Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Don’t Be Too Perfect
I just pulled my favorite book on writing off the shelf. Even though I haven’t read it in more than twenty years, I found my favorite passage right away. In this passage, the author, Natalie Goldberg, talks about what kind of notebook and pen you should get: “Don’t get too fancy or expensive… Some people buy expensive hardcover journals…and because they are fancy, you are compelled to write something good. Instead you should feel that you have permission to write the worst junk in the world and it would be okay.”
Yes! I love this, because it is the opposite of perfectionism. When I was young I though everything had to be just so. Everything. Before I went out, I had to have an outfit; before I wrote, I had to have a clean desk and a cup of tea; before I had friends over, my apartment had to be immaculate. It was exhausting, and it was limiting.
In reality, I am a voracious, gluttonous girl. I don’t want to live with less. I want more. More parties, more reading, more food, more time with my family. I am not in this whole organizing thing to make my life look like a piece of Scandanavian modern furniture, I am in it because I want to do so much that I don’t want waste a minute or a penny.
Sometimes, when I am doing household tasks, I think, “I could do better,” I could have a better cheese grater or a nicer T-shirt or newer towels. But then I take a moment and play it out. The cheese grater is doing it’s job for today. Do I really want to spend time and money buying a new one? Do I need to add to the landfill? For today, this one is good enough, it is, after all, grating the cheese. And if I got a fancy one, would I have to cook fancier?
On the flip side, my clients frequently save “good stuff” for some unspecified future. If someone gives me good soap, I use it. Same with exotic salt. I’m not going to wait for my dream bathroom renovation to use that French-milled soap and that gourmet salt does wonders on a tough cut of meat.
Sometimes I think that seeking perfection is really a procrastination technique. I can’t write/go out/apply for that job today because all the conditions aren’t perfect. Forget it. Roll up your sleeves, just do it.