This is a hobby.
A dorky one at that -- so let's all stop comparing ourselves.
I’d been thinking about this idea for a couple weeks now (also reflected in this Burnt Toast substack and the strugglecare Instagram post below).
Since I assume most of my readers are fellow home organization lovers, this could be a liberating revelation for you as well.
In short: Organizing our homes? The thing we love doing, the thing that makes our less-organized friends envious, the seemingly superhuman skill we get pats on the head for?
It’s a HOBBY, my friends.
Instead of knitting or practicing karate or painting, my hobby is organizing my house. Does this make me feel like a dorkus of epic proportions? Yes. But does it reframe this thing I do in a way that takes away any sense of moral superiority? Also yes.
Of course, there is some basic level of functioning a home needs to do, and this does usually require some amount of tidying and order. But at the end of the day, if your house serves your needs then mission accomplished. You’re done!
(And if your house isn’t serving your needs and you feel overwhelmed…call up your organizing hobbyist friend who I’m telling you will love NOTHING more than to speed over to help you organize. We live for this stuff, I promise.)
Framing home organizing as a hobby means that if you *don’t* happen to pursue this hobby, there is nothing wrong with you for not having color-coded, Kondo-folded dresser drawers. You’re not failing, you’re not falling behind. You just have other interests. Totally fine.
I love that at age 40 I’m still having revelations about The Way I Am (another big one was learning I’m Highly Sensitive) — you’re never done learning.