…after. To be or not to be…organized. As I spend all this time at home you would think that I would spend a little bit of that time getting organized. I really got thinking about my procrastination and what makes one person more organized than another. In my research to find the answers there was very little said about why someone is organized but a lot said about those of us who are not. There are books written for us and businesses that will come in and actually organize everything for us. There are built in closet organizers, shoe, and spice organizer, and on and on. However, I just don’t think it is that important to have color coded underwear, rolled up and lined up, like soldiers in the drawer. As long as they are clean, folded and then thrown in the drawer that is fine with me. I found there are four types of people: organized and clean, organized and messy (dust in the corners), disorganized and clean and disorganized and messy, (that’s the worst). I am organized on the outside and disorganized on the inside, in other words I look very organized but do not open a drawer or a closet as you may be very surprised. My organizational style was formed many years ago.

For years I would read the Paterson Evening News while the boys were napping. There was a syndicated columnist by the name of Jim Bishop who wrote a daily column and I always looked forward to his stories of his life’s experiences, observations and wisdom. A particular column he wrote one day has stuck with me and basically laid the ground work for my form of organization. He worked in a very busy newsroom with many people at many desks and working different shifts. He found that the people with the messiest desks were the most interesting people to talk with and hang out with. However there was one exception to his theory and that was because of one of the night shift reporters. He was one of the most interesting people and Jim loved having great conversations and shared stories. When he came in in the morning the reporter would be finishing up and that’s when they would sit around and talk. The one thing that perplexed Jim was the reporter’s desk was immaculate, which totally debunked his theory. Until one day he came in a little early to work on a column and low and behold this reporter’s desk was the messiest desk he had ever seen. Turns out that when the reporter finished his shift, he opened the drawers of his desk and swept everything into the drawers. Jim was happy to see that his theory still held up. I really liked the idea of whisking things off into drawers, of course with the thought that someday I will organize the drawers. Hence my outside-in organizational skill was born.

I know when the quarantine is over I will kick myself that I didn’t organize everything better. I have found that the older I get I do have to put things like keys, and pocketbooks and cell phone in a specific place because if I don’t I will never find them. Organization is really good for finding things, that’s for sure. Ted Duncan, who passed away recently, said that his “to do list” had been replaced by a “to find list”. I think if I made a list a to find list would have many more things on it than a do list.