Phung

Most of us with ADD find it difficult to stay organized. Is your closet one place that's ADD obvious? I mean, are your clothes bunched together on hangers? Is there a pile of shoes in the middle of the floor? And how about your ties? Are they slung over some chair in the corner? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need an ADD-friendly plan to conquer the mess.

The first thing you can do is to get rid of old stuff. Now, if your socks are old and you don't have any new ones to replace them, go buy some before starting this procedure. But think about that old nightgown that you wear to bed every night. It was once soft and fuzzy. Now, it's probably very soft and not at all fuzzy and the hem's out and it's fraying at the seams. Get rid of it! If you have so many clothes in your closet that they don't all fit, you must have something else you can wear. Throw that lame-o stuff away.

Then, pick out the things that you haven't worn in 12 months, even if they still have the price tags hanging from them. Either they don't fit right, they make you look fat, or for whatever reason, you haven't seen fit to put them on. So, get a big plastic garbage bag, and put those things into it for charity. Immediately after it's filled, take it to your car, and to avoid that old ADD procrastination, drive them right to the charity closest to you. Keep in mind that someone who really needs those clothes will be very happy that you did.

For the shoes, get a big basket. I mean a big one. One that you can just toss your shoes into right from your foot. Put all your flip-flops and other sandals, tennis shoes, and other shoes that you don't mind being in there into it. Get a rack to hold your good dress shoes that you wear only once in a while. Since you're more careful with these shoes, there's a better chance that your ADD won't allow you to toss them into the basket. But if you find that every pair of shoes you own is going in there, get rid of the rack. ADD can make us choose the easiest path sometimes.

The hefty plastic hangers--not the ones you buy in the dollar store--will be good for empty purses, bras, and swimsuits. Anything that can hang over the hook part is great. Ties can go across the bottom part of a hanger. Just be sure not to pile too many on each hanger, though, or they'll all fall t the floor in a clump and since you have ADD, they're probably going to stay there.

Other examples of things to toss are hats you haven't worn in 6 months. Why are you holding onto them, if you don't wear them? And what about suitcases? Do you keep them in your closet, too? They might be good for storing some things you just can't part with, like the crazy quilt your grandma made for you when you were twelve. They're just taking up empty space, anyway. Right? But all of this takes time, right?

The thing is that this system will work for you, even if you don't have ADD. But if you do, allow yourself only 5 minutes a day to work on the mess. When the 5 minutes is up, stop and go back to it the following day. You'll find that your closet is nice and straight in a short amount of time, and it will also be an ADD-friendly place to live. How great is that?

Tellman Knudson is CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc. and a certified hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner who has helped many clients with ADD. Take the ADD test and sign up for his free weekly ADD tips when you visit InstantADDSuccess.com at http://www.instantaddsuccess.com