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Are You a "Closet" Perfectionist?
by Marijo Phelps I once had a dear friend and neighbor who told me I was a perfectionist (she and I worked together too - she was one of my staff RNs and a Christian gal) I said "Dawn?! Me, a perfectionist? You have seen my dusty house..." (I was working more than 40 hours a week as assistant and then acting director of nurses at a skilled nursing facility - rehab and convalescent hospital). She said "let me explain - is this you? You want to clean the kitchen and start with the drawers - you need to organize them more - and think about getting a box for your safety pins, another for the pens and pencils, one for paper clips.... and then, "man, there isn't time in my day to do it RIGHT, it will have to wait..." and you go on to something else... "Well, you are RIGHT, Dawn - that is like the tape recorder in my mind!" "Marijo, that is exactly how a perfectionist thinks... maybe a frustrated perfectionist, but a perfectionist..." Moving right along - now that I am "retired" and even before I bore that title... My closet - yep there are some piles of shoes on the floor. the rest of the closet is organized in the rainbow colors for tops.... we start with beige, then yellow, then orange - so when I am picking a pair of pants or a jumper and want to do a red shirt and shoes - easy peasy. I have some folded jeans - a pile of 14s for when I want real loose pants, the 12s that fit are hanging up on pant hangers (the kind that holds about 4 pairs on each hanger in stacked layers) and the slightly smaller 12s? In a stack for when I lose weight. Then in the spare closet I hang up dresses, keep the few "heels" I have left in a shoe organizer. I have a shoe organizer in the main closet too with like colors in the same compartment together. Cozy. We will pause here to take out Kleenex... to laugh or cry as you are inclined. Mrs. Organization has bed linens in the dryer - almonds in the oven roasting, the timer set while typing away to her friend Jean - hey, what do I smell? Oh, no, I left the timer in the KITCHEN... the $19 batch of almonds are slightly over roasted but Mick loves them that way - he says, hope he wasn't just trying to make me feel better the last time I did this, by saying that... not usually his style though. (BTW at that price we will be switching to some other nut - they began at $14 for 3# and now up to $19 - too high - more than we spend on meat) In the spare closet - I also have stacks of favorite jeans in size 10L, 8L and even a stray 7 WAITING for that magical day when I LOSE again - only my favorite ones - I gave the rest to the church clothing exchange and rummage sale - honest. Mick put a vertical shelf stack in our closets and 2 horizontal ones and a top rod and a bottom rod (we do shirts and pants hangers so that is double space and the dreaded dresses are in the WIC (Walk in closet) in the computer room as are the off season clothes - mostly mine. My spices, in the kitchen, are on little plastic lazy Susans - in neat, alphabetical order, of course. Who wants to spend 20 minutes looking for oregano when you can whirl to the "O" section and grab it immediately? Please do not choke up on the smell of slightly over toasted almonds - I am doing enough choking for both of us... (C) Marijo Phelps all rights reserved - use giving proper credit to author - thanks! About Self Saved by His grace in 1974, from 9 years of professing atheism into His loving arms. RN for 23 years, missionary with YWAM then statistical analyst for Every Home for Christ over 9 years. Living with my husband in the middle of a mountain meadow. GRIN! Wanting to spread the good news Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |