This Unexpected Laundry Habit Is A Potential Sign Of ADHD

Do you ever delay putting away clean laundry or unworn outfits from a vacation and instead keep those clothes in a pile on the floor or draped over a chair for many days on end? What about items you’ve only worn once and don’t want to wash but also don’t want to return to your closet because you think you’ll wear them again in the near future?

If that sounds familiar, you might have what some call a “floordrobe.” And this manifestation of laundry clutter is quite common among people with ADHD.

On April 12, ADHD coach Jeff Rice broke down the phrase in a TikTok video that has been watched almost 5 million times.

“A ‘floordrobe’ is a place, typically on the floor, where we leave either clean or ‘not quite dirty’ clothes,” he said. “It can be in a laundry basket that just sits there for days and days or weeks, or it can be in a pile of clothes that you’ve worn for a little while, but they didn’t quite get dirty. And so you think you’re going to wear them again, and so you leave them sitting on the floor or hanging over a chair or whatever.”

He also offered a few ideas to help people with ADHD tackle this type of clutter. But why exactly are laundry issues like floordrobes so common in people with the disorder? We asked ADHD experts to explain the phenomenon and share their advice for keeping clothes from piling up into an overwhelming mess.

What’s the connection between floordrobes and ADHD?

“ADHD impacts the brain’s executive functions, which control motivation, planning, working memory, organization and self-control,” said Billy Roberts, a therapist at Focused Mind ADHD Counseling in Columbus, Ohio. “When faced with a task that is boring, the ADHD brain gets overwhelmed and starts craving more interesting tasks.