Mission Organization: Day 1

I am the quintessential perfectionist procrastinator. I have such lofty ideas of things I'd like to do and how I'd like to do them, that I rarely ever start or finish them. I don't think I've been really organized in reality since about maybe 3rd or 4th grade when I drew a calendar on my big blackboard easel and mapped out my outfits for each day, down to the bow for my hair.

I have this wierd, constant yearning for organization, but rarely achieve it. I always feel like life would be much less stressful and much more relaxed if things were the "way I want them." I know that sounds crazy, and I'm definitely not as crazy as I may sound right now. I realize that this should not be my ultimate goal in life, and I do know there are other, more important things, like spending time with my family. :-)

Anyway, I was watching "30 Rock" a few weeks ago and the opening scene was Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) walking down the street with huge "Compartment Store" (aka Container Store) bags in hand. I wish I could find the clip, but here's the dialoge (to Kenneth :-)):

“I went to the new flagship Compartment Store on 5th Avenue and I’m going to get my life in order. There’s a stacking thing to separate your junk mail from your humidifier catalogs, a thing you stick on your laptop that hold your keys, a round plastic deal that holds your shoes with a pocket for a photograph of what shoes are in there. I’m going to become wonderful. It’s a new beginning, like a phoenix rising…”

I had to laugh, because I feel this way...a lot. :-) Anyway, I've vowed to take this week off of facebook and blogs in order to get some things done around here. I'm going to just take things in bite-sized pieces and start plugging away. I'm really trying to convert myself to the "something is better than nothing" ideology, rather than deciding I can't do anything until I can do it just perfectly.

So, wish me luck! Tonight my goal is to straighten the house and get it to some sort of baseline, :-) and then start on the "office" area of our kitchen. I feel like part of the reason I can't keep things organized is that I don't have good core systems in place for the office, closets, etc. If I can get this in order, I can avoid cramming the thing that should go there in other places. :-)

So, I'm going to start here (see below...yikes) and move on from there. As you can see, it will be quite a task! I'm partially blogging here to keep myself accountable, and partially so I can look back at befores and afters and pat myself on the back. Kind of like adding something to your to do list just so you can cross it off and feel accomplished. :-)