The Organizing Journey Day 9

Day 9 – Organizing Starts in the Head

Remember that thing where I worry about…. Everything?  Part of the reason that this morning I hand-delivered an order.  Do I like driving for two hours (round trip)?  No.  But my lack of enthusiasm for long drives is overshadowed by my fear that an important package with a lot of jewelry will get lost in the mail.  Insured or not.

Here’s where it was delivered…

When I got back I worked on projects for tomorrow’s class. 

I planned on doing the dishes when I got back from my delivery.  I know, I’m supposed to do them first thing in the morning, but I forgot and got dressed and I didn’t want to mess up my “outside world” clothes.  And then guess what?  Yep, you got it.  I never ended up doing the dishes.  To be fair, there were only four, but still.

Organizing, btw, isn’t always about running around putting things into storage bins.  Sometimes organizing happens in the head.  Doing mindless tasks (driving, showering, playing solitaire, etc) allows the brain to think about things in a different way.  Give yourself permission to take time with this tool. 

One of my “things” is going to be deciding between drawers and shelving.  I way prefer shelving (I’m an “it’s got to be in plain sight and easy to get to” kind of person), but I won’t be getting rid of all my drawer furniture just yet.  We’ll see though.  The only advantage to drawers is that I don’t have to find the wall studs and install rails.

With shelving, you also can go pretty high… and you can stay somewhat narrow.  It’s awfully hard to find drawer furniture that doesn’t stick out a full foot from the wall.  All that stuff makes the room smaller.  Drawers also tend to be too tall.  Why would I want a 6 inch drawer to things that are no taller than ½ to 1 inch?  Waste of space. 

There’s also a hybrid solution… open shelving furniture (like bookcases).  But again, those only go so high before they become dangerous.  But I’m only a bit over five feet tall anyway, so I don’t really need to worry too much about utilizing the upper regions of the wall space.

I have lots of these things (see below) and honestly I’d like to get rid of them (or at least relegate them to a seldom seen location like the garage or storage shed).

They are everything I don’t like in storage… they stick out too far from the wall and the drawers are too deep.  We won’t even get into aesthetics. 

I got so frustrated with what I was doing in the studio that I didn’t get ANYTHING else done the rest of the day.  That means I get up at 4am again and get back to work.  I’m teaching at 10am so at a minimum I’ll straighten out the studio. 

Oh, and tomorrow’s my birthday so fingers crossed for smooth sailing.  After class, my friend is going to take me out for dinner.  Yay! 

If you're wondering why I am still calling this the organizing journey, it's because I refuse to give up no matter how many distractions there are.  I have SO much stuff to get rid of and SO much stuff to put into proper places.  I'm really excited to dig my teeth into this.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments and feedback.  It’s great hearing from you all and finding out that I’m not alone in this journey.  :-)  Share your tips, tricks, ideas and experiences too, in the comments section.

To see the beginning of this journey, click here.