the friday five

1. Would you consider yourself an organized person? Why or why not?
I'm medium-organized. I have hanging files holding crap like paid bills, rabies vaccination certificates, and the like. I very rarely forget to pay a bill on time. But there are also too many piles of things I haven't found homes for yet. Clutter is an issue I deal with often.

2. Do you keep some type of planner, organizer, calendar, etc. with you, and do you use it regularly?
I have a Franklin-Covey planner that I use mostly just to schedule meetings and scribble notes. Work paid for it. I have various other notebooks scattered around the house that I use to write lists of Things To Do, tag sales, directions, etc. I ususally know where everything is.

3. Would you say that your desk is organized right now?
It is, but only because we had an office clean-up day just a couple of weeks ago. Even when it was cluttered I knew what was on my desk. Usually.

4. Do you alphabetize CDs, books, and DVDs, or does it not matter?
It doesn't matter. After I move into my own apartment I may try to alphebetize my CDs. In the past I've clumped them by artist and frequency of play (the most popular are front and center). It's hopeless to keep my CDs organized with three other people using them and not putting CDs back in their cases half the time. (pet peeve? why yes!)

5. What's the hardest thing you've ever had to organize? There was that horrible job recoding parts at Tubed Products, but that wasn't hard per se. I once took it upon myself to create a treasure hunt for my boyfriend's daughter, who I had only known about a year (only on the weekends). I scouted out locations all around the house and then wrote each clue in the form of a haiku. I mixed it up so each kid would be going different places instead off moving everywhere as a group. At the end of it were baskets of toys and candy, a basket for each of them so the game was non-competitive. I was all proud of myself but then when the game was actually being played, I realized with horror that I had left out a location, making the kids come to a dead end in the middle of the hunt. Also the clues were too hard for them, which surprised me (come on, any 12-year old should be able to figure out where you put water to make it stiff). I ended up having to give them the answers to the clues and filling in the missing clue stop by just telling them where to go next. I was completely mortified. They seemed to like the prizes, at least...

The next year I wasn't as ambitious. I tied the end of a ball of yarn to each prize bag and unwound the yarn all over the room. I gave each kid a ball of yarn and told them to wind up the yarn as they followed it to the end. Much simpler and quicker and no possibility for failure.