A Question for Neat Freaks

[Denise Gormish]

I want to know: Am I alone?

Situation: I've had a really busy day. My kitchen is a mess as I was cooking dinner and baking at the same time. Worse yet, my desk is a mess. I was working on three projects with deadlines today so I have receipts, cookbook, ink pads, checkbook, phone book, library book, water bottle and dog medicine on my desk.... I got through my tasks but looking at my desk...

My Feelings: So stressed. I feel like there is too much in my head. Things out of hand. I don't know what to do. The clutter is amazingly blocking me from doing anything.

So, I know I'm a neat freak. I have to be because I stress otherwise. I mentioned this to DH. He didn't get it. But I want to know am I alone?

[DonnaNJ]

Oh you are definitely not alone... clutter sometimes actually makes me feel a bit ill.. and I definitely have trouble thinking when my desk is a mess

[anke]

I don't particularly like clutter, but I don't consider myself a neat freak. If it's there and I have something else I'd rather do, I will ignore the clutter That's just me though, my Mom is probably rolling over in her graves hearing this....

[MIDA78466]

I'm right there with you. I stress when things aren't in order. when I find myself with several stacks of things on my desk, I put them all into one pile and start knocking them out one by one. In my head one big pile is a lot better than a bunch of things scattered about.

[dugarner]

I'm a combination of Anke and Terry. I will load everything up---from every room in the house---into big rubbermaid tubs. Then I will go through it and put it in its place. But I'm definitely not a neat freak, and I can go to bed with the sink packed full of dishes and not lose any sleep. I can see, though, how people who prefer things in their place would feel stressed out.

My husband (of all people!!!) taught me the most productive principle on dealing with mess/clutter. If you touch something, put it away. Never touch anything twice. Also, I never walk through a room without doing something in that room to make it neater.

But your tasks are done---so you can relax, and do the cleaning and re-organizing as a cathartic exercise and take deep breaths as you feel everything come back together. (Yeah, um . . . she says as she looks at unfolded clothes, and a pile of stuff on her desk almost as high as her head.)

By the way, I don't mean to deviate from the thread (well, I do, but I don't want to hijack it, so if you wanted to PM me sometime, that would be great!), but I've been wondering for several years now but didn't know anyone to ask. What is the convention/deal with dog names? Why are they so complicated and different? I know with horse names, they can be no longer than 17 characters including spaces so that paves the way for interesting combinations. But why do show dogs always have such long names?

[Denise Gormish]

I can so relate! I make a pile with the most urgent item down to the least urgent item. Then, I work my way down the pile.

I am working through my kitchen and desk now. I am working on one area at a time and trying to ignore the rest. I can feel the stress start to lift!

Originally Posted by MIDA78466

when I find myself with several stacks of things on my desk, I put them all into one pile and start knocking them out one by one. In my head one big pile is a lot better than a bunch of things scattered about.

[dorah]

OMG, I am so with Anke. Although I used to be a neat freak. I used to get up sometimes at 3 in the morning and mop floors. Now, if there is something else I want to do or something else my son wants to do that takes priority. In my head, everything is where it should be. Now if I can get my aching body to cooperate it would be great. But it is always one step, one spot at a time.

[susiecw]

I'm with you. When it all becomes too much for me, I write a list and force myself to just do one thing at a time. I tend to move back and forth between things too much, so the list helps.

[esther_a]

I let things accumulate on my desk and every other horizontal surface until either I can't find anything or I start having landslides...
I am NOT a neat freak!
The planets have to aligned (or similar ) for me to feel like tidying up. It does happen periodically!

[muddygirl]

I'm not a neat freak, I actually hate cleaning. With a nearly 3 year old the house always looks like a bomb site no matter how often I clean, but when it gets to the point that nothing is in its home anymore, I get very stressed out and grumpy and just have to have a big tidy up. I feel it physically. Kinda tight and wound up, and I get grumpy with DH and DS and stomp around the house muttering to myself.

[kb7496]

Definitely a neat freak. One of the reasons I like digiscrapping is that I don't have to create a mess just to get a page done. I don't have 10 papers, a handful of ribbons, adhesives, inks, etc, etc, etc, strewn about trying to find the right combination. Just 'click', 'click', 'click'. It is a WONDERFUL thing.

[kikimama]

It depends on the situation. I can't work with a messy desk, always needed to clear it before I went home for the day. Now I've just moved house and got a craft room. I can see how easily it could get cluttered, whereas before I had to put everything back on my shelves at the end of a crafty session.

In general life though, I don't mind clutter, couldn't live in a show-house or minimalist type environment, and like Sam, a 3 year old in the house tends to make tidying a non-stop task, much easier to leave it till the evening and sweep all the toys to their corner at that point.

[BrennieM]

I'm a neat freak about my own space, can't sit down to work at an untidy desk, neatly sorted wardrobe etc but with DH around I haven't got a chance with the rest of the house and I do find that very frustrating (sometimes to the point stomping around ). I'm with Suzie, start doing something, see something else that needs doing, start that without finishing the first thing, butterfly mind. Lists are the way to go. I've got lists of lists . Someone once told me never to leave a room without taking something with you a bit like Sarah not walking through a room without making something neater, I like the not touching something twice tip too.

[Denise Gormish]

You know I am beginning to think I'm just neat about a few areas - my desk is definitely one of them. My e-mail is another. I cannot think of how to prioritize things and get it to a manageable amount if it is not "neat." By neat I mean things put away in folders or deleted when they are no longer relevant. DH has about 80 items in my in box. I can walk by, though, and see e-mails from me that he just doesn't need to keep anymore. I would delete those babies so I know what's really important. I think my desk is that way too.

[mugsbigsis]

I'm not a neat freak by any stretch of the imagination (hush, Cassie), but someone said on a thread once, "Don't put it down until it's put away" and this works for me . . . when I think about it. lol I do feel the stress of it though and feel sooooooo good when everything is cleaned up. (I think a housekeeper would be a great stress reliever for me) :O)

[ang66]

I am not a neat freak but like to keep things tidy. I live alone so I don`t have anyone else to make a mess and it is much easier to keep up!

[readstoomuch]

In my head I'm a neat freak . . . but sadly, when it come down to the truth I'm a mess! I do reach my limit and go on a giant organizing tangent occasionally. My problem is that I've too many projects going at once . . . and the biggest problem is that I like to read EVERYTHING . . . so we have the written word everywhere. Now that is a problem for sure! We do recycle newspapers daily . . . I try to recycle magazines twice a year but sometimes I don't make it happen.

I want (have to have) my kitchen clean and organized and I do have everything in the house clean and sort of tidy . . . except for my "work room/laundry room/computer room/sewing room" and it is a mess.

[twistedpeppermint]

Just started checking out FlyLady (Finally Loving Yourself) because I"ve been suffering from CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome).... I'd much rather take pictures and scrap than clean house.

[sawdust]

I tend to be a neat freak. I will leave things go until it is back in place. I love to clean, even though now with my muscle disease it desn't get done. DH does it all. He says, if you want something done, tell me, because I just don't see it.

Well, I see it and won't ask him to do it because he already does so much. Do I really expect him to take a toothbrush to the on/off switches and make sure they are clean? I don't think so...but I used to be that way!! LOL

I just don't function in clutter. I put my stuff in a stack in priority and start going through it.

[carollee]

I'm not a neat freak, not by a long shot, but I do start feeling stressed when I look around and things are a mess. My problem is I'm a procrastinator. I should be cleaning right now, the perfect opportunity, but here I am playing! LOL

[kathie02]

I am a fake neat freak....I have to have things that are out in the open in their respective places. I will even go over to something and "tilt" it in the right direction if it has been moved...lol. But.......if you were to look in my closets, desk drawers or storage rooms you would seriously give me one of these:

[carollee]

LOL at Kathie, what you can't see won't hurt you huh?

[Myra]

I clicked on this thread because I want to be a neat freak! I consider myself one inside, but I don't know how to let it out.

I can't function when my desk is disorganized and I need to get it back under control. But... I wish it didn't get to that point. It's when I feel I'm on the run that thing get away from me.

[iUma]

Since I started spending all my time in front of the computer I have many more piles of things. Just tonight on the way to the kitchen to get my little martini the shelf with the two racks of ribbons fell off the bookcase where I had balanced it while "cleaning" my play room. The garden is scary and the leather top of my office desk hasn't been seen for a while. The dining room table has my Dad's accounts all over it. But the kitchen is clean. The bedroom and bathroom are too. The living room is fast becoming like my Grandmother's parlor....the one where no one goes...so it is still neat, too.
BUT my HEAD is BUZZING with ideas and I like it like that.
When things start falling and I can't walk where I want.....I fix it.

[whatnext]

i once put all my kitchen clutter in the oven when a friend showed up in my driveway unexpectedly. my problem is that not everything i own has a"place" to get put "away."

i think i'm like Mollie. i'm a neat freak in my head. but what happens in the Real World is another thing altogether.

[anxela]

Originally Posted by whatnext

i once put all my kitchen clutter in the oven when a friend showed up in my driveway unexpectedly. my problem is that not everything i own has a"place" to get put "away."

LOL! A friend of mine said, when I asked if I could pop in for a cup of tea "Just let me find my kitchen floor first..." I feel like that most of the time. Like many others in this thread, I'm a neat freak about some things. My work stuff, my school stuff, my computer stuff, and when I'm alone in the house (yeah, as if that happens a lot), the kitchen. Everything else has a "neat" touch of kids and husband. I'm also the "what you can't see, doesn't hurt you" kind of girl. Except for the things mentioned above. My closets f.i. are a mess 364 days a year. (The last day I clean them up, but they are soon back to their normal cluttered self.)

I get this cleaning and tidying kick sometimes. But normally when kids and dh are away for more than a couple of hours, so that I can enjoy it...

[maureenreynolds]

I too am like Mollie these days. If it's written, I want to read it.

When I was working, my desk and files etc were immaculate. I cleaned out my email inbox around 4pm each day, and had each file/letter/action item for the following day marked and labeled. I used the Outlook 'to do' list religiously. Now that I'm retired, it's all changed. I still like to get my email accounts down to <50 but it doesn't happen so often any more. I have also been unable to deal with craft related paperwork in any productive manner.

I have had to compromise some of my neatfreakness, or ocd as a friend laughed about it, since I remarried. Bless his heart, he could be PigPen's father. Dick truly doesn't see it so at least I know he will never criticize the condition of the house in any way. He has also modified his own ways once I finally shut my mouth long enough. He was pretty right in the early days when he said...I can never do it (post dinner cleanup) well enough to suit you. Believe it or not, I actually learned to let some of it go....

All that said, Denise, I also learned from a former boss that when our work became overwhelming and we were both ready to lose it, it was time to pick one thing, complete it and then move on to the 2nd etc. It calmed us and we were less likely to lost a critical piece of paper by inadvertently placing it in the wrong folder. That kind of thing can happen with home papers all to easily too. Oh how well I know.

I have recently become fortunate enough to have someone clean every other week, so I can do what I do better, which is organize and declutter. I also highly recommend Flylady. I like the idea of just clearing something for 15min, then STOPPING and the dealing with one hot spot a night before bed, again...just 15 minutes. I think I ought to go do that right now!

[shopperholic]

I'm a bit of a neat freak. I was the teenager who got into trouble for tidying up. I like everything to have a home. whereas my parents weren't at all organised.
Fortunately my husband feels more relaxed in a clutterfree house too. I do like a few nice things around but keep ornaments to a minimum as i dislike dusting. It seems such an endless, thankless task.

[ELISASCRAPS]

I have trouble too with piles of stuff, and I notice that I do not put away things that I take out. That seems to be 1/2 the trouble. And I notice I do the fun things and leave the others not done or partially finished. When things are like this I find it really tough to make a decision about anything. Last week I made myself set up my desk in the way that I grab for things. I physically worked through the motions and set up spots for everything that I use. I also tend to do household items along with scrapbooking. So, I took some of my 12x12 iris boxes (the ones with the drawers) three high. I put it next to my printer and I have a bill drawer, To Do Drawer, Scan/file drawer (I scan papers, new habit since last year and really helps me with clutter) Then another set for my plain paper,photo paper,and plain white cardstock, right next to the printer. No getting up. Under my workbench next to my desk I have my page protectors,stamps and bling stickers. It seems that I use those things alot at the desk too. Another thing I did was get a little stand that raises my monitor up off the desk, giving me room underneath, to put my notebooks or note about digital scrapping. I also put my most used scrapbook tools in my desk drawer. (I now have two sets) One in my desk drawer, one on my workbench, and plan to get a set for my tote. I love this system because I have less stuff spread around. I also have a drawer to throw my scraps in now. When it gets full, I seperate by color and try to go to the scaps first before 12x12 PAPER. Last but not least, I have a cutting area, by my cricut, all the mats,cartridges are next to that area, with a selfhealing pad, all cutting goes on there. It all seems to be helping me. Now the rest of my house is another story, I need to work out systems there too. Can you tell that my scraproom is my priority.

[jk703]

We are all kind of all over the place... lol... not very tidy at all!

I am a neat freak but not a clean freak -- if that makes sense!

I work better with less clutter, and know to clean off my desk at work if I get overwhelmed... then start with piles and importance. At home, for the most part we are neat... Toys get cleaned up periodically throughout the day and cleaned up if we leave or go to another room... I like a clean space, but have areas for mess -- a basket for *stuff* or a drawer for *more stuff*...

One weird thing In my head is that -- if the bed is made it really makes the whole room look a little neater... and that works for me... my hubby is not a neat freak so his clothes and stuff are all over the place... but when the piles get too tall... he cleans them up...

My closet is the funniest! I have my clothes color separated, then by sleeve length, lol! It just makes things easier to find for me!

For scrapping... I truly lurve being able to not have things out all over the place... cleaning up and putting away takes time away from playing around! I could get so much more done if I didn't play so much -- so having *not* to clean up gives me more time!

The other odd thing is -- I don't use to do lists -- they are in my head...

It is fun to read how people work... and get some ideas!