Staying Organized, the Job is Endless

I don’t know about you, but I am constantly working to keep myself organized. Whether it means making lists or folders to file things in, the management of “stuff” never seems to end. Between work, finances, household chores, Zach's toys and school projects, it is like a bottomless pit that I can’t get out of. The only solution to avoid complete chaos that I have been able to come up with, is to never fall too far behind on anything. That can be easier said than done.

My neighbors always ask how I do it. Anytime they stop by, the house is never messy and nothing seems unorganized. This of course is not true. There are always things that are just waiting for me to get them done or in a pile, hiding in a closest.

My daycare lady, who is also a neighbor, always says that my worst day is a lot better than her best. But, she runs a daycare and has four kids of her own, so I am always in amazement at how she can keep up with everything.

Now, I am going to share one of my quarky secrets with you. I have been doing this since I lived in my first apartment after college, and the highlight of my Wednesday was to catch the back to back episodes of 90210 & Melrose Place, (about 15 years). I would clean during advertisements. During the advertisements of those two shows I could get the apartment cleaned. It is amazing how much I can get done in such a short period of time, especially when I know that you can sit back down on my lazy butt, in just a few minutes.

Since then, the space has changed a few times and more advertisements are required to accomplish things, but it still for the most part works. It drives my husband crazy because I am constantly up and down, but the alternative of a messy house is not a good option for him, so he has gotten used to it, plus sometimes he helps.

I just never (make that almost never) sit and watch the advertisements or fast forward through them with our DVR. It may seem a little crazy, but it is a lot easier that doing continuous work. It is nice to be able to break the jobs into simple tasks that I can do while catching an episode of Desperate Housewives.

I am often amazed at how little time it takes to do some of things around the house that I hate doing. For example, I can usually come close to getting a load of laundry folded during this time, or empty the dishwasher, clean out a drawer, vacuum or, take out the garbage. The list seems to never end.

My least favorite thing to do, but the easiest to get done, is paying the bills. Thanks to the great Online Banking and BillPayer service that Hawthorne provides, I can easily have a stack of bills taken care of in less than 5 minutes. I just click on the QuickPay button and go down the list, pay all the necessary bills and click submit. It could not be easier.

Sometimes, I also read organizing books, or catch a good organizing show on TV. I don’t think I will ever have the concept mastered, but a least I try. I still have piles of pictures in a closest waiting to be added to yet another picture album, and as soon I get that done there will be more pictures. Or, as soon as I have sorted through one pile of mail, there is another. The mailman never stops coming. I guess that is just how life goes. We never run out of things to do.