Over the summer we had an addition put on our house. My mom has always wanted a bigger kitchen, so we put that plan into action. We just finished up the entire project, finally. We have all these extra cabinets now because we had to get new ones for the kitchen so that they would match. We got rid of or gave away most of them, but there was one my parents decided to hang in the basement for extra storage seeing as the ping pong table was beginning to strongly resemble a warehouse bench. Every game, puzzle, decoration, napkin, and holiday plate had resided on the table, so my job was to organize the cabinet with all everything that didn't belong on the table.
Before I began I was dreading it. A third grader could organize better than I can, and I never know where to start. I looked at the table, and all of the random things on it, and wondered how on earth I could make a system out of it. So before I started I was overwhelmed with all the stuff, for lack of a better word. I decided that before I put anything in the cabinet I should put the items in categories. About halfway through the project I had expanded the mess to the floor, but it made sense to me. Now I just had to find a way to put everything inside the cabinet. That was probably the easiest part of all, seeing as everything was in groups. When I was done, I hate to admit it, I felt really relaxed. It wasn't that the mess bothered me, but I knew that it was good to have it out of the way, especially since my family loves to have ping pong tournaments on Thanksgiving (which they happened to skip this year, just my luck).
After the project I really didn't feel that different about other things. It was the same organizational principle that I use for pretty much everything: put things with other things that are similar to them. I did feel a little more calm knowing that one job for Thursday was out of the way, but I also felt very tired because organizing is exhausting.
After I finished getting everything off the table I realized that there was alot less random stuff than I thought there was. The task that looked so daunting turned out to not be that bad. I could easily close the cabinet doors when I was done. I guess it kind of relates to everything that goes on in your head when you're stressed out. When you look at the big picture it is completely overwhelming and it becomes impossible to grasp everything that you need to get a hold on. But when you place each thought or thing where it belongs, it is so much easier to get a handle on it. Instead of I need to read these pages in Sophie's World, and these pages for AP psych and then do my math homework, but after that do my psych writing assignment, and then that blog, oh and memorize my lines for the play, I say I need to read Sophie's World and do my blog (English) Then do my psych notes and assignment (psych) After that I'll finish my math, then worry about the show. It puts all those tasks into an easier order.
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