40: Break this Organizing Rule if You have ADHD – If You Haven’t Used it in a Year, Get Rid of it

Break the Rule: “If You Haven’t Used It in a Year, Get Rid of It”

Every tenth episode, I break down an organizing rule that doesn’t serve ADHD brains well. Today’s target sounds reasonable on the surface: if you haven’t used something in a year, get rid of it. Here’s why I think it deserves to be broken instead.

Time doesn’t register the same way for us

Ask yourself honestly whether you used a given item within the last year, and there’s a real chance you genuinely don’t know. It could have been three weeks ago or three years ago, without a strong internal sense of time passing, this rule becomes nearly impossible to apply with any accuracy.

The last few years haven’t been normal

Special-occasion clothes, entertaining dishware, anything tied to gatherings and events, these things going unused for over a year doesn’t necessarily mean they’re unwanted, it may just mean the past couple of years genuinely weren’t typical. Using a strict one-year window as a purging rule during an atypical stretch of life can lead to getting rid of things you’d actually want back once normal patterns return.

The fantasy-life trap

There’s a very real tendency to hold onto items tied to an imagined future version of ourselves, the sixteen hobbies we’ll finally start once the house is organized, the specialty gear we’ll finally use once life calms down. Ask if you’ve used something in a year, and the answer becomes “not yet, but I will, once things are in order.” That reasoning lets you hold onto things indefinitely without ever confronting whether they truly belong in your life right now.

Better questions to ask instead

In a closet, instead of asking whether you’ve worn something in the last year, ask: if I found this in a store today, would I buy it? If the honest answer is no, you’re not going to wear it now either, and it’s time to let it move on to someone who will use it.

Another useful exercise: gather a category, all short-sleeve shirts, for instance, and identify your top five favorites in order, the ones you’d genuinely reach for first if everything were clean. Anything ranked behind those five rarely gets worn, since laundry cycles mean your favorites are usually available before you’d ever reach further down the list. Items that never make the top five haven’t earned their space, let them go.

The same logic works for a drawer. Empty it completely, refill it starting with genuine favorites, and once it’s comfortably, not tightly, full, stop. Give yourself permission for one or two more borderline keepers if there’s room, then release the rest.

Applying it to the kitchen

Instead of asking whether you’ve used something recently, ask whether you own something else that already serves the same function. Specialty tools, a dedicated rice cooker, a melon baller, an avocado saver, a single-use onion keeper, often duplicate what a basic pot, knife, or piece of reusable storage already handles perfectly well. If you find yourself reaching for a generic container instead of the specialty tool meant for that exact purpose, that’s a clear sign the specialty item isn’t earning its space.

Your practical, actionable step

The next time you’re deciding whether to keep something, skip the one-year test entirely. Ask instead: would I buy this again today, or does something else I already own serve the same purpose just as well? Let that answer guide the decision.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.