Hi everyone. I'm Ronnie and I'm Jessica.
And you're listening. To Clean with me, the podcast
where we walk you through cleaning your house.
Hey everybody, this is Jessica and today is going to be an
episode about ADHD hacks or if you have ADHD tendencies.
And this will help whether you have ADHD or you just have
trouble getting started and get overwhelmed.
But I'm going to get into what you do when you're in a bed
rotting state. I've done many an episode about
this, but I'm kind of going through this right now.
And whenever I am, I look for motivation and new ideas and new
tricks and stuff. And I have found a few things
that definitely would work for the way I think in my brain.
So let's get into it. OK, so, so like always, we're
going to start with a load of laundry.
So let's go ahead and do a laundry switch.
Move your clothes from the washer to the dryer and from the
dryer to a laundry basket. And that way we've got those
machines running while we're doing the rest of our stuff.
And then I'm going to get into it.
So I saw TikTok and I guess it was like this girl that came up
with or said this was Casey Davis or something.
I think it was her name. But she said when you're
overwhelmed and you've let your house like really go like me
right now, 'cause yesterday I was not feeling good.
I had all four of my kids and my husband went to New Orleans.
New Orleans, if you're from there.
I guess I don't know if I say it right and I just kind of let the
house go. I made a big mess with dinner.
I let the kids kind of trash the house.
I was not feeling good. I'm not going to get into the.
Details of it. But I just, I was just feeling
like trash. I feel a lot better today.
So like most of you, probably absolutely no judgment.
I do this regularly, even when I think I've got it figured out.
I let my house go. So this is something her little
system is made to help ADHD people.
So this is what she basically said.
If you're overwhelmed with the state of your house, if you're
just like, I really let my house go yesterday or a week or a few
days or however long, if you've really let your house go and
you're just super, super overwhelmed, break it down in
your brain to these things. And again, this isn't my idea.
I got this from that other lady, but I really liked it and it
really resonated. So the categories are trash,
laundry, dishes, things with a home, things without a home.
And that's kind of what we talk about in the podcast and that's
kind of how we break it up. And I, I'm still going to give
you a step by step, but if you just don't want to start because
you're overwhelmed, just think of it that way.
This whole house is just trash, laundry, dishes, stuff with
homes and stuff without a home that I need to get rid of.
And again, that was like Casey Davis is ADHD system system.
Sorry, tongue tied. I really liked that.
I just was like, OK, that makes it a lot less intimidating
because now I can tackle every room.
And then the woman that was talking about it in the video
was talking about how she goes room to room to room and just
kind of breaks up the mess first.
So we are going to do the dishes first like we usually do.
So while I talk about the rest of the stuff, because that's the
thing I like to put off the most.
I've got a big pile of dishes right now.
So we're going to do the dishes right now just to get it over
with because that is on the list.
But as far as the other rooms and the other clutter, we're
going to get those tackled today using the other methods.
So like always, when we're starting the dishes, let's do an
empty reload and run of the dishwasher.
If you don't use your dishwasher, then that's empty
your drying rack and start on that pre rinsing.
Put all the clean dishes away. Soak anything that needs to be
soaked, any major pots and pans or anything like that.
Let's get that soaking. And then we are just going to
run through these dishes as fast as we can.
We're not going to think about it.
We're just going to do it and we're just going to finish
everything because yesterday I and the day before I've been
catching myself doing like half a sink of dishes when I have
like an overload of dishes and then I just end up with a giant
pile of dishes again. So no, no, no, no, we're not
going to do that. I am not going to do that.
We're going to finish the whole thing down to the last spoon.
We are going to do all of the dishes until they are done.
So that is your anchor tour right now is dishes.
If you get distracted, if kids pull you away, some of you have
kids going back to school. Mine might not go back to school
until tomorrow, which is why you might hear some background
noise. Sorry, but whatever work, maybe
you work from home or whatever the reason is, or maybe just get
distracted like me really easily that your anchor chore is doing
these dishes. So we're going to finish them
until they're done. And while you guys are working
on those dishes, I'm going to just keep talking about ways to
combat this ADHD bed rotting state where you just get
overwhelmed and your brain just doesn't want to do anything.
And so while. You guys are doing the dishes?
I've talked about this before, but I like to a lot of times go
through when I'm going room to room to room cleaning, I will
have a trash bag in my hand or carry a trash can with me if
it's really bad. So if I really let my house go
and it's just in a state of crazy disarray and I'm, I'm
like, OK, I've, I just need to get this put back together
again. I will go to room to room to
room. So after this, we're gonna go to
the dining room, living room, you know, kids rooms, etcetera,
and just grab a trash bag, grab a laundry basket and fill them
up. So throw away all your trash in
the room. Throw put away all your laundry
in the room. And then like the five steps,
then you fight, find everything that has a home and put it away
and then get everything without a home and put it away.
And if when you breakdown every room like that, it just makes it
a lot easier in your head. And yes, that's how we clean and
that's what we do or whatever anyway.
But I don't know why. It just kind of helps if I have
the trash bag in hand because then I'm not going out of the
room to throw stuff away. And one, it saves time.
Two, I'm not getting distracted going to other rooms, noticing
other things that need to be done, and then just kind of flip
flopping all over the place cleaning.
So that really helps me stay on track.
So just be doing the dishes while I'm talking.
OK, so while you guys are finishing your dishes, one more
thing that's a little bit odd, but I also saw this in a video
and it it totally just is how I my brain works too.
So if you're struggling with ADHD paralysis or just, you
know, not just paralysis, bed rot, whatever you want to call
it, you don't. Like I said, you don't
necessarily have to have ADHD. I've never been diagnosed.
I just have a lot of the traits I think I do, I don't know.
But if you are in a state of like paralysis where you just
can't, like you're stressing about your house, but you just
can't seem to get up, you just can't.
Like you're just like stressing about it.
Don't go, I'm going to go do the dishes and think about it for 80
years on the couch and stress about it.
And then do them when you have to inevitably get up and get the
kids a snack or something and you're in the kitchen and you
see the dishes be like. OK, I've got. 10 minutes.
I'm going to knock these out really quick because the more
you think about it and the more you stress about it, or at least
the way my brain works, that's what gives me like the, the, the
paralysis where I just don't want to get up.
So if I, I have to do things in my kitchen anyway.
And it usually only takes me like 10 minutes to do the dishes
on a normal day if I don't have like a really bad disaster.
So if I'm going in and I'm making lunch or something and
that that goes with the anchor chores too.
I'm going to not stress about doing the dishes.
But when I'm in there making the kids breakfast or something, I'm
going to be like, OK, while I'm doing this, I see the dishes,
I'm in here, I'm going to do them real quick, bam.
And then I do them. And that just really helps me
because with the paralysis and stuff, I just, you know, the
worst part is I always say like it's hard to start cleaning
because a lot of you probably relate to this where you're just
like stressing about cleaning so much that you could have cleaned
your whole house and the time it took you to stress about
cleaning. So do that when you're in making
a cup of coffee or getting a snack for yourself, maybe
motivate yourself by I'm going to go make myself a cup of
coffee or I'm going to get a snack.
I'm hungry. And then while you're in the
kitchen, you see the dishes and you're like, I'm going to tackle
these. I've got 10 minutes.
So that's that's one of the things I do.
And I know a lot of you are just motivated by the the podcast and
us helping you stay on track and stuff, but some of some of us
need some extra help beyond that.
So that's something that I do a weird thing.
OK, so a couple more things that other people think the way that
other people think and then the way I think things that help me
personally. So another thing, while you guys
are finishing up your dishes, and if you're finished finished
with your dishes and you want to move on to throwing away trash
and putting things away and wiping down in your kitchen and
dining room, please do that. If you're still working on your
dishes, no judgement at all. Just keep working on that and
then I'm going to continue talking about my little weird
quirks and stuff. So people that don't necessarily
think like me, us, whoever thinks the way I do, they're
like just clean as you go. Like it's simple, easy, the
clean up after you make a mess like of course.
And yes, that is the goal that I do try to do that.
I try my best, but that's just not how my brain works usually.
And I'm not very good at that. I will keep up with it for the
most part. And I try to hype you guys up to
do that because not all of you work like that.
Some of you just are motivated by the podcast and then I just
help keep you on track and that's all you need.
But here's another little trick that I do sometimes when I just
can't seem to get motivated. You can make a playlist.
And I've seen this on tons of videos, helpful videos.
I'm always looking for new tricks and stuff to just
motivate me. And you make like a hype up
playlist, OK, Like music playlist.
Think music that really like gets you cleaning and going that
you like to clean to. Because I have certain songs
that I like to clean to and make a specific cleaning playlist
where each song is assigned to a task in a room.
Like one one song is trash, one song is laundry, one song is
putting things away. One song is getting everything
without a home and throwing it away or donating it.
And then you make it a game when you're doing said room to play
your playlist and see how much you can get get done while that
song is playing. OK, I'm going to throw away as
much trash trash as possible while this song is playing.
I'm going to, you know, put as much laundry away while the song
is playing. And songs are usually like 2-3
minutes. So it's like a fun little game
bird zipping around. It makes it more fun and
exciting. And you have a playlist of
personalized songs that you personally like that you know,
you like to cling to. So that's something that helps
me as well. Random, but it does help and I
on the same thing that I saw that hack on that helps me.
There's other another one for like if you worked at home or
you have a paper you need to write or something if you're in
college. And this so resonated with me
because they were like and just be cleaning while I'm talking
throwing away trash and cleaning, wiping down, doing a
thorough wipe down of your entire kitchen and dining room.
But there was one where it was like normal people say like go
to a quiet room where there's no distractions and no other
sounds, and then you'll get your work done.
But if you have a brain that is like mine or ours, if you go to
an outside place with external motivation, people.
Look. You you perceiving people
looking at you and seeing you as not being productive or
something will motivate you to finish your.
Work. Because you need that external
motivation. Like if you're just sitting
alone in a quiet room, you're just gonna.
Find something to distract. Yourself with so that really
resonated as well because like if I go somewhere with other
people that are I perceive as judging me as not getting enough
done, even though they don't really care and it's just a
random coffee shop or something, I will get more work done.
I don't know. That's just how my brain works.
OK, so if you're done with your thorough wipe down and stuff of
your kitchen and dining room, don't forget to take out your
trash and replace the liner and do a spot sweep.
But then we're going to move on to our living room and we're
going to use the method where we're throwing away trash.
Grab a trash bag, throw away all the trash.
If you have a really crazy house situation right now.
If not, you can just clean it as usual and then do the things
with the home without a home and then vacuum your cushions, put
everything back the way it is and just wipe stuff down mirrors
and what not. And while you guys are kind of
segueing into the living area, I'm going to give you guys some
more things that help me. So another big one when you, and
the reason why I keep saying like ADHD but not ADHD is 'cause
I don't want to say that I have it 'cause again, I say this a
million times a day, but I am not actually diagnosed, but I
I'm pretty. Sure, I have it.
OK so anyway I I'm I know I over explain that like every. 5
seconds in this podcast. But so another thing that really
helps me is I read something that when you first wake up and
you have that kind of brain and you have that ADHD kind of
problem, when you first wake up, what you do really will set the
tone for the day. And what do most of us do And
just be cleaning the living room while I'm talking?
We grab our phones, right? Because we need that dopamine
hit in the morning and we need that stimulation.
And a lot of times it's the phone.
And then we start scrolling and rotting and bed rotting.
And that kind of starts the vicious cycle.
And whenever I have, and I've talked about this before, but
when I have a productive morning, it's because I was
productive right when I woke up. I got ready right when I woke
up. And if you have a habit of
getting to your phone when you first wake up, listen to a
podcast. Motivational podcast doesn't
necessarily have to be cleaning podcasts, just something that is
motivating or motivational music or something just a more
productive than just scrolling. And then do as you're listening
to that, do something to start getting ready.
Because if you just roll over and start scrolling on your
phone, you're going to get into that state where you just, it's
hard to get out of that bed rotting state.
So again, can't stress enough. The main thing that really is
the defining thing on how my day is going to start is how I'm
waking up in the morning, how my morning routine is and how I'm
starting starting from the second I wake up.
What am I doing when I first wake up?
And so I'm really going to start working on not grabbing the
phone first thing in the morning and just trying to listen to
something motivational and get ready as soon as I get up.
Because whenever I do that, my product, my productivity.
Goes through the roof. I'm way more productive and I
don't know the science behind it really but it it just seems to
work for me. And I heard this lady say that
deficiencies and vitamin deficiencies and stuff,
especially low iron makes ADHD worse.
I have low iron and I am terrible with taking supplements
and I always forget. So maybe have a timer on your
phone. Timers on your phone for things
when you are really forgetful and your brain's all over the
place. Super necessary or having A to
do list if you're old school and you like to write it on a paper.
But that's something that I also, I'm going to strive to do
is every morning have a little timer on my phone.
Take your supplements because I'm super bad about it and I
know that a lot of the deficiencies I have, based on
just things that I've read, they kind of contribute to me not
just feeling 100. And that in turn effects my
cleaning and my house cleaning and my mothering and every
aspect of my life. And.
Google what kind of stuff, if you're into that kind of thing,
Google what kind of supplements besides just like the fish, like
iron and stuff. Google what kind of supplements
will help with like brain function and whatever
specifically you've got going on in your personal brain.
As you guys are finishing up your living area, if you're
already done, you can move on to your bathroom and just put
everything away that you got out this morning to get ready.
You know, organize your make up, your hair, stuff you use and
just kind of just put everything away where it goes.
Throw away all the trash. Put all the laundry.
Away and then do a thorough wipe down.
And. Just kind of do a pick up and
put all your clothes in the laundry area and while you guys
are doing that or you're finishing your.
Living room, no judgement whatever.
You have to do excuse my children.
They go back to school tomorrow so I can record in peace.
But anyway, their dad's out of town again.
He goes out of town a lot for work.
So if you again, I try to keep them as quiet as I can while I'm
in my office recording, but it is what it is.
They get up at the crack of dawn.
But another weird hack that I saw and I have not tried this
yet but it is interesting and it kind of goes with the setting
alarms. So it's kind of like a find what
works for you. I probably am not personally
going to do this because I prefer setting alarms, but I
like the idea of setting alarms for every little thing.
That you have to do. But this this is something that
I saw. In a video.
Where this girl struggles with, you know, when you have ADHD,
sometimes you put off your morning tasks.
And like I said, the most important thing when dealing
with this kind of thing and being motivated is how you start
your day. She has these really these
bracelets with these tags on it and each tag has a task on it.
And they're kind of like annoying loud little bracelets.
They're like these little ring bracelets with like A tag
attached to them. And she has a task like shower
skin care. Feed the animals.
All of her morning routine stuff is on a separate bracelet.
She puts all of her bracelets in a little container and puts it
on top of her toilet paper roll. So then when she goes to go pee
in the morning, she has to pick up that thing too.
And again, I saw this from a tick tock.
Video. The girl that I saw it from said
that she got it from someone else and she couldn't remember
where she originally got it from so I can't get give credit.
But anyway, she puts on the toilet paper roll and then she
puts on all of these annoying bracelets and then when she gets
up from her morning pee or whatever, she will do each task
and she cannot take off the bracelet unless she has
completed the task. And it kind of is just like a
fun motivating thing. And it also helps her do all of
the little things like, you know, I'm not saying that you're
never going to brush your teeth or shower if you have ADHD, but
are you going to do when you first wake up?
That's the thing that we need to focus on and work on, right?
So I think that's a great idea because if you're putting those
on and then you are having to do them before you take them off,
it just makes it fun. It makes it like a game and
they're also kind of annoying because they like clinging and
clinging against each other. So you want to get them off and
you know, brush your teeth get take a shower, get dressed for
the day, whatever. So and it's as soon as you wake
up because it's associated sitting on top of your toilet
paper roll or whatever. So I thought that was a really
great. Idea and a fun.
Way to just force yourself to do your money routine.
Right when you wake. Up you guys are finishing up the
bathroom, whatever it is you're working on personally right now
I'm going to talk about one more thing and this one came from a
tick tock video S I'm gonna give her some credit.
Her name was uh Kristen Hollywood on TikTok and if you
follow me on TikTok, it's uh cleaning with Jessica pod.
I repost, well, my my tick tock's kind of random.
I do post a lot about the podcast, but in my my crime
scene cleanup, whatever podcast and I call it, it's a cleaning
podcast. With that I talk about true
crime. But lately I've kind of segwayed
into talking about the the crimes and cleanup cases that my
husband does. And I'm getting off track
because that's me and that's how I am and example of how my brain
works. But anyway, moving on, moving
on. Her name is Kristen Hollywood
and I repost a lot of helpful ADHD hacks that I talk about on
the podcast. So if you do follow me on
TikTok, I do repost these things if you want to listen to the
actual people that I'm talking about in these episodes.
Just FYI if you're on TikTok, she was talking about something
where she calls it catching the momentum and I just like the
name for it. And I kind of talked about this
earlier in the episode where instead of stressing and bed
rotting and like I don't want to clean the kitchen or whatever,
she had told a story about how she dropped.
And again, I reposted it. So if you want to watch the
actual video, you can. But she talked about how her
child asked for a snack, dropped a bunch of crumbs on the floor.
She had to bring the vacuum out and clean it.
But then once she had the vacuum out, she quote caught the
momentum and then she ended up vacuuming the hole downstairs.
And then that made her in a cleaning mode.
And then she started just catching the momentum and just
cleaning up. And that's the same thing.
You know, you're in your kitchen, you're making a snack,
you get crumbs on your kitchen counter.
You wipe that up real quick just so you know that the cat doesn't
get her. Whatever the case is, I've got a
cat that's like a savage. And if you can't leave any food
out so at all because it'll find a way to get on top of the
countertops, it's a kitten. But anyway, so whenever I'm
cleaning up stuff like that, catching the momentum would be
while I'm in here, while I'm cleaning up the snack, like I
talked about earlier, I'm going to go ahead and do these dishes.
Or, you know, my kids spilled something on my couch.
I'm already cleaning the spot off my couch, so I might as well
clean my whole living area. And then once you get cleaning,
because that's the hard part, starting, you're in a cleaning
mode and then you really get going and started and motivated
and it really helps. And also as a closing kind of
statement as you're finishing up your cleaning.
I just want to say it's my husband does not think like me
at all like. He is.
I'm not going to say he doesn't. Obviously everybody has their
own struggles and stuff, but he doesn't have to think about
things like taking a shower and. I not.
Saying I don't take showers. I take showers every day.
But I have to think about it. I have to think about brushing
my teeth. I have to work myself up to it.
And if you don't think the way I do, you're probably like, what
in the world are you talking about?
But if you know, you know, OK, I have to think about those
things. I have to think about getting
ready in the morning. I have to make these choices and
really decide that I'm going to do these things every day, which
is why I'm giving you guys these hacks.
And sometimes it's confusing for him because he doesn't get why.
Some days I have an Immaculate house and full 5 course meal,
you know, on the table with dessert, everything's clean,
perfect. I clean up after my meal.
I'm just like 100%. And then the next day I can't
get out of bed and I'm just like, yeah, the kids can do
whatever. Like he doesn't understand.
That. It's hard to explain to someone
that doesn't think like that. Like why?
Like I have to think about every single thing and I have good
days and I have bad days. But that is why it's important
to try these hacks, do these little things just to try to
keep as much of the productivity going and get as much as we
possibly can done and function the best way we know how.
And it's OK if it's a little bit weird.
It's OK if we have to make bracelets to do tasks like
brushing our teeth and taking a shower in the morning.
Whatever works, you know, just do what works for you.
For me personally, I like setting timers for every little
thing in the morning. Like, OK, get ready.
Now I'm going to set a timer to I now I should be taking a
shower by now. OK, now I need to brush my
teeth. Now I need to do this.
Now I do a plethora of different timers really helps me
personally and some of the other stuff I talked about today.
So try out some of these tips. I hope I help some of you.
I hope you guys understood. I know a lot of you probably
think this way. If you do awesome, I hope you
got something out of this. Don't forget to do a thorough
floor clean, and again, don't forget to do a.
Laundry switch whenever your. Clothes are done.
Relax. Fold some laundry.
Put it away. Make sure you put it away,
otherwise it'll sit there for 10 to 15 business days.
This episode was geared more towards people with.
ADHD, obviously so. If you're listening and you're
like, OK, I don't have problems with any of this, completely
understand this May I'm going to put it in the description.
So this may not be the episode for you, but maybe you just got
your normal cleaning done listening to how insane I am or
something. I'm just kidding.
I know there are most of the people that listen to this
podcast probably think the way I think.
So hopefully I helped you guys and again, if you're in that
cleaning mode after you clean your floors and and fold your
clothes and everything and you're like, I am in the groove
today. I am in that I want.
To clean my whole. House top to bottom mode, then
you go for it. You use that momentum, listen to
another episode and you get it done.
But yeah, I understand this is a little different.
Don't forget to check out my other podcast, Cleaning with
Jessica. Like I said, I do a cleaning.
It's a cleaning podcast, but I tell you A.
True Crime Story. And it's less detailed with the
cleaning tasks, but I still keep you on track.
And I've kind of segwayed into talking about actual crime
scenes that my husband has cleaned up.
So let me know if you guys are interested in hearing more about
those or just popular ones. And I hope you got a lot out of
today's episode. And as always, happy cleaning
guys.