I am in a rut | Imamother

louche

Thu, Oct 15 2009, 7:57 am

OP, you could be suffering from mild depression and/or unrealistic expectations. You don't say how many children you have or how old they are, but a certain degree of clutter is unavoidable when you have small children. You can minimize the mess, but you can't eliminate it as long as you have young children.

As the Meshunah lo kol kach berurah says in Pirkei Imahot: Rabbanit Louche hayta omeret, Marbeh yeladim, marbeh balagan*. (more kids, more disorder).

Before you even think of "organizing" you have to downsize. We all have secret stashes of stretched-out underwear we're saving for an "emergency", bottles of molasses from the time we tried to make gingerbread in 7th grade, and 17 stained T-shirts for "when we paint the house". Ditch the undies (forget about cutting out the unstained portions for making a quilt), make yourself a facial mask out of the molasses, and cut up all but three of the T-shirts to use as dust rags. Goodwill is your friend--give away toys your kids never really played with, books you tried but could never get through, old bridesmaid's dresses (no one has ever in the history of humankind worn a bridesmaid's dress a second time), yadda yadda.

Once you've canned the junk, you can start organizing the good stuff.

You don't need lots of money to get your house in order. "go green" and use materials you can get for free. Ask anyone who works in an office to get you some empty cartons from copier paper. They're great for storing just about anything, from out-of-season clothes to pesach dishes, and they make handy toy boxes that will never trap a child's head or fingers. If the industrial look bothers you, cover them with cheap self-adhesive plastic sheet (Con-Tac), gift wrap, brown paper grocery bags, subway maps, or anything else you can think of.

You can give each child one of these boxes for his exclusive use for whatever treasures he usually leaves all over the place. The boxes store beautifully under a bed. If they're too high to fit, cut them down a few inches. You can also cut these boxes way down to 5 or 6 inches deep and use them to store ladies' fashion boots (much better than the flimsy boxes from the shoe store), fabric, wrapping paper, school papers, pretty much anything big and flat. You can also cut wine-carton-type dividers out of the parts you cut off and use them inside the boxes to store smaller items.

Little kids' shoeboxes or cigar boxes hold pens, pencils, crayons, stray game pieces, little girls' hair accessories, sewing notions, arts and crafts stuff. They also make good file boxes for index cards and photos. Egg cartons are good for small things like jewelry, pins, buttons. Cereal boxes cut in two the long way make great dividers for kitchen drawers. Cut them down even more for shallow dividers for desk drawers, or use old silverware trays or the boxes that aluminum foil comes in. Tape or glue together a few round oatmeal cartons and lay the pile on its side for a neat pigeonhole-style organizer for mail and notes. Those clear plastic snap-close containers that many baked goods come in now are also excellent--wash them out so you don't attract wildlife, and use them to store all kinds of small items.

Browse the organizer stores like Hold Everything or the Container Store for inspiration, then make your own versions. Wire hangers from the cleaners can be bent into shape to mimic many of the organizers sold in these stores.

I could go on and on, but your best bet is to check your library's catalog for books on organizing and household management. There are bazillions of books loaded with good ideas.

All of the above will work only once you get yourself going. Success breeds success, and the good feeling you get from organizing one part of your life will motivate you to go on to the next. But if you're suffering from depression, you may not be able to get yourself going. In that case, you will need professional help. But first see your doctor, because depression and lack of energy can have physical causes ranging from vitamin deficiency to serious illness.

*Purim Torah: it's not just for Purim any more.