Organization

Give me any kind of store and I am usually in and out pretty quick....even shoe shopping. I am not one for long hours of trying on, longing looks and then back and forth dilemmas filled with drama. Usually, I have an idea of what I am looking for, and am in and out of a store in a few minutes. I am fairly efficient in how I go about getting what I need.

However....

There is a store that can bring me to my knees. One that I can stand around and fondle things, ogle, stare at prices, waffle back and forth worse than a line cook at IHOP. Any kind of stores that carry organizational containers, or office equipment. It is a weakness of mine. You see, I harbor this undying dream of being one of those Type A personalities whose house is effortlessly spotless, who knows where everything is, because everyone puts thing back where they belong..because they have a home and we all know where that is. Whose closets are never in disarray, whose laundry is always done, or just about to be done. Whose kitchen drawers just have a place for everything and.....well you know.

My mother was innately one of those beings. She was able to train my father to become one. But I was the lost cause. I was the poster child for ADHD long before they ever knew it existed and found myself, when sent to my room to clean sitting at my desk going through my year book....with no idea of how it happened. My mother would get furious, I was not working, I was being lazy. She would then stay with me and clean side by side, instructing me on what to do next. All this was done in the hopes that this would train me, teach me these innate rules my mother just knew.

Sadly, it never took. And an organized house is not something that someone else can do for another person. Sure, they can help here and there, but truth be told, it is a process that has to be gone through...it is a labor...almost like conceiving and giving birth. So in my first years of living alone...I struggled...boy did I struggle. And later on, once I was married, it was difficult also.

How does someone just know when it is time to clean the walls? When do you know it is time to wash windows? And when do you stand back and say to yourself, "Self, it is time to get out a rag and dust off every photo in the house to make sure none is clinging to the walls." How do you know these things? I mean do you wait until that unsightly gray web dangles from the side of your picture frame...one that you cannot even blame on a spider? Or do you do it every week so it never builds up? Or just every once in a while...but then...how do you remember? These are not things that I just "get". Art...I get. Cooking...I get. Sewing...I get. But this has always been something that I need prompts on.

And then there are all the organizational tools...boxes, cartons, jars, bottles, baskets, etc.....They make your living room/dining room/kitchen/bedroom/bathroom look so pretty...so fabulous...so neat. And I buy into the con...if I just had the 'open canvas bins in small, medium and large with adjacent label holders so that they can be used in either direction' my rooms would be stunningly spotless! THIS is what I have been missing!

And then I fall back. I begin to think of all the things I could place in the bins..where I could place them. How many I would need...and suddenly I have spent over $500 and my house would look like a warehouse.

So, I do not buy the open canvas bins....and I take a deep breath. I realize that yet again, my overwhelming desire to be what I am not.....innately organized...is not going to come with the purchase of canvas bins. It comes with my being diligent with myself. With slowly pacing myself to purge those things which are not being used. I try new systems to make myself and my family more organized...but no one system is going to fit all...it is trial and error. And I step away from the lavender scented drawer liners and drawer organizers....and realize that the system must come first....then I can buy the adorable organizers!