How can I find a balance between being too messy and organized?

I would describe myself as a really organized slob.





Let me explain -





I'm pretty messy...ie: my stuff is everywhere (drives my husband crazy! lol), I let things pile up, I'm a pack rat and have tons of shoeboxes filled with "souvenirs" and trinkets or all sorts, and I don't usually pick up after myself, etc.





On the other hand...





When I do decide to pick up my stuff and/or put things away...they need to be really organized...ie: my clothes are color coordinated and separated by type, books on the bookshelf have to match by height, towels need to be folded a certain way, each pillow has its own designated pillowcases, etc.





Any suggestions on how I can balance the two?|||Sound like a typical perfectionist to me. You keep your hoarded things because you've probably been deprived at some point. I am similar to you. I I moved around a lot and people told me to leave things I valued behind. Because they were "in charge" of me, I listened to them.





Think back and figure out what happened and see if you can find some emotional resolution to it. After you've come to some of that understanding, pick up this really good book called "Organizing from the Inside Out." She talks about how to arrange your life and about the emotional aspects too.





People who sometimes let some areas get out of hand are afraid of starting to clean it up because they fear they can't keep it "perfect." Chaos is a kind of perfection.I know it all sounds strange, but it makes sense. Sometimes we want to SEE what we have so we know that no one has thrown away our stuff.





I also like Martha Beck where she talks about getting organized. She sees it as a getting to know what your primary goals issue. If you have things that are distracting you from your primary goals, she suggests you let it go. I forget to do that a lot. I'm working on it.





Hope this helps.|||you r just like me but i don't keep organized so i didn't really answer ur question sorry|||Too messy is where you can not even see the ground and organized is when you can actually se your beautiful carpet and the stains on them. :)|||Learn to purge. For every new item you bring into your home, you have to get rid of 1 item. That goes for personal as while as souveniers and little things that fit in "shoe boxes". Maybe if you didn't spend so much time making everything perfect you would put your items away where they belong when you are finished with them. It is ok to be organized, but not if it means you let everything go until you can't stand it anymore and then you get too involved with it.|||IF you like organizing with shoeboxes, invest on those organizing sets from the same line. The boxes will look neat despite you piling them all together. Make sure you write descriptions of the items in them.





Learn the fastfood motto: CLEAN AS YOU GO! if you are not used to picking things up after yourself, this might be difficult at the beginning. But you will develop the discipline. your motivation: organized household.





There is nothing bad about being organized. Keep it up! Not everybody even starts to think about organization at home.





Another reason to clean up your mess: HAVE VISITORS OVER YOUR HOUSE,WHO YOU WANT TO IMPRESS. This always work for me. I then have a reason to quickly clean up the kitchen, the bathroom and organize things where I want them to be. This lessens the mess and prevents it from piling up.|||Just so you know you are not alone, I AM THE EXACT SAME WAY. Not only does it drive my husband crazy, but it drives me crazy!!!!!!!!!! I'm glad you asked this question because I appreciated the advice you received.|||Just be clean and organized... no need to be messy..|||I have the same problem. OMG, are we related? My desk, it is under there somewhere, gets a complete cleaning once a week, but that pile of bills, letters, bank statements doesn't get filed until it grows legs and walks. Every time I do go through that pile, I swear off piles. Never again will I let things just pile up. Unfortunately, tomorrow arrives and the pile grows.





I am a perfectionist to the core and fold all my towels in the linen closet a certain way and they are all color coordinated. My closet is organized meticulously and well, so is everything else. If things seem like they are getting out of hand, I kinda fall behind because it is so disorganized and I don't know where to begin.





I used to belong to this Christian woman's group - on Yahoo I believe - and we would have daily tasks around the house that we had to do and report on. It was really pretty neat but I fell behind and they gave me the boot, they are pretty strick in your participation. It really helped me stay up with things and put things in perspective with God as the head of my life. I will try and look for it and send it too you if you would like. If I can even remember where it was or what it was called. It was years ago.





*hugs* ~:)