I have this huge project

The way I deal with my messieness issues is that I try to box mr chaos into certain areas of my apartment. When I am tired, feel bad or unfocused, mr chaos tries to come out and invade other areas, but mostly I can keep him at bay.

Now my problem is that my radiator in my bedroom doesn't work. I tried to bleed it but I think there is a bigger issue here that the landlord needs to fix.

The thing is mr chaos lives in my bedroom, it is one of his two sanctuaries. To be able to have the landlord's people over, I have to evict him, at least to the point no one is thinking much of the mess.

There are two huge things. The laundry piles on the floor. The scattered paper. The paper I might be able to collect and hide under the desk, because I'm not sure I have the energy to go though it and some is save and some is throw away. But the laundry piles just have to go.

I have two places that I could put clothes, but I prefer if I could wash them first and do it in a somewhat organized manner so I don't have to redo everything again. But one closet is full of other junk that needs evacuating, and the other one has more minor tidying.

I also have this idea to empty the bigger closet, start to wash things and just dump the clean clothes in there to sort it later.

There is always this annoying chain reaction to cleaning. Now to clean my bedroom I have to start in a closet in another room.

Maybe I'll just go buy an electric blanket instead...

I'm big on black plastic bags Put all the laundry in them and/or in your car(?); I had a major cleaning of my house a few months back and just took all the flotsam and jetsam and boxed/bagged it and put it in my car until they left so all the surfaces would be clear, etc.

When I moved last time (2005) I had closets full of clothes I could not deal with so I took the entire stuff, bagged to the cleaner! Yes it cost over $100 (I did sort and throw out/donate a lot) but then everything was neat, clean, on hangers and I just moved them to the car and to the new closets. Just sort the clothes for cleaning and/or throw stuff away; if you have 982 pairs of underwear, decide to trash all but 7, and that keeps the laundry down. I find throwing away ripped or dirty stuff isn't as hard as dealing with it otherwise. Just get mad at it being a problem for you and let the anger take itself out on the clothes.

No car no money. I probably need most of the clothes I own, it's just that they are all over the place instead of where it should be. It would be an easy problem to fix if I wasn't such a useless lazy bum...

In 2-3 weeks the landlord is coming!!!!

All the rooms I wanted months to fix I will fix in a few weeks. Have to. Organize it the best way so it's fast so I can redo some later.

Argh.

HALP!

How do you eat a whale? A little at a time. Try not to see the whole thing and start with the easy stuff. Sort your clothes by color (lights/darks) and toss them in the machine if you have one in your apartment. While you're waiting, you can go through your closets to reorganize. My rule of thumb, if I haven't seen it for over a year and I don't need it - toss it or donate it. If you don't have boxes to throw nicknacks in just do your best to stack it. A tidy mess is easier to look at than a random mess. As for the paper work, skim through it but if you're running out of time, stack them neatly and it shouldn't be a problem. If you don't feel like folding your clothes then you can always bag them like Perna said. I hope you enjoy ironing.

Might help to make a list of things to do - it's motivational when you cross something off. Keep it detailed and not broad so you have more opportunities to check it. Just remember to breathe Don't try to do it all at once though.

Yea, I'll try to start at the right end. The things in the closet that I won't throw out will probably fit in the storage.

Sorting clothes? Nah... I just toss it all in and I wash it all at the same temp. Still a hassle, LOL. I wish I had a washing machine. The public laundry room is a bit away.

A whale is a big meal indeed....

My mess and clutter was a domino effect, couldn't organize one area unless another area was organized...round and round. I started with a trash bag went through a room and threw out stuff that should have been tossed years ago. Then I took cardboard boxes and filled it with all the stuff that was still good but not for me anymore and I put those boxes out by the curb, posted on freecycle as a curb alert. marked the boxes "free help yourself". Those 2 steps freed up enough space I was able to find room for the keep boxes.

Now I am going through the boxes one by one and organizing them

As for the clothes, can you put them into trash bags and hide them in the bathtub while your landlord is there, same with anything else you need out of site.

Trash
Curb
Hide

LOL, don't have a bath tub that big. But managed to tell the landord people not show up. I have been too weak to do anything about this.

Hey if you want a clean-up buddy I'll offer my help. I'm quite organized (not fussy though) and my husband is kind of a disorganized slob, so I have experience with someone who has no clue how to get stuff sorted.

well, it's a good thing you need to take care of your room and the mess in it. You should be thankful to the radiator
You have no idea how much a messy room have effect on our minds.
My advice is: take care of the bedroom now, one thing at a time.
I hope that seeing that cleanliness and order gets you started to do the same in the other rooms.
Believe me: half your energy goes wasted in the mess.
Good luck

Nah I'll do it when I do it. I've been too sick lately (physically) and there is simply no chance in hell I can do it. Since the radiator guy isn't coming anymore I have tons of stuff that is much more urgent and important...

I lived for a while with stuff in disarray. Even though on the outside things were okay, it wasn't till I faced it that I felt like I didn't have this pulling me down. It took time and lots of time away too, but eventually I ended up liking it.

I'm facing a similar circumstance right now because I have to totally pack and clean an apartment in like a day or two. I spent two days avoiding it. Then I just started with tiny things, even crumpling a single piece of paper. In a little bit of time, two entire rooms were done, and it felt so good to throw out so much of my old papers and things that in a way represented a whole other life than the one I want for myself.

Sometimes physical actions like this can be very symbolic and end up changing things. I haven't felt this good in who knows when, and it started with crumpling a piece of paper.