motivation for women dealing with the low energy of postmenopause.
I created an inexpensive printable specifically to help you get that dopamine hit. Click here to check it out.
Speaking of dopamine, the next step also helps with external motivation.
Step 3: Integrate external motivation (dopamine hacks).
Let me share with you three great ways to do this.
#1: Implement habit stacking. Pair a new, desired task with a habit you already do automatically. For example, if you automatically turn off the coffee maker every morning, begin to wipe down the counter when you do so. Eventually, wiping down the counter will become part of the turning-off-coffee-maker habit.
To enforce the new habit further, allow yourself to listen to a certain favorite podcast or music artist only while doing the chore. This positive reinforcement turns habit stacking into a neurodivergent-friendly routine.
#2: Body doubling. Use external accountability to initiate certain tasks. You might call a friend on the phone, ask your partner to sit nearby, or put on a “clean with me” video. The presence of another person or voice helps to bypass the struggle with beginning a chore.
#3: Use time-boxing. This is the same as a sprint. Set a timer for ten to fifteen minutes, and endeavor to do nothing but clean during that time. It not only helps you stay focused on what you’re doing, but also the sense of urgency helps you to overcome ADHD time blindness.
The first three steps will do a lot to help you maintain a “good enough” clean and tidy home. But there’s one more step to ensure that you get into the habit of, well, sticking to your new good habits.
Step 4: Consistency.
Initially, make a goal of sticking to the first three steps for thirty days. Except for washing dishes, you may not have to clean every day. So don’t make up tasks to do. However, do have a written weekly schedule so you can keep track of your overall cleaning and tidying goals.
To prevent overwhelm, adopt the following two strategies that are great ADHD cleaning hacks.
Daily closing duties.
Commit to a fifteen-minute cleaning routine every evening. It might include draining and scrubbing the sink, its surrounding counters, and the stovetop. Or it might be gathering the trash and emptying the dishwasher once the cycles finish.
This kind of evening routine not only allows you to wake up to a functional space, but also prevents feeling overwhelm as you turn on the espresso maker or tea kettle.
Best of all, it makes you feel competent in the area of housecleaning.
The zone strategy for tidying.
I mentioned this in my other article as a great way for dealing with overwhelm with keeping the house tidy. If the thought of tidying up an entire room in one fell swoop makes you feel like the victim of said swoop, break the room mentally into smaller sections. Tidy one bookcase, or one side of the room, etc., every day until the whole room is under control.
The 30-day payoff.
Following these ADHD-friendly cleaning hacks – awesome for us tired postmenopausal gals as well – won’t only keep your house from looking like a hurricane blew through it. It will also:
- reduce your anxiety,
- help you find things more easily, and
- give you confidence to finally invite people over.
Why? Because keeping your house tidy and clean will have become a habit.
Do you have tips for making housekeeping more of a joy than a chore? Please tell us about them in the comments!
