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Hopefully you’ve heard me tell you that I don’t believe you should have organized surfaces and messy drawers. I don’t like that it seems to indicate that we organize for what people see, because that isn’t why we organize. We organize to make our lives flow easier, and certainly things flow easier when we can find what we’re looking for in an organized drawer.

As I was prepping for the Summer Organizing Challenge recently, it occurred to me how much these opinions are influenced by my Dad. You’ve heard me talk a lot about my mom over the years and how she kept my childhood home immaculate, but I’ve never really mentioned that although my father didn’t do the household cleaning, he definitely didn’t add to the mess. He is a very organized person by nature. He loves containers and bags as much as I do. He was there when I bought my first Franklin Covey planner years ago. In my whole life, I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed my Dad’s car dirty or messy. He uses the gas station window scrubber every time he fills up with gas. He knows where everything is and can tell you: “go to my third drawer down, on the left side”. My whole home was pretty organized growing up – not in a neurotic-alphabetized-movies kind of way, but in a “everything had a place that made sense” kind of way. My Dad’s personal spaces are always super organized. He approaches everything in strategic, efficient, best-practices kind of way – even if it is just scrambling some eggs.

So, it is not surprising that his packing is VERY ORGANIZED. He is my only rival for an organized suitcase I’ve ever witnessed first hand. When I was at my parent’s house last month, he was about to leave for a business trip and I saw his system.

He has a clipboard with personalized packing printables he made for himself that he keeps multiple copies of on hand because he travels internationally very regularly and the packing is pretty intense (and he can’t run to an American store for a replacement).

People, my dad has his packing list on a clipboard!

And … HE MADE PRINTABLES FOR HIMSELF! (That’s my favorite part!)

And he has Packing Cubes to keep different parts of his packing separated and neat.

I loved it.

{FYI – See MY Packing List HERE, or My Packing List for Kids HERE, or My Packing List for the Hospital to Have a Baby HERE}

Hey Dad –

Here is the last picture I took of my luggage packing (from fall 2014). I just thought you’d want to see it wasn’t a mess. 🙂

My luggage has two sides that fold together – side 1:

side 2 (I use these Pro Packing Cubes >>):

Thanks, Dad, for letting me take a picture and share it on the blog. You really are awesome and just the right dad for me.

From my home to yours,
Mary