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Expert says this one odd laundry habit could indicate ADHD

Plus, how to make the habit more manageable.

Representative image from Canva

ADHD Coach Jeff Rice says this habit is a near "universal sign" of ADHD

If you were to walk into your bedroom right now, what are the odds that you’d see clothes that never quite made themselves into actual outfits piling up on the floor? Perhaps they are sitting next to—or are even mixed in with—clothes that you did wear once throughout the week that aren't quite dirty, but for some reason can’t make their way back into your closet.

If this sounds familiar, then you have what’s known on social media as a “floordrobe.” And sure, the phenomenon is common enough to warrant a slang term, but according to experts it could indicate neurodivergence—ADHD, specifically.

In a TikTok video that has been watched almost 5 million times, ADHD coach Jeff Rice explained that this type of clutter, be it actual piles of clothes on the floor or a laundry basket “that just sits there for days and days or weeks,” happens to folks with ADHD for two reasons.

“The first has to do with the clothes which are not quite dirty. Usually we leave these things out because it’s going to act as a visual cue to remind us ;this is not quite dirty and I want to wear it again,” he said.

However the problem with visual cues is that “we become visually adapted to them,” Rice noted. And after we’ve adapted to seeing these cues, we no longer act on them.

The second common reason is that it’s neither interesting nor urgent, and so it gets put off until it does at least become urgent, like when there are no more clean socks.

While it might be hard for any of us to focus on boring tasks, it can be physiologically impossible for those with ADHD. We have enough research now to prove that it has nothing to do with laziness or unwillingness, and everything to do with different brain wiring that comes with its own advantages and disadvantages.

And thankfully, Rice has a few ADHD-proof strategies that have helped him with the floordrobe issue, which can possibly help others.

@jeff_coachyouradhdbrain It seems like many people with ADHD have challenges dealing with laundry.  The clean laundry, and the “not quite dirty and I’ll probably wear it again” laundry tends to accumulate and create clutter.  This laundry clutter is often called our “floordrobe”.  Here are two thoughts on how to tackle this kind of clutter. #laundry #clutter #organizationhacks #adhd #adhdtiktok ♬ original sound - Jeff Rice - Author, ADHD Coach

First, he put “parameters'' on which of the not-quite-dirty clothes can stay out. “For example, if I’m leaving a sweatshirt sitting on the edge of the tub in the bathroom because I’m planning on wearing it tomorrow, great. If I don’t wear it tomorrow I either have to put it away or just put it in the dirty clothes,” he says.

As for putting away clean clothes, Rice decided to tackle his warped ability to gauge how long a task might take, commonly known in the ADHD community as time blindness.

“Whenever I look at a basket of laundry, I think, ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to take forever to put away,’” he said. “And objectively, it’s not true. One of the ways that I attacked this was, at one point, I had three baskets of laundry sitting in my closet and I didn’t want to put them away. So I decided to check to see how long does it really take for me to put away three baskets of laundry. The answer — 21 minutes. I set a timer, and I timed myself while I put them away ― seven minutes per basket.”

Rice shared how having the hard data help transform the emotionally overwhelming concept of “forever” into a very manageable “seven minutes” made all the difference.

“It actually makes it easier for me to look at it when I don’t want to do it, take a breath, and think intellectually ‘it’s only seven minutes.’”

And obviously, while Rice says that floordrobes are a “universal sign” of ADHD, there are plenty of other causes. Everything from depression to simply a lack of storage space could leave us making clothing piles from times to time. Still, having ways to declutter when life or our own brain chemistry seems to be working against us can help us better navigate the tough times.

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Internet

Someone created the most bop-worthy ADHD anthem that's beyond relatable

It's an "Animaniacs" flashback in the best way possible.

KT Photography|Canva / Brave Dave|TikTok

There's an ADHD anthem that's beyond relatable

If you have ADHD or know someone who does then you're probably aware that living with the disorder can be a bit debilitating at times. Important dates get missed, there feels like a constant state of disorganization and unfortunately forgetfulness can extend to forgetting the existence of entire people. But sometimes having ADHD feels like a fun superpower when you're suddenly hyper-focused on the correct thing that needs to be done.

It's also something that presents differently in different people but there are some common threads that every person with ADHD can relate to. That's what makes this song Brave Dave made and uploaded to TikTok such a banger. The TikTok creator managed to take a tune most Millennials are familiar with from the cartoon "Animaniacs" and change the lyrics to perfectly encapsulate ADHD symptoms.

The song is impressive in general because if you're familiar with Yacko, Wacko and Dot, then you know they talk and sing at a pace seemingly inhuman.

Brave Dave seems to have no issues keeping pace with the fast tongue twisting nature of the song, even with the new lyrics it seems near impossible to sing. But Dave masters it and has united ADHDers across the globe...well, at least the ones in his TikTok comments.

"I need this on my phone to listen to randomly throughout the day when I remember it exists," one person says.

"I'll just show this to my doctor," another person writes.

"I have now listened to this 15 times.... Just chasing the serotonin," someone else says.

"This was FANTASTIC. Such a fun, spot-on description of the realities of ADHD. Thanks for your creativity and for posting," another commenter writes.

Without further delay, you too can get your dopamine hit from the increasing speed of the song as it goes on. Check the video out below.

@brave.dave

just a throwback to a little ditty I forgot I made 😂 #adhd #adhdtok #adhdtiktok #humor #song

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Family

Mom shares hacks for making sure her children with ADHD have a smooth morning

She pulls from her own experience with ADHD to help her kids.

That ADHD Life|TikTok

Mom shares helpful morning routine for ADHD kids.

Getting kids up and out the door in the mornings can be a struggle whether your children have ADHD or not. A lot of mornings, it feels like anything goes, from your kid waking up looking like they just fought a flock of wild geese in their sleep to them forgetting their left shoe in the refrigerator.

Why was their shoe in there to begin with? No one knows.

Having kids is committing to organized chaos at any given moment, while also accepting that sometimes the chaos isn't organized at all. It's just a free-for-all, and all the tiny humans look like different versions of you. But Tarah, who created the TikTok page @thatadhdlife, has come up with a solution to morning chaos that helps get her kids out of the house on time and ready for the day.

Tarah is neurodivergent and so are her three children. All four of them have ADHD, but it was Tarah's personal experience with ADHD as a child that helped inform the routine she created for her children.

The mom of three explained to Upworthy that she struggled as a child, and with her parents being divorced, she didn't always have the support she needed. Up until recently, her hacks for before-school chaos were just kept between her and her family.

"I was on a live video—I try to do them every Monday—I was explaining this story about how I saw a little boy who was late and running to school all out of breath," Tarah said. "The look on his face reminded me of little me. When I was a kid, I was always stressed and always late."

@thatadhdlife

Im truly sharing this out of love because school mornings don’t have to be stressful. I’m not saying that you won’t occasionally have a couple flustered mornings once or twice a year but for the most part, it’s life changing. I had to do a part 2 because I talk too much when I’m passionate about something 🫠🤣 #thatadhdlife #justcallmeT #adhdkidsbelike #adhdkidsareamazing #adhdschoolmornings #adhdschool #adhdroutines #adhdsystems

Instead of just watching the boy run as she rode her bike home, she tried to encourage him by shouting, "Take a deep breath, you're going to be just fine. You're going to make it." It was the boy's response of "I'm always late," that Tarah said broke her heart and prompted her to tell her followers the story. This then led to people expressing their own frustration with trying to get kids out of the house on time in the mornings, so Tarah decided to upload a video explaining her routine.

In the TikTok video, Tarah tells her followers that they need to first "reverse engineer" their morning by observing their child's day to see what's going wrong. She explains that this could be anything from them not being able to find their shoes to them not remembering to brush their teeth.

After providing examples and a few side quest stories that tie back into the point, Tarah explains her system, which surprisingly starts the day before. They check the weather in order to pick out clothes, then they pack their lunches and clean out their backpacks, all before bed. Tarah says she's been doing this routine since her oldest son, who is 15, was in kindergarten. But it wasn't always like that.

When her oldest child was in kindergarten he was struggling until the mom of three changed things up.

"I really realized with him that he loved when he learned things that became muscle memory, so I made things really hands-on and interactive. I knew I needed to thrive and not just survive," Tarah told Upworthy.

In the video, she explains how this routine she implemented years ago has helped her children be much less stressed in the mornings. Each child has their own version of the same routine based on their age. Parents in the comments were impressed with Tarah's system. Some even said they were taking notes for themselves even though they didn't have children.

Listen to Tarah's helpful tips below:

@thatadhdlife

Replying to @thatadhdlife im just a neurodivergent momma who knew I wanted a different life for our neurodivergent kids. I promise it’s possible but this takes planning, persistence and patience. It’s never too late to start but just know that the older they are, the longer it’s going to take to become an intrinsic habit. Hold their hand through it until then and take a lot of deep breathes. You got this ❤️ ##thatadhdlife##justcallmeT##adhdschool##adhdschoollife##adhdschoolmornings##adhdsystems##nervoussystemregulation##nervoussystemhealing

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Health

Creator behind 'How to ADHD' explains why people with ADHD struggle with memory and how to help

People with ADHD aren't forgetful on purpose. There's actually a reason their brains don't always hold onto things.

How to ADHD/YouTube

Why people with ADHD struggle to remember things

There's nothing more annoying than walking into a room and completely forgetting why you went in there in the first place. Well, maybe having a friend that constantly forgets your plans or forgets to text you back...that might be more annoying. But memory lapses are a pretty common symptom of ADHD, and believe me—your resident card-carrying ADHDer—it's friggin' frustrating. Especially when you want nothing more than to remember whatever the thing was that you forgot.

Since it's frustrating to us, we are hyperaware that it's frustrating to those around us when we constantly forget. That's why when Jessica McCabe, the creator behind "How to ADHD," put out an explainer on why people with ADHD struggle with memory, I sat down and paid attention. (Well, listened to the highlights. I do have ADHD after all.)

Turns out, people with ADHD struggle to remember things because that's the job of our working memory, and (surprise) working memory is severely impacted by ADHD.

But what is working memory? According to VeryWell Health, "working memory is the brain's short-term storage space," which allows your brain to hold onto new information like someone's name, a deadline or important details to a conversation for a short period of time.

This temporary storage is there to allow your brain time to decipher the new information and move it to a more permanent location as useful data. Some would argue this is a fairly important function of the brain. It certainly helps make adulting a little easier to navigate...unless you have ADHD. In that case, your brain yeeted that function into the dumpster.

"Ok yeah, I forgot my keys or I forgot to stop and get gas, but everybody forgets stuff, right? This is a universal human experience. Everybody forgets stuff," McCabe explained. "What I didn't know at the time was that that's true, but not everybody forgets things to the extent that those with ADHD do. It doesn't impair their lives on a daily basis in the same way."

Before you fret or completely write off your friends and family who have ADHD, check out McCabe's tips that have helped her supplement her barely existent working memory in the video below.

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