Spring Organizing Without The OCD
I’ve been a little MIA this week from textiles. I’ve let the spring season posses me and drive me to do things like organize and plant stuff. While I m passionate about planting stuff, I have to say that I’m not a strict organizer these days. In the era of organizing themed shows and media, I feel like I owe a little explanation.
In the very beginning of when I became a mother at 18, I was insanely organized. I owe a lot of that to the Asian cultural upbringing. We even had those hard plastic carpet runners in my childhood home to protect the carpet. If you know, you know. I’m American too, but we didn’t wear shoes in our house like my friends did. There’s a few other cultural things along those lines that I took into into my own adult life. It was the way of life for me. It was comforting and something I always could control.
When I was younger I have to admit, I was way more intense with things. Things were o-r-g-a-n-i-z-e-d always. Closets were colored coordinated. Cans were facing all the same way in the pantry. Towels were clean and fresh and hanging properly. (Ever see the movie Sleeping with the Enemy?) I would even comb the fringe of the carpet to make it lay correctly. Writing that all out now a decade+ later is humbling and introspective for me.
At that time, I didn’t know that I was actually processing things like someone who has obsessive compulsive disorder. In life, I think we often go about things and think nothing of it until someone points it out to you. My ah-ha moment was when I had a friend over for dinner and during the dinner prep/cooking she calmly said to me “I just watched you wash your hands 10 times in under 5 minutes.” I was surprised and defensive as one would be and did nothing about it for years. But that comment stuck with me and weighed on me for awhile.
Flash forward a few years from that comment, my dad fell ill and ultimately passed on. It was a mentally and physically straining time for me as you would guess. Flash forward a bit more, I was getting a divorce now too. That season of my life was a tough one. Good things did come from it though. A roller derby league and a positive turn in my mental health. I won’t share my TEDTalk of my journey, I am just like you and I ride life’s roller coaster of changes, ups and downs and trie to navigate it the best I could.
But in that time I was able to release whatever possessed me or weighed me down to do things the way I did. I am conscious of my habits and rituals. I giggle at the idea of combing the carpet tassels straight now. The cans aren’t all facing outwards anymore. Unless it’s a joke, because that seems to be a serial killer trait in movies. We do still take off our shoes before coming into our house and my closet is still color coordinated because (aesthetics). I do really appreciate a well organized utensil drawer and a shoe closet (see above) too. I just don’t freak out about it looking perfect daily.
I still revel in finding easy ways to organize like using this photo storage box for my seeds.
Up until earlier this week I had rubber banded stacks of seeds stored in a beat, old, sad, cardboard box stored in my garage fridge. “Seeds” scribbled in Sharpie marker noting was it was. It wasn’t the best system for storing. Seeds would slide out and I’d sort though them looking for which stack had the thing I was looking for. This has been a easy gratifying solution for me.
The writing is still in Sharpie marker but things are easier to find with a quick glance.
Aside from the season spurring this topic, I know a handful of young people trying to sort adult life out. Its hard to not reflect on my own life during that time. It honestly doesn’t feel that long ago because I started so young. My words of wisdom to those young folks starting out and even to those of us who have an opportunity to start again, remember don’t be hard on yourselves. Being organized is awesome and feels good, but it should not be stressful. I promise you, there will be something else in life for you to stress out over.
And since I forgot to share this earlier this week - here’s my most recent vlog video. It features the majority of the young people in my life.
Hve an excellent weekend friends - Thea