The Loser of Organization - Part 1

Let me tell you a little story about me when I was just a wee one. I'm not sure what ages the term "wee one" covers, so I'll just say I was about 9ish, maybe. I had this great talent for organization. Yes, you heard me, I was organized. I spent much of my time making up charts for what I was going to wear for the next week, to do lists for the care of my Cabbage Patch Kids, and so on and so forth.

This childlike organization came to a screeching halt one sad day when friends came over to play and my "What to Wear List" was discovered by my teashing and untoughtful peers. I will never forget that day I vowed to not be a "dork" and I nearly lost all interest in organizing.

Some of those natural skills have been used from time to time. Being an Administrative Assistant forced them to resurface and now, being a wife, a missionary, and well, face it, a human being, I think I'll have to dig deeper for that long lost talent for organization. In the past year or so, I've tried, to no avail. Here's proof:

1. I bought a handy dandy calender that doubles as file folders when the month is done. That way, I could file each month of important documents as I went. Unfortunately, I purchased the calendar in 2006. It's still in pristine condition, but completely unuseable.

2. I also bought a great Full-Sized Breifcase looking thing (DayPlanner, I think it's called) to keep track of meetings, phone calls to churches, contact info and the like. Guess what, it's beautifully kept...because it hasn't been used...for over a year. Thankfully, though there is hope for this one. It's not limited to a specific year, but it will be once I start using it - and that makes me afraid to use it since I'm not confident I'll be consistent. Oh, Vicious Cycle.

3. We purchased a cute little 2 drawer filing cabinet on sale for $40, fun colored folders and printable folder labels to start our home office. Now, about 8 months later, the drawers are filled with stacks (not rows) of unorganized, some unidentifiable, papers, junkmail, magazines and most anything that measures 81/2'' x 11''. The Folders remain unlabeled and unopened.

As you can see, I'm basically a loser when it comes to organizing. And it drives me as much nuts as it probably does Jim, who is patient beyond belief. So, I MUST, I have no choice, re-learn to organize. It would be nice, though if we spent much of our time in the same geographical location...but alas, we live on the road, making organization that much less attainable, in fact, pert-near impossible.