Some other time

[mrissa]

Sometimes I make things messy deliberately in order to drive myself crazy so that I will be motivated to clean them up. I put the bills out on my desk rather than in a folder somewhere, so that I will be annoyed by their presence on my desk and actually, y'know, pay them. This works: we never have late bills.

For the recent and problematic example, I have a terribly messy bunch of newspaper clippings, internet printouts, and magazine pages in the cabinet above the kitchen phone, all containing recipes. I hauled them all down to the kitchen counter, on the theory that I should go through them and put the ones I want to keep on recipe cards where they can be stored in a compact and organized fashion.

It turns out that possibly mid-December is not the most reasonable time for me to perform this chore or other similarly time-intensive and time-insensitive chores! I know, I'm as surprised as you are. So while I hate to shove this stuff back into the cabinet where it will get ignored for who knows how long, up it goes, to drive me crazy later. Ah! I have added it to my to-do list for the week of January 14-20. Part of the function of my to-do list is to tell me what I need to remember to do, but the rest -- and this may be the lion's share -- is to comfort me that I don't have to do everything right now and that I don't have to do everything the minute it occurs to me. Some of it is a "to do some other time" list, and for me, that's important.

Unfortunately, a lot of it is a "to do right now" list. So. Off I go.

Comments

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Do you need to have things messy, or do you just need to have them visible?

If you just need to have them visible, next time you buy furniture, look for transparent drawers.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Then the things will drive me crazy permanently, even if they're in the drawers where they belong. We had that in our Hayward apartment for awhile.

On the other hand, having the bananas on the banana hook on the counter registers as "where the bananas belong," so this varies.

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

Transparent thingies don't work too well on me either.

Too big a drawer, then it's a heap of stuff composed of vague shapes. Too small a drawer, and then I put a few small things inside and [usually] forget where they are.

I leave things out to get done too. Of course, if a new project gets piled atop an old, eventually I'll lose track. Geological stratification [sp?] only works to a certain extent... Stacking non-books isn't always optimal.

Agree with you about where things belong. I wish French bread fit into the breadbox!

- Chica

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't tend to stratify projects very much. That makes me even crazier, and not in a good way, so I don't really let it happen much. Right now I have a bit of that going on, here on my desk, and I am planning to obliterate it today.

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

I prefer vertical stratification. Horizontal is too messy...

File cabinets are my friends. :>

- Chica

Serendipity

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

Yesterday, my cabinet above the stove just got unbearably messy. I took everything out, sorted it all out, and put all the cookbooks away in an orderly fashion and made a big pile of recipes printed out and clipped from magazines. They're going to be organized and put away in a binder, but I didn't get that far yesterday.

But what's really bugging me right now is the fridge. Completely disorganized, and sure to have things to be thrown away.

Re: Serendipity

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm slightly bugged by our fridge, but that's because I bought ahead: buying a new head of lettuce when the tail end of our old one is still there, etc. Tonight some of the items will be consolidated into salads and a tomato red pepper scallop thinger, and then I will be able to make my fridge sane again. Mostly. Maybe.

Re: Serendipity

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

I almost *never* buy more than one day in advance. It's just too easy to make another trip (the grocery store is within two blocks of my house).

Re: Serendipity

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Right now I am trying to curtail my genetic/environmental (Grandma's fault however you look at it) tendency to be running to Byerly's two and three times a week.

Of course, I forgot that we were out of dried blueberries, so someone will have to go back to Byerly's yet today before I bake the lussekatter. But never mind that now; the theory is sound.

And even now, I have used up the last egg in the lussekatter dough and tossed out some slimy leftovers, so we're making progress in that direction, if not in others.

Re: Serendipity

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

Wow. You are more patient than I, ScottJames.

Before moving out here, I used to go grocery shopping each week.

Steve preferred to go shopping the moment he gets hungry. Every day. My compromise is to get groceries a few times a week, and make special runs at need. Especially when defrosting meat is involved.

Every so often something comes up - like the nasty headcold I got last night - that makes me not want to go out. Also, I didn't want to make the whole world miserable when I got up.

I feel optimistic about shopping now. :>

A day's worth of Robitussin has made me nearly human again. Now if the FedEx person would arrive, I could go fetch basic necessities... like bread, vegetables and more cough syrup!

- Chica

Re: Serendipity

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I like the feeling that I could cook for awhile if it snowed or if I had a nasaty cold or if the car broke down or if -- well, a million other ifs, really. I like having a stocked fridge, pantry, freezer.

I hope you're feeling less in need of Robitussin very soon. As my grandfather always says, anyone who takes that stuff deserves to get well.