Dear Pinterest boards that make me feel inferior about my home-organization skills:
Let me start by saying that you’re gorgeous. I’ve spent many a 3 p.m. slump secretly gazing at you with a yearning I haven’t felt since I tore boys’ faces out of Tiger Beat magazine and taped them to my bedroom walls.
You make me happy, you really do. But it’s a fleeting kind of happiness, laced with dissatisfaction. And it’s time I finally let go.
You see, much like Luke Perry and Rider Strong back in the day, I know that I will never truly be able to have you in real life. And if I keep thinking maybe the stars will align to make it possible, I’m only kidding myself.
It’s not you — it’s me
I will never be the kind of person who devotes hours each weekend to color coding my spice rack or making DIY shoe bins. When I see empty candle jars, I never once think, “This would be the perfect thing to hold individual toothpicks and/or cotton swabs, if I decoupage it!” I don’t even really know what “decoupage” means. Clearly, I’m not in your league.
I think it’s genius that you’ve realized you can mount magnetic strips on the inside of your medicine cabinet to hold all your bobby pins. But I will never, ever actually do something like that myself, no matter how much I say I want to, and it’s time I admit that — to you, and to myself.
I appreciate what you’re trying to do. I’m all for making my home neater and prettier. But for me, that means doing the laundry regularly enough so that my family doesn’t go naked, not giving my laundry room a make over that makes it look nicer than my master bedroom.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just keep finding other things to do with my time, and I hate how you make me feel bad about that.
Farewell
Your labeled binders and baskets are pretty. But so is the way the light plays on my daughter’s hair in the morning, right before I wake her up from whatever fairy tale she’s dreaming about. When I’m not worrying about how tidy her toy cubbies are, I notice things like that.
I’m totally inspired by the way you thought to flip a stool upside down and turn it into a wrapping-paper station. (Seriously, who does that?) But I’m also inspired by the endless enthusiasm my dog shows every single time I take him for a walk, no matter how gross it is outside. And I only have time to take him because my pantry is, regrettably, a random conglomeration of cans and boxes in no particular order.
Yesterday, I opened my everything drawer to get some batteries and realized I will probably never organize its odds and ends into cute little craft-papered bins. And I’m OK with that. I kind of like the adventure of not really knowing what’s in there or what I’ll find. Life needs a little mess and chaos, don’t you think?
No, you probably don’t, Pinterest boards. You’re a dreamer, and I love that about you. I’m sure you’ll make lots of other people very happy, but you and I? We’re just not meant to be.
All the best,
Me
Photo credit: Comstock Images/Photodisc/Getty Images
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