Clean up this mess! Or don’t? Advice from an expert

In It: Raising Kids Who Learn Differently

Join health and science journalist Danielle Elliot as she investigates the rise of women recently diagnosed with ADHD. Listen to Climbing the Walls now.

In this episode of In It, hosts Gretchen Vierstra and Rachel Bozek welcome author and therapist KC Davis. KC is a therapist who hosts the podcast Struggle Care. Her new book Who Deserves Your Love will be out in May 2025. She is also the best-selling author of How to Keep House While Drowning.

KC talks about being a “messy” person and reasons why we could all benefit from caring a little less about messiness. She offers tips for getting your home to “work for you.” And she helps us understand reasons to care less about the mess.

Related resources

• Messy room? How to help your child keep it neat
• Why kids with executive function challenges have trouble starting tasks
• Listen: ADHD and messiness (Jeannie’s story)
• My Home Is Messy, and I Don’t Feel Bad About It (KC in The New York Times)

Timestamps

(3:08) What makes us special can also be what makes us scattered

(4:41) The tendency to be messy

(5:52) Identifying solutions

(7:32) Executive function and home management

(10:18) The steps involved in a task

(11:20) Helpful tips

(14:28) Focusing on function

(16:37) How you talk about mess

For a transcript of this episode and more resources, visit the episode page on Understood.

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Understood.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences, like ADHD and dyslexia. If you want to help us continue this work, donate at understood.org/give