trading in chaos

It’s hard for me to understand people who are comfortable living in messes.  For me, I feel a bit unhinged if my surroundings are not neatly organized.  I’m sure I’m a little OCD.

• If I don’t make my bed in the morning, I am not ready to start the day.

• My linen closet must have the creases of the towels and linens facing out. 

• My miscellaneous stuff is stored in labeled boxes neatly aligned.

• My computer is meticulously organized into files and folders.

• I rarely have stuff lying around; I use it and put it away.

• My 8,800 photos are labeled and filed by year.

• I keep short-term lists and long term lists, as well as lists of Groupons, reward points, etc. and their expiration dates. 

• I put labels on my frozen foods so I know how long they have been in the freezer. 

• I never leave dishes in the sink. 

• I am always ready for company.  I never have to say, “Please excuse the mess.”

If I see chaos, I absorb it.  My life is filled with challenges (aka stresses), and I can’t risk letting them escape me. A messy environment to me suggests a messy life.  And even though my life might be, I like to live under the pretense that it isn't.

But my son, well, he is nothing like me.

• He would never make his bed if I didn’t insist on it.  

• If he has a glass of water, I find the water glass where he left it. 

• If he goes shopping, whatever he comes home with stays where he drops it.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a new pair of shoes, or a piece of fish that needs to be refrigerated.  

• His coats are never hung up unless I remind him. 

• If Alexander unplugs a lamp to use the socket for his computer, the lamp remains unplugged until I re-plug it. 

• The little mail he gets stays unopened on his desk, until I say something like, “You know, you really should take a look at that summons you got on jury duty.”

• His computer has about 450 unread messages accumulating in his inbox.  So what if it’s mostly junk mail.  Why doesn’t he trash it?  How does he separate important incoming email from old mail?

I’m not saying that being neat is truly indicative of anything.  I know it isn’t.  But if my son had just a little bit more off the neatness gene in him, I am sure he’d find I have a just a little bit  less of the nagging gene in me.