My 17th read of the year was a little mini read: How to Keep House While Drowning: A gentle approach to cleaning and organising by K.C. Davies. I found the author through TikTok, where she does videos on practical tips for cleaning and organising, specifically aimed at helped those with executive function issues. She is a qualified therapist and specialist in adhd therapies.

A short summary

This book walks you through some simple steps to change your approach mentally to ‘care tasks’ and then practical steps on how to approach tasks if you are feeling overwhelmed, or struggling to take care of yourself. It’s difficult to summarise a self help book but that is essentially the gist of what the book discusses.

What did I think?

So, I will pre-phase this by saying I am not diagnosed with ADHD or any mental health conditions (I might have suspicions but I just want to acknowledge that first). However, learning how to be clean and organised is something I have always struggled with and I have had to work very hard to get into a routine of keeping on top of ‘care tasks’. This is something I have only just been able to consistently maintain over the last two years and it took a lot of mental energy in the beginning. A lot of the tips in this book I was already aware of, having followed the author on Tiktok for a while now but I promise you, if you struggle like me, you will find this book useful. I did not expect to have such an emotional reaction to the opening chapters, which addresses some of the mental aspects of shame, obligation and simply being overwhelmed that often accompanies any kind of executive function or organisational problems and gives you tips on how to work past those blockers. This book has an excellent pace, having been written with adhd readers in mind, so I powered through it less than an hour.

In short, I would definitely recommend this book!

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