I was checking my statistics for Blog Fabulous when I noticed my story Anal Retentive Compulsions in 2008 was still being read. How’s that for accountability?

That was my story where I declared my New Year’s Resolution to get be so organized I could be classified as anal retentive compulsive, you know like Kate Gosselin and my mother.

It’s July. I looked around my office and the exact same pile of clutter was shoved in my drawer. The same exact pile of “get to this later” was in the same basket it’s been in for literally YEARS. Still no filing system.

In fact, the top of my desk had become – things I haven’t yet hung up in here and things I wanted to write about but hadn’t had time.

Is it any wonder my daughter’s room periodically needs to be excavated? <

Here’s one thing I know for sure – if you continually feel bad about something one thing you can do to stop feeling bad is to “just do it.”

Examples: Feel bad every time you smoke – Quit. Feel guilty when you don’t work out – Work Out.

Feel like working somewhere else when all I wanted was an office space of your own? Organize It.

I did. It took me 8 hours. No joke. It’s got files. It’s not cluttered. The stuff is hung on the walls. There’s a system. The “stuff to do later” got done – even if it cost money.

Here’s what I noticed about my messes:

The reason I didn’t do it before amounts to $8. I had attempted to buy an $8 file hanger thing for my desk drawer numerous times, but it always put me over my budget. It’s been in the cart 5 times, I put it back. Stupid isn’t it? For 7 months I couldn’t make spending that $8 important enough.

Then when I discovered the file hanger wouldn’t fit that drawer anyway and had to use the other filing cabinet.

How minor are the things I allow to distract me.

The other thing I’ve noticed is a genetic/generational tendency to believe I have to keep things or I’m wasting them and I might never get anything to replace it. I think this is about my grandparent’s depression-era anxiety and my “always be prepared” Mormon upbringing. I come by it honestly. During my grandfather’s eulogy they said, Viola you’ve inherited the biggest scrap yard in all of East Texas. And their children, my parents and aunts and uncles, are overflowing with stored crap from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Remember Suze Orman says you can not have room for new things in your life if there is so much cluttering it up.

I have everything I need. I have enough. I can get more things, even if I no longer have a use for this. I told myself as I threw stuff, basically garbage, away I’d been keeping “just in case.”

(Okay, don’t tell anyone – this is my dirty little secret – I didn’t actually throw most of it away – I stuck it in bags where it will stay for several months, just in case my need for it returns, or until I find it a good home with a needy family – baby steps. That’s in line with reduce, reuse, recycle though – right?)

It’s July. It was a New YEARs Resolution. That means I accomplished my goal a full 5 months ahead of my deadline. (Still to go a more efficient electronic organization system for emails, passwords, receipts, etc. I don’t delete most of my email either, “just in case”. )

Do you remember what YOUR New Year’s Resolution was?

Don’t feel bad – there’s still plenty of time.

Source of Images: Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me

Post from: Blisstree

Resolutions Revisited