I recognize at different stages of life our organization takes on different levels of importance. When I was young, my level of organization was very low, like most. It consisted of I can’t find something, clean up enough to locate it. Of course, I didn’t own much so it wasn’t difficult. When I got married and we got our first apartment, we started accumulating stuff…I don’t think I’ve stopped. I now have a 3000 square foot house, a shed and a paid storage unit full of crap…I mean, stuff.
In the apartment, it was just the two of us and limited things. I became very organized and everything always remained tidy. Being organized became important to me. If everything had a place and was in its place, I never had to waste time hunting things down. Then came a child. Oh boy! It was extremely important to continue to be organized. Babies are demanding and come with a whole other level of…um, stuff. Yeah, that’s it…stuff. It did become a bit of a challenge to keep my level of organization as high as I’d raised it with all the added responsibilities and mountains of shit…no, it was stuff. It was a constant challenge to maintain my level of organization throughout my daughter’s upbringing because she saw NO value in it. She left for college and I felt like we were back to our beginning years where everything was super clean and organized.
Then came twins! Holy hell!!! Still my daughter saw little value of my always trying to be organized. Flying by the seat of her pants has always worked for her. Although it makes me nutty as a fruitcake, I have to choose my battles. I went through many years of frustration because I felt I could never find anything. Anyone who has twins knows they communicate without words and would set things up together to take us in opposite directions. While I was cleaning up one mess in one room, they were off in another stirring mess up. They became a true lesson in patience. Then the bottom dropped out with the addition of another baby. Now, most days, I say, “Organization? What’s that?”
While I understand, this too shall pass. In the meantime, I look at my life and think, What the hell happened? This doesn’t even resemble my life. But you know what? I’m so blissfully happy loving up on our little girls daily that I try to ignore the DISorganization that is currently my life. One day, way
too soon, they’ll be grown and gone. In that stage of my life, I’ll be strictly organized again. And then I’ll have the priceless memories of this time experiencing the chaos and great love of all these girls on a daily basis. For this day, I focus on what really matters and try to turn a blind eye to the "stuff." I do hope to hear one day, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Not, "Damn, girl, why wasn't your frying pan hanging on the proper hook?"
However, I do realize the ridiculousness of paying for a separate storage space because I’ve got too much stuff. I do believe it’s time to throw out all the shit…uh, stuff that is just taking up space and creating clutter instead of joy and appreciation. Well, I guess I know what I’ll be doing next weekend…