It's Not Clutter. It's a Creative Operating System.

Sep 23, 2025

Why ADHD/ND creatives collect "cool stuff" — from Funko Pops to Munnys — and how it actually fuels the work.

Walk into my studio and it looks like a kid's room crashed into an agency war room: comicon collectibles, old game cartridges, some munnys that I haven't had the time to paint yet, stacks of art & photography books, camera gear, way too much camera gear, and 3D printed parts for RC trucks still waiting to be reassembled. People either smile and say, “This is very cool,” or they give me those judgy eyes. Sometimes both.

So I started asking myself an honest question: why do so many ADHD/ND creatives hoard things? Is it inspiration? Nostalgia? A dopamine thing? An excuse to go treasure hunting at flea markets when we're supposed to be working? I dove deep—real research, not just vibes—and what I learned made my crowded shelves suddenly make sense.

Short version: the collection is doing three jobs at once—fueling dopamine, anchoring memory, and keeping play alive—which turns out to be a surprisingly effective creative stack.

I’ll break it down the way my brain actually works: in loops—story, science, and stuff I’ve tested the hard way.

1) The Hunt Is Half the Hit (Hi, Dopamine)

Let’s start with the “why this feels so good” part. Most ADHD individuals (including myself) are novelty-seekers. New colors, an unusual sculpt, a limited run, that one book that "everybody" is discussing—our brains sit up at the possibility of something new. The key word is possibility. It's not so much about owning the item; it's the hunt, the search, the tiny electric thrill that says, "Ooh, what if?" That thrill is dopamine—our motivation and "pay attention now" signal. There's a pile of research connecting ADHD and altered dopamine signaling, which is partly why novelty and reward are so particularly appealing to us. Frontiers

Zoom out from ADHD proper, and reward neuroscience has been banging on dopamine pathways for what, five decades? The short of it: the brain's reward circuits anticipate reward, predict reward, and reinforce whatever led to it. That feedback loop of reinforcement is the reason that searching out a hard-to-find figure or first-edition art book continues so obstinately; the brain flags the path you took to get there as "do that again." Frontiers+1

And most of all, collecting rewards anticipation even more than the moment of purchase itself. That anticipation signal—"maybe today I'll find it"—is rocket fuel for attention. If you've ever cruised a swap meet or scrolled a late-night drop with your heart rate increased, you've felt it. That's not you being "weak." That's your operating system doing what it does.

2) Nostalgia: Memory + Meaning + Reward (aka Why the Old Stuff Hits Hard)

The second half of the magic is nostalgia—the warm-glow time travel when an object pulls you straight back to some earlier version of yourself. Nostalgia isn't just "aww, remember that." It's a neural remix of memory, emotion regulation, and reward systems playing together. Social-cognitive neuroscience work maps nostalgia onto brain networks involved in autobiographical memory (hippocampus territory), self-reflection (medial prefrontal regions), emotion regulation, and reward (the dopamine crew). In short: the object can trigger the "who I am," "what I feel," and "this feels good" circuits at once. Which is why the shelves aren't just shelves—they're emotional bookmarks. OUP ACADEMIC

There’s older work showing memory and reward systems literally co-activate during nostalgic experiences—your brain glues those together, which explains why certain toys, covers, or characters aren’t just cool; they spark actual creative juice. You’re not clinging to the past—you’re using it as kindling. OUP Academic

And it makes a bizarre detour into utility: nostalgia can pad stress. Shifting focus to pleasant autobiographical material is a regulation in itself. Anyone who's stared at some ruthless deadline and then strolled over to some ancient art book for five minutes—yeah, you've executed that emotional hairpin curve on purpose. (Or by instinct, which is fine. Instinct is just R&D you haven't written up.) The Journal of Neuroscience

3) Externalizing Memory: Why "Out of Sight" Really Is "Out of Mind" (for Us) So let's talk about object permanence—that fancy term ADHDers like to throw around. Technically, ADHD adults do have object permanence; we learned that toddler skill a few decades ago. What we can't do is working memory and attentional persistence—if it's out of sight, it gets erased from the mental whiteboard. So we leave notes everywhere. We externalize cognition. We keep them in view so that the information they contain does not disappear. It shows up as clutter. It is really a memory prosthetic. Verywell Mind+1

There's even recent research that suggests sensory stimulation can enhance visual working memory capacity. I'm not saying "dump three shelves of toys on your desk and boom, you're Einstein," but the general direction is in line with what most of us already do: we have visual anchors around us because they help us keep ideas in mind long enough to associate them. Nature

And if you require the ADHD twist: visuospatial working memory differences show up reliably in ADHD populations. Translation: visual reminders aren't just a style; for many of us they're strategy, permitting the space to retain memory we can't sustain internally for long. BioMed Central

4) Play Isn't Cute. It's an R&D Method.

I used to apologize for the toys by saying "clients like the vibe," which… sometimes true. The more geeky, deeper reason? Play toggles the brain into explore mode. It lowers the stakes just enough that weird connections start to happen. Reviews of creativity research keep coming back to the same thing: playful mindsets and play-like environments are correlated with more flexible, divergent thinking—the kind you need for concepting, story systems, mechanics, or brand worlds. Wiley Online Library

Education and design-thinking research report the same thing: when you construct hands-on, playful processes—sketch, tinker, prototype, test—you see bumps in collaboration, resilience, and creative output. That's not limited to children. Creative adults respond to the same ingredients because the cognition underlying is the same: curiosity, low-risk experimentation, and feedback loops. Frontiers+1

So yeah, the action figures and pop-art prints are fun, but they’re also permission slips—signals to my brain that say, “We’re allowed to try a weird move here. No one’s grading this yet.” And honestly, that little permission slip has paid my mortgage more than once.

5) Object Attachment: Comfort, Regulation, and “Keeping Myself Together” There’s another slice nobody talks about at conferences because it sounds squishy: object attachment. Many adults (ND and non) form intense bonds with specific objects—artifacts laden with personal meaning. That attachment may be a source of emotional regulation: stability when timetables get wobbly, comfort when anxiety gets spiky, continuity when your schedule looks like a loser in a fight with a blender. Reviews across developmental and consumer psych literature point to the very common, evolved role that object attachment plays in emotion regulation. To ND individuals who experience things at 11, that isn't trivial. ScienceDirect

Recent studies have even specifically investigated object attachment and emotion regulation in young adults and discovered the correlations you'd expect: the more attachment, the clearer the regulatory functions those objects serve. That aligns with lived experience: I can sense my shoulders drop when I cradle the camera I learned on, or open the cover of a comic that transformed the way I draw. It is not decoration. It's a reset switch. MDPI

6) "Okay, But Is This… Addictive?"

Short answer: it can be. And that's worth noting. The same reward systems that make collecting motivating and enjoyable can, for some of us, bleed into compulsive behavior—especially when stress is high and the buy-button is one thumb away. A simple heuristic I use: is the collection in service to the work and my life, or am I in service to the collection?

If it gets in the way of function, ruins finances, or is the default way I cope with emotion, that's not "inspiration," that's me outsourcing coping to a credit card. Clinicians and researchers slice this thinner, but day-to-day red flags are simple: chasing the hit, hiding the spend, purchasing but not using, shame spiraling, or neglecting more adaptive coping skills. A good nudge in the right direction is to shift the focus from acquiring to doing—shoot the collection, monogram things, tape histories, give extras, cycle displays with intention—so the cycle is generative once more. Popular writing suggests the difference between collecting with significance and hoarding: function vs. impairment, intention vs. compulsion. It's not a paragraph diagnosis, but it's a bright beacon for most of us. Psychology Today

Behind the scenes, it's still dopamine and reward prediction doing their thing. The idea isn't to villainize that system; it's to work around it so we reap the benefit (curiosity, energy, surprise) without letting the loop control our lives. Frontiers

7) Creating a Space That Works With (Not Against) an ND Brain

Alright, brass tacks. If you want to make an object-rich studio that fuels the work but doesn't bog you down with clutter, here's what's finally worked for me (after many failed attempts and one very patient husband):

Make your inspiration visible—on purpose.

Pegboards, rails, ledges, magazine racks. Put current-project references at eye level, retire old ones to labeled bins. That's externalizing working memory without drowning in it. The science on visual working memory and stimulation supports the idea that clever cues can enable us to keep more in mind. Nature

Curate by project, not by category.

When I’m in game-mechanic mode, robot toys and UI books live up front. When I’m shooting, lenses and photobooks take the stage. This keeps the cue stack clean so my brain knows what we’re doing today (ish).

Build rituals that scratch the dopamine itch without buying.

Turn a shelf on Mondays, re-shelf art books by color on Fridays (don't look at me), draw a new accessory for a Munny once a month. You still have novelty and reward—just without a checkout screen.

Add one "green room" for quiet.

I love the hum of the hive, but I learned the hard way that my talking and walking around were frying other people's focus. A deliberate quiet area—no talking, headphones are okay—is a gift to your engineers and to your own deep-work windows.

Tell the story of the collection.

A little note under an item—a place where you found it, why it's important—turns disparate objects into a narrative thread. It's that story that your brain grabs onto when you're concepting. It's how nostalgia becomes actionable.

Substitute "make" for "buy.".

3D print a stand. Repaint a figure. Mod a busted toy so it's got a new function on your shelf. When the collection becomes a collaboration with your future self, the entire thing remains healthy.

8) Why This All Actually Helps Me Ship Work Here's the real talk.

My shelves aren't there to display taste. They're tools. When I crash into the wall—deadline pressure, attention shattering, that familiar ADHD fog—I can literally reach out and touch something that pulls me back to why I make things in the first place. The toy I loved at age seven, the book that blew my mind at twenty-five, the camera I used on my first "oh wow, getting paid for this" gig.

Those aren't trinkets; they're launch pads.

Research-wise, that tallies: nostalgia engages memory and reward, which helps modulate emotion and motivation's push; novelty pings dopamine, which helps with attention; visual cues assist working memory so I can hold more pieces in my head; and play gives me the flexibility to be crazy enough to try the weird solution that works out to be "the thing." That is not me justifying my Funko wall. That is me finally understanding why it works. Wiley Online Library+3OUP Academic+3Frontiers+3

9) Where I Land (for now)

Collecting isn't a personality test. It's a stack—dopamine, memory, and play—braided together in the open. For ADHD/ND creatives, that stack can be the difference between stuck and shipping.

Dopamine keeps the engine turning (hunt, surprise, reward). Frontiers

Nostalgia attaches ideas to who we are (memory + meaning + motivation). OUP Academic

External cues keep thoughts from evaporating (working memory needs help). Verywell Mind

Play keeps the path wide enough to find the bizarre, right answer. Wiley Online Library

Could it bleed into compulsion? Sure. That's why we put guardrails in place and constantly ask: Is this helping me make better work and live better, or is it controlling me? When it's helping, man… it's amazing.

So yeah—my studio still looks like a children's room created by a baby with a design library. And I'm all right with that. It isn't clutter. It's my operating system.

Notes on the research I drew upon (because I actually did read it):

ADHD & dopamine: Recent review in Frontiers in Psychiatry distills decades of evidence that differences in dopamine signaling are at the core of ADHD traits—why novelty and reward seeking are "louder" for us. Frontiers

Nostalgia's brain map: This 2022 Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience review outlines how nostalgia co-activates autobiographical memory, emotion regulation, and reward—explaining why old things are reassuring and inspirational. Another study from earlier also illustrates memory-reward co-activation during nostalgia. OUP Academic+1

Object permanence vs. working memory: Good explainers make it clear that adults with ADHD don't "lack object permanence"; we have issues with attention/working memory, so visual reminders are key. Verywell Mind+1

Sensory stimulation & visual working memory: Recent studies in Nature Communications Psychology show that certain sensory input can boost vWM capacity. Don't overdo it, but it supports the "keep important visual cues in view" strategy. Nature

Play & creativity: Reviews across adult creativity and college/design-thinking research show play and playful environments enhancing flexible thinking, collaboration, and creative outputs. Wiley Online Library+2Frontiers+2

Object attachment & emotion regulation: Reviews and a new study explain how object attachment can meet daily regulation needs—stability, comfort, continuity—without pathologizing it. ScienceDirect+1

Addiction vs. inspiration: Popular psychology articles draw an easy distinction: if collecting disables function or is your only coping mechanism, it's a problem; keep it creative and purposeful. (Use your own life as the barometer.)