Helpful home tips for households with ADHD!

[demuregeek]

So...I'm the person in our home that's responsible for most of the cooking, laundry, washing up, etc. Anybody interested in sharing a few pointers, either for our own benefit, or that of the other folks in the house? I'll start:

• Dear family members: never buy any item of clothing labelled "Hand wash only" unless you only ever intend to wear it once.

[Zevispaz]

* If you send me out shopping with a list, understand that regardless of what you wrote and told me 5 times there will be surprises, there will be missing items, there will be items that are misinterpreted.

My husband says:

* Don't take anything too seriously. Ever. Take it all with a grain of salt.

[Spacemaster]

First step: Get filthy rich

Second step: Move to a different house when your old house fills up with rubbish and you can no longer find anything anymore. You were sick of that old house anyway.

[Drewbacca]

I'm more than happy to run to the store, but understand, your five item list WILL take me at least an hour to gather together. On a related note, always put the frozen stuff last on the list.

[keliza]

This is how I describe living with my ADHD:

I am a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

1. Sometimes my big head gets in the way of my little arms.



That is, I have so much going on in my head (racing thoughts, constantly changing trains of thought, forgetting and then remembering hours or days later, losing focus, juggling a dozen ideas at a time) that I get in the way of my own productivity. Be patient; eventually I will figure out a way to reach it.

2. If it stops moving, I can't see it anymore.



If you put a sign on the door to remind me to do something, I will see it the first day, maybe the second, and then never again. If you move the sign somewhere new, I will see it. If you keep moving it, I will keep seeing it. But the moment it stands still, it very quickly blends into the environment and I stop noticing it.

3. I have a big tail and big stomping feet and a general tendency to crash through a room like Jurassic Park.



When I'm in the middle of an activity, I am MESSY. Any room I am in the middle of doing something in is going to look like dinosaurs live there. It's okay. I'm a very tidy dinosaur and once I'm done slaughtering my pray (or cooking lunch, whatever) I will clean it all up. Eventually. At some point before the day is over. Remember #1? My little arms WILL find this mess again soon and clean it up.

4. I am the queen of the dinosaur park. I am the biggest dinosaur in the jungle and if you get in the way of me doing things my way, I will eat you. And I will enjoy it.



It's not that I'm a mean person, not at all. But I have big ideas, and lots of energy, and once my gears start turning I am a woman on a mission and the LAST thing I want is for someone to slow me down or get in my way. If I'm hell-bent on doing these 3 projects at once, just leave me alone and let me do them. If I stop half-way through and go do something else, don't ask me why I didn't finish the first projects. Just don't do it. Or you'll end up like that guy up there.

5. Finally, I'm loud.



I just am. You'll get used to it. And you might even find that living with a dinosaur is so much fun that it's worth the chaos.