Storage-Actual and Otherwise

[Peg Herring]

Don't ask me where these things come from, but I started wondering this morning why we keep the soy sauce behind the dish soap and the teriyaki sauce in a different area, next to the cinnamon. No logic there, merely an unconscious decision at some point in the past that became habit and now is required. I can imagine either my husband or I bellowing to the other, "Where have you put the soy sauce?" if it were to end up somewhere else.

That's how my files are, too. Everything is stored in some spot that was intuitive once upon a time but now can be puzzling to the point of craziness. Why did I file some librarians' addresses under "Contacts" and others under "Speaking"? How did minutes for the local alumni association end up in the folder entitled "Her Highness"? And why did I keep thirty copies of the same letter, the only difference being the inside addresses for last year's trip to Florida?

It should be remedied. It's frustrating to hunt for things and try to guess what I called them, where I thought they belonged, whether I even kept them at all. I need a system...a BETTER system. I need to take the time to get organized, delete junk, correlate information, and streamline everything.

But then, I'll probably never move the soy sauce, either.

[Dana King]

You're not alone. I make up my mind to re-organize my hard drive about four times a year. The fact that I make up my mind to do it four times a year proves how often it actually gets done.