Hinesh Chauhan explains how clutter feeds ADHD overwhelm and shares his rule: for every new item coming in, three must go out. He applies it with his kids picking toys to donate, keeping possessions manageable and reducing the cognitive load that comes with too much stuff.
You. Let's talk clutter and spring cleaning. With adhd, I am challenged to stay organized, but something I've adopted which after significant illness related to a variety of things, but part of it was excessive cognitive load. There are too many things I wasn't able to do or was challenged to do with ADHD and not knowing I had ADHD and had these challenges, which led me to just a lot of shame and guilt and frustration which led to really weird things. It's amazing how your brain messes you up because it will lead to physical illness. So as I've been catching up over multiple years, that load decreases, the cognitive load decreases, and I'm able to think more clearly. The same goes for a cluttered desk or a messy bedroom, which is why I'm a big proponent of make your bed and slowly but surely get rid of things. With the young kids, they get toys from birthday parties, they get toys from their other home, they bring things over and it's a lot of crappy toys when they're younger that they're going to lose interest in and just lie around. So I had created a rule and I hope this helps you where after a while, for every new thing coming in, three things had to go. So the kids had to pick three things that they were going to donate or give away to someone else. So if we wanted someone else's house, I uploaded our outward clutter onto them or really the kids, then it was more of a gift. But I saw it as this really works out well for me. So consider that consider a methodical, repetitive way to get rid of things as so it's not a burden, it's not a task, it's not overwhelming. Keep it simple. Everything one thing that comes in, three things go out.
