179: The Most Important Tool to Use to Keep Your House Guest Ready if You Have ADHD

Embrace the Stash Session: A Real Tool, Not a Guilty Secret

I want to talk about a technique you already use constantly and probably feel guilty about. I’m officially declaring it a legitimate organizing tool: the stash session.

Yes, it’s a real tool

Every organizing strategy out there was invented by somebody and then marketed as the way to do things. So I’m naming this one for you. A stash session is exactly what it sounds like: guests are about to arrive, and you go into high gear scooping up clutter and shoving it into another space, out of sight, fast. You already do this. You just feel bad about it. Stop feeling bad about it.

Why it actually works so well for our brains

Around this time of year especially, your feeds fill up with promises of the most organized new year ever, every container on sale, every course and membership (mine included) promoting decluttering systems, five-minute daily pickups, and kids taking responsibility for their spaces. Here’s the truth: I’d genuinely call BS on a solid seventy-five percent of the beautifully organized homes you see online. What you’re seeing is a guest-ready or Pinterest-ready frame, not the full reality. Most of the time, when you’re invited into someone’s home and it looks effortlessly put together, what actually happened behind the scenes was a massive stash session, just maybe a smaller one than yours needs to be.

The genuine upsides

A stash session is fun, fast, focused, and delivers a strong, visible payoff. You already know how to kick into high gear under the pressure of an approaching deadline, that’s exactly how our brains are built to operate, urgency-driven rather than steady and incremental. Instead of fighting that wiring or feeling guilty about needing a deadline to get moving, lean into it.

What about the downsides?

Sure, you might scoop up something you didn’t mean to and momentarily “lose” it, but it’s not actually gone, it’s just now living in your stash location, which at least consolidates the clutter into one spot instead of scattered everywhere. You’re essentially trading ten to twenty percent of your space looking chaotic in exchange for the other eighty percent looking fantastic. Take that deal every time. When you hear the monkey-brained objection that this isn’t “the right way” to organize, that’s exactly the kind of tree-climbing advice this whole podcast exists to push back on. You’re in the water. Let it be fluid.

The real payoff

When you shut that door on the stash and sit down with your guests, you get to enjoy a space that finally feels the way it’s meant to feel, and you know exactly where to go when you have the energy to tackle it properly later. If someone asks how you keep your house so put together, you can tell them the truth: you use stash sessions, and it works.

Your practical, actionable step

The next time you find yourself in a last-minute scramble before guests arrive, let it be exactly what it is: a stash session, a legitimate tool, not a personal failing. Enjoy the visible payoff without the guilt attached to it.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.