Later

I don’t know about you folks, but when I am paid to do something, regardless of how mundane the chore might be, I am much better organized at the job than I am when I do it for my own self pride.

The funny thing is, it’s not that I have no self pride, it’s merely that I have a complete lack of discipline. Or is it total frustration in that nothing stays the same forever, especially with teenagers in the house??

I start out with the best of intentions…

Take my closet… please!
I have my two-piece suits tucked away off to the far side of my closet where I seldom see them. I save them for the job interviews I never go on anymore! Next are my dresses, then skirts, followed by my slacks, then my jeans, then my blouses and tops… sorted by short sleeves, then by long, then by sweaters. Lastly are my jackets, sorted by season. I ruin the whole setup by taking clothes out to wear each day. Come laundry day, it’s usually so late at night by the time my clothes dry, that I’m just lucky to find the time to hang the stuff up. I’ll sort it all LATER and later seldom comes!

Take my tupperware cupboard… please!
I sort all of my tupperware and stack ‘em on top of one another according to size with the lids intact. During kitchen cleanup, we’re always in such a hurry to beat one another to the computer for our “hour” that we knock ‘em off of their neat little stacks. Then, late at night, when I finally get around to emptying thedishwasher, I’m in such a rush to get my standard 6 hours of shut eye, that I throw the tupperware pieces in the cupboard and decide that I will match them with their lids LATER. The cycle then starts at kitchen cleanup time again the next night with us all frantically searching for the lids to match the bowls. You can only imagine the mess by week’s end! Come Saturday, my clean up day, I’m too busy with normal household chores to ever get around to the tupperware cupboard. I’ll do it LATER.

Take my silverware drawer… please!
Sheesh, I put clean silverware in the drawer directly from the dishwasher. I retrieve silverware only at meal time … the only time the drawer is ever opened. Why is it that there are always yucky food crumbs in the trays? The best time to clean these trays is when all of the silverware is OUT of the drawer. I keep waiting until I’m out of silverware to do the tray clean up, but find that I’m usually on top of things and am seldom out of silverware. So, then I’m left with the dilemma of deciding whether or not I want to empty the tray to clean it … or just wait. I have found one little short cut though … I pull the tray out of the drawer, then huff and puff and blow real hard. Most times the crumbs blow right out of there! But usually, I just do it LATER.

Take my bookcase… please!
I sort my books according to size. The bottom shelf, naturally has all the dictionaries and large educational texts. I reserve the middle shelf for hardback novels, etc. and the top shelf is especially for paperbacks. Each shelf is again sorted by size, with the largest on the left, followed by the next sized book, and so on. Why is it, after looking something up in the dictionary from the bottom shelf, that the book gets returned to the TOP shelf? There seems to be no room most of the time, so we seem to turn in on it’s side and place it on top of the paperback books. I am now to the point where I actually question why I even save my books to begin with … but I hang in there, because I know I’ll organize it LATER.

Take my junk drawer… please!
I started out having a junk drawer specifically for my little collection of household tools like my hammer, both kinds of screwdrivers and my wrench and a box of nails. Then I started adding the broken refrigerator magnets that I intended to re-glue. Of course, I also added my various sized rubber bands from the newspaper, bag ties, extension cords, batteries, playing cards, dental floss and toothbrushes from the dentist, nail clippers, the broken parts off my arcadia door draperies, picture hangers, extra window locks, the kids savings account passbooks, extra stick and book matches, lighter fluid, shoe polish, paper clips, old glasses, pictures and their negatives, broken pencils awaiting the next trip to the garage for sharpening, utility bills, free sample colognes and cereals. The list is endless and the space very finite! The drawer is only about 6 inches deep and I’m now seriously considering switching the contents to my pantry closet so I’ll have more room for new much needed junk. Hey, I think I’ll do that LATER.

Take my computer… please! (Did I just write that? OMG)
I was so proud of my state of the art computer back in 1988. My friends only owned XT’s and I was the first to get a 80286. I had a hard drive with 35 meg’s! I had DOS 3.1! I got the latest in software such as Lotus 123, Harvard Graphics, Formtool, PC Tools, WordPerfect. Then I had to have Quattro Pro, Fastback, and Print Shop. I kept acquiring new software and couldn’t bare to delete anything from my pc. Somewhere along the line, I became maxed out on space. I needed way more room, so I acquired Stacker and doubled my space! I still had not changed my methods though and continued saving everything … every form I created, every spreadsheet I designed, every birthday card I made, every letter I ever wrote. I soon maxed out again and lost interest in the whole computer. Before I knew it, I was the one who had the obsolete equipment. In fact, I STILL have obsolete equipment … there’s such a thing as a gigabytes, sound cards, web cams, and Win95/98??? Where’ve I been all these years?? I know, I’ll upgrade sooner or LATER. (update – now upgraded to Win98 – and Windows ME is already out!)

Does anybody else have trouble keeping up with things … or is it just ME?