This whole post started off quite by accident. A few nights ago, my parents were visiting us for a couple of nights. They were excitedly telling us about their upcoming vacation next week to Queensland, Australia. As we asked more questions, two things became clear. The first was that apart from fights and accommodation, they had no fixed plans for their 10 day stay. The second, rather surprisingly for all of us was the realization that they were flying to the wrong airport. Let’s cover the second item before we go on. It turns out that my Dad isn’t all that familiar with Queensland. It’s a very big State. They are staying in Surfer’s Paradise and for some reason, Dad assumed they needed to fly to the Sunshine Coast. Infact, they need to fly to the Gold Coast. The end result was a rather pale Dad on the phone to the airline cancelling and re-booking flights. It’s all organized now but it has cost a little more to sort out. Thanks to my very smart partner for realizing their mistake otherwise they would have flown off blissfully unaware until they arrived at the wrong destination!

Now onto the reason why this post came to be. My parents have no schedule or itinerary for their vacation. They are more the “Let’s see what happens” kind of people. My partner, Les is the “EveryTHING must be organized” type of person. I could see that this whole approach to vacations was not sitting well with Les. Within minutes of us discussing what they could do, Les had the laptop out and was looking up tours, events and possible attractions. My parents were very excited about all the possibilities, happily agreeing that there is certainly plenty to do. They have asked if Les can help organize their upcoming European vacation!

I, like my parents could be classified as disorganized. We are more than happy to follow schedules but the idea of sitting down and actually putting something together just isn’t going to happen. It’s a form of laziness. I simply can’t be bothered organizing. Apparently, neither can my parents.
Thankfully for me, Les is a highly organized person. Pretty much everything in our lives is organized, to a degree. We plan out our food menu and shopping lists every week which has actually been a blessing because it helps to keep our budget in check. Yes, we even have a budget, organized by Les. This isn’t to say that I just happily follow along compliant in every way. Oh no, I’ve fought organization all the way. I found it a complete inconvenience to know exactly what we were doing, where things were in our home and keeping to a budget. I see the benefit and most of the time I am happy to live in an organized world. It’s challenging though and sometimes I will throw caution to the wind and not write that shopping list or help plan the menu. Usually, it’s those weeks that we run out of food a few days after shopping.

I think there are stresses associated with both, for instance organized people can totally freak out when things don’t go to plan, the old spanner in the works scenario. For disorganized people, the stress comes from just being in a state of disorganization all the time. I don’t know if there is a right or wrong here, maybe a happy balance between the two. The best I can come up with is if you’re the disorganized type, try and find someone who is organized and loves you regardless of whether you plan or don’t.

So how about you? Do you fall into the organized or disorganized category?

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