System Failure

This week's large family topic is organization. Chris and Carmen are obviously organized, even if they don't claim to be paragons. I, on the other hand, hate organization. I don't like baskets, bins or boxes. I( (at the risk of seeming callous) organize by trash can. If it's broken, it goes. If it's missing a piece, it goes. Torn, outta here. Consequently we don't have too many clothes or toys. Art works and school papers get a quick gush of parental joy and then join their brothers in the recycling bin.
There is of course detritus to be dealt with. The older three are in charge of their own clothes, books, dressers, laundry. If they lose it, can't find it, or choose to leave it messy it's on them. My only request is it's in their room or backpack. Leaving it lay around will likely mean it will disappear. The 7 yo is on her way to that cold, responsible place , though I help her with her laundry. The youngest two barely wear clothes and seem to find sticks and pieces of paper stimulating toys. These two character traits cut down on their organizing needs.
I do have some tricks of course. The van holds an extra pair of toddler shoes, pony tail holders, extra pants and underwear for Mel, a basketball, Dr Suess books and paper and pencils. The last three items are actually the indispensible ones. A bored child is a child I'll be pulling off a fence or from under a bleacher. I usually have a good idea by mid-morning what will be for dinner. This is the one organizational area I find crucial. The 4pm-6pm time slot (the arsenic hours) are our most difficult time of day. Having dinner ready, simmering in the crockpot or at least thawed allows me to deal with schedules, trips, homework, melt downs or social crises.
So there you have it. My prescription for organization is to put it on someone else, LOL. I comfort myself during those occasional pangs of guilt, (the ones where some mother has a list of library books, outfits with socks for the week assembled, and an actual idea of when their kid needs field trip money turned in) with the knowledge that my kids handle keeping track of their stuff well and when I send them (push them?) out of the nest they are going to be able to cope.