Organized Chaos

In college, I worked at the now controversial, Abercrombie and Fitch. I spent three wonderful years there. Why wonderful? I'll tell you in one word. Organization.

When the store would close for the evenings, that's usually when I would come to work. (I'm a night owl.) 9:00pm a group of us would clock in and begin 'straightening' the store. We'd listen to Dave Matthews Live at Red Rocks on repeat until the wee morning hours. Every now and then someone would sneak in Prince. *barf*

Our mission? Organize and clean and straighten. Jeans had to be folded a certain way, shirts had to be folded using a folding board, shirts on the tables had to be stacked in size order smallest on top for girls and smallest on bottom for guys, clothes hanging had to all face the same direction and be in size order, same as if they were folded. The folded button up shirts had to have their buttons line up all the way down the pile. The jeans usually took residence on the ever popular, jean wall. This was one of my favorite jobs.

The jeans were to be folded in a 'brick fold' and sometimes a 'tri-fold', which I still do to this day with my jeans, and stacked in size order, smallest at the bottom. There had to be equal amounts of jeans in each cubby hole. Basically, it had to look uniform and perfect or you had to redo it- no joke.

Every few weeks, the floor would change. A book would arrive that showed exactly how the floor should be 'dressed.' I loved this time. I mean the bible of cleanliness and order arrives and you follow it. No questions where things should or shouldn't go, no opinions on how dummies should be dressed, no opinions just truth.

This order and cleanliness has spilled over into my life. My towels have to be folded in a tri-fold and facing a certain way. The hangers have to all face one directions as do the clothes that draped them. All tags face the left! If I am standing by a rack of clothes in a department store, my hands begin turning hangers! It's a sickness. I never understood why Matt loved mowing lawns. I now realize why. The look of a yard or a store when it's done-beauty.

So when I found these cubicle storage things, I became excited. We have been wanting something like this for Chloe's room. Now I'm slightly like Phoebe when it comes to furniture; only want original stuff. But I had to make an exception b/c I wasn't finding ANYTHING in or around the B'ville area that would serve as storage.

So we, Matt, put this together last weekend and gave it a home in Chloe Joy's room. I picked out the tubs that go inside. The one on top is hot pink, not red as it looks in this photo. Yes, yes, I even ventured out of my comfort zone for the, in my opinion ugly, animal print. I thought it would look cute in her room so I got them.

Do you notice the books? See how they are stacked and all crazy looking? Yea, that's bothering me, but Chloe is supposed to be napping so I will have to thwart off the urge to straighten.

I have loosened up a little. I like to think of myself in a world of organized chaos. It's organized to me. Chaos to Matt.