Cleaning
People's perception of what constitutes "clean" is extremely different. You talk to my best friend's mom - and it would definitely include sanatizing - IE covering everything in bleach. Mom mother's version of clean was a bid different - slightly cluttered but no visible dirt. Other people assume "clean" means picked-up with no piles of stuff.
Personally I like to differentiate between "clean" and organized. Things can be clean without being organize and vice versa.
I have to admit that I like some organization - but not too much. With too much organization I feel like I'm spending more time on the organization than I am on the work at hand. That makes me angry. I hate wasting time. The whole point of organization for me is to minimize the time it takes me to do a given task. Therefore if the time it takes to organize is larger than the time the organization saves - the organization is worthless. This works in theory. However, because I pile things up more often than not the time to organize would have significant time savings. I'm not sure that I know how to become super organized though. I think it probably has something to do with a simplistic lifestyle and minimizing the amount of "stuff" that you have. I have a lot of stuff. I'd prefer to get rid of some of it; I think I need to go through stuff and start selling off stuff I don't need or want anymore.
That's a lot of work for minimal return. I feel like it is more effort than it is worth.
I do have to comment on one other thing that happened this week.
My mother sent me my childhood after Thanksgiving. They recently moved into a new house, and decided that they were no longer interested in having any of my stuff in their house (not that I can blame them.) The day after Thanksgiving I went through boxes in their garage that stored all of the belongings I didn't take to college. I sorted through stuff from my childhood. I came back to Cambridge, and my mom boxed everything up and shipped it out to me a few days later.
Then this week I got the oddest thing in the mail. A plastic bag with a note printed on it saying that they had lost my mail. Inside was a cut up top of a box. Nothing actually made it to Cambridge. So, I looked up online the phone number for the postal service and called them to see what happened. They advised me to write a letter to the Atlanta Mail Recovery Center - which apparently is where the contents of my box probably landed - the top of the box at least made it to MA. I asked if they had a phone number, email address, or online form that I could fill out. They said, "no" I needed to physically write and mail in a letter. Okay, postal service, I understand that no one sends letters anymore. But it's pretty freaking ridiculous that I have to to write a letter and not an email about something that they screwed up.
A few days later, I got an envelope in the mail with a form to fill out, a letter saying they had lost my package, and the top of another box my mom sent to me. This time, it was the St. Paul Minnosota Mail Recovery Center. This box only got as far as Detroit. How did 2/4 boxes get damage and then they made it to two totally different parts of the country. What they hell are they doing at the USPS?
So I've sent in my letter to the Atlanta Recovery Center, and the form into the St. Paul Mail Recovery Center. I'm hoping to get some of the contents back. It is my childhood in there. Granted my childhood is going right to storage, but WTF to the USPS for losing my boxes. I just have to say that I'm really glad to say that it was not the box that contained all of my highschool year books. I would have been super sad if those were gone forever.
Personally I like to differentiate between "clean" and organized. Things can be clean without being organize and vice versa.
I have to admit that I like some organization - but not too much. With too much organization I feel like I'm spending more time on the organization than I am on the work at hand. That makes me angry. I hate wasting time. The whole point of organization for me is to minimize the time it takes me to do a given task. Therefore if the time it takes to organize is larger than the time the organization saves - the organization is worthless. This works in theory. However, because I pile things up more often than not the time to organize would have significant time savings. I'm not sure that I know how to become super organized though. I think it probably has something to do with a simplistic lifestyle and minimizing the amount of "stuff" that you have. I have a lot of stuff. I'd prefer to get rid of some of it; I think I need to go through stuff and start selling off stuff I don't need or want anymore.
That's a lot of work for minimal return. I feel like it is more effort than it is worth.
I do have to comment on one other thing that happened this week.
My mother sent me my childhood after Thanksgiving. They recently moved into a new house, and decided that they were no longer interested in having any of my stuff in their house (not that I can blame them.) The day after Thanksgiving I went through boxes in their garage that stored all of the belongings I didn't take to college. I sorted through stuff from my childhood. I came back to Cambridge, and my mom boxed everything up and shipped it out to me a few days later.
Then this week I got the oddest thing in the mail. A plastic bag with a note printed on it saying that they had lost my mail. Inside was a cut up top of a box. Nothing actually made it to Cambridge. So, I looked up online the phone number for the postal service and called them to see what happened. They advised me to write a letter to the Atlanta Mail Recovery Center - which apparently is where the contents of my box probably landed - the top of the box at least made it to MA. I asked if they had a phone number, email address, or online form that I could fill out. They said, "no" I needed to physically write and mail in a letter. Okay, postal service, I understand that no one sends letters anymore. But it's pretty freaking ridiculous that I have to to write a letter and not an email about something that they screwed up.
A few days later, I got an envelope in the mail with a form to fill out, a letter saying they had lost my package, and the top of another box my mom sent to me. This time, it was the St. Paul Minnosota Mail Recovery Center. This box only got as far as Detroit. How did 2/4 boxes get damage and then they made it to two totally different parts of the country. What they hell are they doing at the USPS?
So I've sent in my letter to the Atlanta Recovery Center, and the form into the St. Paul Mail Recovery Center. I'm hoping to get some of the contents back. It is my childhood in there. Granted my childhood is going right to storage, but WTF to the USPS for losing my boxes. I just have to say that I'm really glad to say that it was not the box that contained all of my highschool year books. I would have been super sad if those were gone forever.
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