We have a new music minister at our church.

He made nice, new music folders for each and every choir member.

I assume he recycled all the old ones but mine. Mine had been lost for who-knows-how-long before he came.

When I saw my pretty new folder (with my NAME on it and everything), I determined to change my music-losing ways.

I’m known for misplacing my music. I’m also known for having two (or six) copies after misplacing the replacements.

But in an effort to impress the new guy and enjoy my new, never-been-lost folder, I kept up with it.  I was ever-so-purposeful about putting it back in my slot every Wednesday night.

But then, one week . . . I forgot.

I carried it somewhere else, got out of my routine . . . and it never found its way back to to Slot Number Two.

The next Wednesday night, I was without it. And the next.

And then the next.

Thankfully, I finally found it and put it back in its proper home.

Choir folders are not that big of a deal, but it’s the same way with so many things.

Newness is the very best feature of a system that works.

Unfortunately, it’s the one feature that has an expiration date. 

Three weeks ago, we decided to start our summer break for our weekly church home group meetings.

It was a logical decision. People get busy as the school year winds down.

I said something about baseball season and Mother’s Day and such, but inside I was thinking about one wonderful thing.

I wouldn’t have to clean!!!

I can now say, three weeks later . . . that I haven’t.

I’ve been rehearsal-directing and field-day-attending and choir-trip-chaperoning, but I most definitely haven’t been cleaning.

(Other than the times when I couldn’t avoid it.)

I’ve kept up with Laundry Day (mostly) and the dishwasher keeps on running every night, but the house is showing the effects of my attitude.

Blech.  So now I feel guilty.  Because if I’m honest, my totally-rational reason for not cleaning isn’t that I’m busy (even though I am), but that . . . . it doesn’t really matter.

It doesn’t matter if my house is clean because as far as I know, no one will be ringing my doorbell any time soon.

Meanwhile, we’re starting to trip over things. And lose things.

“We” being the people who live here, who do see the house every single day.

“We” being my kids who wouldn’t be able to invite a friend over at a moment’s notice right now.

I’ve come a long way, but it’s so hard to break myself of the “Woo-hoo! No one’s going to see the house so let me get consumed with doing something that’s NOT cleaning!”

Ugh.

Blech.

This was my kitchen floor last week. Unfortunately, it looked like this the week before, too.  (With a slightly different arrangement . . . )

It’s possible (as I do believe I admitted) that I didn’t actually declutter our paper graveyard for my daughter’s birthday party . . . but stuffed it instead.

Into the cabinet below. 

As life goes, the next week demanded I find something in that pile.  Even though I hadn’t needed to search through it in a month while it lived on the counter above.

And as MY life goes, after stuffing it back inside the cabinet, I needed something from it the following week as well.

Paper, I do not love you.

FYI, it’s once again stuffed.

Cue the plug for the Ultimate E-book Bundle that’s on sale this week only.  I had written and scheduled the above post to run last week, but then decided to run it this week because it demonstrates that, in fact, I do not have the answers for all of your organizing questions. 

In case you were under the impression that I did.

EVERY time I speak, I take questions after sharing my gained-from-experience wisdom.  It NEVER fails that one of the first two questions is about paper.

I start by admitting that I don’t have all the Paper Answers. I know I’ve decreased the frequency of my Paper Nightmares by being ruthless about getting the mail myself and pitching ads and school papers immediately.  My kids now have no angst when Mom says, “That’s great, honey! Now go throw it in the trash.” They’re used to it.

But . . . obviously . . . (see photo above) I have a long way to go.

And one of the e-books in the bundle?  It’s called 10 Steps to Organized Paper.  Like, that’s all she talk about in the e-book.  She goes through different categories, what you should keep, where you should keep it (what goes in a safe), etc.

So if paper is your nemesis, too . . . go look at the list of the e-books (about all sorts of things like motherhood, time/money management, marriage, recipes and kitchen tips, blogging, cleaning and organizing and more) and see if that paper one sends you over the edge and makes you decide it’s worth it to spend 29.97 for a whole library of resources.

My e-book is part of the bundle, and the individual link to the e-book is also my affiliate link.