Tuesday, January 5, 2010

A Place for Everything, and Everything in its Place

I’m surfing the net. I should be writing the adoptive family report, due tomorrow. I should be sweeping the floors and dealing with the post-holiday glut of leftovers in the refrigerator. I should be searching for the warranty information on the clothes dryer which is not working. Instead, I’m skimming Facebook status updates, scanning Tweets, and perusing craigslist and Woot.com.

I’m feeling plenty guilty. Haven’t I just resolved to be more self-disciplined and therefore accomplish more in 2010? Well, no, I can’t really go so far as to call it a bona-fide resolution; I have only been toying with that idea so haven’t actually
committed to it yet. But when my kids lived at home, my favorite lecture-phrase to them was “Do what you ought to do before you do what you want to do.” As I chide myself about what a failure I am at my own philosophy, a web link about organization catches my eye and poof! that little grey cloud of guilt is dissipated by a ray of self-help hope.

It is titled “The Joys of Filing.”

What? Are you kidding? Someone actually thinks of filing as a cause of joy? But wait, hasn’t one of my goals for the past eleven years been “Have a place for everything, and put everything in its place”? This little link could be a solution for me since I haven’t accomplished it in my lifetime thus far.

I confess: I add papers, both important and irrelevant, to piles of other papers on the flat surfaces in our home, then before company comes, shove them into the nearest drawer. I fully intend to do something eventually with all that mail, those coupons, statements, policies, and product information leaflets.

Turns out, I probably won’t use the system this web link advertises. However, I am considering: what
can I do this year to organize my files? I do, I really do, want to handle papers only once, to access important documents easily, and to keep only what is necessary. I may not experience the “joys of filing” but I expect to experience the assured comfort of knowing my important documents are at my fingertips.

I feel very hopeful that I will come up with a workable system this year. Actually, the web link inspired me, so I’m going to work on it very soon. But first, well, I have to find the clothes dryer warranty information.

1 Corinthians 14:40 “Let all things be done decently and in order.”

2 comments:

  1. This made me laugh and hit a little close to home :) - Shannon M

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  2. Aw, come on! Isn't organization overrated? Just kidding! I'm all for knowing where things are!

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