Do you feel like you need a fairy godmother or some magic powers in order to get your house organized? Most of us do – especially if we live with other people. While we may feel like we live with Hansel and Gretel who are always making messes, wouldn’t it be nice if we could get as organized as some of our other favorite storybook characters? We can if we learn their tips on how to get organized.
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How did Cinderella Get it All Done?
At first glance, it seems like Cinderella is a queen at organizing. After all, she single-handedly keeps the castle clean, waits hand and foot on her stepmother and stepsisters, she cooks, she sews her own clothes – the girl is a marvel!
Most of us have things in common with Cinderella. You’ve probably had an unreasonable boss (like her step-mother) who demanded the impossible and expected miracles. You might even have a spouse or children who are like her step-sisters and who are totally not helpful and even create extra work for you (however, you might want to consider a bit of retraining if this is your situation – just sayin’).
Lots of us share commonalities with Cinderella and have too much to do and too little time to get it done. But unlike Cinderella, most of us are not whistling, smiling, and singing our way through our To Do list. Instead, we’re exhausted and grumpy and wondering why we can’t seem to juggle it all.
If only we were more like Cinderella!
But if you take a closer look, you’ll find that Cinderella doesn’t have it all together either. I’m not knocking Cinderella. In fact, Cinderella happens to be one of my favorite storybook characters. But let’s get real for a minute – Cinderella had help. She didn’t do it all by herself. She had systems in place and she had helpers who knew what do to.
Remember the birds and mice? She whistled and they arrived to help make the bed. They did all kinds of things to make her life easier including finishing the sewing on her original dress for the ball. They even rescued her when she was locked in her room and about to miss reclaiming her glass slipper!
How many of us have a support system like that?
And let’s not forget the most important thing of all – She had a fairy godmother (I’ve always wanted one of those!).
“I always wanted a fairy godmother – I think she got lost.”
Where many of us differ from Cinderella is in our willingness to ask for – and accept – help with the daily chores. I’ve known women who complained that their husbands never load the dishwasher and then turn right around and admit that he “doesn’t do it right”.
Well, gee! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that people aren’t going to help when their efforts are criticized.
There is nothing wrong with expecting family members to do their share. Teach them how to do chores (if they’re children, of course – hubby might not appreciate it!) , and then don’t follow behind them criticizing everything they do, or worse, redoing it because it doesn’t meet your standards.
Will there be times when you could do it better? Absolutely!
The question then becomes this:
Do you want help or do you want it done your way?
They’re two different things and you’ve got to decide which is more important (I know which one I chose).
Cinderella was smart. She knew that enlisting help was the only way to get things done.
Cinderella’s tips to getting organized: It’s okay to ask for help
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What a great way to look at these three characters and what we can learn from them Shelley. I really enjoyed reading your post and the way you pointed out the lessons. Thanks for co-hosting and sharing your link at #overthemoon. Have a great week!
The title caught my attention and when I began reading I was like “she is so right!”. I recently started to ask for help because I can’t handle everything… of course there are things I do them better (in fact most of them to my opinion) but I am learning to be grateful for the help even if things are not done my way.
Thank you very much for sharing this with us at Sweet Inspiration, enjoy the weekend!
I’m a huge proponent of being organized (actually, hubby has another name for it!), but I’m a bigger proponent of keeping things in perspective. It’s easy to go to either extreme. And truth is that we probably can do most of the things better than some others – especially our kids. But their skills improve as we let them learn. And future daughters-in-law will be SO grateful! At least that’s part of my rationale LOL! I hope you’ll come visit again soon.
This is such a great article. Although on the surface, it appears whimsical and amusing, there really are some good lessons to be learned here. Most enjoyable!
Thank you, Carol. I think organizing and dealing with “stuff” is like most things in life and needs to be kept in perspective. The whole point of anything in life is to make a life that’s more enjoyable and as balanced as possible.
I definitely need to learn from Cinderella and ask for help – without criticizing!
Hi Brenda! I think asking for help is sometimes the hardest thing for us to do. Somehow we’ve gotten this idea that we should be able to do it all and we feel like admitting that we need help is the same as admitting defeat. But if getting a little (or a lot) help enables us to attend the ball and enjoy life, then let’s encourage mice, birds, fairy godmothers, and family members to do their share. Then let’s pull out those glass slippers and dance till our feet hurt.