My son was a few months old. And I was still taking naps in the middle of the day.

On sunny Sunday, my husband decides we need to reorganize the kitchen…during nap.

I was beyond overwhelmed. Mostly because I didn’t know if I could function without the nap. I was always so tired.

But he was persistent.

We got my son down for his nap. And then we went into the kitchen.

As I was looking at all the cabinets, this feeling of overwhelm and anxiety fell over me. And I felt like a fraud.

See, I had just started this blog. Writing about ways to organize your home. And I was feeling overwhelmed by all that we needed to do in such a short amount of time.

Using My Knowledge To Take Action With ADHD Systems

So I decided to take a deep breath, and decided to take my own advice. We started taking everything out of the cabinets. Like EVERYTHING!

I knew that in order to truly change the way our kitchen worked for us, I needed to take drastic action.

Now keep in mind that at this time, I was undiagnosed with ADHD. I didn’t know why this was so hard for me. Why I needed so much sleep. All those answers were coming later. But for now, I had to work through it.

Piles of plates, cooking gadgets, spices, baby supplies took over our dining room table. And I had to make quick decision about where things should be housed within our tiny kitchen.

This was the moment when I realized something I hadn’t written about. And that was creating zones.

Using Zones To Keep Things Streamlined

Zoning isn’t a new concept. But it was something I didn’t realize I was doing until the piles of kitchen stuff were stressing me out while I was incredibly exhausted.

To create zones, you just group your items together so that it makes sense for how you use them.

Here are a few examples of zoning as an ADHD system you can try:

• You can group all the items you bake with together.
• Everything you use for daily meal prep can be zoned together.
• Storing spices together is an obvious way to zone things.
• I also have a list of zones you can use in your kitchen: Organizing A Kitchen With ADHD- Full Category List And Where To Store

I grabbed a stickie note and started zoning our kitchen. Cabinets and shelves all had a stickie label.

We were able to store everything within those labels quickly. Which meant I didn’t have to over-exert myself as we finished up the reorganizing project.

ADHD Systems That Work

Looking back to this reorganizing experience, I realized that for someone with ADHD the end of an organizing project is the hardest. Finishing the job is where the struggle happens.

So taking the time to zone everything created this massive transformation into how I approached organizing from that moment on.

I used to feel like every organizing method was designed for someone not like me. Once I learned to work with my brain, not against it, everything changed.

These Are Pictures From That Kitchen Reorganization:

This was the original kitchen!

Read More Kitchen Organizing Articles:

Organizing A Kitchen Full Clean-Out Method

Organizing Kitchen Drawer-By-Drawer Method

The Ultimate Guide to Kitchen Organizing