There’s nothing more satisfying than an organised home. Having all that clutter out of sight is good for the soul and good for the mind.
But for those of us who pretend to be organised (myself included), the facade of organised life masks many ugly truths. Here are some of the signs you suffer from POD: Pretending to Be Organised Disorder. It’s real and it’s not pretty.
1. You can never find things because you have no system
You’re constantly running around the house putting important items in cupboards and drawers that don’t belong there because you want the pockets of your home to look fabulous. I hear you. But then when it comes time to find your keys, the last place you think to look is the bathroom vanity. Don’t know how they got there, but at the time it felt right.
2. Your bedroom is immaculate – just don’t look under the bed!
A tidy boudoir is the stuff dreams are made of. We’re talking clean sheets, uncluttered bedsides, and the waft of a scented candle dancing across the air. But like a scene in a horror film, what lurks under your bed is a very revealing nightmare. The call is coming from inside the house, and it’s saying: “there’s an old Maccas bags under your bed”.
3. You have several books on being organised, but that hasn’t helped
You’ve read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and found yourself nodding in agreement to so many of her points. But putting them into practice is still marked TBC. You love the concept of being organised, but actually doing it is so bloody boring. It’s like me watching Aerobics OZ Style at 6am in my teen years: looked like fun but who wants to actually exercise?
4. Your desk is loaded with stationery you never use
Who doesn’t love a well-organised workstation with everything in its place? Paper clips: don’t need them. Stapler: never been used. Hole punch: untouched for years. But who cares? It keeps up the illusion that you’re an organised person, even though your computer desktop is decorated by 57 images and 45 folders to form an intricate tapestry of chaos.
5. You don’t have a junk drawer, you have a junk cupboard
Junk drawers are for rookies. Once I couldn’t fit anything else in I graduated to a section of my linen closet, which now contains an assortment of random things from cat carriers to old bills, shoes to cushion inserts I can’t face throwing out. Sure, it’s bursting at the seams, but visitors who come over don’t know that. And isn’t that the entire point?
6. You can’t fit your car in the garage
Your double garage only fits one car because the other side is filled with old boxes of junk you refuse to say goodbye to. I feel you and I commend your commitment to only filling one side. I mean, seriously, at least you can fit one car in. I consider that an achievement.
7. You write to-do lists with ridiculously easy goals
I have a to-do list and each day it’s filled with the most insanely simple goals like ‘eat lunch’, ‘drink water’, ‘write an email’, the list goes on. Nothing is more satisfying than crossing things off a to-do list. Even if it doesn’t actually see you achieving anything.
This article was originally published as Do you suffer From POD: Pretending to be Organised Disorder? by www.realestate.com.au and is written by Chris Caroll.