A little OCD never hurt anyone....

I love the feeling that I get when I am organized, when a part of my life that is chaotic finally gets straightened out, de-cluttered and put back in order. It's a calming feeling, a peaceful feeling and it makes me feel good all over. I recognize that I am not as organized in everything that I want to be...but, I have set a goal this year to "BECOME more organized". I bought a book called "Organize Now! by Jennifer Ford Berry (which I highly recommend) back in December. It has helped me immensely. It has short little chapters (1-4 pages) on organizing different areas of your life. Things like: "organizing your photo's, organizing your refrigerator, your purse, your crafts, your closets, yourself".. and so on. It takes you through, step by step, of what to do and how to do it, giving you a week to organize 52 things, therefore being completly organized in 1 year. Each chapter only takes minutes to read and you only have to read the ones that apply to your life...only the ones that you want to work on (that means if you don't have certain things to organize, you can be done before the years end).  After stumbling upon this book at the book store (because I was literally just wandering around without any real purpose) I thought I would buy the book and really put it to the test. I have been really happy with the results. The one thing that I have loved the most, at this point in the year, (after all, it's only February and I have an entire year to become completely organized right?!) is how "organized I have gotten my mind, myself". I use to have post it notes all over where I could see them. Notes on the fridge, on the cupboard doors, the mirrors etc...They were notes written to remind me of things to do, things not to forget, things that were important, appointments not to forget, where I had to be at certain times etc..etc.....since reading this book, I bought a planner notebook (nothing too fancy or expensive) that has each day of the week in it and places to write tasks and chores down...lots of places (which I love because I always have a lot to do on a daily basis). Each Sunday or Monday morning I make a list of things like appointments, responsibilities, chores and things that I want to get done that week (mostly they are all "have to do's")...then I take THAT list and write all the appointments down on their specific days, and then from that point~ all the things that HAVE to get done- on their specific day...and then with the remainder, I divide them up between each of the days of the week. (you get the idea) BEFORE~ I was writing the same list, but feeling overwhelmed come Monday morning when I looked at it because I felt like it all had to be done...RIGHT NOW. My list use to feel impossible and I usually found myself throwing it away by Tuesday, and only getting the very most important done (like the appointments or the errands) and bagging the rest of it...therefore not getting much accomplished. I would find myself walking around in circles sometimes, moving from project to project but not getting anything finished. I have found that by organizing myself, and my life a little bit more, I feel like I am not quite so stressed or overwhelmed. It's self satisfying and I feel like I will actually stick with it. It feels good to look at each day and see what I have to do, cross it off when its done and move on to the next thing. It's an awesome feeling. I know that sometimes I am little OCD with organization, but I find that "SOMETIMES" I have to be. I have to have some things in my life very organized to stay sane (okay, alot of things). Years ago, I had hunted for an hour (or more) for a black shirt that I KNEW that I had, yet couldn't find it anywhere. I had checked my closet countless times, my drawers, the hamper etc... and finally decided that the washer must have eaten it. That is when I decided that I was going to organize ALL OF my clothes. They were going to be hung on hangers and color coordinated...yes all of them (OCD I know)...and then to make it just a little easier for my poor mind, I put all of the long sleeved shirts, the jackets and the short-sleeved shirts of that particular color together...making it a much easier task on me when I want to find things. I WILL forever keep my closet that way, I absolutly love it because it makes my life easier and less stressful (PS..I found my shirt when I was doing all of this organizing)...and thats the way I feel about this "NEW organized ME"...it makes my life so much easier, so why would I ever want to change it?!