So this girl--who I've never blogged about before, but if I did I would call her Mary Poppins because she is Practically Perfect in Every Way, and I say that in love--told me about this website that has daily deals on different stuff, including lots of services like cleaning, massages, etc, geared towards whatever city you're in. Just glancing over it, it looks like a lot of restaurant discounts, but there are also some interesting housecleaning and spa things too. Anyway, she said that a deal popped up for three hours of organizing for $30, and she booked two sessions. Dang! I wish I'd seen that offer. I would have been like, honey, meet my garage. Usually this service costs $40 an hour, she said. The lady came and organized her junk drawers, her kids' art room, and her master bathroom.
So I asked what to me is the key question: was it worth it, or was it stuff you could have done for yourself? She said that it was a job she definitely could have done herself, and that she was a little disappointed because she thought that the organizer would bring more of a vision and a system that she could implement. I know what she means: I would love to have someone who is, like, a Theoretician of Organization come and help me set up a system for the paperwork, mail, and administrative tasks in this house. I need vision. I need strategy. I need strategery. Sounds like that's what my friend thought she was getting, but the person just neatened up. Still, she felt like a lot of the value was that getting this organizer person made her deal with these issues in her house that she wouldn't have made a priority on her own.
We talked about the fact that so many magazines and websites (not to mention The Container Store) have organizing as their focus, it's really something where the ideas are out there for anyone to grab and make use of, it's just a matter of having the gumption. I'm sure there are people who have some kind of genius for it though. Anymahoodle, if I had the disposable income, I could see having a one-time gig with a person to help, um, straighten me out. Someone who specialized in my special tastes and requirements. Because there are some things you can't ask your cleaning lady to do, right?
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8 comments:
I totally know the discount thing you're talking about. Does it rhyme with Poupon by chance? I see lots of restaurant discounts, which is cool, but I didn't realize the other stuff. Haven't used it yet, sheer laziness. If you find an organizer like that, let me know please.
Can never be too thin or too organized, OK, can be too thin, but you know what I mean! :) Working on both....
Oh, I need that too, organizing strategy. Because I'm just not a neat person by nature, but I really dislike clutter. I don't know what to do with all my crap though, you know?
Beginning with "... a Theoretician of Organization" and running through "I need strategery," that's quite possibly one of the funniest paragraphs I've read in five years. I *guffawed* out loud. I did. Mayhap I snorted as well. You are brilliant, woman.
I too would have pointed such a person in the general and dangerously cluttered direction of our unfinished basement/garage, aka The Scary Zone.
I was so jealous for nothing. Here I thought she was getting a lesson in project management. My obsession with file folders doesn't sound quite so bad now.
Check out unclutterer.com. There are some really great tips.
Oh, yes, I too was envisioning a mass de-cluttering, followed by a soothing organizational chart and a handout to keep with you lest you fall off the wagon. Thirty bucks would still be worth it though.
Where to begin? My husband was born with organizing strategery running through his VEINS. It's uncanny. I've tried to get him to help me, but it's like an epistemology or something... my mind doesn't work that way. He's CRAZY organized. Like, scary organized. And from the inside, people, I gotta tell you, it's a little too laborious for my life. :-) This, of course, causes a little tension now and again.
Now, onto the cleaning lady. For some reason, my cleaning lady is much more into tidying, organizing, than actual cleaning. Which, frankly? Totally annoying. We've been talking for months about firing her but can't get the courage. One day, I came home and she had moved ALL my Everyday Foods from one shelf to another, for no apparent reason. She also regularly reorganizes my 6 year old's bookshelf into height order, thereby undoing our standing organization that has library books together, currently reading books together, so then we've gotta go through them all and pick out all the library books to return to school. On the flip side, she doesn't bother to wipe up the pee drops around the toilet from where the kids miss. So, um, what gives?
I know, I know, you're thinking, "Why don't YOU wipe up the pee drops?" A mother can only do so much.
I'm done. Thanks for listening.
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