GETTING ORGANIZED

Being organized was not one of our greatest talents.   Celia had her clutter and I had mine.   We had our own distinct areas where we were responsible for our own piles of clutter, be it mail, magazines, books, pictures, albums, whatever.  Even on the dining room table we kept our clutter separate, Celia had one end and I had the other.  Whenever it started falling on the floor we knew it was time to clean things up or move it to another room.  

The office was especially the center of chaos.   Celia did much research work dealing with scientific  subjects, environmental issues, art work, health, gardening and more.  She developed a filing system for much of it, but over the years more accumulated on the deck top, and any flat surface available.   I was responsible for many piles on the office floor, including my writings, map collection, forestry issues and my research into family genealogy.    At times we made a joint effort to get the office in order, but within an hour we suffered burnout and decided we had better things to do that were more enjoyable.

After Celia passed away my son and daughter, along with Celia's two daughters chipped in together and prepaid for 15 hours for a professional organizer, by the name of Rita Prothero to help me make order out of chaos.   We knew Rita from her role as the county road cleanup coordinator for the Friends of Kanipe Park and also had known her dad, Jim Long.   

My first appointment with Rita was Saturday, July 3rd for four hours.   Just knowing Rita was coming motivated me to prepare for her arrival by sorting the best I could in order to have a starting point.   Rita can work as fast as the client can make decisions and her filing system is simple--action file, archive file and the recycle bin.  It is amazing how much goes in that recycling bin, especially all that stuff that has been around for years and we thought we could not live without.  The great accomplish of the day was clearing off the dining room table right down to the table cloth.   Then, Rita asked the question, "when was that last washed?"   I had no idea, must have been years ago and off to the clothes washer it went.   After clearing off the table we moved to the office and it took an hour or more to get stuff off the floor and the deck organized.   Now it actually can be used for what it was intended for--a working deck.    There is more work to be done in the office, including the closets in that room.   Rita will return next Saturday, and I dare not create any piles of clutter between now and then.