ADD ADHD Help -- Dana Rayburn ADD ADHD Coach

Eleven Keys to Getting Organized
By Dana Rayburn

It's no surprise. People who are naturally organized do things differently than those of us for whom keeping the stuff of our life in order is a major challenge. The good news is that it is possible to learn the basic rules for getting organized. Of course there's a catch - getting organized is only half the battle. You then need to learn to stay organized, too. Never fear. I'll write about staying organized in another article.

Let me, a card-carrying Messie from birth, take you back to 1985. I was newly married to Mr. Orderly. Funny how that happens isn't it. For my sanity and self-respect, not to mention the health of my marriage, I decided that I was going to change my sloppy ways and learn to be organized. Here's what I did. Since I was fortunate to have a number of naturally organized people in my life, I secretly studied how they kept their homes and offices under control. Then I practiced doing the same things in my office and home. It worked and now I'm going to let you in on the basics of what I learned. I call it the Secret Habits of Organized People. Tips that have served my clients well when I later became a professional organizer and then an ADD coach.

1. Give everything a home.
Consider a pile of papers or a mass of clutter to be a homeless shelter. When each item you own has a designated place to live you can put it away and find it much more easily.

2. Label Everything
Our brains have enough to do with out remembering where we've stored every little thing so it helps to label as much storage as possible. Put a label on all boxes, file, binders, cupboards, shelves, bins, etc. saying what lives there. Ok, Ok, if you don't like labels on your kitchen cabinets, use sticky notes until the whole family remembers what lives where.

3. Make the things you use the most the easiest to get to
Chances are if something is difficult to do, you won't do it. If you have to stand on a chair and move a box to put a dish away that you use twice a week it will probably live on the kitchen counter. So keep those old tax returns on the top shelf of the closet and keep your pile of bills to pay in easy reach. After you've found the bills to pay, that is.

4. Make things easy to do
This is a different look at the 'if something is difficult to do you won't do it' premise. For example, if the file drawer won't open easily you certainly won't put the files back in the drawer. If you can't get the
closet door open you won't hang up your shirt. If you have to walk into another room you won't put your clothes in the hamper. If the bed is hard to make, you won't make it. Look at where the messes most likely gather and see if you can make it easier to do.

5. Keep things where you use them.
Again this falls into the make things effortless category. Picture this: you mostly use the stapler in the kitchen on your kid's homework, but it's home is in the den on your desk. Where will the stapler most likely be? Yep, on the kitchen counter (next to that dish). Either move the stapler to a new home in the kitchen or if you use it in both places, buy another one.

6. Group similar things together depending upon how you use them.
This is the department store principle of organizing. It saves on decisions and makes it easier to find things and put them away. It also helps the old (or young) failing memory. Say you don't remember if you have a pirate costume. Well if you have a costume department such as a box where all the family's costumes live, it is so easy to find out. If all the catalogs live in a basket by the sofa, they are less likely to be left scattered around the living room and if they are, you can easily put them away.

7. If you don't like it, use it or need it for legal or health reasons get rid of it.
Here's where so many people get hung up on getting organized. That old I've gotta keep it; I might need it sometime dilemma. To decide if you will keep something or not ask: "Do I like this?" "Do I use this?" "Do I need to keep this for legal or health reasons?" If you answer NO to all three questions, get rid of the item. If your answer to any of these questions is YES, ask: "How will I use it?" If your answer is anything but realistic, get rid of the darned thing!

8. Beware of Clutter Magnets
Clutter magnets are those charming areas that just seem to attract a mess. Take that chair in your bedroom for example. Can you remember the last time you sat in it? Or even saw it? I bet it's piled with clothes to be dry cleaned, magazines, books and, well, you get the idea. Bedroom chairs are clutter magnets. So are dining room tables, entry hall tables, kitchen counters, the corner of your desk and the top of the filing cabinet. To conquer Clutter Magnets study what collects on them and fix the reason why it ends up on the Clutter Magnet. Also get rid of the Clutter Magnet if you can (no chairs in the bedroom), or block it off with plants or photos so you can't set things on them.

9. Be motion minded
We're back to making things effortless. Consider how many steps it takes to put something away or to complete a task and then adjust it so it takes the fewest motions possible. Take pens for example. To put a pen away do you have to (1)grab the pen, (2)open the drawer, (3)put the pen in and (4)shut the drawer? If the pens lived in a cup on top of your desk or counter you would only have to (1)grab the pen and (2)put it in the cup. Two steps instead of four. Which is easier and which are you more likely to do?

10. Set limits on how much you can keep.
My unscientific theory is that a mess will expand according to how much room you allot for it. That's why creatively using baskets, boxes and other containers to limit the space available for an item helps control the mess. Use the size of the storage container as your guide to when to sort and purge the extra stuff. For example, when you can't get your hand in the file cabinet, clean out the folders. When you can't get another magazine in the basket, clean out the magazines. When you can't get another bottle of nail polish in the box, get rid of the polish you no longer use or like.

11. Store things vertically (upright) instead of horizontally (flat).
This goes along with the mess expanding to the space allotted for it. Horizontal (flat) piles of paper, clothes, magazines, books - you name it - can grow and grow until they reach the ceiling. A scary thought. But if you take that same pile and turn vertically (on its side) in some sort of a container, you have an automatic limit set for how much you can keep. Keeping the catalogs upright in a basket limits the number you can keep. The books on book shelf does the same. Papers in file-folders, etc.

*** The Fine Print ***

Published by Dana Rayburn, Copyright 2008, all rights reserved.

Permission is granted to forward or post this content in full for use in a
not-for-profit format, as long as this copyright notice and full information
about the author, Dana Rayburn, is attached intact. If any other use is
desired, permission in writing is required. Questions? Contact Dana

*** About Coach Dana *** Dana Rayburn, A. C. T., is a life success coach
with an international practice who helps people reach their goals and create
the incredible life they have always wanted. Most of her clients are
business owners or professionals who want to live more easily with AD/HD,
get organized so they can stay organized and/or embark on a rewarding path
of personal development.

Dana's coaching career began in 1998, evolving from nearly eight years as a
professional organizer, popular for innovative and practical ways of
conquering clutter and creating easy to use organizing systems. Prior to
that she spent eight years as a corporate systems analyst and strategic
planner. She is a graduate of Coach U and the Optimal Functioning
Institute's training for ADD coaches and is affiliated with ADDA, CHADD, the
ADD Professionals chat group, Coachville and the International Coach
Federation.

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