Organizing Everything
By Joe Rector
Last week, I wrote my column as I looked over the waves creeping up the beach at Isle of Palms, the most wonderful vacation place around. This week, I’m writing from another new spot. I’ve set up shop on the porch room at the back of the house. The space “used” to be a porch, but we enclosed it to add a little space to our 1,250-square-foot house. This movement from one place to another is part of my obsession with recreating spaces and constantly organizing those spaces.
When I taught school, nothing pleased me more than spending a few days during summer break in my classroom. I went through file cabinets and purged old tests. I moved my desk to a different spot nearly every year. Part of the strategy was to keep students off guard when they walked in on the first day. The other reason was that I always looked to set up a more efficient “cube” where every item I might need was readily available. I even turned the desk at angles sometimes just to give those young people a different point of view.
Last year, I moved my “shop” from an outbuilding to the basement. I made the change to keep all my tools in one place. Another reason is that cutting pieces of wood or working on lawnmowers were frigid projects since I had to do them under the carport attached to the outbuilding.
Amy swears that I spend at least half my time in the basement now. She wants to know what I’m doing. To be honest, I spend most of my basement time rearranging what’s already there. I move stuff constantly. I also construct things that will better organize the items that I have. My hand tools are in one space; my electric and battery-powered tools are in a couple of other spots. Nails, screws, and bolts are in separate spaces. The problem is that after I put everything in its place, my aging mind forgets those new locations, and I spend too much of my time looking for where I put stuff.
I reorganized my closet last year. I made cubes for T-shirts, shorts, underwear and work clothes. My old socks are in the top drawer of one antique washstand. My good socks are in the second drawer of an old dresser. The hang-up with this moving of clothing is that I don’t have enough room in the closet. I’m currently plotting a new layout for the closet, although I’m not sure Amy will allow me to tackle the project.
I once had my office in the room where my closet is located. When Amy retired, I insisted that she take the space since it is larger and lighter. I moved to a small bedroom down the hall. We’d had a desk built in the closet of that room after Dallas left for college. Amy used it for a while, but eventually chose another area to work and left the room empty. I added a couple of seats from our parents’ collections and covered the walls with my “stuff.” I finally tired of the room because it is dark.
On Monday, I began moving my office to this back porch. One wall has three huge windows. A second refrigerator is also located there, along with Amy’s cookers and kitchen items. The dog food and Sadie’s crate are against another wall. I had a ball figuring out where stuff would go, and by yesterday, my office was set up. The only heat and air conditioning for the space is what spills out of my bathroom, which has been in the same place since we built this house in 1978.
For the time being, I’m happy with this new office. Looking up to see the backyard is always better than looking up to view a blank wall. Sure, it’s a bit warm in the summer and cold in the winter, but the change of scenery is always good. Even so, I expect to move to some other place in the future, if I still have good sense and enough strength to move heavy objects.
