How My ADHD Self Gets Dishes and Laundry Done (and you can, too)!

Laundry and dishes are some of the hardest chores for people with ADHD because they’re repetitive, low-reward, and never truly finished—so there’s little dopamine payoff to keep you motivated. Add in executive dysfunction, difficulty getting started, and that familiar “out of sight, out of mind” thinking, and it’s easy for these tasks to pile up. 

In this episode, Christine shares simple, ADHD-friendly strategies to make these chores more manageable, like reducing multitasking, adding dopamine boosts (music, podcasts, YouTube), using “fresh eyes” to reset your perspective, and setting up your environment to reduce friction. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s finding systems that actually work with your brain so these tasks stop hanging over your head.

This episode may include affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase—at no additional cost to you.

Magnetic lint bin: https://amzn.to/4slXQLh

Dryer sheet holder: https://amzn.to/4cbtdC2

Magnetic strip: https://amzn.to/4cbu06i

Want my free PDF outlining all this? Check it out below!

QUICK LINKS

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Website: www.twocatscoaching.com

Podcast homepage: https://asolopersonsguidetoadhd.buzzsprout.com

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@twocatscoaching2697

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you have ADHD, do you have a hard time getting household chores done? And does it always seem to be the dishes and the laundry? Seriously. For those of us with ADHD, getting your dishes and laundry done consistently, or frankly, ever, it's on the top of everybody's list. I'll be honest. Mine too. And especially if you're single. The hard thing is who's going to complain? Which means you probably are less likely to get it done. But really, do you want to live like that? I promise you there are solutions that can help. During this podcast, I'm going to share with you some of the things I've learned so that I get my dishes and laundry done on a regular basis. And they just don't hang over my head anymore. And if I can do it, you can too. Hi, I'm Christine, a Master Certified Life Coach, the owner of Two Cats Coaching, and host of this podcast, a solo person's guide to ADHD. This podcast is a reflection of my personal coaching business where I help single people with ADHD get out of their chaos and overwhelm and out from underneath their laundry piles and sinks full of dishes. So why is this so hard? Well, I think there's a few things. First of all, both dishes and laundry are what I call evergreen tasks. These are things that are really truly never-ending. You might finish a sinkful of dishes, but within a day or two, you're going to have another sinkful. The same thing with laundry. There's always more. And for those of us who deal with low dopamine, that's really tough. Our brains don't like those kind of recurring tasks. Another issue I think about is what I call magical thinking. If you think about kids and teens, they all seem to have magical thinking, right? You can walk past the laundry pile and just literally not see it. You put another dish in the sink and then you walk away and you forget it exists. Even if you live alone, you magically think someone else will deal with it. And that's just part of how our brains work. Another thing is that unfortunately or not. As the adult in the room, you are the designated doer for these things. Unless you can afford to hire it out, which honestly, if you can, it's not a bad solution. Other than that, it's up to you to get it done. That laundry isn't going to magically disappear. Why does this happen specifically to us? Well, we're great at hyperfocusing, but not on things that are boring or uninteresting. Again, these low dopamine tasks are challenging to do. Getting things started feels like a huge overwhelm. And then just the general idea of executive function. Anything that has to do with keeping things in order, things that have multiple steps, make this even harder. And what makes this really challenging, and I think laundry especially, it has uneven steps. You put something in the washer, you have to wait a while. Put something in the dryer, you have to wait a while. Then you have to do all the finishing things. That's a lot of steps for us. So what are some easy solutions? One of the first ones I want to talk about is the idea of multitasking. I don't know about you, but when my mom many, many years ago showed me how to do laundry, it was that. Put a load in the washer, then go do your homework, or go, you know, clean another part of your house, or go nowadays, we probably come to our computer and get some work done, right? And then you go when the washer beeps, you listen for it, you respond to it, you go and put things away, put things in the dryer, and then you go and put things in the dryer and you go through the next step, and then you have to get it done. But that's a lot of interruptions for an ADHD brain. And I'll say, several years ago, I watched my sister-in-law do laundry. Now, my sister-in-law does not have ADHD, but it was summertime. We're both teachers, and I happened to be visiting, and she said, I have to do laundry today. So she gathered up her laundry, she put the first load in the washer, and then she took her book. And she sat in an easy chair that was close to the laundry room. And she sat there and read her book. And in the back of my brain, I'm like, why aren't you doing other things? But I didn't say anything. And then she went through the steps of laundry. She, when it beeped, she would go and she was right there. She put her book down, go take the care of it. She never left the laundry area until the laundry was completely done. And so this might be something to consider. Instead of multitasking, like we've been taught to do, actually don't multitask it. For laundry, laundromats are a good way to do this. No it costs money, but if you can take your stuff to a laundry bed, especially if you're behind and you have a lot to do, because your laundry mat is set up for you to go from beginning to end. When you get home, all you have to do is put it away. And yes, I know that's challenging too, but it's only one more step, and everything else is done. Something to think about. If you would rather multitask it, then think of ways to keep your dopamine up. Like listening to music or podcasts or even listening to YouTube videos. I honestly listen to YouTube videos as much as I watch them. Maybe because I like talking head videos. And speaking of multitasking, if you could take a second and subscribe. If you can even make a comment, it's even better. Helps me be seen by more people. I really appreciate it. My second idea is the concept of fresh eyes. And I've this is something I've been developing recently, and I've been using it on myself, and it's really helpful. All it is is taking the time to do a simple new observation. So all you have to do, and this is really great when you think you're getting ready to wrap up a task stop, put yourself in the space, close your eyes, take a breath, and think about seeing something with new eyes. Pretend you're a visitor in your own space. And then open your eyes and look around. I know when I do this in the kitchen, it's like, oh, I just set the clean skillet on the stove instead of putting it away. Or, oh, hey, I still have the instant pot sitting out from two days ago. Maybe I should just put that in the cupboard. And it helps me see what needs to be done. And a lot of times it's just a couple of quick things that really help finish that task. Another thing is to make sure you find things that work well for you. One thing to think about, and I realize this doesn't work for everybody, but if your appliances are decent, that really helps. Newer washers, newer dryers, newer dishwashers. Do a better job. Dishwashers that are newer. You don't have to scrape all the food necessarily. You don't have to pre-wash things the way we used to years ago. Make sure that you're using decent detergents and things like that that actually get the job done the first time. It takes a little bit of doing it. It's not the least expensive thing, to be honest. But as you come to replace things in your life, or if you're ready to buy something new, think about that. How can you make this appliance work well for you? I know one thing for me, when I bought my house here, I needed a new washer-dryer because they did not leave the old ones and I didn't own one at the time. And I really don't like front loading washers, which a lot of people use, but I personally don't like them. I did a lot of research to find a top loader that I liked, and that really helped. Another thing is think about little things that would make things easier. Just recently, I was thinking about my laundry space, which is basically just like an inset of like a closet. So it doesn't, there's no floor space in there. There's no place to put a trash can for like the lint and the dryer sheets and things like that. And so I did a little looking and I found one that I could attach to a wall. And that turned up out to be the easiest thing in the world. Actually, I put up a magnetic strip and attached it to that. So then when I went when I want to empty it, it's really easy to empty because all I have to do is snap it off, empty it out, put it back up, done. I'm really proud of myself. I'm not always good at thinking of these things. And I'm going to put links to a couple of these things in the descriptions if you want to check them out. The last loan I want to talk about is finding an accountability partner. Now, somebody who's single, if you are living alone, you don't have anybody who's going to come into your space on a regular basis and say, hey, you know, those dishes are getting kind of gross. Could we get those done? Right? So there's several ways to do this. You can have somebody come over, have company literally come to your house. Honestly, one of the reasons why I keep my kitchen especially clean is because I have roommates. And although my roommates, at least my current ones, don't really use the kitchen all that often, but they walk through it every day. And so if it got really gross, it would be bad. And it really does help me keep myself on task. You can even just text a friend and say, hey, I'm going to get the dishes done. I'm going to text you in an hour and have your this person that you know be somebody who would say, Yeah, go get them. You can do it. And that's a great way to do it. So I hope you can try one of these little ideas and see if these help you get things done. I have more. I've been doing some webinars on this. You can find me on Meetup at a solo person's guide to ADHD and see you the next time I schedule a talk on this. You can find me on socials, and I'd love it if you could comment it right below. And if you're not able to make it, I do also have a PDF on this subject. You can click that down below. It will sign you up for my newsletter, and it's a great way to see what topics I'll be talking about next. Speaking of next, look for my next webinar because it's about how to get things started. Thanks for coming.