Clutter

Putting things in a cupboard does not make them easy to find

Research-backed

An occupational therapy consensus statement for adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) puts everyday use at the center of organizing. Bills and medical records need somewhere to go, but also need to be found in time(Adamou et al., 2021).

Fear of bad news can leave mail unopened

From a book

In The Adult ADHD Tool Kit, Ramsay and Rostain note that mail keeps arriving after clutter has been cleared. Some adults leave it aside because they anticipate bad news or a large bill(Ramsay & Rostain, 2015).

This buildup includes unfinished matters as well as misplaced objects. Clearing a desk once does not address avoidance when the next batch of mail arrives.

Difficulty discarding differs from forgetting to put things away

Proposed in research

A study at an adult ADHD clinic found significant hoarding symptoms in some participants. These symptoms were associated with inattention. The difficulties studied included clutter and difficulty discarding, beyond forgetting where things were put(Morein-Zamir et al., 2022).

This points to two different obstacles: useful items with no place to go, or items that are hard to discard even when no longer needed.