Organizing on a Dreary Day

Back in Eastern PA where the weather has been more like Seattle, no yard work was to be accomplished on Memorial Day weekend. Although the temp was cool, I just didn't feel like getting my sneaks wet traipsing through overgrown grass or my knees wet from weeding flower beds. Instead, I decided to pick a project which I had been putting off and finally tackle it.

I spent the 2nd half of my weekend organizing mismatched sets of antique silver plate, a couple sterling, and various serving pieces, some old, some new,  some good shape, some bad. It was the perfect therapeutic activity to calm my mind on a misty, foggy, drizzly day. I enjoy collecting various serving pieces from the Art Deco and Art Nouveau eras. They really only have value to me but I love 'em. Gracefully feminine and delicate features on certain pieces while others showed classically angular chrome Art Deco lines.

Art Deco on the left, Art Nouveau on the right. 

I really like things organized: CDs, record albums, photo albums, books, DVDs all fall into this group. Yes I am old school, LOL I have not yet organized my MP3 files. I organize my clothes by season, then by color. Socks are divided up into work and play. Ties by color. Dishes, Tupperware, pots and pans according to size. Booze on the downstairs bar by type. I think as people, we like a certain structure to our lives. It gives a sense of calmness to chaos.

I'm not talking rigidity to the organization. My bathroom closet definitely gets messed up. My work shirts are sometimes all over the place. Sneakers and dress shoes in one big pile. It definitely happens and I usually trip over that pile of my shoes in the middle of the room. But once you organize that pile, once you line of those books in descending order from tall to short, one you color code those ties ... oh WOW what a sense of comfort.

But what is it about organization that we like to strive for? For me, it gives a sense of therapeutic safety and relaxation. The feeling that this is my stuff, I have touched it, gone over it, and rearranged it into some semblance of order. There is also the satisfaction of going through items such as serving pieces which I have collected over the years and reliving the pleasure and memory of buying them, studying them. Then there is the pragmatic feeling of creating order from a pile of chaos and mess.

The human mind seems to like a sense of order. Looking at a disorganized pile of socks evokes feelings of restlessness, anxiety, and nervousness. Looking at a stack of organized books or CDs gives one a feeling of stabilization, order, and facilitates understanding. And yes, it happens even with a stack of old school CDs or record albums.  :)