Ready or not, here it comes – for those of us in the Northern hemisphere, the first day of fall will be here in three weeks. What did you plan to do this summer that you haven’t done yet? Go to the beach? Hold a garage sale? Clean out the gutters? It’s not too late to get those unfinished warm-weather tasks and activities accomplished; it just takes a bit of planning to turn your intentions into commitments. Pull out your calendar or planner (you do have one, don’t you?) and schedule when you’re going to do the things you’ve been meaning to do all summer.
I’m certainly not trying to load up your calendar or to-do list, but just so nothing slips through the cracks before the snow starts flying, here are a few things that are warm weather friendly that you might want to consider scheduling:
Clean out the garage –It sure would be nice to fit your vehicle in the garage where it will be warm and dry this winter.
Clean out your vehicle – It will be a lot more pleasant to get the trash and other extraneous items cleared out before the cold numbs your fingers.
Tune up the snow blower – As much as you may wish otherwise, the snow is coming and you’ll want to be ready.
Additional checklists on how to prepare for cooler weather, as well as other ways to get your life organized, are available in my APPLES Resource Guide. And no matter what’s on your list, be sure to take some time to savor the sights, smells and sounds of this special time of year.
Enjoy the rest of your summer,
I’ve had the opportunity to be part of several organizing makeover shows (as the organizer, not the client, mind you) and really enjoy seeing the client’s excitement as they view their transformed space for the first time. While you may be hoping there’s a television crew about to knock on your door to announce that you’ve won an organizing makeover, odds are that’s not about to happen. So here are some quick tips to help you jump start your own home organizing makeover:
I recently encountered a situation with my client, whom I’ll call “Ann”, which exemplifies how some people think neatening is the same thing as organizing, and how detrimental that can be. Ann has several chronic medical conditions that generate lots of paperwork, leaving her buried in piles and overwhelmed. She also tends to be an over-shopper, buying things because they’re fun or pretty, not because she’ll necessarily use them, although she says she intends to give them as gifts someday. In addition, she has emotional attachments to gift boxes, greeting cards, stickers, ribbon, and other gift-giving supplies. Ann also envisions herself as being a great cook some day, so she stockpiles recipes and cooking supplies. I’ve worked with Ann on and off for several years to set up systems for her paperwork and create space for the emotion-evoking things that fill her small condo.
As I did around this time last year, I just saw a Disney-Pixar film that offers some great organizing lessons. This year it was Toy Story 3 that lured me from the comfort of my couch. The premise of the story is that Andy, who we met as a young boy in the first movie of the series, is getting ready to go to college and must decide what to do with his toys. This story tugged at my heart not only because I have son named Andy who’s in college, but also because I see many of my clients face the same struggles as Andy while they move towards creating a new, better life for themselves. Here are my observations:
“Brush your teeth”, “Make your bed”, “Feed the fish” – parents sometimes feel like a broken record when it comes to handing out chores to their kids. And sometimes (ok, maybe often), rather than delegate, we might do something ourselves because it’s easier than doing battle with the kids or because we know we’ll do it better – I know firsthand how true that is. But I think we owe it to our kids to have them help out around the house – it teaches them responsibility and helps train them to be mature independent adults. And isn’t our job as parents to one day push them out of the nest and watch them fly?
Did you ever notice that clutter seems to attract clutter? When you plop something “here for now” does that one item seem to multiply? Often a few out-of-place items seem to give us permission to continue adding to the jumble. We drop the bag of items from the store by the door because we don’t feel like putting them away right now. We set the mail on the counter “for now” because we don’t have time to deal with it. We dump the laundry from the dryer onto the couch because we don’t have time to fold it just yet. Pretty soon our home looks like a chaotic mess because our habits have allowed the clutter to creep up on us.
I hear it all the time: “If I only had more energy I’d be more organized.” It may be a case of the chicken and the egg – your disorganization depletes you so you don’t have the energy to get organized and visa versa. While there are certainly physical conditions that can zap energy, our own habits sometimes deplete us as well. There are two common areas clutter in most people’s lives: visual and electronic. I’ll talk about visual clutter this week and electronic clutter next week. 
Is your bedroom calm and serene, a place where you can relax and get a restful night’s sleep? Or is it a chaotic place filled with clutter, clothes, papers and the like? If your bedroom is anything but restful, consider spending some time de-cluttering and organizing it so it becomes a sanctuary to replenish your mind and soul. In addition, organizing your bedroom will make getting dressed each day a simple endeavor rather than a frantic hunt for matching shoes!
This week I’m offering some ideas that can help everyone, but especially people with AD/HD, get organized. Future posts will cover organizing paperwork and time and tasks, but this week I’m offering some pointers for organizing “things”:
