The 5 Biggest Mistakes I've Made in Organizing

So,  I like to think I'm organized. I can usually find what I need when I need it. And if I can't, I then like to think I didn't need the item in the first place. Hey, works for me!

But there are mistakes I've made along the way. Errors in judgement.  Ideas that didn't work. So here's my list. Learn from it and save yourself some trouble.......

My 5 Biggest Mistakes

1. Don't introduce your kids to LEGO. At least, not the big expensive sets that can only build one thing. And that thing is usually large. And there is never anywhere to put it after it is built. Don't be like us, the people who are currently designing special glassed in shelves to house my son's growing Lego collection. Don't buy them in the first place. Regular LEGO bricks, ok - they can all be tossed in a bin. Special sets - just say no. And you can bet that when said son grows up and moves out, those LEGO creation are going to be the first thing I pack up!
2. I own too many drinking glasses and do not have a drinking glass room to store them in. I need an old fashioned butler's pantry with shelves for glasses. I would take that over an extra clothes closet any day. Lesson here - don't be lured in to imagining a different life for yourself if you only had the right drinking glasses.  Work with what you have.
3. Just because you set up a system, it doesn't mean it will work. Family members have a way of not going along with the well thought out system. For example, my son seems to think the living room is a storage spot for dirty socks. I think otherwise. I set up a system to deal with it. He knows the system. He doesn't follow the system. The new system is that I pick up the socks. Choose your battles wisely.
4. Laundry will always be there, and the dryer will continue to beep just to drive you crazy. (It's beeping as I write this!) I used to think I could outsmart the laundry. I could stay ahead of it. And I would be right if it was just me and my husband. But I have learned that kids don't think about their laundry until the minute they NEED THEIR GREEN SHIRT RIGHT NOW! So I have made peace with the laundry. I have accepted that there will always be laundry that needs to be done. And I thank my lucky stars that I don't have to bring it down to a stream to do it. (It's all in the perspective.)
5. And last but not least - it has taken me a life time to realize that more room does not equal more places to put things. More room equals more junk. Plain & simple. Our amount of junk will expand to fill the space we have. Far better, and cheaper, to get rid of excess junk then to make space for it. Time for a garage sale anyone?

Live and learn.

So, those are my 5 biggest mistakes right at this moment. I'm sure that tomorrow I could come up with 5 more. The point is that life will never be perfectly organized. I do what I can and hope for the best. Join me in my alternate universe, it's a nice place to live.

be organized....evelyn


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