My 10 year old has adhd. He constantly rearranges his room. I put the cube shelves in his room with the cube drawers, a few days later he got rid of all the drawers out of it, then few days after that he took everything off then moved the whole thing out. I put a big desk in there with big removable shelves attached. He rearranged everything on the shelves of it then took all the shelves off completely. He moves all the furniture around constantly. And puts a lot of his stuff hidden away in his cupboard. Is this part of adhd? Is this “normal”?
7 Replies
It’s probably a part of his attention issue - if it gets his attention he thinks of things he can do with it - having it out of sight is probably much better for him.
Also it could be part of his executive functioning/ organisation. It’s very hard for adhd kids to organise their things because in the time it takes to follow steps they’ve been sidetracked and gone off track 20 times.
And the hyperactivity means things in sight or that are used often can never stay in the same place or neatly organised, it’s chaos and rearranging happens often. Again, keeping it out of sight and minimal would help.
I have never been diagnosed with ADHD but I huge a big suspicion I have it. I did this all the time. For me it was more I couldn't wait once I got an idea in my head, it had to happen now. I rearrange furniture often, sometimes I decide to move entire rooms and regret it later because I get overwhelmed by it and often abandon it.
My daughter has ADD and she does this. Her cupboards are absolutely jammed!!! She changes her room around a lot, we found not having much in there is helpful for her. It also means when she chooses to move it all it doesn’t take long and overwhelm her. I’ve gone to bed at 11pm and noticed the next morning it’s all been moved around (on a weekend).
My daughter has ADD and she does this. Her cupboards are absolutely jammed!!! She changes her room around a lot, we found not having much in there is helpful for her. It also means when she chooses to move it all it doesn’t take long and overwhelm her. I’ve gone to bed at 11pm and noticed the next morning it’s all been moved around (on a weekend).
My daughter has ADD and she does this. Her cupboards are absolutely jammed!!! She changes her room around a lot, we found not having much in there is helpful for her. It also means when she chooses to move it all it doesn’t take long and overwhelm her. I’ve gone to bed at 11pm and noticed the next morning it’s all been moved around (on a weekend).
I know a couple of kids who have adhd, they have nothing but a bed in their rooms for this reason because they tend to be overwhelmed by "stuff".
It's kind of like their minds are so busy that they kind of need their physical space to be calm.
I'd try and take some things out and see if that helps.
My ADHD boy doesn't do this, but my innatentive ADHD does, but not to that extent. He likes his bag a certain way, things on his desk are always being moved around, this distracts him from working so he no longer has anything on his desk. Get gets particular with his toys, where they go and how they are placed. In saying this, he may have asd.