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Thread : Out of sight, out of mind...  
6 Aug 2011 @ 11:13 AM
Juli1 Join Date: Mon 21st Mar 2011
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Out of sight, out of mind...

I have ADD, and I live in a chronically chaotic appartment. Partly of course because I'm just no good at organizing, tidying and cleaning. But also because if I put things away, I forget they excist. And so I leave all my bills out on the dining room table, so I remember to pay them. All books and magazines I want to read soon are out on my tables, because if I put them in my bookshelves, they disappear among all the other books and magazines, and I forget I have them. The same goes for library books and DVDs. My dogs toothbrush and claw-clipper is on my coffee-table to remind me to use them. I love photography, but always forget to bring my camera with me, so the camera as well as some photography books are on my dining room table. And so on, indefinitely. Combined, it causes chaos.

I've tried lots of things, such as putting bills away and setting my cellphone alarm to remind me to pay them once a week. But often I've made plans afterwards so I'm not home when the alarm goes off, or I happen to be walking my dog just then and forget it when I get home. Or I simply find a great excuse to put it off until tomorrow, and of then of course forget. I tried setting aside a special shelf in my bookshelves for books I really want to read soon. Only to come across it 6 months later, thinking "Oh, so THAT is where those books have been hiding! I tried putting magazines, DVDs and other things I want to get to soon on a shelf under my coffeetable, but that shelf is no so full it's complete chaos. I put my camera away, thinking I'd remember to take it out and bring it with me when I wanted to take pictures, but that rarely happens.

Do anyone have any good advice for this? Some solutions to remember things that has worked for you?

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26 Aug 2011 @ 2:34 PM Reply # 1
houstonian Join Date: Fri 26th Aug 2011
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Bins

Buy little bins to organize all your stuff and categorize them. I too forget they exist, but at least if you know where they are at then you can go look through your bins if there is something specific your looking for. I have a bunch of bins on my bookshelf so it works as a giant drawer.

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Last edited by houstonian : 26 Aug 2011 @ 2:35 PM. Reason:
21 Sep 2011 @ 3:59 PM Reply # 2
ADDDOC Join Date: Wed 21st Sep 2011
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finding things I can't see

I too lose track of things if they're hidden or covered up. If I'm off work and cook something for lunch at home, my wife will say "You know we had those (leftovers) in the refrigerator, and now they have to be thrown out." Well, SHE WRAPS THEM IN ALUMINUM FOIL - and they might as well be invisible. I PREFER PLASTIC WRAP, but she gets it all wadded up so foil works for her. I need CLEAR CONTAINERS or labelled containers to know what container something is in. (My wife doesn't want my things to be seen by guests, and HATES labels on things.) But if it ain't either clear or labelled, it might as well be in a random car trunk. I'm going to buy something I already have because I didn't know I had it, or search everywhere for my stuff - as I did when my wife put my Color Nook tablet in an end table drawer and I spent 10 days backtracking everywhere I'd been when I last recalled having it. WE CONTINUE TO NEGOTIATE EVERY DAY, between her need for order and spotlessness and my need to see my stuff. What I'm trying to work on, though, is SOME SORT OF ROUTINE to my day and HAVING A PLACE (THE SAME PLACE) FOR MY THINGS. Life will work better for us BOTH when that happens. In the past, people would joke about my MAGIC CIRCLE: stacks and stacks of papers, magazines, lists, notecards, pocketbooks, newspaper articles, etc. that I would spread out in a circle around me while I would sit on the floor. In the end, everything ended up in the right stack - and NOTHING got thrown away - then I would put all the stacks on top of each other and go put them somewhere else - not filed, not read or even looked at in any detail. When I was single in my own townhouse, those stacks were on my desk, bookshelves,kitchen countertops, eating table, sofa, and den end tables. And the ones I was "going to read" were on my bedside table. I eventually found unpaid bills, overdue library materials, birthday cars I meant to send, and notices of events long past, especially when I got married and sold the townhouse. My wife is a GREAT ORGANIZER - it's so easy for her and so hard for me - so she is a TREMENDOUS resource, BUT some things NEED TO BE DONE MY WAY for it to work. Good luck! There are books and articles on ADD-friendly ways to organize - look for them.

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Last edited by ADDDOC : 21 Sep 2011 @ 4:04 PM. Reason: typos, didn't make sense when I read it, and too-complex sentences
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