People with attention deficit disorder are often impulsive. It can be tempting for us to just dive right into our organizing project before doing any of that boring planning.
Unfortunately, this can be a recipe for failure — and another failure is exactly what an adult with ADD doesn’t need. Here are seven things to do BEFORE you begin your organizing project to enhance your chances of success.
1. Find a clutter buddy. Getting organized with a friend is more fun than going it alone, and it’s a great way to help each other out. It’s often easier to see solutions to someone else’s problems than our own. Your organizing buddy provides
“outside eyes” and will be able to see possibilities you cannot and vice versa. Remember to choose this person carefully. Your buddy should be a non-judgmental person who makes you feel secure and confident, and someone you can trust not to discuss your dirty household secrets with the world.
2. Go through your house and take an inventory of what is and what is not working. Talk with your buddy about how you use your space now and how you would like to be able to use it in the future. For instance, your kitchen table might be colonized by piles of bills, magazines, and paperwork, and you’d like to start eating dinner there again. This identifies a specific problem: you can’t use your kitchen table the way you would like to use it, because it is cluttered. The solution is to find another home for your mail.
3. Take special note of what IS already working. You may think you’re a complete and utter slob, but I guarantee that something in your life is already organized. Can you always find your keys? Your cellphone? Your wallet? Your child’s lunchbox? Then ask yourself WHY you can always find this item. Maybe your keys are always, always in your right front jacket pocket. Maybe you clean your child’s lunchbox immediately after school ever day and then put it on the counter next to the snadwich bread. The answer to this question will give you important insight into how to organize the rest of your space.
4. Start small. Choose a small room, or a small portion of a larger room. The food prep area of your kitchen is often a good place to start because you use this area every day, and you will notice the difference your organizing efforts make right away. The bathroom is another good place to start because it’s a small but important space where your efforts will be immediately obvious. After you’ve kept this area clean for a week, you’ll have some brand new organizing skills to apply to larger and more complicated parts of your home.
5. Be gentle with yourself. Many adults with ADD have endured years of shame about the messiness of your home. I know that when I first started I was sure it would never work, and if a solution didn’t immediately work perfectly I began to beat myself up about it. This is a waste of time and energy, and you deserve better. Remind yourself that you are taking an important step by starting this process.
6. Be willing to work with reality. Like I said in number 5, there is no One True Way. Before you even start your project, tell yourself that you will be willing to consider unusual solutions to your organizing problems. There’s no rule that says you have to keep your kitchen utensils in a drawer — maybe it would work better for you if you kept them vertically in a large glass. When you go to organize your stuff, think about how and where you use it, not about where you think it “should” go.
7. Don’t buy anything yet! Yeah, this is more of a “not” than a “to do”, but it’s a biggie. Buying organizing supplies is one of the very last last steps in the organizing process. If you buy things before you start, you will have no idea what tools you really need, and you will end up wasting money — or worse, trying to cram your stuff into a set of containers just because you spent money on it.
Think of this as a series of experiments. If you try something new, and a week later you’re back to the same old mess, it’s not because you failed at making the solution work. It’s because the solution wasn’t right for you. If a solution fails, you’ve learned something valuable – what doesn’t work. By thinking about why that particular solution wasn’t effective, you will be able to hone in on what does work.
Comments: Discuss Amongst Yourselves.