ADHD Cleaning Without the Chaos: A Two-Phase Strategy That Works

Avoid ADHD cleaning chaos with this two-phase decluttering method that keeps you on track, reduces overwhelm, and helps you finish what you start.

Have you experienced the phenomenon of cascading task initiation and micro decision fatigue?

Let’s set up an example. You’ve decided to clean off your bookshelves. Perfect. Discreet. A single task. But is it?

What does “clean” really mean? For many people with ADHD, “cleaning” often means sorting, organizing, making things look nice, and also removing dirt and grime—all at the same time. That’s a lot of different jobs.

Here’s what probably happens with those bookshelves:

You spot a couple of photos. Unsure where to start, you pick them up. Do you have a place to keep photos? Maybe, but you’re not sure. You start walking around to find that box you used to use for photos. Fifteen minutes pass. You give up and set them on the counter.

Next, you find toys from your children. These go back to their rooms, where you notice clothes everywhere. You decide to run a quick load of laundry. While you’re at it, you strip the beds. Thirty minutes later, you return to the shelves and start thinking about how to categorize your books. You pull them all off. They join the photos on the counter.

Then you find a container with pushpins, buttons, and random clutter. You dump it out to put things away. Opening the desk drawer, you find it stuck. There’s too much inside. Before putting the pushpins away, you decide to make space in the drawer. Now the drawer is pulled apart.

Forty-five minutes later, you’re tired. The shelves aren’t finished. The drawer is half organized. Books are in haphazard piles on the floor. Laundry is still in the washer. You’re frustrated, and somehow the house looks worse. You walk away and leave things like that… for a while.

Remember that list of different cleaning tasks? This is what happens when we try to do them all at once!

Instead, here’s an ADHD-friendly decluttering and cleaning strategy that works for my clients. It limits how far you travel from your work area, reduces mental load by focusing on one type of task at a time, and minimizes mess by creating holding locations for items.

Phase I: Sorting

Unless your space is already significantly decluttered, this is where you start. The goal is to touch all of your belongings in that space, reduce as much clutter as possible, and be left with just the things that live in that space. 

Set up 4–5 bins or bags for sorting. These will be for the following categories:

• Recycling and trash

• Give away

• Goes somewhere else

• Don’t know

• Sort through later

Create a holding space for these bins once you finish. The goal right now isn’t to get rid of everything immediately—it’s to clean off the shelves and organize them. Later, when you have time, work through the bins one at a time. It can help to use painters tape in an area as a temporary holding space. If you’re ok with leaving the bins where they are temporarily, this is ok too.

Be methodical as you sort: start at one end of a shelf and work your way across, sorting items into the bins that you no longer want in that space.  Then move to the next shelf. It might be helpful to set a timer for a specific amount of time to prevent getting stuck there for too long. My clients are often surprised at how fast this stage goes.  

Guardrails:

• Do not wander off to put things away.

• Select a space or object in a room to work on - not the whole room.

• If you find full containers or boxes, set them aside to sort later. This can include drawers!

• If you aren’t sure whether to keep something, put it in the “Don’t know” bin. Decide later.

• Keep a notebook nearby for ideas or things you want to buy for the space. Resist the urge to shop online mid-task.

• Make a clear plan for how you’ll handle your bins afterward. It does not need to happen same day.

• Maintain the decluttered space by resetting it regularly after you’re done.

Phase II: Make It Pretty

Now that everything is sorted and you know that you want to keep it in this location, this is where you get to choose baskets or containers and arrange things in a way that makes sense and looks good.

This phase feels satisfying because now the project is truly “done.” Before, it may have been sorted but still looked unfinished, which can be visually distracting or stressful.

For a free, simplified printable of this method, please click here.