Happiness Project: Organization

I'm following along on Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project challenge. Here's the fifth installment:

This week's challenge was "get organized". Now, I am not an organized person - not at home, not in the office, not in my car. Frankly, I am a walking disaster, and have been since I was a child. If I had a nickel for every argument I had with my parents over my messy bedroom, I would have gotten out of college debt-free. It’s not that I don’t mind clutter, it’s that I don’t even really SEE it. And I like being surrounded by my stuff, and I like leaving projects laying about so that I can pick them up whenever my fancy strikes. I was a little vindicated when my youngest niece started demonstrating the same tendencies – but, don’t you know, when a grandchild does something it’s cute and funny and a sign of her extraordinary creative talent. When it’s your own kid, it’s apparently a sign of your failure as a parent to teach your kid how to pick up after herself. I am here to publicly declare my failings in this area are categorically NOT my parents fault – they tried really, really hard to enforce neatness upon me, and the failure to comply is entirely mine.

So, needless to say this was a difficult challenge for me. Starting off was fun, as it required a trip to Target to stock up on what Gretchen Rubin calls “needful things” – in my case, paper towels, tissues, contact solution, and miscellaneous cleaning supplies. This in turn forced me to organize my bathroom shelves. The bathroom is actually the cleanest room in my apartment – because whatever else I may be, I am a freak about good personal hygiene. The shelves, however, were a hodgepodge mess, so buying this stuff forced me to throw out a bunch of old makeup, lotion, perfume, and sunblock – some of which I’d had for three or four years. Score one for organization!

After that project, I moved on to my bedroom closet...nothing short of a monumental task that stretched over the course of the week, and is still not 100% done yet. I did end up with several trash bags of clothes to donate, except I have no idea where to donate them locally so they are now cluttering up my bedroom. I also packed away all of the wrong-sized sheets that were piled on the top shelf, making way for sweaters. Then I hung up my clean clothes, and realized most of what I own is black, gray, or purple, which I found sort of odd. I also found a stash of shoes I’d totally forgotten about (alas, all summer styles) and a blue-green sweater, the whereabouts of which I had been pondering for several weeks. But there's still a couple of boxes that need to be tackled. Score a half point for organization.

Finally, this afternoon I cleaned out my car and got an oil change, along with a tail-light replaced. THAT is worth 2 points - one for organization, and one for "tackle a nagging task”, which is this upcoming week's challenge. I have a number of these, including needing to go to the library and pay up on my fines from the summer, when I borrowed a movie and forgot to return it for 3 weeks. (I got confused & thought it was one of my Netflix movies). And, while it is not exactly a nagging task, I am working on a baby quilt and may I just state the obvious? People with a gray and white cat should not sew with black fabric.