My Downfall in Life

I am a pretty good homemaker. I love to cook and I enjoy keeping our home looking nice and clean. That all sounds pretty good, but like many things in life there is a catch. I don't organize. My husband once said as he was trying to find something in the closet, "to be such a neat freak you sure do have horrible closets!" What can I say? It is true. I have lived my whole life with the attitude that as long as everything looked nice I was happy. With Michael serving in the Navy for almost 12 years, I could get away with messy closets. Every 3 years we moved out of our home and onto a new state with clean closets. Three years later it was time to move again so at least closets got dealt with about every 3 years. Since we have lived in Tennessee and the Navy life is behind us, we have still managed to move enough to more than keep our closets clean. However, we have been on this farm for 4 years and our closets are in a major state of dismay. What is one to do? (I looked up some real estate information). Then it dawned on me it was time to get organized. I mean really organized...the kind that comes when you don't move every little whip stitch.

I have thought about this a lot over the last few months and then I read something from Seeking the Old Paths. She said that she started with one cabinet and organized that. It was then her goal to keep it organized. She didn't worry about moving on to the next area until that cabinet had been kept organized for a specific period of time. I thought I might give it a try. I took a junk cabinet in our kitchen and organized it. I did this right after Thanksgiving. Much to my surprise, it has stayed organized. To be honest, it hasn't even been that much trouble to keep it that way. I then moved to my laundry room. This room was a much needed test for my new method. It has remained good for the last 2 weeks. (I have had to threaten several young men that if I ever see sports equipment in there again there would be bodily harm done to the owner of the equipment). I have been pleased at how much more pleasant I feel based on the fact that the laundry room is orderly. I don't get near as grumpy when I need to sort laundry because I am not fighting with a mound of junk. I just walk in and get to the task at hand.

Today I have spent time cleaning our bedroom closet and the hall closet. I should get an award for the most amount of stuff crammed into small spaces. I am queen at this. I don't keep excess stuff. I am very good to pass things along that we no longer need. However, when 7 people live in a home with small closets and little storage space you do what must be done. I am going to town later this weekend to purchase a few under the bed Rubbermaid containers. I don't have any where to properly store pictures. I have them in the bathroom closet because I didn't know what else to do with them. I now have room under my bed to neatly store them. I am making progress.

When this is all said and done, I will conquer this downfall in my life. I wanted the entire house organized in a day, but I realize that is impossible so I am being more realistic. I am giving my hand to organizing, and if all else fails we can just sell the farm and move again!!! (Organizing HAS to be easier than moving)!!!

grace and peace,
julie