Help me get rid of my bedroom clothes chair! And start eating at my kitchen table instead of using it as a dumping ground!

How did you start putting things away immediately and/or what systems did you develop to stop creating piles everywhere?

Question

Help me get rid of my bedroom clothes chair! And start eating at my kitchen table instead of using it as a dumping ground!

How did you start putting things away immediately and/or what systems did you develop to stop creating piles everywhere?

Kate · Answer

A bunch of ideas:

So annoying but a home for everything really works for me - so when i’m cleaning up i don’t have to wonder where to put it, i know where it goes. For example: a basket and all the elctronics go in there. A little plastic box next to it for cables and all the different cables get their own bag. Two drawers in the hall: one for sunglasses, one for sunscreen/umbrellas. Etc. If figuring out where something’s home should be is hard, try the “Cousins, Coworkers, Family” organizing method by Christen Fackler.

Hooks!!! Get some shaker peg rails for all the places. The difference between having my stuff on the bedroom chair and the wall emotionally is huge.

You may mot have adhd but this Susan Pinsky book is all about how to arrange your home if your brain works like that. Very helpful to me.

20 minute putting your house to bed session before sleep. Again, annoying! But i wake up feeling peaceful and grateful I took care of myself like that.

For encouraging table dinner, get yourself a nice placemat and cloth napkins, a beautiful glass, put on some music, Romance yourself!

Jamie · Answer

a perfect ikea hamper: I keep one of these (or some version of a hamper) in nearly every room! This one is perfect because it’s SO cheap, SO spacious, and SO easy to carry (because it folds up). I shed clothes everywhere, and I leave them wherever they come off. The only way to solve this was endless hampers. Designate one as re-wearable clothes that don’t need to be washed yet, helps solve the clothes chair problem.

Sarah · Answer

the paper bin: Two things are true: 1. I cannot deal with the flow of paper via school, mail, etc. daily and 2. I cannot stand paper piles sitting around. My solution is this bin where all non urgent but not necessarily trash papers go until I build up the fortitude to go through it around once a month. A bonus is while you may have to dig, at least we know where all the papers are.

Dylan · Answer

Find the path of least resistance: Look for things you struggle with and find ways to reduce the barriers that prevent you from doing them.

ADHD brain here, so by no means have I mastered this art, but I've slowly been figuring out little ways to work with my brain instead of against it.

Some examples I (try to) do below:

Prep my coffee, breakfast, and workout equipment the night before.

Having two laundry baskets - one in my bedroom for clean or barely worn clothes to be dumped. One in the laundry for the dirty stuff that needs washing.

As soon as I run out of something I add it to my TO BUY list on my notes app.

Owning multiples of things - eg. scissors, combs, deodorant, tweezers, all the things I'm using (and losing) frequently!

Keeping my house keys by the door - and anything I need to remember to take with me next to them - eg. my lunch for the day. or a random fork so that my brain goes "why is that fork there - oh i need to grab my lunch from the fridge!"

Having a box or basket in each room of the house for dumping random crap that needs to be put away. That way at least it's all in one spot rather than spread out all over the place! This tricks my brain into feeling like it's a little more manageable to put everything away.

Always eager to discover more ideas along these lines.

Thomas · Answer

Start "caching" your clothes/stuff: "Clothes on chair" is a problem that arises when you don't have anywhere else to quickly store stuff. Computers already have a solution for this. Tailor this approach to your belongings; a tray for keys/wallets (level 1), small basket for common items/accessories (level 2), dedicated drawer for most-used clothes (level 3), etc. This can scale all the way up to your closet and deep storage.

Having a hierarchy and reducing friction for "putting things away" makes it so that everything has its place.