One of these days I'm gonna get organizized

"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Well, who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here. Who the f--k do you think you're talkin' to?"

What sticks with me from the 1976 film Taxi Driver besides that iconic quote above is that classic, cheesy poster on Robert DeNiro's character's wall: One of these days, I'm gonna get organizized.

Today I made some organizational progress. Following a Pinterest project that popped up in my feed, I made four filing boxes for my sons and my sister's kids. Each has 25 folders in five different colors, and each folder is labeled with medical records, achievements, preschool, kindergarten, each grade level, etc. It's a box for all that important paperwork that accumulates over the years. I have to credit and thank Kylee Shaw of Destination of Domestication for this project. I can tell it's going to be very helpful, and it already inspired me to start going through my files to look for better ways to organize.

Proud of myself and feeling confident, I went through two drawers and threw out paperwork from a year ago that was no longer relevant.

And I started to dream about the organized life. I imagine myself waking up before everyone else, going downstairs in my night gown to brew a cup of tea, and sitting down with my family planner binder to get ready for the day. My planner will be filled with designy lists and calendars for the whole year, a lot like the printables in the Clean Mama Printables etsy shop. I'll figure out what errands are needed, what bills or birthday cards need to mailed, and what the day's meals will be. I'll grab the ingredients for the day's crock pot dinner, which I already have prepared and frozen in measured quantities in our deep freezer, and toss them in the slow cooker. Then I'll put breakfast out for the family, run upstairs and jump on the elliptical for 30 minutes while catching up on This American Life podcasts...or even better, an audio version of Pride & Prejudice or some other classic. Then I'll wake up the kids and they'll dress themselves in the clothes we laid out the night before as part of our bedtime routine. I'll jump in the shower and get ready as they're dressing and heading down to breakfast. They know the routine because it's what we do every morning. And every Thursday night we'll have a family meeting where we go over any pressing matters and record them in our binder's "minutes" section. Everyone will know what the plans are for the week and the kids will be able to participate in meal planning.

Brilliant, right?! This binder is going to change my world! Except I already have that binder, and it's been sitting on my top shelf in the kitchen, unopened for six months.

I'll get there somehow, but "there" is going to be a modified, realistic expectation of my organizational porn fantasy.