A big part of my ADHD used to be stressing over stuff. And by stuff I mean objects. Organization has always a big problem for me and despite my desperate desire to be one of those perfectly organized and put together people I just never will be. I read once that many ADHD'ers have to have all their belongings in sight otherwise the tend to forget they even exist....hence the difficulty "putting things away." All this stuff can be mentally toxic and robs of us focusing on what really matters. Or to quote fight club "THE THINGS YOU OWN END UP OWNING YOU."
When stuff tends to raise your anxiety you become one of two people, the guy on Hoarders who can't find his dead cat under piles of old newspapers or someone like me who minimizes material possessions and throws things away mercilessly. My issues with stuff have lead me to a few rules that have helped me along the way to avoid acquiring things.
1. Be honest with yourself...Do you need it or want it? Why? I tend to have an internal conversation the goes something like this...
Are you really going to use this? Why do you want it? Are you trying to convince yourself that you will be better off, better looking, better liked...that this item is the key to making you happy...it won't.
2. Make rules....My sister has a rule that she will only buy something after she has gone back and looked at it 3 times. If she still wants the item then she might buy it. You can also decide that you will only pay cash for things. Physically handing over a wad of cash can be very powerful deterent to spending on impulse.
3. Don't buy it if you can borrow it....Something that bugs me the most is walking into a house and seeing a huge DVD collection. I know some people that will buy every newly realeased DVD no matter how awful. Are they really watching Sex and the City 2 more than once? And if they are, why would they want to display that fact to everyone that enters their house. You only have to move once to realize that large collections of anything are a pain to move If you love reading then get an e-reader.
4. Reward yourself with experiences instead of things. Research seems to indicate this type of reward makes people happier and you will probably end up with a lot less crap you don't need.
5. Prioritize your hobbies. As anyone with ADHD will atest, new hobbies seem to spring out of nowhere. A good strategy for dealing with this is to prioritize your hobbies based on season, and try to realistically limit yourself to two or three. I personally always found the most gratifying hobbies to require less equipment.
