Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for May 20, 2020

A “LITTLE” ?

The toolbox (or junk drawer), for many men, is what the purse is to many women – holds everything they might need, just not right NOW.

“I have a place, just can’t remember where it is.”

Has Janis been tidying up?

My tools know their place. But they like to mess with my head.

And it almost never helps to have someone looking over your shoulder while something is frustrating you.

My husband has the habit of looking in the right place for everything, because that’s where I put it, then putting it down where he is on the way to somewhere else. Then he asks me where the thing is because it isn’t in its usual space.

Hasn’t this been shown before?…

Well, I have a system. I always set something down on a handy flat spot. Then, when I need it again, I look at the flat spots and it’s not there. So I look in other spots…anyway…where was I? Oh, yeah, I have a system…

Charlie is right, copyright reads 2018. Like Arlo, most of us have an idea of where everything is supposed to be, but usually find whatever it is where it’s not supposed to be.

I sometimes wonder if Jimmy Johnson is one of our cats. Thee are so spot on that it seems like he is watching me every day.

Hubby and I both recognize ourselves here. I can put down my tape measure and when I turn around it’s g-o-n-e. I look for it for five minutes, and then it turns up right where I left it. And NO, it wasn’t there before!

I know your pain Arlo.

My wife knows where everything is.

I’m slowly getting the garage organized post-move. Since my wife never uses any of my tools, once I’ve decided where an item belongs, I’m done. The kitchen is a different story, because she occasionally cooks.

My problem is that sometimes stuff is not where I KNOW I put it.

Your “memory” may not be the best repository for semi-important facts, Arlo.

I don’t always lose things, but when I do, it’s because she moved it.

Stay thirsty my friends.

Boy, does this ring a bell. Since my sons grew up and left home, I have pegboards and cases for my stuff. Once I put it there, it’s there until I need it, then it gets put back up. If it’s not there, I know who took it. My bride, on the other hand, has to empty her purse almost everytime she wants her keys. I even installed a snap in her purse for her keys. She used it maybe twice.

Arlo in work clothes.

My old college roommate used to say, only half jokingly, “a place for everything, and everything somewhere near its place.”50 years on, that seems to be increasingly true for our memories.

My problem is with the “place for everything.” All the places are already full of things that belong there.

I have a place for everything, but unfortunately it is just that, A place.

Mark Twain said, “Have a place for everything, but keep the thing somewhere else. This is not advice,merely custom.”

I have a place for everything, and those things are in their places. Finding the places is a different story. I know it’s around here somewhere.

Sounds like me… except … wait. I just had that in my hand.

Me too, Arlo! Take your time looking.

I recently moved (almost two years ago, wow!) from a home I was in for many years. I still keep remembering where stuff is…or was…there.

I have two sets of tools, one in my workshop, which is locked. The other are located throughout the house, those I can never find.

My stuff is all in its place, but I forget the places.

Husband organizes all his stuff – with my help as he has no gift for organizing. When he is done things are dropped where he worked. When he cannot find things and doesn’t want to get the duplicate from another set of tools, he starts whining about where could it be – he expects me know & this applies to things other tools.

He came to me one day looking for something (not a tool). He couldn’t find the whatever it was “Where is it?” he asked. I didn’t even have an idea of what he was looking for from his explanation. “When was the last time you used it & what did you use it for?”. He told me that he had used it for such and such “about a year ago”. I figured out what & where it was & handed it to him.

I am not an organizing expert (as I say in the title of my blog about trying to get organized) & very good at the “drop it somewhere” also. But I tend to drop things logically. His mother cleaned & organized everything. I came from a household which was much more casually kept – mom & dad both worked. I go through periods of organizing in the house & then in the middle something happens, I stop & it falls apart again. But I know where my sewing tools and supplies are & after we had bed bugs 11 years ago I finally got to make my swatches of fabric, organize them, store in drawers in our studio – then we used them and … I can stick my hand into my closet, pull out the shirt I want without looking & similar in my dresser drawers. I have a place for everything in the kitchen – until I need to find something not used in years. I had taken out the cake pan & baked a cake in March – we rarely eat cake – & then had no idea where the pan went back to – not even a glimmer. It took me 20 minutes to figure out the wok was at the back of the pot closet – as we also have not used it in years. He has stopped using his dresser drawers for clothes he wears and piles them on top of dresser to make it easier to find them.

Wifey has taken a tools out of my tool chest a million times. She is yet to put one back from where she took it.