Organized Pack Rat

If I didn't live with Josh, I am pretty sure I could be a hoarder. His influence and my overall dislike of shopping keep me from crossing over into an A&E television episode. But I am a pack rat. I think maybe it's because I am a historian by training. I always think in terms of archives, museums, catalogs. I recently completed a strengths training seminar for work and my top strength in the five-strength set was Context. That strength has everything to do with knowing, understanding, and cataloging the history of everything in life. This training confirmed what I already knew. Packratting is my personality. It is in my DNA. I always hold on to something "just in case." Couple this "strength" with my stacking habit (organized chaos), filing systems and my distaste for cleaning up those stacks and we have a nest of stuff that only I can decipher. I am organized, but completely in my own way.

This system drives Josh up the wall. I think it probably gives him the hives, too. I feel bad that he has to live with me. Sometimes, it drives me crazy too.

When it was time for me to come back from my parents' house, the boys decided to stay and spend some time with my Dad. They have been fishing and swimming (and exhausting my parents). Since it was just Mags and me, I decided that it was time to clean out, organize, and start the year off on the right foot. (Josh also strongly encouraged me to clean out my office. There was something about trash bags and not giving a damn about what was in the stacks). It was time to unpack some of the rat's nest.

Maggie was a great help to me. She pulled all of the trash out of the bags so that I could put it back. She also pulled off all of the sticky notes from a pad and stuck them all over herself, the TV and the floor. She pulled notebooks off the shelf as fast as I could put them on. She modeled ZTA bags around the room and pulled out all of their contents. She got tired of my cleaning and begged for my attention by bringing me baby dolls to rock and feed and change. It was great fun!

And the good news is that not only did I clean the office, I reorganized it to the point of OCD. It is magnificent. Empowered by my success with the office, I started cleaning closets, drawers, cabinets. I am on a roll. I bought organizing cubes and canvas storage containers. I even bought hooks for backpacks and a new extension rod to hang in the boy's closet so I can reorganize everything in there.

I know when Josh asked me to clean my office, he didn't expect me to purge the house of so much stuff. In a few days, when the boys come home and mess up all of my magic and I get too busy again to care about it all, he will be proud of me. At the moment, though, he is in the laundry room hanging hooks and assembling my cube cabinet. And probably cussing me for being an organized pack rat.

Josh putting together my Cube Cabinet Organizer

I got 17 of these at Target today for $2.50 each.
That is a deal!

My new office organization!