Day 73 (Or: Organize, Organize, Organize)

Ran across this very succinct article regarding organization, written by Amanda Enaya: Why Clutter Matters And De-cluttering Is Difficult.

The article does a fairly great job of pointing out many of the realities of organization and disorganization.

I'm particularly fond of numbers, and found this little tidbit to be a great numerical representation of the ills of disorganization:

"Clutter is expensive: It costs an average of $10 per square foot to store items in your house and almost 10% of American households rent storage units, spending more than $1,000 annually in rent. One quarter of people with two-car garages can't even get their cars in there because they are storing their junk instead. Twenty-three percent of us pay bills late and incur fees because we have lost the statements.

How's this for a reality check? The average American spends one year of his or her life looking for lost or misplaced items, according to the National Association of Professional Organizers. Get rid of the clutter and you will eliminate as much as 40% of the housework in an average home."

Organization is a very large part of my life. Always has been, always will be.

Not that everything has always been organized, rather, organization has ALWAYS affected me, influenced me, and been something that I focus on in all areas of life - one might call it an obsession, were one so inclined to put a label on my...er...tendencies.

I remember, as a child, that my mothers pantry had open shelving. Now, this isn't unusual, many pantry's have open shelving. However, what I'm sure was unusual, was my 7 year old hatred of looking at mismatched cans, boxes, labels, housewares. Hatred. One of my first room-mate situations blew up in a million pieces on the first day, when the room-mate moved all of the pantry items onto an open shelf in the dining area. Instead of using the cabinets in the kitchen...AAAAaaaaagggggghhh! I moved out that night. Organization interruptus.

And then there's the work-space. I. Can. Not. Work. If. It's. Not. Square. Organize to look like this:

First, make things square. THEN work.

And my refrigerator magnets? Boy-child likes to tease me by ruffling them up. I, of course, notice immediately, and SQUARE THEM UP. Little maniac.

I have a friend who invites me over to her house in order to be amused as I square up her coffee table. It ALWAYS happens. Sometimes I don't even know I'm doing it.

All of this, and I can happily say that I'm now applying these organizational...er...tendencies...in a more direct way. I'm helping other people to learn how to be just as obsessive as I am! Or, at least, I'm applying my obsession to their spaces, to give them a newly launched organizational space. I organize, for folks and businesses, and I can probably attribute this little bit of newness to my Wild And Crazy One Thousand Days efforts (that is, the attempt to make better things happen in the world - for myself, for others...).

73 down, 927 to go.