Last week I innocently brought up the subject of organization on the eharlequin Superromance thread, which is a great place to hang out, since that’s where I met Sam. I mentioned that I have an entire bureau dedicated to my underwear and that my dainties are organized into categories. Believe it or not, people made fun of me for this and hinted that I was some kind of organizational maniac. Well, I do like to organize, but I’m fairly talented at living with clutter, too. It’s one of those pick-your-battle situations. Underwear was one of the battles I chose. My refrigerator is another matter.

My underwear was driving me crazy before I organized it. I could never find the one bra that looked right under a certain shirt, or my only white cami, so I started dedicating drawers to various garments. Now I can find exactly what I want, when I want it, unless I accidentally put the garment I’m looking for into my husband’s clothesbasket. My husband is actually a lot more organized than I am, but he keeps his non-hanging clothes jumbled in the basket. His day job is more exhausting than mine, since he teaches math, so during the school year he forgoes organization in the name of rest and sanity. He’s chosen his battle.

Which brings me to my question for the day—how much organization is too much? Or is there such a thing as too much? My house has examples from both ends of the organizational spectrum. I have a ton of weird stuff in my basement and none of it is organized, although it’s my dream to one day either organize the stuff or approach it with a flamethrower. My photos were once all carefully labeled and put into dated manila envelopes, ready for the photo album. But then I had kids and began to dedicate photo organization time to better things, like cleaning spit up peas off the high chair. I haven’t organized a photo since. I have, however, put all of my shoes into boxes with photos on the ends and stacked them in my closet. I can find the shoes I need ASAP, too. I’m starting to see, as I write this, that dressing is one of my organizational triggers. Perhaps if I wore my photos, they’d be organized.

So do you have organizational triggers? Can you find things when you need them? I know there are binder people out there—people like me who must organize all papers into binders, with dividers and labels and...pant...pant...Uh, yes. As I was saying. One must choose their battles. Which do you choose to fight?

Side note—I’ll be in Reno most of the day, but really want to hear your thoughts on this messy topic. I’ll respond when I get home.