Comments on: Organized Chaos

By: Gina

Gina — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 00:05:05 +0000

Hilarious.

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 12:28:16 +0000

Anne, weekends stir up all sorts of cleaning guilt with me. I want to clean, but for the most part I couldn't be bothered. If you'd known me 20 years ago, you'd wonder what happened to that neat freak....

I like a desk that looks sorted. I cannot stand (and usually have) a pile where things get lost. Right now, I have two small piles of just a few papers, so I look like I'm actually busy. :)

By: anne Wayman

anne Wayman — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:14:40 +0000

What I want to know is how you knew I'd really enjoy this post today.

As of this morning my daughter, who I thought was staying with her brother tomorrow nite announced she's staying with me... and I haven't even started on the bath room yet!

I'm with Devon, a clean desk makes me crazy until I get some paper on it.

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:27:28 +0000

I like your tote bag idea, Paula. Might start using those for my genealogy!

By: Paula

Paula — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 15:44:22 +0000

I am so relieved to hear I'm not the only one with piles. Along with my work-related piles, I have my knitting/crochet/crafty piles. They are organized chaos, but I also try to keep them from getting out of hand.

Right now I have a summer crochet project with two piles in the living room. No, I'm not entirely crazy, they're all small hexagons made of cotton yarn, so they're cool to work on. On pile is for yarn and in progress pieces, the other is a stack of finished hexagons. My goal is to make enough for a summer bedspread.

I also have the pool table pocket nets sitting on a portion of the dining room table. Too hot to work with wool now, so I could stash it away, but it is the room with the AC...

The project piles are easy to pop into tote bags and stick in the closet when guests are expected. The work piles stay in the office.

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 15:20:52 +0000

Cathy, there's something very cathartic about cleaning out fridge. :) I'll confess something right now -- I'm slowly reducing the piles of unused crap in three of our junk drawers. First off, NO ONE should have three junk drawers. That's hoarding behavior. Second, no one touches that stuff at ALL, so as I go by them, I reach in, grab something, and toss it out. I guarantee you no one will miss any of the three Koosh balls I unloaded, nor will they miss the scraps of thread that have collected dust bunnies.

That's the thing, Devon. I have so many damned bottles, yet the one I want in the yard on the chair and at the beach isn't the ones I have packed within easy reach. LOL I'm my own conundrum.

When I bought the convertible I bought two things immediately -- a brush and a bottle of sunblock. Both are in the glove compartment and I use them all the time.

I'm also wanting a basket on the stairs, but these animals aren't trained very well -- we'd be tripping over the overflow. So I don't give the opportunity for any more mess!

By: Devon Ellington

Devon Ellington — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:25:36 +0000

If it's too pristine, I stress. An empty desk, to me, is a sign of an empty mind! ;)

Re: sunblock. I buy it in packs from Costco. One stays in each bathroom, one is in the glove compartment, and one is in the tote bag/beach bag, which lives near the garage door, fully packed.

I keep several bags fully packed for different tasks, and they're lined up either in the office or near the garage, so all I have to do is add the current thing and pick it up.

I have wicker baskets at the top and bottom of each staircase. If something needs to go to a different floor, it's dropped in the basket, and then, when I actually have a serious reason to travel, basket goes with me, gets unloaded immediately, and is swapped with basket going in the other direction.

I do have lots of piles, and, periodically, I have to set a timer for a couple of hours and just sort. I know where everything is, but sometimes it gets in the way of other stuff. Keeping supplies and cabinets in arm's reach of the desk helps.

By: Cathy Miller

Cathy Miller — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:11:50 +0000

I go in spurts. I hit a point where I can't stand it and everything stops until I reorganize.

On the 4th of July, I went mad over the refrigerator and sat on the floor pitching out the old and reorganizing the shelves. I spent one too many times trying to jam something in there that I couldn't stand it. Plus, we'd run out of Tupperware. :-) The problem of just two people and a Mom who tends to still cook like all 7 kids & Dad are at home. :-)

I do the same with my office. I hit a point where the paper gets to me and I reorganize and file away finished projects, etc.

Why is it that other people's messes bother us more? They say the thing you hate most about another person's bad habits are the ones that you hate about your own. Just sayin' :-)