organizing « Well-Ordered Chaos

Perfectionism, time management, and postive self-talk

I was on my way out the door today when I happened to check my text messages. I’m glad I did; I was alerted to the fact that the Vietnam Veteran’s Association was coming by to pick up the donation pile from my entryway.

I had set myself an e-mail reminder for yesterday morning, reminding me [...]

My Organizing Journey Begins

My organizing journey began in the fall of 2005 when a friend of mine called me with an interesting proposition.

“I think we should help each other get organized”, she said.

I was stunned. “Get organized? Help each other?” I asked. “How can I be any help to you at all? You’re pretty [...]

Organizing an Entryway, Step 4: Assigning Homes

Having sorted my stuff, it’s time to assign homes to my stuff. The dress clothes and the jackets already have homes on the coat hooks and in the closet. That leaves me three more categories to store. The first one is cold weather accessories:

Hats, gloves, scarves, an extra fleece vest, and [...]

Organizing An Entryway, Step 3: Sorting

This is the third post in my Organizing an Entryway series. I’m breaking it down into steps that are as small as possible to prevent ADD overwhelm.

Now that I can actually walk in my entryway, I’m ready for the third step of the process (and the first step of the SPACE process): sorting.

Sorting actually [...]

Organizing an Entryway, Step 2: The Pre-Sort

This is the second post in my Organizing an Entryway series. I’m breaking it down into steps that are as small as possible to prevent ADD overwhelm.

The second step in my organizing process is a quick pre-sort. This is a quick way to get rid of two categories of stuff: things that don’t belong [...]

Organizing My Entryway, Part 1: Taking Stock of the Situation

I stared work on my entryway today. I’ll be posting a series of entries on how I’m going about it, step by step, so you can see how a Real Live Person with ADD starts and finishes an organizing project.

I basically use Julie Morgenstern’s five-step SPACE system (“SPACE” stands for Sort, Purge, Assign a home, [...]

Want to organize your junk drawer? For starters, don’t call it a junk drawer!

Earlier today I came across a blog post by a CPO (that’s “certified professional organizer” about your junk drawer. You know, the one that has all those packets of ketchup in it? And those containers of pepper flakes that come with pizza? And your spare buttons, and some batteries, and that piece of paper with [...]

How to Use Gmail Calendar

In case you’re not up with the gmail these days, it’s a free, web-based e-mail system with unlimited storage that is run by Google. One of gmail’s many (many) features is its calendar, which you can tweak to your heart’s content. You can create as many calendars as you want — for home and work, [...]

Today I Cleaned My Kitchen

Well, part of it anyway. But I cleaned that part of it really well.

I’ve been bitching a lot this week about feeling all tired and hibernatey. Low energy, low motivation, blah blah blah. Today I had to get it together because my partner’s coming back from a business trip, and I know [...]

Time Management: gimme the fish and nobody gets hurt

You know the saying about giving someone a fish, and feeding them for a day, versus teaching them to fish, and feeding them for a lifetime?

Over the summer, I worked with an ADD coach to learn how to create a schedule for myself. With her help, I was able [...]

Well-Ordered Chaos

Now where did I put that post…