Organisation Fever

I have recently been hit by a recurring bout of organisation fever. This reoccurs several times a year - perhaps triggered by searching vainly for a document for 3 hours, or being unable to close a cupboard door, or external factors like tenancy inspections.

This particular bout was triggered by the combination and the New Year and my return to work for an extra day a week. The symptoms included
a) cleaning out the pantry and typing up an inventory and map for the door
b) tidying Alex's cupboard and inventoring his books and toys.
c) putting together a household folder

Here is Alex's cupboard after being cleaned




Here is most of the teddy bear collection. [As a side note, how can one child, who has had 1 birthday and 2 Christmas's - where on all occasions his parents purchased nothing - have so much stuff?)


Now it may seem like a good thing to be organised - and there are definite advantages - but personally I have found there is a limit where one can be too organised (and this is a heavy admission for someone who is strongly J on the Myer-Briggs scale).

1. It can cause conflicts - my husband is more "lets take if flexibly" regarding routines, and being hyper-organised tends to annoy him, while I have a tendency to get irritated if my carefully constructed plans are thrown into disarray.
2. Getting and staying organised takes effort and, once the organisation fever subsides, I cannot continue the effort to maintain the high level of organisation that this fever brings on. (and I present exhibit A: >10 unfinished projects in the last seven years). Maintaining the effort of staying organised means that I don't spend time doing more important things - like playing with Alex!
3. It makes you think that you can control everything around you. This is particularly insidious, as most of our lives are beyond the scope of our control.

Unfortunately the only cure for Organisation fever that I have discovered is getting organised, so I shall go off and benignly organise something else (arrange my wardrobe by colour, or alphabetise the music collection)