Latest / More Organised Less Clutter / 242. The ADHD-Friendly Kitchen Drawers
Transcript
- Narelle King: Welcome to More Organized, Less Clutter, a podcast to empower individuals and neurodivergent families with practical, realistic tools to create a more organized, sensory-friendly, clutter-free, and intentional home that works with your lifestyle and brain, not against it. I'm Narelle King, a professional organizer and neurodivergent mom who understands the unique challenges of family life. I help people just like you simplify your space. build sustainable organisational systems and create more breathing room physically and mentally. Every fortnight you'll hear solo episodes and guest conversations filled with practical strategies on decluttering, home organisation, routines for neurodivergent families, mindful living and how to build a home that feels safe, calm and functional. You'll walk away with actionable takeaways you can implement even if you only have 10 minutes to spare. Thanks for joining me for today's solar episode. We're going to tackle four kitchen drawers using the same simple predictable framework from last week. The goal here is to reduce fatigue, make the best choices really obvious and remove any little barriers that might trip you up. Most ADHD brains are very visual and very now focused, like in the moment. And when something is tucked behind other things or stacked in neat little piles or hidden at the back of a deep drawer, it basically stops existing from your brain. So it's like out of sight, out of mind. So a traditional minimal, empty, tidy cupboard drawer often turns into, I can't see what I have, what I own, and you forget what's in there and you just go and repurchase the item. and you create chaos because then you're digging through the cupboard and drawers looking for those items which you can't see or find. Another thing is high friction. And this means that there's too many steps or there's too much thinking you have to do to be able to find the item. So for example, if you're putting away your cutlery and you open one drawer, then you open another, then you have to find a tray. then you have to saw into tiny little sections. That's too many steps. So if you have a, say your spatula and it lives in a drawer across the kitchen from the stove, requiring you to think and go and get it, again, too many steps, high friction. So for an ADHD brain, for an ADHD brain that's already doing a lot just to function day to day, that decision load just gets really overwhelming really quickly. So when we close the drawer and think, I'll deal with that later, which I hear a lot, the goal today isn't a perfect kitchen drawer. The goal is that it is hard to mess up and easy to reset, even when your brain is really tired and feeling overwhelmed. So let me recap the simple predictable framework. You can always go back and listen to last week's episode, but this is the simple framework in a recap. We break down like organizing a draw into like really simple steps and they're very friendly for neurodivergent brains, but anybody can use this. So step one is who uses this draw? Is it just you? Is it your kids? Is it guests? Who is it? And then what is the main job of the draw? What is the draw going to be holding? If the draw doesn't have a clear who and a clear what, your brain has to then read side. every single time and that's when we get exhausted and that's when things just build up and it becomes maybe a junk draw. So step two is make it easy. So design for your laziest self, so not your best self and if your draw only works when you're energetic, focused, motivated, then it's not going to last. So we want it to be really simple categories, not 20 little ones. We want to use macro categories, not micro ones. So it's Big enough and easy enough to access a zone, but toss things back really easily as well. So it should be easy to put things away properly and then instead of just shoving them randomly. we want to, as we said before, low friction. as few steps as possible and just no fiddly leads. No leads is ideal. Boxes that you have to open are not going to work either. Step three, make it obvious. You shouldn't have to think about where something goes. You need to organise by how you use it, how it's functioned. Things you use daily live in the easiest to reach. So the prime real estate is a word that we use in organising world. And things that you use weekly can be a bit further away or deeper in a cupboard. Whereas something that's rarely used, you still might need it, but you do not use it very often. could be in the least convenient spots. So if you always cook on the left side of your stove, but your spoons and spatulas are stored on the right, then you're going to be having to move from side to side. So even though it may not look as balanced, we wanna think about function. So we would move those over to the left side, and it's about thinking about function rather than aesthetics. Now, another one to make it obvious is labels on drawers, on the front of the drawer, inside the drawer, maybe colour-coding organisers or containers and also having consistent homes. So all the cutting tools live together, all the baking things live together and so on like that. a question to ask yourself is can you see it quickly and the item's home is near where you actually use it? And the final step is to reset and reduce the inventory. So more stuff equals more decisions. So it's better to own less of each category and reducing the number of items in a drawer can also make it more usable. So think about how many of these do I actually use in a week? And this could be like potato peelers. You might have 13 different varieties. Maybe you use three of them regularly, but the others may be not so regularly. Do you have duplicates that actually do the same thing? And maybe one of them is more annoying, the handles a slightly different grip. So there's some things to think about for our steps. I'm going to go through the four draws for you now. So a draw one is a cutlery and everyday utensil draw. So who uses it? Pretty much everyone in the house. Maybe guests as well, if you have guests staying. So what's the job? Everyday eating and basic cooking things like forks. spoons, tongs, spatulas, wooden spoons, peelers. Everything you use daily is going to be in those drawers. So if you're hunting past like cookie cutters or maybe it's like your garlic press and you don't use those very often, then maybe they could go into a different drawer. We're going to make it easy and obvious. So we're going to keep this drawer pretty boring and predictable. So you're going to use a simple, maybe, coloury tray or dividers. And you don't have to be, it doesn't have to be pretty. It just needs to be obvious. So you separate everyday stuff from the weird, special things. And everyday stuff stays right here. Those once a year tools can go in a less convenient drawer somewhere else. So if your utensils keep migrating into a messy pile, give them one big open section. instead of tiny little ones, because maybe your ADHD brain or just your brain would prefer all the cooking tools to live in this one obvious bucket instead of little subcategories. So this is a test that you can use. If you are holding a clean fork, how many steps does it take to put it away? Let's move on to draw two. Baking paper, Ziploc bags, and foil. So who uses it? The person who packs lunches. Maybe even your kids might use it themselves. And then what's the job? The one simple job is wrapping and storing food. And it could even be cooking food, because I know I use the tin foil in my oven when I'm baking and cooking. So maybe if you're like me, you might also have birthday candles, spare cutlery, takeaway menus in there, or bamboo skewers and toothpicks. And maybe you don't use them very often and you don't have enough room, then you may want to move them. Because your brain is never going to know what to expect when it opens draw and it sees all those other things in there as well. Now making it obvious and easy is the draw doesn't have to be clear who or what. We want this draw to feel like a little rap station. Just keep one or two sizes of each thing you actually use. And if there's too many options, it's going to give you decision fatigue. Now, I know for some clients I work with, we will keep their backup stock, but they have to then keep it quite minimal so it fits in the drawer because if they put their backup stock somewhere else, they're not going to remember that they have a backup tinfoil and they'll rebuy it. So sometimes storing items and you can see the labels without digging, it's going to help. So the boxes are lined up side by side, not stacked, and your Ziploc bags could be in open containers, done by size. or you could keep them in their original boxes and stand the boxes upright so you can just grab and go. Now a test for this one. If you have to pull out three boxes just to get to the one you use daily, your future self will not keep up. It will not stay a nice clean, neat drawer. Next drawer, drawer three, food storage containers. Who uses this? Well, everybody in our house uses it because they pack leftovers, lunches and snacks. And what's the job? Its job is to hold everyday containers, food containers, and they're usually matching. So they've got the lids as well. There is no old takeaway containers. and if there is, and they've got no matching lids, they're out straight away. So it needs to be obvious and easy. This drawer has to be really simple or it just won't stay organized. And I've seen this and I find drawers are better than cupboards for this as well. So pick a few container sizes that actually work. for you and also use the same size because then they fit inside each other. Decide on one way that the lids are going to live. So are they going to be stacked side by side? I really like putting them into holders, dividers, and then you can see the lids. Or are you going to stack the lids on top of the containers and then they're sitting on top? You may have room for that as well. If you find containers with no lids, or lid with no container, it doesn't go back in. Maybe you even have a space just to wait and create and check that you don't have any anywhere else. I love keeping the bottoms of the containers only because I use them then as drawer dividers. But otherwise it is to remove those things. The goal is to be able to find a container and its lid in seconds. Now the final drawer is the snack drawer. Who uses it? Maybe it's the kids, your partner, guests, yourself, whoever's grabbing food without thinking too hard. And what's the job of it? It's to hold the ready to eat snacks that you're happy for people to grab without asking. And if there are also baking ingredients, medicines, or random tools in there, it's not going to be very efficient. So we wanna make sure that they are not in there. So making it obvious and easy, think, grab and go. You want shallow containers or trays that are open with no lids on them. Group your snacks in type, maybe crunchy things and sweet things. Maybe it's savory things, or you could do it by brand and putting them in. Make sure the snacks are at height that everyone can see it. So if it's younger kids, you need them to be a little bit lower. Keep your choices really limited. So if you have too many options, it's going to be overwhelming. So we want just, so a test for this is I want a snack. You have to be able to open the drawer, grab something in three seconds and remember it's got to be a quick decision space. So limit the amount of choices and you might change that over from week to week. So I want you to pick one drawer in your kitchen, ideally the most annoying one. Then I want you to not organize your whole kitchen. Remember you're just doing that one drawer. Set a timer for 10 minutes. pull everything out of the drawer onto the bench or the table. Run through the who uses this, what is its main job. Quick sort into categories. Does this item even help the drawer do its job? And maybe it's something that needs to move like we was talking before about a garlic press or birthday candles. Then make it easy and obvious. Aim for big sections, not tiny ones. and not fussy little categories. Make the most used things the easiest to grab and put away. And then notice over the next few days how it feels every time you open that drawer. So you're going to be kind to your future self one drawer at a time. Thanks for listening to more organized, less clutter. Sick of wasting time looking for your keys, wallet, or that one charger that always disappears? Your space needs visual anchors. Grab the ADHD-friendly organisation checklist, a 10-minute setup, a weekly reset, and troubleshooting map to adapt your space. Create an environment that works with your brain so that you can stop losing or forgetting things and start living on time with your sanity. Head to simplyhappy.com.au and click on the Resource tab to get instant access today. I'd like to acknowledge the Wathauron people of the Kulin Nation on which this podcast is recorded as the traditional custodians of the land. pay my respects to their elders, past, present and emerging.