It is possible to have ADHD and be organized!

Do you or someone you know was has ADHD struggle to keep your clothes organized? You really want to be an organized person but your home and especially your closet looks like a category 5 hurricane has just run through it. So you spend as little time in your closet as possible and just shut the door. 

Maybe you’re now living out of the piles of clothes in the laundry room or the baskets sitting on your bedroom floor. Let me just say that I see you and there is no judgment here. Life is hard for everyone and its even more challenging to maintain an organized and tidy home if you are a person with ADHD.

I work with a lot of clients who claim to have ADHD and they tell me they have the hardest time completing tasks, being on time, staying focused, procrastination, and so on. I grow to love these clients dearly because I’m able to help them stay focused on the task of decluttering their homes when they would have otherwise given up.

If you are someone with ADHD or ADHD-like tendencies and struggle to get and stay organized, today I’m sharing with you five tips for organizing your clothes specifically for someone with ADHD. You can apply these tips for yourself as an adult or for a child in your home. These tips do not come with a money-back guarantee but from a mom, with a child with ADHD these organization methods have been helpful in our home.

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Tip #1: Hang up as many clothes as you can.

Hanging clothes in a closet allows you to see all the clothes you have at one time without digging through drawers.

Hanging Clothes vs Folded Clothes

Many clients I organize for have always folded their t-shirts because they don’t consider t-shirts to be their “nice clothes” and they are conditioned to hang only nice clothes in their closets. I always encourage clients to hang up as many clothes as they can but especially all their tops and shirts no matter if they’re considered nice or not.

Hanging clothes helps with focus.

Those who have difficulty focusing or completing tasks typically struggle with organization as well. When shirts are folded and put away in dresser drawers, it is very difficult to see what the drawer contains as well as only pull out what is needed without messing up the rest of the contents of the drawer.

Out of sight is out of mind!

For those with ADHD, they may also struggle with object permanence which is when an object is out of sight a person will forget where is it or that it even exists. That is why when I’m decluttering with a client she will state, “I forgot I had that” or “I’ve been looking for that” when coming across items she hasn’t seen in a while.

Hanging clothes inside of folding clothes will help people with forgetting or losing what they own.

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Tip #2: Organize hanging clothes by categories.

After you’ve decided to hang up all your clothes, it is best to organize them by categories. In my clothes, I hang my clothes by length.

Organize your clothes for your daily needs.

Since I only have one clothes rack, my clothes as hung in this order:

• Jeans
• Sleeveless shirts
• Shortsleeve shirts
• ¾ length shirts
• Longsleeve shirts
• Sweaters
• Jackets
• Dresses

By hanging all clothes, especially shirts, and tops, you are also saving yourself time folding clothes. It is a lot faster to lay clothes flat in a stack and hang them on hangers.

This is a chore my kids learned at a very young age because it was easy and repetitive. We still use this method even today and they are almost all teenagers.

Here is a hack for a good laundry routine and habit!

Once clothes are on hangers, they’re more likely to get put away in the closet. Folded clothes sometimes end up staying in a laundry basket or on the spot on the couch where they were folded. Hanging clothes will help you break this bad habit.

How to store jeans and pants

Jeans and pants could be articles that are folded and stored on a shelf or within a dresser drawer but since I have a minimal amount of clothes I have room inside my closet to hang our pants. If I didn’t have room to hang them, I would probably fold them and file them in my dresser so that I could still see every pair.

These are my favorite hangers for organizing and storing jeans and pants.

Tip #3: Keep everything stored in drawers in one layer.

Speaking of filing clothes in dresser drawers, the newest trend promoted by Marie Kondo is to fold your clothes in neat squares or rectangles so that they line up perfectly inside drawers and can be easily seen. However, I do not recommend this practice to people who have ADHD or those who have trouble focusing and staying organized. 

Marie Kondo organization doesn’t work for everyone.

File folding is beautiful but can create a lot of stress for someone with ADHD. File folding can lead someone to hold onto more clothes than she needs so that the clothes fit tightly inside the drawer. Not to mention the mess file folding can cause when someone tries to remove just one article of clothing as well as trying to get clothes to fit back in those tightly-packed arrays when doing laundry.

File folding clothes neatly inside drawers is beautiful but it’s not for everyone. Here’s what I suggest instead. Store clothes in drawers in a single layer. 

How to store pants in a kid’s dresser

For example, you’re downsizing and organizing your kid’s pants and jeans drawer to what’s absolutely necessary and actually worn and he ends up with six pairs of pants. Fold the pants in a way where each of the pants can lay flat beside the other. If the drawer is small, then you may need to stack two on top of each other. I would not stack more than three items on top of each other within a drawer. 

Try to see all your clothes in your dresser.

It’s best to store clothes in a single layer within a dresser drawer for easy viewing and when putting laundry away. This is helpful organization for those with ADHD, children whom you’re trying to train to dress themselves and care for their clothes, and anyone who just struggles with organization in general.

Tip #4: Use bins as dividers in dresser drawers

The second biggest problem I encounter with unorganized people aside from owning too much stuff is that they don’t create systems of organization. They don’t give the items a specific home where they are able to find the items when they need them and return items when they’re finished using them.

Stay organized by separating your clothes.

When it comes to clothes storage, especially in dresser drawers, it’s helpful to use bins and baskets as dividers to keep categories of clothing separated which allows them to be easily viewed and accessible to the owner.

Since the inside of drawers is hidden and usually out of sight, I look for any bins and baskets that I can use for organizing that are just lying around the house. Some people get hung up on having the “right” storage containers but I think it’s ideal to use what you already have on hand even if it doesn’t match. In my opinion, functionality always trumps aesthetics.

Simplify your dresser organization.

These are the clothes I typically keep in dresser drawers:

• Underware
• Sports bras 
• Socks
• Pajamas
• Shorts
• Leggings
• Bathing suits

I get really creative with how I store these groups of clothes within the bins. Underwear is rolled into balls. Socks are stuffed inside one another and laid in the bin like tacos. Leggings are filed in a bin and are easily removed since the bin is smaller and I don’t own that many.

This helps you to minimize your clothes too.

For me, it’s like an ongoing game of Tetris. Using bins as dividers in our dresser drawers has helped us not only stay organized but also keep the number of clothes we own to a minimum. Now, we actually wear everything we own and we have learned to appreciate our clothes more.

Tip #5: Minimize your stuff and simplify your routines.

It’s very helpful to create a supportive environment for anyone with ADHD. It’s hard enough for any neurotypical person to maintain life and home within her capacity to handle but it’s much harder for someone living with ADHD.

Minimalism is great for those with ADHD!

When you bring too many items into your home, you end up pushing the boundaries for what you’re able to efficiently maintain. Living beyond one’s capacity has the potential to increase stress, overwhelm, lack of focus, and frustration. That is why minimalism is an attractive lifestyle for those with ADHD.

Here are some easy steps for decluttering with ADHD.

To begin living within your capacity, start minimizing the number of clothes you own. I use a CSS method when decluttering. Clear, sort, and stage.

1. CLEAR the space
2. SORT the clothes
3. STAGE the clothes where they belong

Set up routines to help your ADHD.

After you declutter and minimize your wardrobe and have an organized clothes storage system, create simple routines. Here are some routines for you to think through for your own home:

• After I take a shower, where will I put dirty clothes and semi-clean clothes?
• If I change my clothes in the middle of the day, where will I place dirty and semi-clean clothes?
• When I wake up in the morning, where will I find my clothes for (insert day of week)?
• Where will I put my pajamas?
• When will you clothes be washed?
• Where will clothes be folded or hung and when will they be put away?

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I’d love to hear from you!

Have you been using the concept of resetting to help you easily manage your home and keep the clutter from piling up? What do you think about performing a yearly reset in your home? Which one of these are you going to take action on right now? Let me know in the comments below!

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• How to Make a Decluttering Plan – Basic Steps for ADHD Moms

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