Here is a sneak peek at the upcoming issue of Robious Corridor Magazine....
http://www.robiouscorridor.com/libbymcnamee.html
Enjoy!
4-02-2013 Libby McNamee
Cruising the Corridor: Got Chaos?
Spring has sprung! Needless to say, that’s a very good thing after a long, dark winter! On the flip side, it’s also time to confront the chaos in the garage, the attic, and everywhere else in between. Just like April showers bring May flowers, spring also brings cleaning. Unfortunately organizing goes hand in hand with that, a real catch-22.
It’s hard to clean if you aren’t organized, but it’s also hard to organize if things aren’t clean. This circular logic makes my head spin which doesn’t accomplish a whole lot. We all know the mantra -- just dig in and start somewhere, preferably fueled either by alcohol, a triple-venti latte, or both. Mustering that courage is easier for some than others. In fact, some don’t even need courage at all. It’s hard to be friends with people like that, but I try to be open-minded.
Those are the people in this world who are “born organized” (BO). The rest of us are not so gifted in this category. Much to my chagrin and that of many roommates over the years, I am definitely in the “not” category. (On the plus side, I don’t have BO, at least I hope not.) Instead I’ve spent a heck of a lot time trying to reinvent myself as being BO while humming, “To clean the impossible dream, to de-clutter the unbeatable foe…”
We can throw up our hands and yell, “Organize shmorganize,” and concede defeat. It’s definitely tempting. However, studies show that clutter can take a surprising toll on our daily lives, creating stress, draining energy, and generating a firestorm of negative feelings. Clutter is something we all have to combat in some form or another. Let’s face it – clutter is the American creeping crud. Oh where, oh where, do these pesky piles come from? Oh where, oh where, should they go? You’ve got me on that one. Sometimes, though, those pesky piles can provide a strange source of comfort.
When it was exam time during law school, I used to carry around a stack of old dog-eared notes from the semester. Don’t get me wrong; I had no intention of looking at them ever again. Just seeing their familiar creases, though, was soothing in its’ own strange way. In my mind, I figured it just made me look extra scholarly until my father began to refer to my sloppy stack as “your debris.”
Alas, my de-cluttering challenges were confirmed as a losing battle a couple of years ago. It happened in the preschool carpool line as my son Sam and his friend were getting into the car. With an experienced hand, Sam pushed some junk, I mean, “important valuable items,” out of the way. Reassuring his friend, he said, “Don’t worry. My mom’s car is always trashed.” Out of the mouth of four-year-olds comes the unadulterated truth. Next time I made him ride his Big Wheel home.
Everyone’s got their Linus blanket, right? Somehow, though, I’ve always identified more with Pig-Pen who seems to magnetically attract dirt. He fights the good fight, claiming it’s not really dirt but the “dust of ancient civilizations” clinging to him. Atta go, Pig-Pen! By the way Tom Sawyer has a wall he will let you whitewash if you buy a turn.
After buying so many de-cluttering books that they have cluttered up my bookshelves, I have five basic principles in my ongoing pursuit of organizing chaos. For you BO people, these may be extremely basic. However, for those of us who are not BO, they may not be.
1. ACCEPT YOURSELF. If your system works for you, it doesn’t have to be pretty.
When I was toiling away in law school, the backseat of my brown Aries K became my locker on wheels. Yes, it seems ridiculous, and it was. However, I never forgot a book for class in three years! (Note: One distinct advantage of a traditional locker is that it can’t get booted for unpaid parking tickets, hypothetically speaking.)
2. TAKE THE TIME. Often clutter accumulates because we take short cuts, avoid making unpleasant decisions, and just don’t want to take the time to deal with it. Consider the time you spend trying to find things, rebuying them, and then realizing you had them all along.
When I finally took the time to sort out my closet, I felt like Christopher Columbus, discovering a whole new world of white t-shirts in remarkably similar styles. Everything needs a home. On the Saturday after Christmas, my husband went to Target and got
30 plastic tubs and some masking tape. Then he headed valiantly to the attic, a jumble of God-knows-what accumulated over the last 10 years. It was oppressive to even go up there, so we had a tradition of avoiding it.
After a few hours, he emerged to go buy 30 more tubs. He would have bought even more, but there were none left. By the end of the afternoon, everything in the attic was in a labeled tub, and they were neatly stacked. Since then it has been downright pleasant to find things in the attic, and even easier to put them away.
3. JUST DO IT. Pick one dreaded organizing chore to tackle per day, no more and no less. For months I put off confronting the mega-snarl of necklaces in the depths of my jewelry
box. There were at least 15 of them tangled up in a puzzle worse than a Rubik’s Cube. With much dread, I launched an attack armed with safety pins and a magnifying glass. Pretty soon I found myself enjoying the challenge. My reward was an invigorating sense of accomplishment plus a bunch of “new” necklaces that I put away correctly, so far anyway.
4. STORE IT AT THE STORE. Watch what comes in your door because it could be clutter in disguise. However tempting, don’t buy organizational supplies until you know what you
actually need. Although those bins may have been a great deal, if they don’t work in your space, they just become additional clutter. Leave it in the store until you need it. That’s why they call it a “store.” (Pretty cool concept, huh?)
5. CUT YOURSELF SOME SLACK. If you feel discouraged, turn on “Hoarders.” That show is guaranteed to make you feel like your house is right out of Real Simple! It’s downright sad to see so many people who can’t get rid of belongings without a television camera in their face. It’s no wonder the show is now in its sixth season and going strong.
It’s OK not to be BO. Hopefully you’ll find facing the chaos is never as awful as the dread. Combating chaos is an ongoing daily battle for all of us, but the payback is worth it. In the words of Scarlett O’Hara, “Tomorrow is another day!”
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