So Organized

"So organized". I hear this phrase a lot from my wife, usually prefixed with "Damn it, you always have to be". My wife is my opposite in this regard. Some people question why we married, considering that her entropy is constantly clashing with my enthalpy. She generates heat, I generate light. The answer, I've come to realize, is simple: she gives me something to do, and I give her something to undo. At least we're not trying to organize in two different ways. I think that would be worse.

So I'm an organizer. An organized person. Orderly. I don't consider this to be a problem. In fact, I consider it to be a solution. The universe is big on disorganization -- there are three laws about it that you may have heard of -- and it poses a lot of challenges. I'm just trying to keep my little corner of the world in some semblance of order so that I can accomplish a few things before I die.

Some people confuse organized with clean. I'm clean, but not ridiculously so. I think my perceived cleanliness is just a byproduct of my organization. Countertops tend to stay clean when they're not covered in crap so that you can't see them, and when there are paper towels conveniently at hand. Et cetera.

Another point of confusion concerns the effort I put into organizing. True, it's not inconsiderable. But it's a net savings. I'm confident that my wife, for example, wastes more time and money overcoming the consequences of her disorganization than I invest in my organization.

Last year, my wife and I bought a beautiful old Craftsman bungalow in southern Ontario. We've been restoring it ever since (its previous owners were investors, who rented it out and abused it). I'm enough of a handyman to have tackled most of the work myself. A big chunk of the work has been getting the place organized. We have a lot of stuff, my wife and I. Mostly my wife. She doesn't like to throw things out, but she's a big fan of collecting things that other people are throwing out via selling them inexpensively.

Hence this blog, which I've created as a place to record my thoughts on organization (there's certainly no one else around here who wants to hear them -- well, my two year old daughter will listen, but I suspect she's just humouring me) as well as my progress on the house. It's really just for myself, but since you're here, I hope you find it interesting, informative, or at least amusing.