February 5, 2010

Organization Fail

Organization has never been my strong point in life. It is consistently one of my goals every year to get a little bit more organized, especially with paper things. I'm talking receipts, bank statements and silly little things like my birth certificate. Which, by the way, was filed away in my bra drawer for three years. Right next to my passport. Don't worry though! We got a even more super awesome place for both those documents now, and currently my bras are kept company by only level 5 important paper goods. Like the Phillies tickets Pete is getting for his birthday.

Anyway, I really thought I was doing good this year. We got receipt organizers for the kitchen and my purse, plus I got a really adorable Lily Pulitzer agenda to carry around. Every single receipt for this bathroom renovation immediately went into my travel notebook pocket, right next to the sketch of the bathroom with all the dimensions listed. I carried that notebook along with me everywhere. This way in case of returns, exchanges or a chance purchase we wouldn't find ourselves without the proper receipt or measurement. Definitely came in handy during our early AM tile return!

I'm sitting down now to organize all the receipts into an excel file, mainly to see if we're keeping ourselves on track for the budget, and I realize that they are all in one big cluster eff of a mess. Despite my efforts I'm facing an organizational fail. Truly organized people would have started an excel file even before starting this project, to map out what could have been spent where. Or they would have entered items into the spreadsheet right away after purchasing said items. Me, I sit down weeks (months) later and try to make sense of receipts that are longer than my already freakishly longer than average arms. I thought I was doing so good with this project!

Sometimes when you are a Type B personality trying to wedge yourself into a Type A trait the squeeze is just a little too much. I'll keep working on it though.

2 comments:

  1. I'm extremely organized. If I could have my way, nothing would be out of place. However, when you have a child and a home that is too small, well, you tend to get things crammed wherever they will fit.

    Keep trying. Minimize. Get rid of things you don't need. You will get better. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Considering your genes, you are doing GREAT. I'm STILL working at it, but I have so much stuff in the house that belongs to my kids! I'm kidding I'm kidding. I am of the belief that kids need to have something --OK lots of things to sort through which triggers memories when they come home for visits. We were always drawn to the attic in my parents' house and no matter how many times we went through it, there was always something more. Of course my parents were pack rats and you really could not get to the bottom of it.

    Love, M.O.M.

    ReplyDelete