Organizing is a Family Affair

We've all been there. Unless you live alone, you've probably experienced the frustration. You make small progress in some area of organization only to have your efforts foiled by someone else in the family.  A linen closet shelf of perfectly folded sheets that all come tumbling down into a mess when there are forts to be made in the living room, craft supplies in neat baskets until the first homework project is due, utensils lined up neatly until someone "helps" by unloading the dishwasher for you. Sometimes it feels like the world, or at least your family, is working against your organizing efforts.

Some people are inherently more organized.  It's just their nature.  They lined up their toys by size and color as kids. On the opposite end of the spectrum, some people don't even see the pile, nevermind have an urge to sort it. In my house, there are two of us who are organized, and two who benefit from that organization. At any point in time you have pretty good odds that SOMEONE will know where to find something. Now don't get me wrong, even the organized ones let the clutter build up sometimes. The difference is we both know how to clean up quickly because we know where things go, but that's another day's blog.

I'm here to say there's hope. Little bits of organization may start seeping in, even when you think they're not paying attention.  Being able to find what you're looking for is rewarding...and when you're talking about snacks, well, it's a pretty powerful motivator.

In our house, we keep our snacks in a kitchen drawer.  It's an easy way to free up cabinet space from the many boxes that have only one or two pouches or bars left inside. It allows you to have a variety of choices at your fingertips. It's a little crazy in that drawer, but really, it's hidden from my view so I don't think about it (true of so many little messes, no?)  Well, a couple of weeks ago my daughter insisted I come downstairs immediately.  Thinking there was a crisis awaiting me there, I came downstairs with a grumble.  And this is what I found:

I'm not going to lie. It practically brought a tear to my eye.  It occurred to my daughter that she wasted time in the morning packing her snack because she had to look through the whole messy drawer for her favorites. So, she lined up the snack bars with the name/flavor clearly visible, sorted the pouches by type, etc. My son is maintaining her system because he likes knowing when we're out of a particular snack, he can put it on the list. He likes seeing his choices. They have even restocked the drawer with new snacks since.  I could not love this more. The best part? I had nothing to do with it.  She saw the need and fixed it. He's happy to use and live with the system. Why is this system working when so many have failed? Maybe because it wasn't "mom-imposed"? Maybe it's the pride of owning this project? I'm not sure, but I do know this: there's hope for us all.


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