When My Obsession With Organizing Got Out of Hand
Anonymous Suspicious Minx #897 · General
So, here's the thing. I've always been kind of obsessed with organizing things. Pens sorted by color and type, notebooks alphabetized, even my socks are paired up and put away in matching sets. It's become such a part of who I am that people ask me for advice on how to organize their stuff all the time. But last week, something went too far. I was at this little café where I go every morning to work. There’s one table by the window that always has a small pile of books and papers left behind by other patrons. One day, I noticed there were these cute little notebook-shaped sticky notes with fun messages like 'Remember your dreams' or 'Write it down.' They looked so out of place among all the disorganized stuff. I started thinking about how nice it would be if that entire table was as tidy and organized as those sticky notes. So, on my lunch break, I grabbed a set of dividers from my bag, some tape, and pens in coordinating colors. I decided to rearrange everything neatly. Books lined up by size, papers stacked by color, the sticky notes arranged by message type. Feeling quite proud of myself, I snapped a few photos with my phone to share on social media. The idea was to show people how small changes could make such a big difference in someone's workspace. But then I realized that maybe it wasn’t my place to organize someone else’s things without permission. Was this overstepping or just helping out? My friends say they think it’s harmless, and the café owner doesn’t seem bothered by it at all when she noticed later. Still, there's a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I might have gone too far. Is anyone ever okay with having someone else clean up their space without asking? Should I just apologize to everyone who uses the table for overstepping? Am I really the asshole here? I guess what I'm trying to figure out is, how do you know when your organizational tendencies cross the line into being intrusive? Is it ever okay to make a space more organized if that's what makes sense to me? Or am I just complicating my own life over something so small?