You turned out so well that maybe her methodology was optimal.
Mom's methodology was to make things fit their spaces; the trick of getting the maximum quantity into a suitcase.
I was always a surprise to her, not quite fitting whatever container for me she chose, like those "snakes in a can" you see in slapstick comedy.
Like Shrek, with his "onion" analogy, I have layers. Most days, I am as calming and somnorific as a ticking clock, or a ticking time-bomb.