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A life spent searching and searching
A birthday came and went for me recently. If I don't change my ways soon, that 40th birthday will be right around the corner and I will have missed the next seven years -- all because I spent my time looking.
I'm not looking for the meaning of life. I'm not looking for a great lasagna recipe. I'm not even looking for a good laundry detergent. I spent all my time looking for things.
If I could reclaim all the time I have spent looking for things, I would be close to 28 years old again or at least have a few less stress lines around my eyes.
With five children, people assume I'm organized, but it's all a fake-front. Shoes are the absolute downfall to organization. I've instructed my children that if they take off their shoes inside the front door, their shoes will likely be there by the front door when they need to leave the next time.
Instead, preparation for the next car trip regularly involves a mad dash around the household in search of any two shoes which match. Inevitably, one child will grab a pair of water shoes to wear to church. Another will grab his dress-up shoes to clean out the barn.
Since I consider it a good day when everyone can find matching shoes, I've given up on everyone getting out the front door with a pair of socks that match.
Instead, my time is devoted to finding either the minute items in our life which have been lost or to finding the items which have not been returned to their rightful location.
For example, I wanted to perform the simple task of dusting one Saturday morning. All I had to do was retrieve the dust rag from the dust rag bin and the dust spray from the cleaning solution container. While there was an ample supply for dust rags for my taking, the Yellow Can of dust spray was no where to be found. After searching high and low for the solution
with no luck, I gave up, did a quick swipe with the feather duster and called the job done.
Later that afternoon, I began mixing up a chocolate cake. As I reached for the Yellow Can of spray oil from the Lazy Susan in the kitchen, I noticed that the labeling looked odd for cooking oil. However, the labeling was not odd for a can of dust spray, its‚ true purpose. It was lemon-scented dust spray, so I'm not sure how the cake would have turned out had I not noticed the mix-up but I‚m pretty sure it would have stuck to the pan.
My continuous searching is not limited to misplaced items, which can and should be avoided. Rather, much of my time is spent looking for things which are spontaneously lost such as a baby tooth which has fallen out of a small child's mouth into the grass.
My son's tooth had been loose for two days, so we all knew it was going to fall out soon. Yet, he took a drink, the tooth fell out in the process and he proceeded to spit it out into the grass. His thinking: Something chunky had been in the water and he just wanted it out quickly. It never occurred to him that the "chunky thing" was his tooth.
After failing to reassure him that the tooth fairy would still visit our house despite the absence of his tooth, my husband and I got down on our hands and knees and started scouring the ground in search of the tooth. A few minutes later, the tooth, the size of two grains of rice, was located and put into a secure place until it reached out home and was put safely and soundly into the tooth pillow. And it only took a 45-minute search upon the return home to find the tooth pillow.
Of course, there are a variety of get-organized books out there on the market. While I usually find quite a few helpful hints within each book, I have several problems with the category in general.
First of all, the authors expect you to not just buy the book because it has a pretty cover, but to actually read the book. Right now, the only reading I get done can be either completed in between children's spats or involve little to no thinking either beforehand, during or afterward. In other words, a pink-cover, chick book.
Even if I manage to read a couple of chapter, then these writers have the audacity to expect you to implement their suggestions. Actually, I've read or heard about most of the suggestions in every book I pick up. I just don't take the time to enact their ideas. The authors are calling my bluff that I don't really want to be organized and I don't like it.
My other problem with self-help, de-clutter your life books is that they just add to the clutter in your house. I have an entire bookshelf devoted to organizer-your-house, decorate-your-bedroom, put-style-into-your-garden-furniture books, most of them never read and just gathering dust.
In the end, I have the final say and simply don't buy the book. That's one less thing to read and one less thing for me to look for.