Note to wives everywhere
Whenever your husband is looking for something, he will invariably ask you where it is. When he does this and you tell him, please observe the following rule: Start big, work small. That is to say, start with room first then place in the room. Examples follow:
Husband: Honey, have you seen my watchamacallit?
Wrong way: It’s in the box, in the drawer, under the toaster oven in the kitchen.
See, the problem with that way is when you say box, I’m thinking of all the boxes I have. I have no idea which box or which drawer you’re talking about until you get to toaster oven. Then, when I finally figure out you were talking about the kitchen, I’ve forgotten the whole thing about the box and the drawer.
Right Way: In the kitchen, in the drawer under the toaster oven, there’s a box.
See, I can visualize it. You say kitchen, I visualize my kitchen instead of all the boxes I have. Then, I know where the drawers are.
December 4th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
I find it easier to simply blame my wife for anything I can’t find, no matter whose fault it really is (usually mine).
But I have a strict “don’t touch” rule on piles of stuff (of which I have many). Because even though the pile is disorganized, I have a pretty good idea of what’s in the pile. So when I go looking for X, I remember that I left X in the pile on my desk, rather than the pile on the coffee table or the pile on the dresser. If you move or consolidate piles, it blows my whole “system.”
December 4th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
tgirsch is a poor example to follow, unfortunately I am a follower. I always tell my wife if I find “it” that it was, once again, under some of her stuff.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:26 am
It also helps if you can convince your wife that it’s better to leave things where you put them instead of moving them so “you can find them easier.”
Don’t ask how this makes sense, because it doesn’t. But I can never find anything because everything gets moved to some other place where it, for some reason, is “easier to find.”