ADHD and Clutter: Why Losing Things and Holding Onto Stuff Makes Sense
How attention, memory, and emotion shape your relationship with possessions - and what actually helps
If you have ADHD, you've probably noticed a pattern with your stuff.
Your living space might feel perpetually cluttered. You might misplace your keys, your phone, or that important document you just had five minutes ago. Getting rid of things could feel impossible, despite your best intentions. You might try to "get organized," and it works for maybe a week before everything falls apart again.
It's easy to beat yourself up about this. Many people do. But research tells a more interesting story: struggles with physical possessions aren't about laziness or lack of motivation. They're a direct result of how ADHD affects attention, memory, emotion, and executive function.
What the Research Shows
Study after study finds that adults with ADHD report higher levels of chronic clutter, difficulty throwing things away, excessive saving or acquiring, frequently losing things, and feeling overwhelmed by organizing tasks.
Much of the issue is tied to inattentive struggles. When your attention is inconsistent, keeping track of what you own, where it belongs, and whether you'll remember it later becomes exponentially harder.
Some adults with ADHD meet diagnostic criteria for hoarding disorder. But many more deal with milder but still frustrating levels of clutter and accumulation.
Executive Function & Clutter
To truly understand why the struggle persists, we must look beyond "disorganization" and examine the specific Executive Function (EF) deficits in the ADHD brain. EF is the command center that manages planning, decision-making, and self-control. When it comes to clutter, three core deficits create a powerful trap:
Working Memory: Working memory is your brain's mental notepad—the system that holds information in mind temporarily to manipulate it. When working memory is impaired, you cannot hold the rules of organization in your head while you sort. For example:
You forget the category: You start sorting books, but forget the criteria (e.g., "Keep," "Toss," "Read Next") mid-box.
You lose the big picture: You forget the ultimate goal (e.g., "Clear the table to eat dinner") and get sidetracked by a single interesting item.
This forces the brain to rely excessively on physical objects (the "Memory Anchors" discussed below) as external placeholders for tasks and intentions, which inevitably leads to clutter.
Task Initiation: It’s challenging to start non-preferred tasks. Looking at a mountain of clutter is overwhelming, leading to massive friction. The brain cannot generate enough initial motivation (dopamine) to move from "I should start" to "I am starting."
Prioritization and Planning: Organizing requires you to decide where to start and how to categorize items. Should you tackle the corner, the shelf, or the mail pile? The ADHD brain struggles with this complex categorization and sequencing, often leading to "analysis paralysis" or jumping from one task to another without completing them.
Inhibitory Control: This deficit reduces the ability to inhibit the impulse to acquire new things (impulsive shopping) and it reduces the ability to inhibit the avoidance response to the task (e.g., stopping the urge to scroll through your phone instead of sorting).
When these executive functions are simultaneously underperforming, sustaining a multi-step task like decluttering becomes nearly impossible without support.
Why Objects Become Memory Anchors
Memory is at the heart of this.
Adults with ADHD often struggle with working memory (holding information in mind) and prospective memory (remembering to do things later). Physical objects become workarounds:
You keep things visible so you won't forget them
Objects remind you of tasks, intentions, or people
Throwing something away can feel like erasing a memory
This feeling of erasing a memory is often tied to episodic memory—the memory of specific events. When an object is tied to a significant past event, the thought of discarding it feels like destroying the memory itself.
The Reminder vs. Chaos Tipping Point
From the outside, this looks like hoarding or mess. From the inside, it could be an adaptive strategy for managing genuine cognitive limitations. However, a crucial tipping point exists:
Adaptive Use: Keeping your keys on a colorful, designated hook by the door uses an object as an effective external memory cue.
Maladaptive Overload: Keeping every piece of paper from a project on the dining table, in case you might need it, overwhelms the visual field. The brain can no longer differentiate important cues from irrelevant noise. When the ratio of external cues to working memory capacity is overwhelmed, the system breaks down into chaos, and the cues stop working.
Problems emerge when the stuff outstrips your ability to track it, interferes with essential relationships, and prevents you from valued activities.
Why Standard Organizing Advice Doesn't Work
Most organizing advice assumes you have sustained attention, can make decisions efficiently, and feel emotionally neutral about your possessions.
If you have ADHD, one or more of these could be a challenge.
Decluttering requires focus, complex categorization, acceptance of uncertainty, exposure to difficult emotions, and trust that you'll remember things later. When these demands exceed what you can manage, avoidance makes sense. Accumulation follows.
And after repeated failures with organizing systems, shame creeps in, which only challenges working memory and makes problem-solving harder.
A Different Approach: Focus on Values, Not Perfection
Instead of asking "Why can't I keep this space under control?" try asking "What do I want this space to support in my daily life?"
This values-based approach means:
Getting clear on what actually matters to you
Evaluating whether your possessions help or hinder those priorities
Making small, flexible changes aligned with what you care about
You don't need to become a minimalist. You don't need rigid rules. The goal is simply a functional space that supports your quality of life and connection with others. Knowing what you value can guide decisions about what to keep and what to let go; not because you "should," but because doing so opens up room for what genuinely matters.
For instance, you might value creativity but find your art supplies buried under piles of other items. Organizing those supplies isn't about perfection; instead, it's about making it possible to create. You might value being a welcoming friend, but feel unable to invite people over. Clearing some space becomes an act of connection rather than an obligation.
Start small. Pick one value and one tiny area where addressing clutter would serve that value. It could be clearing off a corner of the kitchen table so you can sit down for meals with your family. It could be organizing one drawer of craft supplies so you can find what you need. The goal isn't to transform your entire home overnight—it's to take one small step toward living in alignment with what you care about.
Give attention to your internal experience
If you’ve got the urge to “power through” the difficult thoughts and emotions that can come up around this topic, pause and notice what your mind and body are throwing your way. Whether you are emotionally connected to your stuff, have a history of criticizing yourself for your stuff, worry about being judged for your stuff, feel negatively about wasting things, or are concerned that you’ll need that item the minute you get rid of it, these are understandable reactions.
When your mind insists you'll forget something important if you throw away that piece of paper, or that you're being wasteful by donating unused items, pause for a second. Notice that these are thoughts, not facts. You don't have to argue with them or make them go away. Just acknowledge them and decide whether there’s a helpful reminder or idea in there (e.g., adding a reminder or another external cue). Then act on what aligns with your values.
You'll also need to make space for discomfort. Decluttering will bring up complicated feelings, including anxiety about making the "wrong" decision, guilt about waste, and sadness about letting go. This is normal. The feelings won't destroy you. You can let them exist while still taking action. Think of it as making room for the emotion rather than trying to get rid of it.
The Role of Self-Compassion
Understanding that clutter-related difficulties arise from cognitive and emotional processes (not moral failure) can reduce shame and increase flexibility.
When shame decreases, experimentation becomes easier. When expectations are realistic, systems are more sustainable. Change becomes more likely when it is grounded in compassion and aligned with personal values.
There's No One-Size-Fits-All Solution
Beyond the above-referenced tools utilizing values, internal experience, and self-compassion, different strategies work for different people, and what works for you may change over time. Here are a few research-backed approaches to experiment with:
1. The Power of Small Strides and External Structure
Start Ridiculously Small: Pick something so easy that you have a 90% chance of following through. Throw away three pieces of junk mail. Donate one mug you never use. Put five items in a donation bag. Small wins build momentum and give you that crucial dopamine boost that helps you continue in ways that overwhelming goals never will.
Build in Consistency, Not Intensity: Working on clutter for 10-20 minutes per day or 1 hour every Saturday works better than planning a massive 10-hour cleanout "when you have time." Behavioral research consistently shows that small, regular actions create more sustainable change than sporadic, large efforts.
Use External Support (Body Doubling and Time): Leverage outside forces to compensate for unreliable internal motivation. Set alarms for tasks. Use the Pomodoro Technique (25 minutes on, 5 minutes off). Ask a friend to "body double"—sit with you (in person or virtually) while you work on your clutter. Their presence acts as an external anchor for attention.
2. Managing Item Flow and Acquisition
Create a Landing Zone (The Staging Area): Designate a specific, contained spot for incoming items, such as mail, things you bring home, or items that need attention. Check it regularly and process what's there. Having designated "in/out spaces" can make it simpler to manage item flow in an executive-function-friendly way.
Containers, Not Piles: A pile is an unmanaged boundary and an invitation for chaos. Instead of letting items accumulate in open space, use baskets, bins, or drawers. Even if a basket is "messy," the container itself manages the physical boundaries, requiring less energy to manage later.
Make Acquiring More Intentional: This is a long-term preventative step. Make buying harder by deleting saved credit cards from your browser, unsubscribing from promotional emails, or reducing your exposure to tempting stores. To slow yourself down before a purchase, take two breaths. Once you are in the present moment, ask yourself about the function of the purchase and how it will help you live your values, and how acquiring another object might interfere with living your values.
3. Hacking the Decision-Making Process
Separate "Keep" Decisions from "Where" Decisions: If you get sidetracked trying to find the perfect home for every item, you'll never finish sorting. This is a common executive function block. First, decide what stays and what goes (sort into four distinct bags: Keep, Trash, Donate, Recycle). Then, organize what remains. This reduces the cognitive load by separating two high-effort tasks into distinct steps.
Watch for the Churning Trap: If you find yourself moving things from pile to pile without actually reducing clutter, stop. This movement feels like progress but is actually an avoidance mechanism (a form of poor inhibitory control). Set a timer for five minutes and commit to putting at least a few items in the "discard" pile before the timer goes off.
Create Interruption-Friendly Systems: Accept that you might not finish even a small area in one sitting. Create a visual system that helps you pick up where you left off. For example, label your bags/boxes clearly as “Keep,” “Trash,” “Donate,” and “Recycle” so that if you get interrupted, you can return to your sorting containers without having to remember which items went into which categories.
Remember that the goal isn’t for you to become a different person, but instead to work with your unique brain to create a space that allows you to live your values every day.
If you’d like to check out some further reading on the subject, here are a couple of books I recommend.
How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing, by KC Davis, LPC
Making Space for What Matters: Find Freedom from Clutter and Hoarding with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, by Jennifer Krafft, Clarissa W. Ong, Michael E. Levin, and Michael P. Twohig
References
Morein-Zamir, S., Mataix-Cols, D., Fineberg, N. A., Sahakian, B. J., & Robbins, T. W. (2022). Elevated levels of hoarding in ADHD: A special link with inattention. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 146, 221–228.
Grassi, G., Pallanti, S., & Santini, A. (2023). Who really hoards? Hoarding symptoms in adults with ADHD, OCD and healthy controls. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 158, 153–160.
Fuermaier, A. B. M., Tucha, L., Koerts, J., Aschenbrenner, S., Weisbrod, M., Lange, K. W., & Tucha, O. (2013). Complex prospective memory in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. PLOS ONE, 8(3), e58338.
Occhionero, M., Romano, A., & Ciccarelli, M. (2023). Activity-based prospective memory in ADHD across the lifespan. Sensors, 23(7), 3530.
Frost, R. O., Steketee, G., & Grisham, J. R. (2004). Measurement of compulsive hoarding: Saving Inventory–Revised. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42(10), 1163–1182.
Tolin, D. F., Frost, R. O., Steketee, G., & Muroff, J. (2015). Cognitive behavioral therapy for hoarding disorder: A meta-analysis. Depression and Anxiety, 32(3), 158–166.
Krafft, J., Ong, C. W., Levin, M. E., & Twohig, M. P. (2025). Making space for what matters: Find freedom from clutter and hoarding with acceptance and commitment therapy. New Harbinger Publications.
