Oh, thinking about this one smarts.
Order
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
When I was single, I was pretty orderly. I didn't own a lot of stuff. Everything had its place. I used a daily planner, balanced my checkbook, showed up for events early, and finished my papers weeks before their deadlines.
Then I married and had a child. I joined a church and started volunteering. My orderly life fragmented into many pieces that were far more difficult to balance and sort.
Mu husband has a wonderful gift of spontaneity that has changed my life. He is a liver in the moment and a believer in doing without overthinking. Our strengths complement one another. His gift of action serves as a corrective to my analytical tendencies while my analysis helps focus his efforts at times.
My increased spontaneity and attention to the present has allowed me to believe in myself and pursue my dreams. However, these traits also have brought me a tendency to disorder. My house is chaotic. Though I can produce an external appearance of cleanliness and neatness, our closets bulge with piles of unsorted objects. Everything certainly does not have a place. We have too much stuff.
In business, I have only the necessary minimum of orderliness. I'm still goal-oriented, which means I'm good at getting things done and doing them well. I'm not often late with my tasks, but I'm not good at scheduling my time. Regularity is not my forte.
Addendum: After I wrote this post yesterday, I took my daughter into her bedroom and we spent an hour repairing the ravages of too many playtimes. Castle figures went into the castle box, superheroes clustered together in their lair, toy sushi kit reassembled itself with its shrimp and egg sushi. Even the Connect Four game repossessed all its black and red disks!
Ben Franklin had something going here. These virtues creep into our lives when we take time to reflect on them.
How's your level of orderliness?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
This one really DOES smart! I would LOVE to be orderly and in my mind, I am. However, life is so busy that I feel like I fight off chaos more often. I will never forget when Brandon said (after being at MBCC for about a year) "Lila, the children's ministry at Montgomery is the most organized ministry here!" Oh, how I wish that were true! I am haunted by that comment and try to accomplish "order" as much as I can. I sure wish that I could manage it all better though and am constantlly trying!
I'm the opposite of you. I was completely disorganized when single. My apartment (as you well know) was just shy of being the set of Hoarders. But in married life I find myself completely changed. I run a very organized ship now. Everything has a place. Even things that need to be properly put away has a place. At any one point in time, the house may look chaotic with toys on the floor and dishes in the sink, but about 15 minutes and things are back in order. For me the key was seeing order as part of my service to my marriage as a homemaker and the pressure of being a good example to my kids.
Order of time is another issue altogether. I'm still working on that one. I'm dallying with the idea that I should have a set routine for chores, not because they don't get done otherwise but because it builds virtue to do things when they ought to be done rather than at my whim for pleasure.
I wish I was as orderly as I am in my mind. I often arrive at the same conclusion you do - we have too much stuff. I find that when I start paring down - paring down my schedule and cutting away nonessentials, paring down wardrobes and getting rid of unnecessary/unwanted stuff, paring down toys and keeping out only what actually gets played with... then things tend to stay much more orderly.
If only I could master keeping the desk free of clutter, I'd be feeling great!! :)
I believe they called it disorganized organization.
My husband is obsessive compulsive, so he needs order.
But if he rearranges my mess, then I can't find anything and it throws me for a loop.
Thanks for your comments!
Lila - With a newborn plus all the other things on your plate, I think all women understand if your schedule is an exercise in survival rather than order. ;-)
Susan - I tried to make a regular chores list a few weeks ago. When I realized I could not fit them all in, I gave up. Heh heh. The problem is this whole writing business. Hours of time sucked through the computer screen. When I add homeschooling, chores, household admin, and our recent push to be more hospitable...there just aren't enough hours. But that's OK. I take great pleasure in the hospitality.
Kristi - Left to my own devices, I'd pare down. But marriage works only with compromise, and eventually, a wife has to realize that she has married an accumulator, and that's that. :-) I still pare down from time to time, but minimalism will never have its day here!
Kat - I'm grateful that at least nothing gets rearranged in our home. I can always find my stuff in the stacks.
Have a great week, everybody! I did find that writing this post yesterday encouraged me to go bring some order from the disorder. This Franklin stuff really works.
I'm a bit on the OCD side so I'm pretty orderly, but I still have my piles and my messes. I guess they're just organized messes. ;)
I am an artist, craftsperson, scrapbooker, painter, photographer, remodeler, grandma, teacher, sunday school teacher....I have stuff!!!! I love it when everything is in its place and when everything is orgainzed in totes and clear shoe boxes....but with not enough time to organize all the stuff I have collected for all of the things I do, it gets a bit overwhelming. I actually am trying to be better at throwing! I always have piles to give to school and piles to give to good will, and piles to take to the thrift store. My mom never threw things away because someone could use it....guess I got it honestly. Take care!
Post a Comment