SCRABBLE: Organization
I’ve been learning a lot about the value of organization . . . again. For me, organization is one of those life lessons that I’ve learned over and over again throughout my lifetime (as a kid putting my toys away, as a student listing my homework assignments and as a spouse cleaning out the garage.) Now, getting reorganized, planning a new life partnership, and trying to please, I see how far I have drifted over time. In my recent past, when I was finished using something I simply put it down any old place. True, I could never find it again when I needed it. The truth is . . . it just wasn’t important to me.
I don’t think that I’ll ever become an ‘A’ type person who always replaces every object to its proper place. But I will try harder . . . . until I don’t.
I began writing on this topic today because I am working beside Adrienne, attempting to make my condo more livable for the two of us. I am like many of you who are pack rats. I have loved buying and saving all kinds of cutesy little things and then developing some weird sentimentality towards those things and rarely tossing any of those things away.
Years ago when I lived in Union Lake, Michigan I filled a house full of stuff. Then I moved all that ‘stuff’ when I chose to move everything to an apartment in Farmington Hills, Michigan. But when I left Michigan for California, unable to discern between the ‘stuff’ that I really wanted and needed, I found it much easier to abandon 99% of my possessions to family, friends, and The Salvation Army. In November 1995 I headed West taking only as much as I could ‘stuff’ into my 4-Door Saturn.
That first year in California was relatively clutter free. I was a guest in my brother’s home in Hollywood Hills. The only things I added to my possessions were clothes and toiletries. Toward the end of 1996 I purchased a 32 foot, Pace Arrow, motor home. I lived and traveled, from coast to coast, in the RV for just over 3 years. My bad habits returned, having some space of my own. I filled the space with major amounts ‘stuff’. I always could rationalize why I bought the ‘stuff’ I purchased. I use to jokingly say, “I no longer forget anything at home.” I drove it to scrabble tournament in Phoenix, AZ., Las Vegas, NV., Cincinnati, OH, Farmington, MI. and Portland, OR. The majority of my RV living was done at The Newport Dunes RV Resort in Newport Beach, California. That’s when I really fell in love with California and began building my little scrabble fiefdom of local clubs and tournaments.
In 2000, while living in my RV in Newport Beach, I took on a part-time job, working for the 2000 Census. One of my assistants was moving into Leisure World at Laguna Woods. I offered to help as one of the schleppers. As serendipity would have it, I was already thinking about giving up the RV living lifestyle and planting my roots a bit deeper. I was impressed with Leisure World and the prices were something that I could afford. Like many other male shoppers, I called a realtor, looked for less than two weeks, found a condo with a view, learned that I could store my RV there for next to nothing, and made an offer. It was readily accepted and I was a land owner again.
I thought that moving would be easy. I pulled my RV up to my condo (it was on the third floor and there was an elevator). How many trips do you think I had to make from the RV, via the elevator, to my place? Five? Ten? Twenty? Fifty? How many? I made more than one hundred trip, taking my ‘STUFF’ from the RV into my home. Three years of accumulated stuff.
Would it be great is the words that we accumulate, study lists, stayed with us like ‘stuff’? Unfortunately, memory doesn’t work that way. We have to continually review knowledge in order to maintain it. The way in which we learn things plays a big roll in helping us learn efficiently.
Some folks study randomly. They open a dictionary and learn a word or two on a given page. Other players use systems in which they learn families of words and stems. These systems assist you and me to get more information during our study time.
Organization Is Key. CLICK HERE.