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My college student just returned home for the summer. How am I supposed to fit all of their dorm room belongings back into our home?

Moving Boxes for Organizing a Dorm Room

Before you bring everything back into your home, now is a good time to go through and assess what is really necessary and needed. Encourage your child to sort through their clothing. Was it worn during the year away? If not, now is a good time to let it go. Freshly launder all dorm bedding and then store and label in containers for the summer. Create a “College” storage container for items that will not be used during the summer, but are used during the school year, such as mugs, shower caddies, school supplies, etc. Larger items like dorm refrigerators, chairs and trunks can be easily stored and labeled out of the way in a garage or basement. Doing all this right as your child returns home will make the transition to pack up again at the end of summer all the easier!

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What do I do with the art that I don’t have space for on my walls yet want to keep?

Storing, cataloging and organizing artwork and collectables

Consider a painting rack to store framed artwork on, wrap paintings in plastic to keep moisture out.  For unframed art you can lay them in an archival box with acid free tissue paper between pieces.  The basement and attic can be easy and tempting places to store art, but with temperature changes and moisture potential this may cause more damage.  If you need to stack the paintings place padding in-between each piece to protect them.

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Best Way to Store Lumber in Your Garage

Organizing lumber in a garage can depend on the intended use of the lumber. If you are storing pieces to keep them away from the elements or will not be using them for projects in the near future, then consider using the roof beams of the garage or tops of high shelves for storing long pieces of lumber. Smaller pieces can be stored horizontally in a bin or vertically in a clean trash bin.

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What makes you an ADHD specialist?

ADHD

To be an ADHD specialist requires many hours of study. As a life-long learner, I am glad that Simplify Experts values learning and education. To support my learning I am a member (called a subscriber) of the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD.)

ICD is very focused on its mission: to provide education, research and strategies to benefit people challenged by chronic disorganization. Members include professional organizers as well as mental health professionals and academics.

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Is Hoarding Genetic?

I can appreciate the cause for concern here. More and more studies are finding there is a link. I pulled this from the International OCD Foundation Hoarding website:

From the earliest studies of hoarding, it has been clear that hoarding runs in families. Studies asking about family members have reported that 50 to 80% of people who hoard had first-degree relatives whom they considered “pack rats” or hoarders.

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