My Life in a Quote

When single adults over, oh, fifty start spending more time together and morph from dating to a relationship, they start spending more time in each other's spaces. And they have to get used to the way each other lives.

I'm a visual person. I have to see something to be able to remember it. It only took me about fifty years to learn that about myself! I can have an object—a stapler, a favorite necklace, a ruler—in an obscure resting place, but if I've laid eyes on it in the past twelve weeks, I can lay my hands on it within three stops. It may not be your ideal organizational scheme, but it's mine.

Similarly, if I have something that I don't know what to do with, it can sit in the same spot for weeks until I no longer see it when I pass that location.

So as the Jazzman started spending more time in my house, he would ask me for a measuring tape or a screwdriver. When I pointed him to the bottom drawer in the dining room or the top drawer in the breakfront, he would look at me like I was absolutely crazy. He'd ask why I stored something in that odd location, and I'd just shrug.

When I saw today's Daily Thought from Real Simple magazine, I knew I had to share it.

“One person’s mess is merely another person’s filing system.”

― Margo Kaurman

Postscript: I will confess that the Jazzman is moving in one t-shirt at a time. And as he accumulates more of his possessions over here, he brings more organization to the space. He's actually quite amazing in his ability to leave order in his wake. I may give up my most unique filing system in favor of his organizational abilities!