This podcast episode discusses decluttering for those with ADHD, providing practical tips on starting small and organizing spaces effectively. It emphasizes the emotional aspects of decluttering, offers questions to help make tough decisions, and celebrates progress over perfection. Join the upcoming Declutter Challenge and learn how to create a more organized life alongside a supportive community.
Start small and focus on one space at a time to avoid overwhelm during decluttering.
Recognize emotional challenges in decluttering, take breaks when needed, and ask tough questions to make decisions.
Deep dives
Decluttering Series Overview
The podcast hosts introduce a three-week decluttering series starting with episode 101 aimed at helping individuals unfamiliar with how to get started with decluttering. The series will cover organizing principles for ADHD in the following week and address the challenges of maintaining organization in the third week. Despite previous episodes on clutter, the hosts highlight the ongoing relevance of decluttering, an ever-present concern in society's clutter-filled culture.
Declutter Challenge
The hosts discuss a declutter challenge scheduled for July with a focus on clearing clutter without emphasizing organization or maintenance. The challenge involves removing items one does not love or need. The hosts emphasize gamifying the process to make it engaging, encourage community participation, and the benefits of letting go of unnecessary possessions.
Organizing Principles
The episode delves into the four steps involved in organizing any space: planning, sorting and decluttering, organizing belongings, and maintaining order. The hosts stress the importance of prioritizing spaces for decluttering based on the potential impact, avoiding churning (simply moving items around without making decisions), and recognizing the significance of 'good enough' in organizing efforts.
Second Sorting Challenge
The discussion expands on the mental challenges of the second sorting step, where individuals tend to fixate on tougher decisions and premature organizing. Highlighting the role of verbal processing and tackling emotional attachments to objects, the hosts provide strategic questions and advice to guide decision-making, emphasizing the criteria of joy, usability, and emotional relevance in discerning whether to keep or discard possessions.
This week on the show, we tackle the daunting task of decluttering for those with ADHD. With our upcoming Declutter Challenge in July, we invite you to join a supportive community and gamify your decluttering process alongside us.
As we dive into the episode, we share the importance of starting small and focusing on one space at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed. We guide you through our four-step process of organizing any space: planning, sorting, organizing, and maintaining. We help you choose a space that would have the biggest impact on your daily life and offer practical tips on how to sort through your belongings efficiently.
We also explore the emotional aspects of decluttering, recognizing when it's time to take a break and how to deal with feelings of guilt or obligation when letting go of items. We provide a list of questions for you to ask yourself during the sorting process to help you make those tough decisions.
Remember: perfection is not the goal and that progress should be celebrated!
If you're struggling with ADHD and the challenges of decluttering, this episode of Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast offers valuable insights and practical strategies to make the process more manageable and rewarding. Join us as we explore the upcoming Declutter Challenge and learn how to take the first steps towards a more organized life together.