Keeping a clean house or even a room has always been a struggle for me. I’d manage to have someone help me, then it would stay clean for about a week before the doom piles began to form. This has been the same story ever since. 

This time last year I went through a similar process to start off the new year. I threw all my clothes onto the couch, then sifted and got rid of more clothing. Afterwards, I decided to put everything in its place and make sure it all got put away in a specific spot. The system worked…. for a couple weeks. Then the little doom piles began to show up around the apartment. My hubby was understanding, but I can see he gets a little frustrated at times. 

So, why am I insinuating that this year will be different? I’ve learned a lot in the last few months, including how to come up with strategies that work with my ADHD rather than against it. The biggest mistake I continue to make is using a system that everyone else uses to keep organized rather than customizing it for myself to work with my habits. I’m prone to having doom piles scattered throughout the house, I don’t always want to put clothes back. If I intend to wear a shirt or leggings again, I start a pile away from the unworn clean clothes. Not very practical and makes the apartment look messier. Plus, this time I put myself under pressure by putting on a 4 hour timer.

When I moved in with my hubby, it became very clear that we had to get a different setup that would fit our one bedroom. A regular sized dresser wouldn’t fit as it would block the part of the window we use for the AC unit. So, we headed to Ikea and decided on a Kallax. Yup, the cubes. We got the 4 x 4 one and it fit perfectly where we needed to and could even fit the TV on top of it. We also bought some storage cubes to fit into some of the cubbies to help with being organized. 

This ended up working better for me. The new solutions to the doom pile of clothes I plan on rewearing? It’s own little cube storage. I’ve tried several solutions to this problem, but I’m holding out hope for this one. From my little bit of research, it’s about finding what makes it easier for you rather than following what others are doing. It’s about what makes sense to your brain. Having the cubes to divide up my clothes is a system that has been working better than most. 

Outside of the cubes, I have storage bins under the bed where I place clothes that I’m least likely to wear but need from time to time. Like sweatshirts or jackets that are for the 50 degree weather and also to switch between the summer and winter clothing. Though sometimes I forget they are there. So for this round of going through clothes, I put the stuff I felt “maybe” about under the bed. If I don’t miss it, I’ll probably get rid of it at the start of next year.

Getting clothing out of the way felt like half the battle, so I treated myself to the rewards I set up before I started: ice cream and rock painting. Now the real work is going to be next weekend when I tackle my craft tower of doom. It started out organized, but then became a mass set of junk drawers where I vaguely know where things are in it. The plan is to get it organized and continue working on art projects that I intend to sell. 

We’ll see how far I get within 1 day. Until next time, safe exploring everyone!