The 200 Item Clothing Challenge.

As someone with ADHD,  I am always interested in ways to reduce unwanted distractions in my life.   A few years ago I started reading about people who had taken something called the "100 item challenge".  This is for folks who really want to live with the smallest possible amount of stuff.  They basically reduce everything they own down to 100 items.  Now, I knew that was not going to be for me, but it did get me thinking.

I ended up thinking about all of this the next time I decided to clean out my closet - which I do a couple times a year - and I piled everything on the bed.  There was a lot of stuff.  Then I decided to empty my dresser, the coat rack, and my shoe organizers.  Then I added purses, scarves, and belts.  It actually made me feel kind-of gross.  Most of the stuff I didn't even wear. 

I started thinking about the 100 item challenge, and wondered if I could get this pile down to that.  It occurred to me that not so long ago average people lived with much less to wear and survived without being arrested for indecency.  Maybe I could too.  So I thought about what would be in the average woman's wardrobe 100 years ago.  I needed a 5-6 outfits for work.  I needed something to wear for weddings and funerals.  I needed stuff to wear at home. and of course I needed sleepwear and underwear.

Well, I decided to do the 100 item challenge for that season and was able to get the pile down to 100 items.  Because I wasn't truly trusting of this new system yet, I put everything left into plastic tubs and stored it.  And yes, I counted the number of items.  It actually totalled in at 85.

Doing this turned out to be one of the best things I have ever done in my life.  Seriously. 

Suddenly I not only could get all of the laundry done in two reasonable sized loads, I had to do it each week so I would have enough to wear.  Choosing clothing in the morning was easy, because there wasn't that much of a decision to make.  Since I had my favorite clothes, and nothing worn out, ripped or stained, I was happy with what I had on every day.  My closet stayed neater.

The next time closet-cleaning time came around, I did three things.  First of all, I added in the rest of the clothes I wanted to have to complete a year-round cycle and stay under 200 items.  At this point I was confident that I could live with this amount of clothing, so secondly I bagged up everything else and took it to Goodwill.  Thirdly, I took anything that was worn and stained out of the current collection and worked on replacing it.  I have been using that routine every since.

Now because I have fewer clothes and therefore wear them out sooner, I do buy new stuff just about every season.  Because I'm not buying a lot, I do buy decent quality items.  I also tend to buy things I can wash, since I don't really have time for items to be at the dry cleaner.  Finally, I buy a lot of mix and match skirts, pants and tops and only have a few dresses.  Because I do a lot of mix and match, I tend to buy from just a few stores so that all of the colors go together.  This cuts down on my clothes shopping, which I do not generally like anyway.

If you like fashion and it's your hobby, this might not be something for you.  But if you like to look good with a minimum of fuss and bother, you might want to consider this challenge.  It's made a really difference in my ADHD life.  Maybe it can in yours.

My Seven Hairbrushes

It's been about five years since I've started altering my environment to reduce stress.  I'm not talking about soothing paint colors or quiet music or fluffy pillows.  Those things are wonderful, and they do help reduce stress, but I'm talking about more about my stuff and where it is.

I started to get a clue about this when I read the upteenth psychological report for a child with ADHD that recommended they have a set of textbooks at home and one at school.  I hadn't really done any reading on ADHD at that point because I'd just recently been diagnosed myself.  At that point my son had not been formally diagnosed, so I was still in the dark about how the ADHD brain really functions.  This idea of duplicates seemed pretty cool.  A rather elegant solution to leaving stuff behind all the time.

One of the small things in my life that caused a great deal of stress was never seeming to have a hairbrush when I needed one.  I had started carrying a very small purse, and the hairbrush I liked would always get stuffed in last.  When I had to dig something out, the hairbrush was the first thing out, and inevitably left where I put it down.  Lots of bad hair days.  I finally realized that like a duplicate set of textbooks, I needed duplicate hairbrushes in several different places EXCEPT my purse.  So now I have one in both bathrooms, all three cars, my desk at school, and in my suitcase.  May seem like overkill, but I'm never without one.

The hairbrush thing turned out to be the start of other things that changed small stressful areas of my life.  My car keys are now either in my ignition, or clipped with a carabiner to the outside of my purse.  I only keep my carkeys on that carabiner so that I don't use them for any other purpose than to drive the car.  I looked at every horizontal surface in the house and removed as much visual clutter as I could.  I pared down everything in my closet to a minimum.  Most weeks I go to the grocery store only once, and I tend to buy the same stuff.  I come home and make food for the entire week.  I take the sheets off the bed, wash and dry them and put them right back on so they don't add to the laundry pile.

All of these things are small, but they make a big difference in my stress level on a day-to-day basis.  I know that my brain does a poor job of keeping me conscious of where I put things, so important things always have to be in the same obvious place or places.  I need duplicates of some things in several places.  (Like my phone charger.)  I know that I have a hard time "getting going" when it comes to housework and laundry.  Having a huge pile of laundry to do invites my brain to suggest putting it off until I "have more time".  Seems like a piece of cake to wash, dry, fold and distribute a small load.  Somehow it seems easier to keep a house clean that has less stuff laying around.  I'm still not sure exactly what executive function is involved in that.  I know that the visual stimulation of all the stuff at the grocery store tends to stress me out.  I want to be out of the place so sometimes I don't make good decisions, buy stuff I really don't need, or leave without getting everything I need.  Telling myself that I only buy the same detergent regardless of what is on sale, and doing that with other items beside, actually saves some money and definitely a lot of time.  My phone has a location-specific list maker.  (So when I drive to Target or BJs, a list of items I need at those stores pops up...)  That has helped a lot, but no technology is foolproof.

I still struggle with other issues of disorganization, activation (getting going), and maintenance.  You ought to see my craft room right now.  Whew!  I'm always on the prowl for some new strategy to add to my life, but I'm really happy about what I've done so far.  If you have tips that have helped reduce your ADHD stress, feel free to share them in the comments section below.