The ADHD MUMS Pod
Real talk from two ADHD mums in the thick of parenting, chaos, and clutter. Gen and Claire share honest highs and lows of neuro-divergent life. We are Mums, but you don't have to be to listen!
We share real, unfiltered stories about parenting, neurodivergence, and daily struggles like executive dysfunction, disorganisation, overstimulation, and Mum guilt. We also celebrate the wins—big or small—with honesty and laughter.
We're both AFAB and biological mums, but this space is for all parents, ADHDers, curious minds, and —even your pets. Everyone’s welcome.
We do swear though, so you probably need headphones if there's kids around!
The ADHD MUMS Pod
ADVENT CHAOS CALENDAR: Peace Over Pinterest - Burnout-Free Festive Home Prep
We share a realistic plan to prep the house for Christmas without the panic spiral, from hiding gifts and zoning your decor to taming the kitchen and letting go of perfection. Along the way, we trade fast wins for neurodivergent brains, cash-in-your-clutter tips, and simple tricks that make hosting feel human.
• hosting pressure, inherited expectations, good enough Christmas
• staging boxes, pre-tagged gift bags, under-bed hiding spots
• wrap as you go, zone-by-zone decorating, daily half-hour sessions
• kitchen overload fixes, outdoor drink bins, freezer space strategy
• brain dumps for mental clarity, short focused efforts
• sell or donate clutter, quick cash flips on clothes and books
• dump baskets, never leave a room empty-handed, spot clean
• lamps and candles for calm, paper plates to save time
• delegate to kids with fun roles and titles
Further TW: This podcast references at times: alcohol abuse, depression, mood disorders, medical emergency, miscarriage, traffic accidents, grief and loss, teen pregnancy, anxiety, abuse, PDA, low self esteem, and anti-depressant medications, disordered eating, hoarding...
All music written and produced by Ash Doc Horror Lerczak.
Artwork by Gen
For more information about us, our podcast and our ADHD MUMS community, visit OUR WEBSITE.
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Let's get ADHD MUMS up the pod charts and raise awareness when we all need it most!
See you next Wednesday! xxx
It's a wrong one.
SPEAKER_01:Where are the OCD wrong? I'm Claire. And I'm Jeff. And we're on Zoom again.
SPEAKER_00:We're struggling. Yeah, we've got a bit of a lag. Um, so, but hopefully it's not lagging for you, and hopefully the sound quality is not too bad for you guys.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and it won't be forever, guys.
SPEAKER_00:We'll be back on the bed before no time. I mean, I'm on my bed.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm in my PJs.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, me too. So we're talking about like the stress of getting your house ready for Christmas, because that's something I'm going through at the moment. Now I've been brought up by my mum who decorates, literally decorates every year for Christmas, like you know, paints the walls, get some furnishings. Oh my god! You know, so the the standard to live up to is high. And if you're hosting any guests, you feel the pressure, um also like having it nice for your kids, um all that. So not just the putting the decorations up, but the actual getting your house in order is quite a stress. And I had a big plan to do everything this week. Got people me um stepdads coming around to do outstanding like jobs and hang things up on the wall and stuff like that. But my partner is too sick to do much at all, he's trying to help me and my son's in bed, so um but a bit up the wall, really, and I don't I'm not feeling top notch at all. I think I never can come out in the full flu because I've had my jabs, but um I'm not feeling great. So um, but I have managed to get rid of loads of stuff to the charity shop to friends, so that's gonna give some stuff away, and I'm just I'm plotting on each day, and that's one thing. If you know you're in the countdown to Christmas now, you can just do a bit of you know, like half an hour each day, can't you?
SPEAKER_01:Another thing that comes into getting your home ready for Christmas that's a real fly in the ointment, is that you suddenly have a load more stuff. I mean, it's soon to be a load more stuff in your home because it belongs to the people in your home, but for now you have to hide it so stuff comes like out of your storage spaces because you need to put these hidden gifts in there and stuff. Yeah, I mean, I'm just basically thinking normally I would be really stuck, but I just so happen to have successfully decluttered most of the boxes, storage boxes under my bed. Um, so I've managed to put most of mine in there, and I've also got a couple of boxes on the top of a very high set of bookshelves in my living room, which is like I know that's my kids like all their stocking fillers and everything, and I'm kind of thinking having it handy in the living room soon. I can start to like just do a bit of wrapping now and then, and it's such a cute, nice activity, then.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so it's mainly like your kids' gifts that you have to hide, isn't it? The other ones, um, you can do stuff like have like a staging box where all your Christmas stuff just gets dumped in that box, including like your wrapping and everything like that. They call it a staging box because it's just like it's not going to be there forever and stuff like that. Oh yeah. Um yeah, things like um you can have um gift bags already with the tags on. So when you buy a present for someone, instead of them getting all mixed up, wrap it and put it straight in the gift bag. You know, if it's if it's not for your kids. Do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01:I love that. Do you know what, babe? I have finished. I've done all my Christmas shopping, so now I should just start rapping.
SPEAKER_00:I need to start rapping. Definitely start rapping as you go along because it gets out the way and leaves when you get close to Christmas, nice times for doing nice things instead of exactly.
SPEAKER_01:And we'd planned for that, haven't we? What else is that there's also an excess of stuff coming into your kitchen because your fridge gets absolutely overloaded, doesn't it? And your cupboards, like my kitchen, the actual cupboard space in my kitchen is inconceivably little. Like I, you know, that's what I'm having as my excuse to myself as to why all my kitchen cupboards are literally like bursting with like stuff.
SPEAKER_00:Because like I think you you enjoy like food shopping and picking up bits, don't you? Like, I'm my your kitchen has always got a lot more food in it than mine. I tend to just buy buy the food for the week.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah, no.
SPEAKER_00:You always have loads of food like stored up, don't you?
SPEAKER_01:The cupboards, yeah, true. I think it's because I always bargain shop, don't I? I go in the freezer shops and all that, and so home and bargain and stuff. So when they've got something nice in, I like get like four or five, don't I? Instead of if you'd use one a week, yeah, I'll get five weeks' worth while it's cheap and it's a really nice thing, handy, yeah. But also I keep probably like DIY stuff in my kitchen cupboards, yeah. You know, all there's so few cupboards in mine, isn't there? So it is just chaos. Um, but that's another area that you get ready for Christmas, isn't it? If you're gonna be cooking or hosting, especially if you're hosting.
SPEAKER_00:So maybe a tip for that is to not be buying the bits that you don't necessarily need around Christmas, only buy the stuff that you're actually gonna use at Christmas.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I've now stopped buying any freezer food till the night before my like Christmas party weekend, so that I've got space for all the little, you know, nibbly things that you're putting out the freezer. So, yes, I'm trying to be like mindful.
SPEAKER_00:Another one is if you're buying lots of drinks, you can put them in your yard in like a tub or bin or something like that.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. I'm gonna do that today because I have started buying drinks and they're on the floor, stopping me being able to open the freezer. Thank you. That's boss. I'm doing it.
SPEAKER_00:Because it's because it's cold out there, isn't it? And animals don't try to get drinks. Um, another tip is like um so you can't decorate uh decorating zones or tidy in zones, so you'll you just that's just a way of breaking it down, you know. Like today I'm gonna do like the Christmas tree zone, and like yeah, that's nice. Each day you get a zone done. Remember to embrace the good enough Christmas that we're always saying about. Yes, you don't need to make your food from scratch, it doesn't matter if your wrapping paper doesn't all match. You can lose Amazon at the last minute. You can uh you know, don't aim for a Pinterest or an Instagram one, aim for a peaceful Christmas full of love. Love that, yeah. Um, you can have like a brain dump part where you write things down and keep that in the kitchen, or you can make notes on your phone or something like that. And that you know, I'm very much at the moment got like a mental ping-pong going on inside of my brain, where it's just idea after idea, and I'll forget it all if I don't write it down.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and I tell you another, we're bound we're ping-ponging now with ideas. Another thing we we know that we are fairly low-functioning bitches a lot of the time, but we often talk, don't we, about certain ADHD sisters of ours that we we look at and we're just like, oh, she's got the high functioning like dynamo ADHD. But sometimes we have moments that ourselves that we I certainly fluctuate and now and then have a real like fuzzy dynamic like moment or day or week. And uh yesterday I suddenly was just like right, I bought myself a jumper off into I basically pounced on it because it was like something by it by a like brand that I really like. It was like a cute like goth jumper, and I've never seen that design before, and it was like what an old one of theirs, and I basically paid more than I really want to know what it is. I know like the Cobwebby jumper from Dysterbia, but basically, I paid more than I felt happy with afterwards because I just did the pouncing on it thing because I knew it'd sell fast. I didn't pay loads, I just thought, oh, what am I doing? I've got loads of jumpers I'm supposed to be saving for this move. I've spent shitloads on Christmas. Um, like, why am I doing that?
SPEAKER_00:Your Christmas treat for you? I've bought loads for myself, girl. Good, good, you deserve it. You haven't got a partner who's buying it anything, so you've got to buy it out.
SPEAKER_01:No, exactly, but I've done it. I've bought myself loads, like there's no excuse left for me. I thought I shouldn't have done that, and then I thought, oh come on, come on, it's nice. Anyway, I uh just went in my vintage wardrobe, which I'm about to give up on, same as you, and there was a few items in there that were seasonal, like that regatta or the Keely like dry robe type coat that I bought myself, but I didn't like it. Brand new attacks. This is the time of year I needed to actually get round to selling it. Wasn't getting round to it. Decided to do it and listed literally three other items that I've had in my vintage wardrobe, including an old like jelly cat teddy that I'd found in a rummage bin for 50p. Yeah, yeah. Every item I listed sold the same day for the asking price. The jelly cat I got 25 quid for this toy that I'd bought for 50k. Oh the coat, I got my money back. Um, and another two items. I know, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to get rid of the rest soon. Um, but I might have a little flurry because yesterday I made like 120 quid. Um just as we were about to connect, my door knocked and it was DPD. Yeah, um, and they'd come to collect my parcel of books, which I finally had a go of selling to eBuy Books website, which normally I'm always like, no, come on, come on, give them to charity, don't be pathetic. But as I was going through my kids' bookshelf with them and getting read, I just thought, oh I'll just see. And basically, a pile of my kids' books was making me 30 quid, so I decided to do it for once, and yeah, what a win. So yesterday I made about 130 quid just by like selling stuff. So there's another prep that I've done to make space, which is also definitely back some of my Christmas spends.
SPEAKER_00:I love that. Thank you, girl. We're all we're all smart enough to work out what they mean. Um, dump basket for each room. So quick sweep, quick sweep and dump, and it's way easier than actually like properly ties in that basket.
SPEAKER_01:Got one here right now. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, never leave a room empty-handed.
SPEAKER_01:Love that. My mum used to put things on the stairs and say never walk past something on the stairs, take it up. And I've started doing that a bit now.
SPEAKER_00:Mine did that. Um, and you don't need to deep clean, spot clean if you've got people coming and you need to do it in a hurry. Definitely. Uh light a candle and turn on lamps because low light and hides things. Oh my god, that is.
SPEAKER_01:I want to throw in there paper plates, not just for the family buffet, but any meal that you can comfortably eat off a paper plate in the run up to Christmas. Give yourself a break.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Um, and the last one I'm gonna say is delegate like a boss. Get them kids on things. Um, one can be chief gift sticker, one can be recycle an elf, tinsel manager, make it fun for them, and get them to do stuff around the house and to help. And yeah, that's me tips for this.
SPEAKER_01:So raise a fist and say that we're the first nice one, baby. Right, let's get another one done.
