What they don't tell you about organization

It's a continuing saga: my quest to get organized, learn to keep a clean house, and aspire to be SuperMom.  (Ok, the last was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but let's face it: we all wish we could be "Super" this-or-that at times.)

I've created a home management binder.  Yeah, I haven't used it much.  I created a weekly cleaning schedule; so far, not happening.  I've also recently created a 7-week rotating menu plan so that I don't EVER have to menu plan again.  Ahem.

In my quest to become better organized, more prepared, less likely to be caught like a rabbit in cross-hairs when something comes up, I've done a lot of reading.  Perhaps you know those blogs?  Where the ladies seem to have it all together: a home management binder that works, perhaps even a home management station, a 90-day rotating meal plan that never fails them, perfectly clean homes, organized closets with paper liners and pretty basics, playrooms that look like they belong in a magazine.... Yeah, them.  Whether we are jealous, sarcastic or desperately desiring to be them, let's face it: if they have stuff as together as they say they do, they have a lot of wisdom to impart.  Wisdom I need.  So, I've been reading.  Among the articles I've found was one called "Simple Living: Live Stress Free Through Organization."  Seriously?  I want to laugh every time I read it.  The blog post details how to create a home management binder that should be able to take the stress off your every day life by handling details for you, complete with free printables to help get you started. It's a lovely post full of useful information.  But it is lacking a few key points.

Here's what posts like this don't tell you: that if you are a chronically disorganized person, a person like myself, it can be incredibly stressful trying to become organized.  That sometimes, trying to create these routines, habits, schedules, even the tools to help you become organized, can stress you out far more than being unorganized ever did.  That sometimes, it's far more attractive to jump ship and bemoan the mess in your house and the dinner crisis every night than to try to keep up with all this organization.  It's stressful.

Now, I realize there's a learning curve here.  I'm not going to become magically organized just because I put together a handy-dandy notebook of calendars, cleaning schedule worksheets and pages of meal ideas for every night of the week.  I know that just because I have a menu plan and a regularly scheduled morning to do the grocery shopping, it doesn't mean that dinner will effortlessly appear on the table.  Life happens.  A kid gets sick and you can't go to the store (hello, Tuesday).  Just because there is a menu plan, doesn't mean it's automatically going to work in your budget.  It's going to need tweaking.  So is the cleaning schedule (or perhaps a complete overhaul).  Just because RealSimple.com says you can clean almost every room in your house (at least superficially) in under 30 minutes, doesn't mean that you actually can.  Not everyone can fit all of their dishes in their dishwasher (ahem) and so clear it in under five minutes. Taking care of the crumb situation with a 14 mo. old boy who loves to crumble crackers and throw food from his chair, no matter the discipline is not a matter of one minute; sometimes, a handheld vacuum just doesn't cut it.  Clearing major clutter with toddlers?  Yeah, not a five minute job.  I've timed it.  Sorry.

What these articles and posts do have right on (at least I'm hoping I will in fact discover this at some point), is that once you make it through the learning curve, that someday, it really will be less stressful.  Once the routines are in place and routine, then it's not so hard to whip out the grocery list, clean that bathroom, get your kids to put away their toys, etc.  That sometimes things really do have to get harder before they get easier (or is the saying worse before better?).  I'm still searching for that silver-lining.  I knew it was going to be a lot of work, signing up for this gig, trying to improve myself in one way or another.  It is every time.  I didn't expect the work to be so stressful, but I knew it would be work.  I'll keep plugging diligently away, and maybe in a few months (more than that?) I'll have an update that says, "I did it!"  We shall see.