Organized or Disorganized

As many readers of this blog probably know, my wife loves to organize stuff, which you can read about here.   Now that we are both retired she has organized, and even reorganized what she previously organized.  One day, this month, when I was at a long meeting, she even went so far as to organize my basement workbench and related area.  One would think that organization would make items easier to find.  But, that may not be the case, due to the human mind and long entrenched patterns, or habits.

Organization is simply a matter of placing an object in a specific place, but it is more complicated since it requires cognition and recall of the item in that place.  If an area is reorganized, you may recall the PRIOR place the item was located and not the new reorganized place.  So, in effect, the reorganization may make the item more difficult to locate.  Your memory had it in one location, but you moved it to another and the synapses of the brain failed to pick up the change.  This is akin to grabbing your car keys and placing them somewhere, but not recalling where.  If one organizes fast, as I think my wife does, she moves the items quickly.  She reorganized pots and pans and baking items, and in changing the location of some bowls and baking racks it took a while to become accustomed to the new location.  One time she could not locate an item, and sure enough it was something that had been just reorganized.  I think it involved a product needed to make cookies, so obviously it was of major importance.

I know that when I am working on a project I sometimes place a tool down to attend to another matter on or off the project.  I then may forget the specific location of the item I had set down, and then set out on a search.  For example, trimming the rose bushes in late April I had my clippers, but saw some weeds that needed to be pulled, so I set the clipper down in the mulch to grab the weeds.  Well, I noticed other weeds to pull so I continued for another minute and then I went to grab the clipper, but could not find it.  What occurred is that I had moved a further down the bed than I thought, and the clipper being in mulch was somewhat obscured, so it took me a second to figure out that I had placed it further down the bed.  Finding a tool, or an item can distract you from the work or chore that needs to be accomplished.

Luna Moths mating next to our basement window. June 2019
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Think about it, if you are making cookies and you can't find the vanilla, it would make for some uninteresting cookies.  What about cooking, and you cannot find that certain ingredient to get into the pot in a time sensitive manner?  This shows the need to make sure you have what you need on the counter before you start baking or cooking, unless you are sure you know where an item is.

I am sure we all have such experiences.  Last year I was doing some repair to an outdoor electric outlet in my flower garden.  I used my needle nosed pliers for the project, but a few weeks later when I needed the needle nose pliers once again, I could not locate it.  A year later, I still don't know what happened to it.  The new one I bought has bright blue handles so hopefully it will be easier to find.  Perhaps tools should come with a lime green handles so they are as noticeable as construction workers.

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I have tools and other items hanging up on peg board above the work bench, and luckily my wife, when reorganizing around my work bench kept the same system I had in place, just simply organized some things better.  That is good for me because otherwise I would start looking all over the many feet of pegboard to find the item I required. One knows she has run out of things to organize and reorganize when she decides to tackle my workbench.  We also put some small shelves near the garage door for commonly used summer items, such as diatomaceous earth, blood meal and bone meal, fertilizers and some other products for use around the yard and flower beds.  These items moved from shelves in front of the car to the side of the large garage door.  I need to get used to the new location, since I sometimes find myself going to the front of the garage to obtain the item.  My oldest brother once told me it takes 30 days to form a habit, which makes me wonder how long it takes to break a habit.  One item I placed on the shelf that I regularly use are my work gloves,   but I still find myself going to the front to get them; halfway there I realize they are in a new location.  They were in the same place for about 29 years, so that instinctive habit is not easy to break.

Sometimes I wonder if my wife is reorganizing too much.  Although she would disagree.
Memory recall, it seems, takes time to change.  Human body, I think, forms habits of where something has often longed been placed, and changing that location can make a big difference.   Not unlike my body wanting to go to the front of the garage to get the work gloves which require a break in a 29 year habit.   I suggested back in April, when she could not locate the ingredient for the cookies that perhaps she had reorganized too much.  She did not agree with my comment. 


Images by author at Olbrich Gardens on June 23, 2019.  They really have nothing to do with organizing.