But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.
1 Corinthians 14:40

Ah, the house is perfectly clean and tidy-everything is organised and in its place. I was able to sit down this morning for 15 minutes with a freshly brewed cup of decaf tea and a good book. Wow, it is an amazing feeling! One that I don’t have very often at all. Firstly I hear you ask, how did my house get so clean and tidy and…this is the biggie for me, a paper hoarder, so organised? Well, it is only ‘Miss A’ and I’m home at the moment. John and the three younger children have gone to South Australia for a holiday and to catch up with family. ‘Miss A’ has a time of intense training session in the lead up to the U/19 National Softball Tournament so she couldn’t go to Adelaide. She also doesn’t have her P’s yet so can’t drive herself so the easiest and best way around it all was for the both of us to stay at home. The first two days of our ‘holiday’ were spent cleaning- and I mean really cleaning, home cleaning is a big deal for me! We wanted to get the house ship-shape and see how clean and tidy it would stay with only the two of us in it, seeing that we both like neatness. we spent yesterday in and out of the house, tending to various appointments. ‘Miss A’ went to work this morning which left me all alone. To have some much desired quiet time. Would you believe I couldn’t quite figure out what to do? πŸ™„ Should I have some quiet Internet time and write a post? Listen to an audio sermon? Listen to the DVD conference tape? Do the ironing? Read one of my two new books? Ring a friend? I decided to start off by reading for an hour so I brewed a nice hot cuppa and sat down. About 8 minutes into the book and the phone rang! It was a call for ‘Miss A’ so I took the message, called ‘Miss A’ at work and passed on the message. I sat down again, wiggled into my recliner and got comfy, for all of 3 minutes. The phone rang again! It was hubby and the children! Oh, he wanted me to hop on the Internet and run some errands for him online…which took about 1 whole hour. While I was on the phone with him, the landline rang and it was a business call for John, which I managed to liase with John on the other line. Whew, both calls ended but in the meantime I had a message left on the answering machine. So, I called my friend. Then, I sat back down to read. The phone rang again. It was John, my darling husband, again. ❗ Some more online errands. After that I decided to forget the book and anything else as it was now the time that I had penciled in to cook a hot lunch for ‘Miss A’ and I. I thought that by cooking our usual amount of Agnolotti, we’d be able to have it for a few meals. No sooner had I started gathering supplies from the fridge when …you guessed it, the phone rang! This time is was my dear Dad so I spent some time, while cooking lunch, talking to him. I have approximately 30min before I go to get ‘Miss A’ . What do I do with that time? Sit down to write a post. Of course.

After getting my study and home semi organised I’ve had some time to reflect on my own nature. What am I so often disorganised? Does it really make a great difference to my life? In one sense, I’m not totally convinced that being organised really makes a great difference to my life. The upside of my nature is that I can be flexible, adaptable, spontaneous, fun and relaxed. But there is a downside- I can’t find important papers when I need them…can’t remember what groceries we need, where I put things or important dates…the list goes on. πŸ˜•

When we were first married and BC (Before Children), my home was very ordered. I lined up herbs and spices in alphabetical order! I ironed tea towels and pillow slips. I vacuumed daily, even though it was quite unnecessary. I can tend to have perfectionist tendencies. But as time went by, and more children graced the halls of our home, the organisational side of me went walkabout. I think, I hope, I’m starting to find her again. Occasionally she peeps out in times like this. Times when I have five minutes to breathe and tackle the house with no children or husband in it. (Mind you, it’s a very quiet and lonely house right now too). One of the downsides ofhaving perfectionist tendencies is that I used to think if a job was worth doing, it’s worth doing well. Right? I mean, lots of good books tell us that eh? But for me it means that if I don’t have time to do it completely or 100% then I won’t do it at all, until I can do it 100%. Subsequently, many things get left undone because of this. I am learning that just a quick clean up is okay…that not everything has to be perfect. The bench can have a quick wipe until I get to scrub and disinfect it properly.

So, I will continue to strive, without beating myself up over it, for that so-far elusive state called organisation or being organised for longer than 2 days. It started to happen in my heart last year when we had to move house again. I remember writing about decorating with a minimalist style. Well, while we haven’t quite done that, we still have MANY boxes in our shed that we just haven’t, and won’t, unpack in this house. I thought I’d miss things but I’ve found that the house is so much easier to keep clean and tidy and organised when there is less stuff in it! (Doh!) We have de-cluttered and re-organised, filed and thrown out all the things we needed to. And it feels good. I still want to be flexible and spontaneous but I want to be organised. I want to reflect that orderly part of God.

  • I’m aiming to keep thing simple (KISS principle)
  • Use my body clock to my advantage. Do the most difficult or undesirable jobs when I’m most alert.
  • Learning to multi-task more.

What about you? What helps you in your quest to be organised?

What exactly does organisation mean to you? Not what you think it means? Not what your best friend means? Not what other homeschoolers mean? But what does organisation mean to you? You see, God is a God of order. He, as the Creator, created a world that is so full of order. The earth/universe is an incredibly efficient world. There is a certain serene calm around organised people, isn’t there. Do you think it’s possible to be calm and serene in one’s heart yet still not be able to find your needed documents? Or do those things go hand-in-hand?