People with ADHD are often surrounded by piles of clutter.
My desk is in a permanent state of chaos.
Piles of books, papers, index cards, and random other things I don’t want to forget.
Other ADHDers might keep a clean desk, but use their car as an extra closet and storage facility.
Why is this so common for people with ADHD?
It’s actually a form of self-preservation.
We often forget things we can’t see.
Instinctively, we know this.
When things are truly put away—hidden in the depths of a box or drawer—we know they disappear from our brains entirely.
This is why planners rarely work for people with ADHD.
The second we close the cover, we forget everything inside.
Without a routine in place, we might never remember to open it again.
When I was younger, sometimes my mom would be so fed up with my room she would clean it herself.
I _hated_ when she did this!
“How will I ever find anything?!”
When things are “a mess”, they are out in the open and I can use them as a physical memory palace—the visual of their environmental placement reminds me where things are.
It may look like a mess, but I can find exactly what I’m looking for.
This extends beyond just knick-knacks on a desk.
Sometimes a work responsibility will fall out of your brain.
You were doing it consistently and one day—for some unknown reason—you forgot to do it.
It’s no longer part of your environment, your routine.
When this happens, you know you’ll _never_ remember this thing again until something specifically reminds you.
As if it’s fallen into one of those boxes or drawers you never remember to open.
This can happen with people too.
If you haven’t seen someone recently, you might forget they exist entirely.
This can add a lot of stress to personal and family relationships.
People are offended and fail to understand.
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