Contemplating the purchase of file cabinet #5...

[cyan_blue]

This afternoon I was seized by a mad desire to organize and file away the various piles of random paperwork that have been accumilating in our living room. (Excitement, yeah, I know...) I don't get those sorts of desires very often, though, so I decided to run with it.

Possibly this is a kind of virtuous procrastination from the taxes I was working on earlier, or the presentation on codependency that I'm supposed to give on Thursday to a group of interns. (And why the clinical director chose *me* to do the codependency talk is something I'm still contemplating. Not that I wouln't be good at it. And not that I don't claim the label. But how he knew these two things..?)

So I dumped *everything* pell-mell across the living room floor, and sorted. And sorted. And sorted. And worked on keeping the cat from romping through the piles, assisted by emmett_the_sane who thankfully distracted her. And finally, glistening in the Pacific sunlight, there stood a dozen or so distinct piles, grouped into categories such as "memorabilia" and "receipts" and "continuing education credit brochures" (trust me, that's an important one in the life of a psychologist). At which point I turned to emmett_the_sane and said "Look! Distinct piles!" And he said, "Isn't that what you had before?"

...

I patiently explained that these piles were *sorted* piles, not *random* piles, and that there was a big difference. He looked dubious, and admittedly the living room floor still didn't look all that, well, visible.

So I put away those piles that I all ready had file cabinet folders (and space) for. And now I'm trying to figure out what the heck to do with the remaining ones. The acquisition of another file cabinet is beginning to seriously appeal. I'm thinking of getting a 4-drawer one for here, and moving one of the 2-drawer ones to my office, which will need another new one soon. Clutter is usually a sign that a new file cabinet is needed.

Comments

[polytwo.livejournal.com]

I think the movie, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, is one of the best portrayals of codependency I've ever seen...

Congrats on the organizing.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip! I might go ahead and rent it before the presentation, and see whether there are any specific scenes that would make good illustrative examples for the interns. Video clips do jazz up a presentation...

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the book suggestion! It's a good one... though some days it doesn't feel like we have the *space* to have as many sections like that as we'd need.

[apollolee.livejournal.com]

You should check out Organizing from the Inside Out (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805056491/) by Julie Morgenstern. I saw her give a talk on PBS a couple of weeks ago and she had some astonishingly cool ideas.

Like: Approach every room and arrange it like a kindergarten classroom. It's always clear at a glance what there is to do in the space. "Over there's where we do arts & crafts. Over there's the reading section. Over there's the music section."

One of these days when I get a job and, thus, some money, I'm gonna pick myself up a copy of that book.