Ask the Experts

Help! I Can’t Sleep In My Messy Bedroom

A professional organizers who specializes in ADHD outlines a plan to tackle the mess.

Hiring support – a landscaper, housekeeper, accountant, mechanic, or professional organizer – is a rational solution when you are overwhelmed by a particular task. An organizer will make sure you schedule enough time, help you process/strategize, and will lend focus to the tasks at hand. I schedule two six-hour days for messy bedrooms – the first day to weed, sort, and drop off donations; the second day to buy and install any additional storage needed.

If you must do your job alone, clear the floor first, starting near the door, to ease traffic flow. Next, clear surfaces and lightly make the bed (which will become a good sorting surface). Now that the room is neat, attack one internal place at a time – a drawer, shelf, hanging bar – returning keepers to their home before moving on to the next space. When piles marked “goes to kitchen,” bags of garbage, and donations get too large, pause to clear them away. Consider the job done when storage areas are neat and roomy (if not, you should keep weeding), all “goes elsewhere” piles are disseminated, trash is at the curb, and donations are dropped off.