It's a work table with work on it, even.

This is exactly the kind of work I need to be able to do on this table.  I have [...]]]> Well, I did it.  After a year of allowing my kitchen table to become submerged under an ever-growing pile of random clutter, I finally reclaimed it:

It's a work table with work on it, even.

This is exactly the kind of work I need to be able to do on this table.  I have a large piece of handmade paper with flowers pressed into it, but it’s so delicate that the flowers are in constant danger of coming off.  I need to put down a layer of medium to make sure they stay put.

Here’s what the table looked like when I began:

Kitchen Table, Before

I started by separating everything into piles on the floor according to my categories. I discovered that I had five categories: art supplies, medications and first aid, cooking utensils, stuff to go upstairs, and papers to be filed. Since the rest of my home is pretty organized, dealing with these categories was pretty straightfoward — art supplies were put away in the studio area, first aid stuff in the medicine cabinet, and cooking utensils in the kitchen drawers.

The “upstairs” stuff had been the pebble that started the landslide, way back last Spring. I have a bunch of knick-knacks and stuff that I have no place to display, so I’m keeping them in a closet upstairs for now. For whatever reason, when I reorganized my studio last Spring, I didn’t ever get around to putting them away. As a result, the table started attracting random crap, and the situation snowballed.

This is an object lesson for a treacherous part of the organizing process. You see, by the time you’re about 90% done with your organizing project, you will stop, and you will take a look at what’s left to do. You will think to yourself, “I’m almost done. I’m tired, and I’m bored, and I’ll just finish this tomorrow.”

Well, don’t, because you won’t. You’ll forget about it, and pretty soon your chaos will be like you never tried to tame it. So learn from my sorry tale, kids, finish the job the first time.

Poisoning is much more common in dogs, because they’re pretty omnivorous.  Cats are generally more discriminating.  However, there is something about Adderall XR that cats love — they don’t just nibble it, they scarf down the [...]]]> Thanks to Twitter, I just saw this article from Science News about the rising incidence of Adderall poisoning among cats.

Poisoning is much more common in dogs, because they’re pretty omnivorous.  Cats are generally more discriminating.  However, there is something about Adderall XR that cats love — they don’t just nibble it, they scarf down the whole thing.  Stimulants are not inherently toxic to cats, but the amount that even a 50 lb human child can tolerate far exceeds what a 7 lb cat can tolerate.

Symptoms of stimulant poisoning are distressed vocalizing, agitation, sensitivity to light and sound, and an elevated heart rate.  If you notice these symptoms in your cat, get them to the vet immediately.  If you know your cat has ingested this drug, get them to the vet immediately.  It’s only a matter of time before symptoms start, and time is of the essence.

Of course, it’s easiest to keep all medications out of reach of your pets.  Keep your pills in childproof bottles, and make sure the cap is on when you’re done with them.  Store them in a medicine cabinet that they can’t open.  Take your dose right out of the bottle — don’t leave it lying where your cats can reach it, even for a minute.

For more information, here’s another link to the article.

Adults with ADD are notorious for hanging onto clutter.  We’ve being scolded our whole lives for loosing things through our carelessness.  If we never throw anything a way, we know it’s there … somewhere.  We might not be able to find it right now, [...]]]>

Oscar has no problem with trash -- he LOVES trash!

Adults with ADD are notorious for hanging onto clutter.  We’ve being scolded our whole lives for loosing things through our carelessness.  If we never throw anything a way, we know it’s there … somewhere.  We might not be able to find it right now, but we know we didn’t lose it!  It’s just misplaced, right?  We can find it here … somewhere … even if it takes eight hours to do it.

For years, that was my major motivation in hanging on to every little worthless piece of junk.  I didn’t know what was important, and I didn’t know when I might need it, so I might as well hang onto it.  My clutter was an allergy-inducing, frustrating eyesore, but there was security in it too.  The security that whatever it was, I probably had it around here … somewhere.

And so, the hardest part of my organizing journey was the purge — getting rid of things I didn’t need.

The “give away” category was bad enough.  Intellectually, I knew that I didn’t need the cheap set of cookware I’d bought in college, but emotionally, I was convinced that if I donated them, I’d be looking for them a month later.  But with the giveaway pile, I was able to reason with myself.  I could tell myself that I hadn’t used those things in years, and that someone else would be getting good use from them.  Giving them away was a good thing for everybody.

But putting items into the “trash” category, and then actually putting them in the actual trash — that was the worst.

Items that qualified as “trash” were pretty numerous.  “Trash” included anything that was broken.   “Trash” included anything that was missing a part, and  anything that was clearly a part to something else, but I didn’t know what.  “Trash” included anything that was too dirty to use.  “Trash” included leaking, duplicate, and triplicate cleaning supplies in various states of emptiness.

So into the trash went the four bottles of different types of eco-friendly household cleaner (I kept two bottles to have on hand).  Into the trash went the non-stick cook wear that was scratched and peeling. Likewise all those coffee mugs with broken handles, that I’d been meaning to glue together for years. Then there were the cheap plastic bowls and plates and silverware that I’d inherited in college from graduating seniors, all of which was stained or cracked or even melted.

Even though these items were useless, it was hard for me to toss them.  I felt like I should be able to “come up with a use” for them.  Many of the items couldn’t even be recycled, and I felt guilty about having so much garbage.  I didn’t want to be another greedy, wasteful American, my home bursting at the seams with unused purchases that were destined for overflowing landfills.

Fortunately, I had my clutter buddy.  This was an area where really be a realty check.   She reassured me it was OK to throw things out when they’re broken and useless.  She pointed out holding onto my worthless junk would in no way solve our collective cultural problems with waste.  Most importantly, she explained that by throwing away all that garbage, I’d be able to keep better track of what I owned.  I would buy fewer things overall, and therefore I would be less wasteful overall.

We ended our day by taking several trips to the curb with my garbage.  Then we hit Goodwill with several bags full of donations.  I felt bruised.  I felt embarrassed about the years worth of junk we had found in my kitchen — in the place where I prepared and served food.  I felt guilty about the waste I had generated.  And I felt bereft, too; bereft of the items I was giving up, however useless, because of the security they represented to me.

This time was the scariest part in my organizing process.  Not only had I just undergone a Great Purge, but I would have to wait another week before really putting my kitchen back together.  Since no other part in my home was organized, it was necessary to designate an area on the kitchen floor for items that would ultimately belong in the kitchen, but wouldn’t have a “home” there until we’d organized more than the food prep area. This pile would be kept off to the side of the dining area so nothing would get stepped on.  I was terrified that it would wind up staying there forever.  But I took a deep breath, scheduled a decluttering session with my buddy for the following week, and turned to the next step in the process: the Sorting.

I’m out of town visiting family for the holidays. Before I left town, I meant to summarize and link to some of the articles I’ve seen about how to manage holiday chaos if you or a family member has ADHD. Unfortunately my dental emergency and three different shifting deadlines intervened.  Oh well.

While it’s [...]]]>

I’m out of town visiting family for the holidays. Before I left town, I meant to summarize and link to some of the articles I’ve seen about how to manage holiday chaos if you or a family member has ADHD. Unfortunately my dental emergency and three different shifting deadlines intervened.  Oh well.

While it’s a bit late to implement some of my favorite holiday organizing tactics — like shopping online to minimize mall exposure — it’s never to late to put some of Terry Matlen’s advice into practice. She blogs at “Moms with ADHD”, and has some recommendations here and here about what NOT to do to keep your sanity over the holidays.

My fellow Squid Macs has some compassionate tips for managing the holidays with a special needs child. She emphasizes the importance of communicating your expectations to your child, and discussing your child’s needs with other family members. She also suggests that you don’t overbook your family, that you bring a “care package” of your child’s favorite toys so they can have a time out in case of overstimulation, and that you have an “escape plan” so you can leave before things get out of hand. A lot of her advice can be modified for adults too.

Health Central has some good tips specific to kids with ADD. For instance, try to maintain the family routine as much as possible, make sure your child understands that different households have different rules, and make sure you only accept invitations to events where you and your children will be welcome and comfortable.

My single best piece of advice is to be gentle with yourself. Some of your presents might not arrive on time, your house may not look perfect, and you might not get all those cookies baked. Personally, I started enjoying the holidays much, MUCH more the year I gave up once and for all on sending cards; it’s just one of those things that I never got around to doing, and caused so much stress it wasn’t worth it.

In any decent world, the winter holidays are about being with your loved ones, catching up with friends and family, remembering times past, and creating new memories. I hereby give you official permission to chill out. Relax, enjoy yourself, and have a safe and happy holiday season.

I’ll be back on my blogs in January 2010.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Between my cold and the holiday, I haven’t been around much this week, but I’ll be back starting next week with more organizing stories, tips, and hacks.

Last Friday I packed up the books that I’m selling to Powell’s. I’m in the process of taking care of the [...]]]> In my last installment on my entryway project, I talked about assigning homes to all of the things that live there — coats, hats, sports equipment, shoes, dressy clothes, and cold-weather gear.

Last Friday I packed up the books that I’m selling to Powell’s. I’m in the process of taking care of the donations pile; I already donated some of it, and the rest will be picked up on Monday by the Vietnam Veteran’s Association. I’ve set myself a deadline of November 20th to deal with the rest of the items in my “sell” pile.

The next step in the process is “containerizing”. I’ve duly ordered what I need from the container store, but it won’t be available until November 9th. While I’m waiting, I’ve decided to start writing up my personal organizing story, from its shaky beginnings four years ago to the decision to start this blog. Those posts will start appearing tomorrow.