Organizing Freak

(Your Nesting Instinct)

As with animals in the wild, the pregnant human female will one day have the uncontrollable urge to get her little nest in order. I kept reading about this and wondering when my time would come, when my instinct would kick in. I was in my eighth month and still calmly looking past jammed and unorganized closets. Then came the ninth month of pregnancy, and all I have to say is move over, Alice from the The Brady Bunch, cuz my organizing bitch took over. I would get these bursts of energy and pace the house like a caged animal looking for things to clean and organize. After I organized the jammed closets and drawers in a twenty-four-hour period, I searched the house for more to do.

Then I realized I needed to get my baby’s family tree in order. An essential thing to do, right? I got pictures of my husband’s family, combined them with mine, included both our baby pictures, and made album after album of our genetic history. It’d probably be years until our son cared about these, but I had to do it. There was just no stopping me.

After that task was completed, I thought it would be a great idea to move furniture around. Picture my big pregnant body, wearing my muumuu, sliding a seven-foot bookshelf across the room. My husband screamed as he saw me in his peripheral vision. But that didn’t seem to stop me. I rearranged the nursery at least seven times, and when my husband made me promise I wouldn’t touch another thing in the house, I moved to the front yard and started moving giant potted plants. There was no end to this until I left for the hospital to deliver a few weeks later.

In retrospect, of course, I highly recommend not moving giant pieces of furniture around. But take advantage of the less dangerous forms of your nesting instinct . . . you won’t be seeing an organized junk drawer again any time soon.