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Like many couples affected by ADHD, my spouse and I face challenges in keeping our home tidy. For my ADHD spouse, my standards always seem too high. To me, maintaining a tidy house reduces stress, and the level of tidiness directly correlates with how calm I remain during crises triggered by ADHD. I've observed that when the house is tidy and we encounter an ADHD curveball or another episode of my spouse's ADHD burnout, I find myself more patient. Conversely, when the situation is reversed, I tend to have a shorter fuse with my ADHD spouse, which can spell trouble for us. In my search for solutions to our "tidy house" problem, I stumbled upon Susan Pinsky's book, "Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD 2nd edition," on Amazon, boasting a 4.4 rating. I decided to check it out, and I'm so glad I did. Since then, she has updated the book in 2023. Let me share why you should consider checking it out yourself.
Who is Susan Pinsky?
Susan Pinsky is a professional organizer and a parent of a child with ADHD. When she learned of her daughter's ADHD diagnosis in grade school, she began educating herself about ADHD. Soon, she realized that many of her clients also had ADHD. Understanding that many individuals and families face similar challenges, she wrote this book to assist people with ADHD and their family members in tackling organization challenges, specifically within their homes.
What do I think of this book?
Upon initially reading the 2nd edition, I appreciated the organization of the book. Each chapter focuses on a specific area of the home and offers practical tips and strategies for individuals with ADHD and their family members to try. Pinsky's book provided multiple "aha" moments for me. For instance, in her introduction, she discussed how traditional organizational systems, which work well for many neurotypical individuals, can be unhelpful or even detrimental for people with ADHD:
"Over the course of my life and career, I have found that by reexamining societal values surrounding organization and identifying those that are counterproductive we can tailor an organizational system that supports people with ADHD instead of frustrating and hindering them."
This helped me realize that I needed to create an organizational system that would work for both of us, rather than simply hoping my ADHD spouse would magically understand and meet my standards one day. Pinsky's book gave me the foundational knowledge to better enable us as an ADHD couple to keep our home organized. I strongly recommend non-ADHD spouses to read this book to help achieve an organized home that both partners can be proud of.
3 Reasons Why I Recommend This Book
1. Explanation of Her ADHD-Friendly Organizing Methodology Up Front
In the 3rd edition, Pinsky made some small tweaks that I really appreciate. She shares her ADHD-friendly organizing methodology upfront, along with the reasons behind it. This approach helped me connect the dots more quickly as I read different chapters and allowed me to apply her methodology to our home. For instance, in the section on organizing the medicine cabinet in the bathroom chapter, she explains how to categorize toiletries. We are fortunate to have separate bathrooms that allowed us to organize the way we wanted and needed; we used her bin method to organize our first aid and medication in a different part of the house. This adjustment proved immensely useful for my ADHD spouse to retrieve medication or first aid when needed.
2. Clear Problem and Solution for Each Part of the Home
Each chapter of Pinsky's book is dedicated to a specific area in a home, such as the kitchen, dining room, or laundry room, allowing readers to jump straight to the part of the home where they want to start. Pinsky highlights common problems and lists solutions for readers to try. Additionally, she uses yellow sticky graphics to highlight relevant tips, drawing readers' attention and aiding in the execution of solutions.
Here is an example of her book on handling cleaning supplies:
3. Lot of Pictures that illustrate the point
Pictures convey a thousand words, and I appreciate that Pinsky included many visuals to clearly communicate her points. The images provide readers with a clear understanding of what the end solution looks like, enabling them to self-check whether they are following Pinsky's advice. For example, after reading about the spice rack dilemma, we removed the rotating spice rack from our countertop and reduced the number of spices in our cabinet, per her recommendation. Furthermore, we implemented her suggestion to prioritize visibility by creating dedicated shelves—one for my ADHD spouse's commonly used spices and another for my larger collection. This arrangement reduced frustration for both of us while allowing quick access to what we need.
Conclusion
Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD by Susan Pinsky is a valuable resource for any ADHD couples seeking to better organize their homes together. I strongly recommend this book to non-ADHD spouses, as Pinsky's insights helped me connect some of the dots regarding ADHD and its impact on my spouse.
In fact, some of her wisdom, like this one above, have made it onto my non-ADHD partner's perpetual motivational daily desktop calendars, as it was one of my "aha" moments on my journey to gain deeper understanding ADHD and approach things differently with my ADHD spouse.
Have you read this book? Share your thoughts with our community by commenting below.
Susan's Website: https://www.organizationallyours.com/
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