Expert: Jan Hayner - 8/11/2008

Question
I am messy. Cluttered. Unorganized. Lazy.

Okay, it's organized clutter. I know where everything is.

But it drives my friends, family and neighbors absolutely insane.

I have papers everywhere. I have.. stuff. Everywhere.

Please, I need help finding some sort of system. I often lose important items in my clutter (phone, keys, glasses, homework.)

I know the general area of what I need to find.. say on my table. It's piled with junk. I know what's in there, but.. I just keep piling stuff on stuff on stuff.

And shove stuff under stuff with stuff.

Is there something I can do? Some way I can kick myself in the ass to get myself to do something with all of this ..... stuff?

(That goes for clothes too. Guess where the dirty clothes are? In the floor.

Guess where the clean clothes are?

..In the floor.)

Help?

Kayla

Answer
Hi Kayla;
Yes, you do need an organizing fairy!! You are so overwhelmed that you have figured out that it is easier to procrastinate than to deal with the mess. But, there are only about a million other people that feel the same way that you do, so don't feel that you are alone. I get letters from them every day, from ALL around the world.

Yes, there is help for you, No, it isn't hard.

First of all, you agree that you have an organized mess. You know about where it is and that is a good thing. You are better off than half of that million people that I mentioned.

Now, take all of the 'stuff' that you know where it is and find a home for it. A place that; all of those items will always be kept.

Now find 'like' things in the rest of the 'stuff'. Anything that is 'like' something, that you have already found a home for, and put those things together. I always suggest to start by putting things into boxes that you have labeled; such as desk supplies, sheets, school papers etc.

After you have things in those boxes, you can purchase the pretty storage containers or whatever, but first you have to know how much stuff that you have and how big of a container that you will need.

If something is junk, throw it away. If something is too small and you don't wear it; give it away or donate it to goodwill. This way you are cleaning as you organize.

Later, you can go through the box with school papers and purchase file folders and file everything. Such as; test papers history, science/ biology/chemistry, Math, algebra, geometry etc. You will find that you are smart to make the corrections on all test papers and to keep them. Tests follow an order chapter tests tell you what will be on a unit test, unit tests tell you what will be on a quarter test, quarter tests tell you what will be on a semester etc.

Does this give you a good starting point? Look at my profile and check out my website for more organizing tips and tricks.
Good Luck and happy organizing,
Jan Hayner