Written by Eleanor Noyce
After being diagnosed with ADHD, writer Eleanor Noyce speaks with other women to explore the perceptive ways they optimise their homes with interior design – without compromising themselves or their surroundings.
At 23, after years of experiencing intense episodes of depression and anxiety, sensory issues, emotional overload, forgetfulness and other symptoms, I was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
A form of neurodiversity, ADHD is defined by Dr Rachel Woodward, principal clinical psychologist at Consult Psychology, as “a neurodevelopmental condition that impacts the parts of the brain that control emotions, learning, memory and self-control”.
The US-based National Institute of Mental Health reports that men are almost three times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than women, with just 4.2% receiving a diagnosis. Ill-researched and underdiagnosed, ADHD in women is a different ballgame entirely, and what I didn’t realise when I was first diagnosed was how much my ADHD interacted with and influenced my physical surroundings.
Post-diagnosis, I became equipped with the terminology to describe the behaviours I’ve been exhibiting since I was a child, and this extends into the way I interact with my home environment. When I was little, I was almost excessively tidy; everything had a home. When I reached my teenage years, the switch flicked. I was constantly losing things and letting the mess pile up until I couldn’t navigate it. I had no idea what I owned or where any of it was. Exhibiting issues with object permanence, which Medical News Today describes as “the ability to understand that objects exist when they are out of sight”, I would leave my belongings scattered across my room so that I could identify them. At 24, I embarked on an active journey towards understanding how ADHD interacts with interior design.
Curiously, engaging with ADHD content on TikTok was a pivotal moment for me. New York City-based Katie Bowen, 20, began ADHD Home TV (@cartoonreject) after she recognised that existing organisation techniques for people with ADHD were largely coined by neurotypical people. Recognising the specific interior design needs of neurotypical women, Bowen explains: “ADHD presents differently in AFAB [assigned female at birth] people. In women, it’s more about mannerisms and about keeping concentration and allowing movement within a space.”
Firmly of the belief that individuals with ADHD appear ‘disorganised’ on account of inaccessible living environments, Bowen advises: “Every neurodivergent woman should understand their own sensory needs and what positions feel the most comfortable for them to exist in. Thinking about how likely they might be to wear an outfit might influence whether they put it in open or closed storage. Another easy solution is to put hyperfixation items that might be distractable in closed storage.”
Recognising the challenges that rented spaces can bring with regard to ADHD home optimisation, Bowen removed the doors from the wardrobe in her rented accommodation and placed them under her bed, ready to screw back on when moving out. Through her content, Bowen disseminates the message that orchestration and optimisation is achievable for all, recommending affordable, easy ADHD hacks from using a coffee table as a floor desk to converting unused wardrobes into a walled desk area to reduce distractibility.
Sheffield-based Heather Tingle is a professional declutterer. Living with autism and ADHD, she furthers the “out of sight, out of mind” idea that so many people with ADHD experience. “Try to give each item a home. Take doors or cupboards off wardrobes if you need to, so you can see what you have. Keep like things together and containerise and label so you can visually see exactly what is where,” she advises.
To this end, removing physical barriers reduces object impermanence, making it easier for people with ADHD to form positive habits that are coherent for their brains.
Similarly, London-based Rach Idowu is a board member of Neurodiversity In Business and the creator of ADHD Traits. She was diagnosed with ADHD in 2020, at the age of 26. Struggling with object impermanence, Idowu began to adapt her home environment to suit her needs after she experienced persistent problems with misplacing items, even repurchasing them as a result.
“I used to have my clothes folded in a bunch of drawers and inside my storage bed. I’d make a mess looking for items of clothing because I’d forgotten where I’d put them, so I often ended up buying things that I already owned,” she shares.
“I decided that it would be better for me to get a clothing rack mounted on my wall. This made such a huge difference – my clothes were now visible, and I was able to arrange them into workwear and casual wear.”
Idowu also began to adapt her workspace, introducing a desk with compartment spaces so that she could distribute her clutter accordingly. In her bathroom, she installed a multifunctional shelf that allowed her to visualise her items, with the open-plan shelving system both reducing object impermanence and acting as a visual reminder to carry out tasks that an ADHD brain might struggle to remember without a visual prompt, from teeth-brushing to face-washing.
Personally, I’m still learning so much about my ADHD. Home optimisation can manifest in a myriad of ways, and there isn’t always a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s about trial and error, and this has certainly been my experience. An important element has been learning to embrace the chemical imbalances in my brain, and how I accommodate those imbalances. I have friends who colour code their entire wardrobes and their book collections; friends who tightly organise the clothes inside their drawers and still, somehow, know exactly where each item is. I used to regret that I couldn’t achieve this level of organisation. Now, I realise that these techniques will never compute with my neurodivergent brain, and that’s OK. I just need to reframe the foundations.
Image: Getty
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