Column: Something About Nothing

The question for today is: Can a hoarder turn into a compulsive organizer? That question came to mind in my life recently.

A few weeks ago I spent a few days helping my son and his wife and kids move. We sorted, organized and found a place for everything in their new home. Drawers were organized, closets were organized, socks were organized, and barrettes were organized. It was an accomplished feeling to leave them organized.

I journeyed back to my home and took a good look around. I have been slowly over the last year getting rid of the stuff I have been hoarding. I did not do it all at once. I decided to take the “wait and see” road. I would put something in a box that I thought I could not live without and put it away. If I had not missed it or did not need it in six months it would leave my home.

I am not a neat freak. I have never been a person that could find things when I tried organization. Yes I would organize a drawer and forget which drawer I had stashed away something I needed. When I tossed it somewhere, for some reason I would remember where it was. It was “right there” on the top of my desk or coffee table or floor. I have never been one to live well in organization. Organization drove me crazy. I always felt organization stifled the creative spirit.

However, after four days of organizing I could not give it up. I felt the need to organize in my home. I started with the bathroom (down to matching up the hair clips). I continued on to kitchen cupboards, and my office. I would start at 6 in the morning and continue on into the evening. I did not want to quit.

I forced myself the next week to do other things but I was itching to get back to the organizing. The next weekend I tackled my basement. I again started the task at 7 in the morning and continued on into the evening hardly taking a break, even to eat, which is unusual for me. I would have continued on the next day except my body did not want to move from all the lifting I had done the day before but the itch was there so I tackled my earring case.

I am now feeling the need to continue on and delve deeper into the organization, finishing the spots I did not get to and sorting what I have already sorted into smaller categories. I am having so much fun organizing that I don’t want to stop. I don’t know if being organized is going to make my life better because I may know where everything is but the actual act of organizing my stuff is giving me a big high. Am I addicted? Is it a good thing to being addicted to organizing?

One day this week I started organizing my work space at work. My work space is always a mess with notes scattered all over, computer parts lying hither and yon and pens lying on whatever work surface I have touched. I almost organized the bat lying in the front window until he screeched in protest so we put him back outside.

I do have the fear that in my organized state I will not remember where I organized everything so my next step is a spreadsheet letting me know what is in each room. Is that carrying things too far? Maybe I am leading toward a new career becoming a professional organizer? I do not know what is happening to me.

If you see the real disorganized me running around somewhere, please bring her back home to my body. I miss her.

Maybe I should organize my life around this quote by an unknown source. “Organize your life around your dreams — and watch them come true.”

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net. Her blog is paringdown.wordpress.com. Listen to KBEW AM radio 1:30 p.m. Sundays for “Something About Nothing.”