...hopefully one that's not as disorganized as last week and the week before. Summer comes, school for my kids winds down, and my brain goes out the window. Of course, that happens just as something else spins up at work (that I can't talk about in a public forum) and that's got me trying to get my brain back into gear - think turning on a dime almost instantly - and trying to resist the urge of calling in a mental health day...

... an especially difficult task to accomplish when I have a mental health *week* coming up. Anyway, with all the disorganization in my brain, I suppose it's fitting that the Sunday Brunch this week is all about organization. Heee.

Oh, for those who are wondering, I think DH had a pretty good Father's Day - A made him a rather humorous card, and B worked on a lovely present for him. And I made him spaghetti and meatballs. We're talking homemade meatballs here - a few pounds of meat, some eggs, some good cheese, some bread crumbs, a few secret ingredients... I should have thought earlier in the day to making it and done up a nice homemade pasta too. Ah, I think he really enjoyed dinner regardless...

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"To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." -J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Oh how right she is...

1) Are you an organized person?

Well, if you look at my bedroom closet or my desk at home, you'd say "definitely not", but you have to check out my stash closet, or my desk at work and you'd think I was anal about being organized.

I think I'm a multiple personality organizer - some things are well organized, others not. I think it's all a matter of importance - things like my desk at work and my stash closet *have* to be organized for the amount of things that I have in there and that pass in and out of there.

If I weren't organized at the office, a *lot* of things would fall through the crack. And I don't buy the whole thing about a well organized desk being a sign of mental illness, so you can try wisecracking in the comments about that, but it won't work on me.

2) What is one thing about your home that has to be just so or it drives you crazy when it comes to organization?

The stash closet. It *has* to be set up just right. And even the piles that aren't in a proper place (there's only a couple) - I know exactly what's in those piles and how to find everything in them. That closet *has* to be set up just right else I'd lose things, and I know this for a fact because there were things that were long lost in those piles and I only found the stuff when I pulled everything out for DH to build the closet organizer stuff for me.

Oh, and we can't forget the CD rack - we have hundreds of CDs and DH and I make sure that they're alphabetized. And separated by genre, sort of. We keep one very large section of Rock/Pop, another of Jazz/New Age, another of Soundtracks, and then a Various section (mostly compilations) and a Special section (kids, classical, drum corps). And everything within those sections is alphabetized by artist. Got more than one CD by a particular artist (like the entire Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Jethro Tull, Chicago or Rippingtons catalog)? No problem. Those get put in chronological order by release. Yes... first you run into Kate Bush, and within that we have all her CDs in order of release.

It's a sickness, I tell you, but we've got a massive collection and this is the way to find things. The only time we get lost is when we're trying to think of who recorded a certain song and can't remember... we end up looking at each other, shrugging and either going through the CD rack trying to remember, or thinking of the lyrics and using Google to find the song.

It's much more fun to go through the rack though.

3) Do you have one little nuance about your organization that most people consider to be a little over the top? What is it?

Hrm.. Maybe that would be the little book that I keep with every single piece of stash that I have. And I mark off when something leaves and mark up when something new comes in. And I have all the necessary pages set up perfectly.

The book is just slightly out of kilter right now (along with a pile in the closet that needs putting away), and I want to redo the book so that it's even more perfect.

4) What is your favorite organizational tool? (bins, closet organizers, etcetera)

Unikeeps. Hands down. They're the best darn thing for storing charts. I really should get some A4 ones so that I can store the taller charts and reclaim my magazine racks for magazines...

5) Where is your favorite place to buy organizational needs?

Pick a place: Office Depot, OfficeMax, The Container Store, Storables, Organized Living - not in any order of importance or favor, although I have to say that The Container Store does carry those mesh bags that I love storing my stitching in (they just have the largest sizes, last time I checked) and they work wonderfully for that sort of thing.

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So that's it... all about organization from a temporarily disorganized mind. Take it for what you will, and I hope you have a great week!