Organization

Yesterday I mentioned that it was a busy day.  I also mentioned that I organized my pantry shelves.  I have a slight obsession with organization. In a perfect world, every drawer and closet and basket in my house would be perfectly sorted and put away.  Things would not be thrown willy-nilly into a drawer, but rather they would rest peacefully in their designated space. If someone asked for scissors, I could mosey over to a drawer and whip them out in no time.  A nail file?  Well, right here. Salad tongs?  So glad you asked.  Unfortunately, I do not live in a perfect world.  Things do get shoved and tossed into places at the last minute.  And then when someone does actually ask for salad tongs I have a slight moment of panic when I think, "Where did I stash those things?" I want to be organized, but then life gets in the way and well....I guess I have no excuse.

I think part of my problem is that when I find myself with a few hours to actually work, I feel the need to organize my entire house. This isn't realistic at all, so then I don't do anything and avoid the situation all together.  I hate to start a project and not be able to finish it.  Yesterday, I had just had it with my pantry.  The nail in the coffin was when I grabbed a cookbook off of a shelf which caused all the other cookbooks to fall which pushed a box of vanilla wafers on the ground which tipped over and spilled the remaining cookies and crumbs all over the floor.  In addition, a jug of maple syrup had leaked all over causing a sticky mess.  I had had enough!

I started by pulling every single thing out of the pantry.  I used the hose attachment on my vacuum cleaner to suck up any crumbs, then used a damp rag to wipe off all the shelves.  I went through my food items, throwing away anything expired or questionable looking.  Then I carefully rethought where everything was placed.  I moved my spices to a lazy-susan at eye-level. I decided to keep my cookbooks somewhere else.  I put all my baking items together on one shelf.  I used some plastic containers to group things like pasta and spice packets together.  And in the end, I was pleased with the result!

Ta-da!  It may not look like much, but it is a big deal to me.

After reflecting on my work, I came to this conclusion-- choose one thing to work on at a time.  Yesterday it was the pantry.  Today I plan on tackling my closet.  Tomorrow it could be the pesky "junk drawer" in the kitchen.  You know-- the one with scissors, tape, pens, pencils, and an assortment of random receipts and papers? Yes, that one.  We all have one.  Trying to organize everything in one day is just too overwhelming, and frankly not possible.  Have you ever heard the saying, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."  I think I get it. I guess I took one small bite yesterday.

** Side note-- I would never advocate eating an actual elephant.  That's just not right. :)