O is for Organization

Organization is over-rated.

When my daughter was in middle school, a counselor said to her, “Organization is a sign of intelligence.” My daughter heard, “You are stupid because you are un-organized.”

To say I was livid is a understatement. We talked about Albert Einstein and the Absent Minded Professor. I explained that her problem wasn’t that she wasn’t smart, the problem was that she was too smart and her brain just hadn’t settled in to what it like best yet. Equal right brain/left brain. A few weeks later, she left the public school system.

I will admit there are some advantages to being organized. I’m sure if you added up the minutes hours I spend looking for things, well let’s just say I wouldn’t be shocked. So people who are organized save time. I, on the other hand, get a thrill every time I find something I haven’t seen in a while. Over the years, I’ve developed a system for the really important items; like passports and tax info. I have strategically placed folders where those items live. The magazine I’ve been wanting to read? No clue.

My home is not exactly company ready ALL THE TIME. But it works for me. I’m not a hoarder by anyone’s standards, I just prefer not living in a model home. I pick up, not as often as I should, but my house is clean. It’s a work in progress and maybe one day, when I’ve gotten rid of everything I own, I’ll sit on the couch all day eating bonbons and watching old movies.

There is such a thing as too much organization. My grandmother’s refrigerator comes to mind; well that and every cabinet in her home. When she died, going through her things was for the most part, uneventful. Nothing was out-of-place. We ventured into her closet. Boring. The shelves had boxes of scarves, gloves, etc. Then I found a baggie (remember those, the bags you kept leftovers in before Ziplocs were invented?) way up high in a back corner. There was a piece of paper with the word “sentiment” written on it. Inside? A very sexy black negligee. Way too much information for me. I might add, my grandfather had died almost 20 years prior.

Now, I’m all for keeping sentimental items; I have a few myself, but I draw the line at labeling them. That’s organization on steroids.