Organizing an ADHD House with Zones

My shocking realization that everything doesn't belong everywhere

For the first time since I had kids, I’m not completely embarrassed of my messy house. Despite literally my very best efforts, from the time my first child started walking and therefore picking stuff up and dropping it on the ground, my house was always incredibly cluttered; toys everywhere, dishes in the sink, stuff on every counter. My 9yo with 10 thousand art projects I have no clue what to do with. The toddler got into a box of multiplication flash cards and now there are 500 flash cards all over the floor.

I have been completely exhausted by my house literally since my first child was born almost 10 years ago.

I spent a lot of years hoping my (soon to be ex) husband would help, and I wish I hadn’t wasted all that time.¹

Now, my house is gross (separately, but because of, the aforementioned mess). Even getting rid of a lot of stuff, I have a TON of deep cleaning to do, because I’ve spent all my time tidying and no time actually cleaning. The walls, baseboards, and floors are…gross.

So this is part 1 - how I got to the point where I can actually start deep-cleaning. I did all of this with my 2 year old following me around, so it can be done even if kids are under your feet (depending on your kid obviously!).

When I set out to do this, I vowed to not spend any money. I don’t need more storage bins. I need a house that makes sense.

The only thing I spent money on was a pack of hooks, which I used in the bedrooms to hang extra backpacks and hoodies that formerly crowded my entryway.

Step 1: Imagine

This is hopefully a fun and easy first step!

Imagine your home neat and tidy. What does that look like to you?

For me, it meant that I wasn’t constantly picking up toys and/or destroying my feet stepping on legos and inexplicably sharp plastic dinosaurs in shared spaces. And also that laundry/jackets/bags/whatever/paper/art projects aren’t piled up on every available surface.

Shared spaces include:

• Entryway

• Dining Room

• Kitchen

• Living Room

• Bathrooms

Basically, everywhere except bedrooms and the playroom (which is actually meant to be the dining room in our house, but we use it as a playroom and put the dining table in a nook near the kitchen). While I have bins all over my house for toys, the area around each bin is a mess.

So: my first goal here is to assign zones for all transient items (toys belong in x room; paper, arts and crafts supplies belong in y room, etc.)

What is ALLOWED in each room? Whatever you decide is allowed in that room, everything else is NOT allowed. Of course if a toy ends up in the living room, no big deal, but it does need to return to its home at the end of the day.

During this step I spent a lot of time just randomly standing in different spaces in my house imagining what they would look like tidy.

Not the actual layout of my house. Our bathroom is extremely tiny and only has a small cabinet that basically just fits extra toilet paper, so a lot of stuff people probably put in the bathroom has to go in the kitchen.

Step 2: Move ALL the stuff to its zone

Just move stuff to the zones! Do not declutter in this step. Move the stuff even if each zone is still a mess and you have too much stuff.

Example:

• All toys go to the playroom

• All art supplies / tape / glue / paper goes in the dining room cubbies²

• All completed artworks/projects go in an open bin in the dining room

• All cleaning supplies go in a high cabinet in the kitchen

• All makeup / toiletries go into a basket on the bathroom counter

• Extra jackets and backpacks go into bedroom closets

Throw away stuff that’s obviously trash in this process (e.g., broken /unusable things) but don’t get caught up in decluttering at this moment. It’s good to have a trash bag in each zone to start chucking stuff.

Just move stuff into zones, even if each zone is still messy.

Step 3: Declutter one zone at a time

For the biggest dopamine hit and feeling of effectiveness, I chose a small zone to start with. I started with my entryway.

Here’s what my entryway USED to have:

• 12 jackets/hoodies (many of which do not fit)

• dog walking stuff I can never find because it’s under the jackets

• keys

• mail that needs to be thrown away

• 20 pairs of shoes, half of which don’t even fit anyone anymore

• about 10 bags/backpacks, including EMPTY ones that are never used

• Bike helmets

Now, ONLY these items are allowed³:

• DAILY USED Shoes⁴

• 1 bag or backpack per person

• 1 jacket per person

• Dog walking supplies / harnesses / leashes

• keys

A hall tree like this one from Ikea can work well for this if you have the space:

Source: Ikea $360 at the time of this writing

All the extra stuff needs to either be gotten rid of or put into bedrooms. That’s where my pack of wall hooks came in - extra bags / whatever stuff didn’t make the cut for the entryway hall tree get hung on bedroom wall hooks.

Step 4: Declutter / Throw a Ton of Stuff Away

Once stuff is in its zone, it becomes extremely apparent that each zone has too much stuff in it. This is very motivating. As I hauled the 8th cubby bin of toys into the playroom, I was ready to chuck it all. It’s too much stuff, and it becomes so much more obvious once things aren’t spread out.

This is how I found the motivation to keep going.

Once I finished the entry way, I was positively itching to tackle the play room. I got rid of about 50% of the things that ended up there, and kids did not notice one bit. They’re actually going in there and playing, now that it’s not so crazy and overwhelming.

Step 5: Maintain and Go Easy on Yourself

So, things are going to get out of their zone. But the nice thing about this system is that when you find stuff outside of its zone, all you have to do is take it back to its zone. You don’t have to organize it, or figure out where it should go.

My house is FAR from perfect, but I’m at a point where I can actually start doing things like cleaning baseboards and walls - stuff I could never do before because I was constantly trying to figure out what to do with the mountains of items in every room of my house.

While I try to keep every space tidy, the only space I care about looking nice and organized is the living room, so that people can comfortably sit in there and watch TV/do whatever and not be surrounded with a million things. Our living room is also located right beyond the entryway of our house, so if you’re just walking in, you come into a relatively empty and neat living room.

Don’t aim for perfection. You live in your house. Houses with kids get messy. But hopefully a zoning approach will make the mess slightly more manageable.

Thank you for reading! Was this helpful to you? If so, please consider buying me a coffee.

1. If you’re in a relationship with someone who hasn’t helped you clean anything in more than a month despite you asking them to, and it’s not because of a health problem, sorry friend, it’s never going to happen. You gotta save your own self.

2. My kids like to do crafts, painting, etc. on the dining room table (with the tablecloth taken off - the actual table top is covered with paint and stuff). While I would prefer this stuff in the playroom there isn’t enough room to spread out on a surface. I have a cubby set in the dining room so that kids can just pull out paints and supplies and then work at the dining room table.

3. Mail goes immediately in my work bag to look at at work because I never have time; bike helmets are now with the bikes in the garage (duh)

4. I was so proud of myself when I set up our shoe cubbies in our hall tree, I put all the dang shoes in the cubbies. This was a mistake. Everyone gets 1 or MAX 2 pairs of shoes. All other shoes need to be in the respective rooms of their owners. Same for jackets and bags that aren’t used daily / frequently.