Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

Alphabetized Enough

It may not surprise you to know that my husband and I had a great time the other day pulling down all our CDs (which we love, and have no desire to digitize) and alphabetizing them. We’ve organized them before, but it’s been a while, and it’s always good to remember what you have. We listened to music we hadn’t heard in ages, dusted the back of the shelves and purged some kids’ music that had somehow survived the last purge. We also tortured our offspring by dancing around the living room in our coronavirus lockdown outfits (me, exercise clothes and apron; him, T-shirt, boxers and sox).

First, we made some categories: Christmas/holiday music, world music, jazz, classical, movie soundtracks, show tunes and compilations. The rest was alphabetized by artist or band.

Alphabetizing is great, but like so many things, you can’t be too rigid. For example, if I were alphabetizing files in an office where several people worked, I would make strict rules: always alphabetical by last name; all vendors in one drawer; all customers in another. But as with so much home organization, the point of our project was to be able to find things more easily, so if my husband thinks of Buddy Guy as Buddy, but John Prine as Prine, then we are going to alphabetize Buddy with the Bs and Prine with the Ps. No one is grading us.

It’s a perfect example of being Organized Enough. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Right now, doing a good job on a small project might save your sanity.

So far today, I’ve done a good enough job cleaning my chandelier and my baseboards and I’m feeling pretty sane. After I write this, I’m going to make lunch, and that will be good too.