Desperately Seeking Organization

One of the things that I noticed when I was having lunch with FAN (Former Arch Nemesis) was that her house was extremely organized. Right down to her kids rooms. That made me glad I had not suggested we meet at my house. Organization and my household are unfamiliar acquaintances. You see I am one who desperately WANTS organization. Everyone else in my home seeks chaos and disorder. I do what I can to keep my own little area organized – my dresser is organized with undies in the top drawer, pajamas and lingerie in the next, shirts neatly folded in one drawer, shorts below that, sweaters and seasonal velvets in their own drawer and the last drawer for miscellaneous items. My closet was at one time organized by shirt (long sleeve or shirt, silk or other) jackets, skirts, pants, dresses, etc. I even had my nearly a hundred pairs of shoes matched. I like my things in the same place every time. I like things folded the right way, put in the right place. I want to know right where to go when I need something. This is not the case in my house, my children (Chaos and Disaster) find organization a force to defeat, and this is something they get from K, their father. I believe it is a genetic thing that was passed along to them. Last night after the little people went to bed and K was out, I took the opportunity to sort and organize the down stairs toys for the little people. Barbies and Barbie accessories in the basket, electronic learning toys on the shelf, dress up clothes in the brown milk crate, baby doll clothes in the basket and other toys/dolls in the hot pink crate – doll houses on the window sill. I’ve spent most of the day (while the little people were awake that is, it’s nap time now) nagging the little people into putting away each and every toy they take out before getting the next one out. The little people didn’t like it at first but seem to have accepted this as how the day will go. To their credit they haven’t destroyed my hours of work yet, but have passively aggressively rebelled by just playing with the blocks and not anything else so as to avoid having to clean anything else up. I’m ok with that. Although I fear leaving the room to handle laundry or do dishes, as I KNOW that their innate natures of disorder will take over and in less than 10 minutes the living room floor will be covered with toys and dress up clothes like a California mudslide. Fear and paranoia, yeah I know.

I dream of a house of organization and matching furniture. I don’t know if I’m wired to have it though. Although I crave and love organization, I was not raised in it. My parental units were exceptionally disorganized and cluttered. My mother was the Queen of clutter. As such I have inherited the clutter gene and am the Grand Princess of Clutter. Sigh it’s frustrating really. I organize my kitchen cabinets, my pantry, my book shelves, I even try to organize my computer desk, yet I collect clutter. The clutter wouldn’t be such an issue if it would stay organized – meaning if tiny hands would leave it alone and not scattered through out the house at random times.

Anyway, my visit with FAN gave me inspiration to organize. I’m going to work to organize my house and toss out the things that refuse to organize (no, I’m not talking about my family, although that would definitely make organization easier! But hey, I’m always up for a challenge). Wish me luck, I’ll let you know at the end of the week if I’ve procured kennels for the other family members in my attempt to keep them from disorganizing my hard work. Heh.