Are you over-organised?
October 9, 2007
I used to think there was no such thing as too organised. I was wrong – I have met Over-Organised and it is not a pretty sight!
Before I get ahead of myself, let me ask you, “Why do you organise?”
Generally, people organise their lives to save time, save money, for a feeling of peace and harmony in their homes, etc.
So if your organising is costing you these things, then I say you’re over-organising.
Let me give you some examples:
1. If your stuff has to be JUST SO and it means that your husband and kids can’t leave a thing out of place otherwise the MOMMY MONSTER comes out, then you’re over-organising.
2. If you spend hours categorising and making folders and sub-folders in your inbox, and it takes you 15 minutes to find anything because you have to remember exactly how you filed it, then you’re definitely over-organising!
Remember, the point of being organised is to save time. So avoid complicated systems that you AND YOUR FAMILY can’t use easily.
Does any of this sound familiar? Are you over-organised? What are you going to do about it?
I think my neighbor is. She is a minimalist and super organized or ODD. Once I went over there for dinner (i made the veggies, she the main course) and she could not sit down until the entire kitchen was spotless and everything was put away. When her kids finished (before us) she had to reclean before she sat down again. How tiring.
great topic. organizing should make things easier and take less time…not the other way around.
people really need to look at the cost-benefit issue…
This just makes me think of Monica from friends… the episode where they have a contest for the apartment and they have to name all of her categories of towels!
Oh, Sarah K–Monica is my hero! I loved the episode where she had a party and got excited when everyone was gone so she could clean up! Guess that makes me over-organized 🙂
I approach organization as freedom. All of your organizing effort should ultimately be saving you time/frustration/expense. If you’re organizing something for the sake of organizing, there’s your problem.
I wrote about this in a recent post, “How to Leave for Paris in 56 Minutes” at:
http://www.sufficientthrust.com/how-to-leave-for-paris-in-an-hour/
Ha! I have to laugh at this one… I have one too many friends that are like this. I have to just love them for their effort and I worry when they ask me for advice… do they really want my advice or do they just want to be called organized!
I have been reading all your posts Marcia… you are really there girlfriend!
Wow – thanks for commenting, everyone. The comments are not coming through to my email for some reason??? so I had no idea these were there.
THanks, Megan!
BTW, I also love Monica because she is clearly overboard 🙂 LOL